Show And Discuss Your Malaya & States Stamps

As a brief preamble to this post, I will state that I have never collected Japanese Occupations of British territories in Asia and don't consider them part of Commonwealth collecting. I feel Japanese Occupation stamps should be listed after Japan.

During the 1990's and early 2000's I worked diligently to complete a Malaya States definitive collection for the period 1918-1964. I got very close- there were a few tough varieties I was unable to locate (e.g. some of the thin striated paper printings), and some high values simply could not be located MNH. Malaya was fairly competitive at the time, especially in the earlier 2000's when Malaya picked up more steam in the marketplace.

Eventually, I became bored with the KGVI collection I had built at the time as it became almost impossible to add to it. There were fewer than 20 desired stamps on my want list, but they were either too expensive or I simply couldn't find them. Around 2011-2012 I sold all my KGVI in an auction, including all the Malaya.

From there I continued a collection I had started comprised mainly of WW definitives from Europe and Colonies. Fast-forwarding to 2017, I found myself missing KGVI collecting and started back but with different goals. More focus on SG-listed shades, perfs, papers, and watermarks, less focus on accumulating large numbers of copies in search of every possible shade. This pursuit included Malaya.

Things had changed quite a bit in the Malaya stamp market between 2011 and 2017. Perhaps supercharged by the intensity of the market for stamps of China, Malaya had become much scarcer and sought after. When materials appear, there is a lot of competition. Apparently, this was/is true for most parts of East Asian philately, though I don't notice it for Thailand, Macao, or Hong Kong which all seemed to have cooled noticeably. These countries may also have peeked much earlier- all were extremely hot in 2011 as I recall. I also still see a lot of North Borneo material on the market.

When I ask dealers about Malaya, the common thread is the sense that Malaya has been heavily sold to collectors in Asia, deposited in collections, and possibly lost for a generation. This seems to be especially true for MNH material.

I've been able to secure a fair amount of material in the past 3 years but still have a long way to go. Some sets have been much easier to locate than others. Examples include the Kelantan Chef's Hat set issued in 1937-40, all North Borneo sets from 1938, 1945, 1947, and 1950, Sarawak 1934, 1945, 1947, and 1950, Kedah 1937, Negri 1935-41, Pahang 1935-41, Perak 1935-7, and Selangor 1935-41. Other sets have been almost impossible to find. I believe there are 2 reasons for this- one is purely scarcity and the other relates to how many years sets were added to. The longer the time frame, the tougher the sets are to find or put together.

I will start with just a few of Malaya's issues and will add to this thread periodically. The stamp pictured below from Johore was a workhorse for that State. First issued in 1904, stamps continued to be added across watermark and color changes all the way through 1941. The last watermark change covered stamps issued over a period of 20 years, making this Johore set extremely difficult to find or put together. Some high values that are listed in both Scott's and Gibbons ($50, $100, and $500) were likely used only for fiscal purposes and are extremely scarce mint. Specimen examples of these 3 values are much more common than regularly issued examples, selling for a fraction of the prices commanded by the normal stamps.



Some other Malayan States from my collection as pictured below.

The famous "Chef's Hat" definitive set.




Kedah set of 1937.



Selangor set issued in 1941, shortly before the Japanese occupation. A $5 stamp was prepared but not issued before the Japanese invasion. It was only officially issued overprinted during the occupation, though unoverprinted examples do exist and while scarce, they are not "rare."



I will continue to post images and info in this thread but hope that others will as well.

The Perak definitives issued 1938-1941 have always been coveted and rare. 80% of the value of the set is attributable to the 3 high values - $1, $2, and $5. The lot below is my most recent purchase in Malaya States. I normally won't pull the trigger for a lot such as this one, given that the high values are missing. Would much prefer finding a complete set or just the best values first since they will be the toughest to find later on.

That said, this grouping is only missing 1 major low value, looks very clean with nice perfs, and as an auction lot, it came to me relatively inexpensively. So I decided to take on the insane task of locating the 3 high values. I have very modest expectations.

Several values exist in more than one paper type, included 4 that exist with thin striated paper. I would note that while this paper type was known to specialists for a long time, Gibbons did not list many of them even as recently as 2011.

The war-time thin striated paper printings are an interesting subject all on their own. They are only known on stamps from 2 Colonies- Bahamas and Malaya (including the 2c Orange definitive from Straits Settlements, and several values of Straits BMA)- and only on very limited printings from 1941 and 1942. Gibbons notes that this paper is associated with Malaya stamps printed in 1941 by Harrison and Sons after severe bomb damage to the De La Rue printers on December 29th, 1940 during the German aerial blitzkrieg. Harrison's also printed 2 values for Straits Settlements- the 3c green and 15c ultra, both on ordinary paper though these apparently don't exist printed on thin striated paper.

Tip: The 2c Orange issued in 1941 for Straits Settlements is a perfect exemplar if one wishes to study and learn the characteristics of thin striated paper as it was only issued as such.

Pictured below is Trengganu Scott 38, the $5 definitive issued in 1938. Although listed with the smaller format definitives of 1921-1941 by both Scott and Gibbons, neither catalog includes the $5 in their set pricing. Higher denominations of this design exist- $25, $50, and $100 though they were almost certainly only used for fiscal purposes.

This stamp catalogs £500 in my 2015 Gibbons for MNH/UMM. Note that it is not particularly rare so be aggressive about price when buying one. There are many copies on the market.



The lower values of this definitive set are all of this design:



Like the Perak definitives mentioned earlier in this thread, the Trengganu definitives of 1921-1941 are both scarce and highly coveted. There are lots of interesting basic varieties such as shades and papers, including a number of ordinary paper printings from 1941 that are seemingly unknown mint. The $3 value pictured above has 2 great shades from printings in 1926 and 1938, as below. Scott does not list shades for this denomination.



Aside from the $5, I have not yet begun to secure stamps from this set. It is possible to find a complete group but they are not offered frequently. I have not found a MNH set on offer.

Beautiful stamps and very interesting history lesson. I particularly like the Chefs Hats set and appreciate seeing high quality collection of an area that I knew little about

shermae....very interesting and informative thread, I'll have to subscribe to it. Although not one of my primary collecting areas, I recently came into possession of quite a number of stamps from Malaya and would like to expand my knowledge of this area. By the way, after reading your second post, I found and ordered a copy of the 1941 Straits Settlements 2c Orange on HipStamp so as to have a known copy of this paper type.

So that the forehead and nose make contact with the ground during prayer?

.... without displacing the head covering, YES!

The Malay States were my introduction to stamp collecting. My father collected the Malaya region and he used the crouching tiger stamps of the Federated States as the bait to show me stamps. The tigers, the elephants with the howdah and all those sultans in their elaborate hats! I was like 6 or 7 and was hooked.

Then in the 80s when I was a teenager I helped my dad write up his Malay states collection. Spent many a snowy winter evening in Upstate NY helping him get his various state collections mounted, was a great way for us to "bond" during my teenage years. He didn't own many of the early rarities, but he had complete runs up to the $5 of all the sets from the 1920s onward. He had bought the stamps at auction back in the 1960s and early 70s when Malaya was just a backwater of the British colonial world philatelically wise, so compared to prices today the stamps were cheap as chips. Later as my dad aged and decided to sell his collections, I helped him create a Zillions of Stamps website (early 2000s) and when he got a contemporary Scott catalog he was amazed at just how much prices had appreciated in the period from when he had bought them 20-30 years earlier (by factors of 5-10 times in some cases!). He made quite the handsome profit off the stamps as a result.

Dad died from cancer in 2009, and I inherited the balance of his collections. Most of his Malaya had of course sold (I remember many of the purchasers were of Asian descent based on their names, so yes the point about the Malaya being repatriated back to Asia is very much on point) but I still have a few items that were left, and they are now forming the basis for my Malaya collection I am slowly working on.

Shermae, are you collecting only NH Malaya? I have had pretty good luck finding items from the 1900-1941 period via the APS Stamp Circuit for Malaya, but that is mainly for hinged or used items. NH Malaya is as you say probably lost for a generation in collections back in Asia for the most part.

If you have any interest in the post-1963 era, the various printing varieties of the low-value definitives the states have issues at various times can also be a fun philatelic challenge, especially the 90s-era perf varieties on the 1986 Agriculture definitives.

Good to have you back, DJ - hope all's well with you.

Just glancing at the "prices realised" for an auction last weekend. The prices for Malayan material - lots 827ff - are quite striking - way above estimate in many cases.

http://www.somersetstampauctions.co...rent-auction

Thanks Geoff - very busy with both real life and some philatelic work I am doing on the internet. Still check in here on a regular basis.

For those of you who are interested in the Malaya States, I have displays of these stamps on my website. Not all are in my collection, so don't ask me where I got the $500 Johore stamp. The image came from an anonymous donor.

In addition to the stamps, I also have some information about identifying the striated paper (which I think was also used for the Leeward Island 5/ issue), and the Kedah die plates.

Use this link to see the index of web sites.

KGVI Stamps Index of Web Site Articles

http://www.kgvistamps.com/KGVIStamp...leIndex.html

DJ- yes I only collect MNH.

KGVI- there is a statement in the introduction pages in Gibbons that Bahamas and Malaya were the only states receiving stamps printed on thin striated paper *by Harrisons*. That said, there are many cases where Gibbons contradicts itself or presents incomplete info. Do you believe the striated paper used for the Leewards 5/- may have come from the same stock?

I'm sure KGVI meant the Bahamas 1941 1 & 5 shillings issues.

There wasn't a Leewards printing on the thin striated paper.

The Johore issues on thin striated paper were probably from a Williams Lea printing of 1941. Murray Payne speculate that there are probably other values from Malaya to be found with this paper.

I agree that the Bahamas 1/ and 5/ issue were printed on striated paper. The Leeward Islands issues I mentioned are the 5/ issues on substitute paper (SG 112b, CW 11b). There is a striated quality to this paper. However if your definition of striated paper is that it came from Harrison and Sons, then this issue would not fit that requirement. There are two printings that make up this issue. One was in 1943 and the other in 1944. Shown below are the four printings as copied from my web page. The first (CW 11, SG 112 - 1937 Printing) and last (CW 11c, SG 112b - 1951 Printing) are on chalk paper, while the second (CW 11b, SG 112a - 1943 Printing) and third (CW 11b, SG 112a - 1944 Printing) are on the substitute paper which has "striations" on it.



You can see the whole Leewards 5/ article on my website:
http://www.kgvistamps.com/articles/...ward5SH.html


However, I did think of one other striated paper that was produced by Harrion and Sons - Palestine Mandate CW 15-22 which is not listed in Gibbons, but is noted in the Bale catalogue. Commonwealth describes it as Horizontally ribbed paper.



You can see the whole Palestine Mandate article on my website:
http://www.kgvistamps.com/articles/...te-1927.html