Recent Acquisitions

 

My apologies to readers for not posting much at all in recent months. I feel there is already enough information here to help enthusiasts collect this area seriously. However, the wealth of philatelic knowledge and local history of these regions is endless and doubtless, I shall find material which is good enough to be posted here. Well, today I shall try to make up for my recent short fall by an extended post which is mainly pictorial and more information maybe added eventually.

This is part of a consignment of similar covers which were sent to Fred Parker in London. For some reason, his name and address were redacted on all of them. The 12c in stamps was the correct pre UPU rate for an half oz letter to UK. The 2c stamps were from the 1886 issue perf 14 and the 2 provisionals from 1886 are also perf 14 in contrast to the more expensive perf 12 counterparts using 1883 stamps. These envelopes are the only examples of these provisionals found used on cover. A Tottenham sorting office backstamp for NO 14 1887 confirms proper passage of this cover through the postal system. 

These are printers' proofs of the 1939 PD issue which were scrutinised for mistakes or flaws. Corrections were made before the printing of the actual stamps. Some marks are on the 10c example to indicate the flaws in the printing die. And then, perforated examples were made. The flaw in "P" in the 10c stamp remained uncorrected in the perforated example. The holes were to prevent fraudulent usage.

  

These are the printers' proofs of the 1931 set with marks to show where corrections were to be made in printing die. This 1931 centenary issue is of the highest quality of design, printing and production. There are no known major flaws or errors as far as I know. This was quite a catch on my part considering there were no other bids apart from mine at the auction.

 

Marudu or Marudo or Malloodoo

 

A couple of years ago, a friend and I made a brief visit to the Kudat area. It is definitely a sleepy area far from the hustle and bustle of Kota Kinabalu or Sandakan. Beneath it all, it was the location of a very interesting part of the fabric of the early history of North Borneo which I shall elaborate later. Stamps first!

This negative picture clearly shows that the spelling used was Marudo on this particular fiscal cancellation but it was thought to be "Marudu".

Green cancellation

Violet cancellation

I prefer colour inked fiscal cancellation because they look so much better. There was no post office at Marudu in the early days of chartered rule. A district office was present to deal with fiscal and legal matters as there were large plantations in the area. The nearest town was Kudat which is about 80km to the north and Jesselton was 120km to the south west. The earliest post office located here was called Bandau and started in the early 1960s. Around the early 1970s, the name was changed to Kota Marudu. There is a gap between between the dates of the post office postmarks between 1971 and 1976 which implies that there was no functioning post office between these dates. You can see my Bandau postmarks on this blog by clicking : https://mynorthborneostamps.blogspot.com/2014/06/bandau-cancellation-and-sembulan-cover.html

The history of this area dates back at least to the 15th century as it was present on maps of that period. The most famous personality of this area was Sharif Usman or Syarif Osman. Short writeup here:           https://thesabahsociety.com/event/the-fall-of-marudu-history-of-syarif-osman/                                         There is also a book for readers who are more interested.

Essentially, it is now believed that he was not a pirate at all but painted as such to further the imperialist designs of Rajah Brooke and his friends at the Colonial Office. The settlement which he presided would have been the largest in North Borneo at the time. He ruled over a large area in this northern part of Borneo and was autonomous enough to be considered the rightful ruler of an area separate from the sultanates of both Brunei and Sulu.