Federated Malay States $250 Revenue Stamp

I've been told this is a good one but I don't really know. Any info would be appreciated.

Ken

I think I answered my own question;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Malaya-Fede...047675.l2557

I notice that your example has exactly the same cancel, and almost the same orientation and location, as the ebay item. Interesting. Maybe off of the same piece?

The similarities are amazing. When I first saw it I thought it was the same stamp and maybe the owner of the collection had bought it on ebay. Upon reflection I realized that was impossible since the owner had passed away a while ago. The ebay stamp has an ugly manuscript cross that fortunately is missing from mine.

That is a blue wax crayon mark indicating a Registered article.

Can be one of two, both catalogue at $250 (2000)
Barefoot #8 1904 Wmk Mult Crown CA
Barefoot#12 1922 Wmk Mult Script CA

Thanks!

You're welcome.

Made my usual mistake, that is Barefoot Catalogue
so I presume the value is in GBP?

To close out this discussion:

Well done KR.
It is great to see members post results, thank you very much.
Kinda supports my personal opinion of values around 25% of catalogue.

I am not an expert, but the sample sold on ebay (not the KRelyea's one) looks to be bleached from the fiscal marks, and than (falsely) postmarked. Also, a cross (whatever has it been initially) is also unexplainable faded (compared to the very fresh postmark) which also suggest that this stamp has been bleached once.

As I said, I am not an expert, but have seen similar fakings on almost all old revenue stamps which have been highly priced only with a genuine postal using (+ mint conditions) and low-priced with fiscal using (for example GB Victorian Pounds revenues etc.).

STAMP OFFICE is always a fiscal cancel in the colonies and commonwealth. Those New Zealand postal-fiscals are found with the same inscription in cancels, which are not always blue or purple either. Conversely, some collectors seem to be wary of any Malayan used dollar value. There is a large Malayan double circle cancel that I believe reads STAMP OFFICE (maybe STAMP DUTY). Since there's usually a partial strike on a stamp, it's hard to tell it's a fiscal. That cancel is often struck in black, too.

The GB Queen Victoria £1 is always liked with a nice Jersey postal cds, but that paid postage (as a very small part of the total) and revenue charges together. That might be the case for your $250 stamp being on a registered package. But without seeing the original thing, there might have been other postage cancelled postally, the fiscal cancelled fiscally. Hard to think there would only be a fiscal cancel. And a blue crayon may mean something else on a parcel tag or receipt, but still may have been use to indicate that this was on a registered piece of mail.



Yes, £££. Collectors over here complain about their pricing being way too high. It's probably in line for super perfect items, with a big drop for items in usual condition.