1992 Asian Philatelic Exhibition

KL'92 5th Asian International Philatelic Exhibition

"KL'92 Exhibition Cover with first day cancellation"

After multiple years in organising smaller philatelic exhibition, Pos Malaysia finally got a chance to organised an event at international level - the "5th Asian International Philatelic Exhibition". I find it a bit weird to call it "Asian International" because logically, you should be either Asian, or International.. and not both.

But anyhow, that is not the point. The point was that this exhibition was phenomenal!! Postal services all over the world had participated in this exhibition and tons of exhibits, booth and activities was sets up for the participants.

The event was held from 1 Sept to 7 Sept 1992. I am not sure about the location of the event. But my guess would be the Muzium Negara.

"KL'92 - Daily exhibition Cancellation"

Like all philatelic exhibition, the daily cancellation was introduced. Each of the cancellation represent different theme for the day. From top left were "Philatelist Day", "Youth Day", "Thematic Day", "Award Presentation Day", "Pos Malaysia Day" and "FIAP Day".

"First day cancellation"

The Stamp introduced was to commemorate 125th years since the first stamp in Malaysia. The stamps featured interesting design which now fits into a thematic category called "stamp on stamp". This basically mean there are a group of collector who like to collect stamps which have stamps printed on them. It was actually a very interesting theme.

"KL 92 - Exhibition cover with full set of new stamps"

If you are interested in "stamp on stamp", you might want to visit here.

"Official MS on FDC for 125th anniversary of first stamp issued in Malaysia"

This was the official FDC issued. As you can see, the post man uniform at that point of time does change a bit as compared to now.

"125th years of first stamp in Malaysia - FDC with stamps"

The first day cover itself actually fits in the category of thematic collection for "stamp under glass", which I had introduced in my previous blog.

As I have mention above, ton of postal services from over the world came to Kuala Lumpur to participate in this events. To commemorate this, most of the postal services have issued stamps, miniature sheet, exhibition cover as well as cancellation specially for the philatelic exhibition. For instances, Hong Kong have issued 2 miniature sheet with KL' 92 overprint. Tuvalu have also have their fish series overprint (see below).

"Tuvalu KL'92"

Just in case you wonder where is Tuvalu, it is a beautiful island in the middle of the pacific ocean. There have only a few series of stamps issued. Click here if you are interested in this country's stamps.

As there is so many booths around, people start going around and collect the KL'92 cancellation from all the participating postal services. Here are some of the cancellation I have manage to collect.

"KL'92 Singapore"

"KL'92 Indonesia - wayang kulit / hand puppet"

"KL' 92 Korea"

"KL'92 Nauru (another island in the pacific ocean)"

"KL'92 Hong Kong"

"KL'92 P.N.G"

Just in case you are wondering what is "P.N.G", it stands for Papua New Guinea. I try to figure out what is the picture as illustrated on the cancellation but just can't work it out. It seem like a coral or birds. If anybody know what is it, please do tell me.

"KL'92 Solomon Islands - Butterfly"

This cancellation would be nice for philatelic cum butterfly lover.

"KL'92 Tuvalu"

"KL'92 Tuvalu - FDC cancellation for the overprint stamp"

"KL '92 Viet Nam"

I apologized for not having a nicer version of the Viet Nam cancellation. This is the best I have got. If you have a sample of this cancellation which can provide to me, please do email me the image. I will really appreciate that.

After introducing all the cancellation above, do you know of any cancellation regarding KL'92 which you want to share? If so, please do email me. I would definitely like to make this blog as complete as ever. But I alone can't have all the information available and thus hope this blog could server like the "wikipedia" concept and pool as much information as possible regarding this exhibition.

"Australia Special KL'92 cover"

If you have participated in this event, you might have bought the cover as shown above. Sprintpak was a supplier who have participated in this exhibition to demonstrate a auto-affixed technology. It showcase a machine which auto affixed the stamps at pre-set location on a cover and machine cancelled it.

"Sprintpak - stamp perfectly affixed an cancelled"

See above for the result. The stamp and cancellation was at a exact perfect position. The technology could be used to mass produce FDC and souvenior covers for the postal services to be sold to collectors.

Making philatelic history with a number of world firsts, Sprintpak has carved a strategically important niche in the international philatelic and collectible packaging market. Today, a commitment to vigorous research and development and a growing reputation as one of the world`s best, Sprintpak is setting its sights on new business opportunities.

When it comes to business diversification, Sprintpak, a fully owned business of Australia Post, is ahead of the pack.

Specialising in providing high quality finishing processes in the production of postage stamps, philatelic products and other related products such as numismatic, collector albums and book publications, Sprintpak has gone from strength to strength since it began in the 1970s.

For those who have followed this unique businesses lifecycle it would have been difficult to predict the amazing outcome of this relatively obscure service provider.

Sprintpak was launched as a division of Mayne Nickless, an Australian transport and distribution company, firstly supplying stamp packs to Post and then later first day covers and the annual collection stamp album.

Recognising the strategic importance to Post`s philatelic division, Sprintpak was purchased in 1987 and incorporated as a division of the postal corporation in 1994. Sprintpak is now a business unit of Post Logistics.

This is why when you purchase Australia FDC, you seldom see flaw or damage on the stamps, cancellations or covers. The FDCs produced by Australia post are so perfect due to the Sprintpak technology being employed. As for Malaysia.... our postal services still very much believe in human power. If you ever visited the philately counter in Complex Dayabumi, you may even find a scene where the Pos Malaysia staffs are affixing stamp to FDCs and hand stamp them. This is why you will find not-straightly-affixed-stamp or dirtied-cancelled FDC when you have a SODA account in Pos Malaysia and have them send you every issue of new FDC.

In 1992, Australia Post was already using this technology. It was 2008 now... which mean Pos Malaysia Bureau Philately was about 16 years behind. Not too bad....

1991 FFC KL-Beijing

1991 First Flight Cover - Kuala Lumpur to Beijing

"FFC KL-Beijing Front"

In 1991, a cover was issued to commemorate the first flight of Malaysia Airline ("MAS") first flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The flight was commenced on 31 March 1991.

As with most of the first flight cover, it illustrates the landmark structure in Beijing, the "Temple of Heaven". In Chinese we called it "天壇" or "天坛". This was a well-known tourism destination in Beijing and was included as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.

But now, after the Beijing 2008 Olympic, perhaps the "Bird Nest" and "Water Cube" was more famous than Temple of Heaven.

"FFC KL-Beijing Back"

The back of the cover had an arrival cancellation from Beijing Post. The small print of the bottom of the cover contain information of the issuer and cover designer.

"FFC KL-Beijing Cancellation"

The first flight cancellation was very similar to the first flight cover from KL-Khoh Siong, which was issued in 1991 also (see my previous post regarding FFC to Khoh Siong).

"Temple of Heaven - front overview"

The Temple of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in southeastern urban Beijing, in Xuanwu District. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although Chinese Heaven worship, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism.

The Temple of Heaven comprises of three building structure:

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (祈年殿) - the structure in the middle(as illustrated in the cover) is a magnificent triple-gabled circular building, 32 metres in diameter and 38 metres tall, built on three levels of marble stone base, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests. The building is completely wooden, with no nails.

The Imperial Vault of Heaven (皇穹宇) is a single-gabled circular building, built on a single level of marble stone base. It is located south of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and resembles it, but is smaller. It is surrounded by a smooth circular wall, the Echo Wall, that can transmit sounds over large distances. The Imperial Vault is connected to the Hall of Prayer by the Vermilion Steps Bridge, a 360 meter long raised walkway that slowly ascends from the Vault to the Hall of Prayer.

The Circular Mound Altar (圜丘坛) is the altar proper, located south of the Imperial Vault of Heaven. It is an empty circular platform on three levels of marble stones, where the Emperor prayed for favorable weather. It was built in 1530 by the Jiajing Emperor and rebuilt in 1740.

It was amazing how a structure from such ancient time illustrate the concept of ultimate beauty from the creator/god - "Symmetry". If you may have notice, the structure was symmetry (same in left and right if you look at it in the middle). The concept of symmetry was used by the creator in the creation of life. The form of human being, animal, snow flake to even individual cell, follows of golden rule of symmetry. A structure in perfect symmetry, now that's a beauty!!!