Thursday, 1 May 2014

North Borneo parcel post customs form




I have not seen one of this before. It would have nice if one could have had the complete form. The back still has much of the adhesive present and it would seem that this was peeled off the parcel but luckily the stamps were not floated off.
This was a "State of North Borneo / Parcel Post / Customs Declaration" form for parcel No 1294 (? for the month) from Sandakan. Unfortunately, the cds is not clear enough to make out the date.
The rate for small packets and small parcels post war was set initially by the BMA at 6c per 2 oz for the Imperial post with a minimum charge of 24c. So at $5.50, we have a parcel here of just under 11.5 pounds  or 5.2 kg in weight baring any under or over payment.

Update 16/10/2014
During the weekend meeting at Bournemouth, there was a complete version of this form. What a remarkable example of social philately. For obvious reasons I can not show it here. It was a similar declaration form on a parcel sent to N Ireland. The contents were declared as tins of peaches, pears, apricots, Lipton tea and bags of sugar etc. This was because of hard times postwar. I presume these items were originally from Australia. It was like sending coals back to Newcastle.

Semporna paquebot ??



This item here needs a lot of answers. Even though relatively recent with a faint date of 29JUN78, it should be fairly uncommon from the small town of Semporna. The word paquebot was typed in the same font as the address. So was it all done on board a boat heading for Semporna?
The red chops for Urusan Pos (Official Post) and Ketua Pos (Postmaster) Semporna seem genuine enough. The sequence of events here if known would be most interesting.

Semporna is a small coastal town on the south east which is famous as the gateway to the world renown diving sites around Sipadan Island.