1994 SUKOM

1994 Kuala Lumpur XVI Commonwealth Games Souvenir Cover

In 1994, 2 covers were issued to commemorative the launching of the Commonwealth Games ("SUKOM '98) Mascot and Baton Relay.

12 April 1994 - Launching of SUKOM'98 Mascot

This cover illustrate the mascot for SUKOM '98, which was the Orang Utan. It also marked the launching of the SUKOM'98 logo, a "98" which mimic the hibiscus flower, the national flower of Malaysia.

13 April 1994 - Baton Relay Stopover

Since 1958, there has been a relay of athletes carrying a baton from Buckingham Palace to the Opening Ceremony. This baton has within it the Queen's Message of Greeting to the athletes. The baton's final bearer is usually a famous sporting personage of the host nation.

This cover marks the baton relay stopover from Victoria, Canada to the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Victoria was the organising city for Commonwealth Game 1994.

The 1998 XVI Commonwealth Games were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from September 11 to September 21, 1998 making it the first Asian country to act as host and the last Commonwealth Games for the 20th Century. A record 70 nations (34 of which collected medals) supplied 3638 athletes.

Back of the Cover: "This cover was issued by the Philatelic Society of Malaysia Olympic & Sports Study Group (PSM OSPG) with the support & cooperation of SUKOM 98 & Pos Malaysia"

The covers were issued by the Philatelic Society of Malaysia.

Additional News: Souvenir Cover Beijing Olympics 2008

A souvenir cover to commemorate the Malaysia leg of the torch relay run for the Beijing Olympics 2008 on 21.4.2008 will be produced. Olympics torch run is a first time for Malaysia. Anybody interested in the purchase of the above commemorative covers duly postmarked on the 21.4.2008 + a special cachet will be made available. Kindly contact the PSM secretariat for further information. Please see http://www.psmonline.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1033 for further information

1998 Stamp Week

1998 Stamp Week - Insects

Stamp Week 1998 was held from 26 November - 6 December 1998 (9 days) at the General Post Office Komplek Dayabumi building. This was a very nice cover featuring insects in Malaysia. The cover was designed by PK.Chua, whose signature is on the cover.

Stamp Week Cancellation
(gotten from the Stamp Week Venue)

This was the first year of stamp week where POS Malaysia issued various pictorial cancellation for each 9 days of the events. The pictorial cancellation are illustrated as above. However, I still can't get any FDC with these 9 days cancellation for my collection. If anybody who read this and would like to sell/exchange with me a copy this cover, I will be very thankful.

Pewter and Niobium FDC was also issued for this event. However, I have none of these in my collection and thus could not share it with you all. There was also a imperf sheetlet of 4 miniature sheet issued. The original selling price, if not mistaken was RM40. For your information, as of today, you still could get this item at certain small post office for the original price. I guess not much collector was interested in collect it.

1970 Malaysia Exhibition

1970 First Malaysian Stamp Exhibition

A very nice cover to commerative the FIRST Malaysian Stamp Exhibition. It was held from 14 - 27 Decmber 1970 at the National Muzium.

The cover illustrates some old tiger stamps with a matching tiger exhibition cancellation. Nice.

The exhibition was organised by Philately Society of Malaysia (formerly known as Selangor Stamp Society). Check out their webside at www.psmonline.org if you wish to join as a member. PSM hold monthly auction while provide a lot of other goodies for members.

1997 Stamp Week

1997 Stamp Week - Protected Wildlife

The above is the protected wildlife FDC issued for the 1997 stamp week. The miniature sheet issued was superb and nice (as usual, they are design by the all famous Mr Tay Yew Kiang). However, the cover design was very disappointing. Since 1957, we barely see any mono-colored FDC any more. And now, it resurfaced again. I believe Pos Malaysia had design the cover last minute.

Special stamp week cancellation like this could be gotten if you have attended the event at GPO Kuala Lumpur. Again, similar to 1996 stamp week, it is a big event with tons of activities.

Due to the sucky FDC, I had decided to purchase the pewter and nobium FDC. Now, these FDC design is more like it. With both covers illustrating the rain forest in Malaysia. Note that both covers design are different. The nobium FDC is nicer with the gold covered fish with nobium deep blue background. The original selling price for the nobium FDC is RM98 while the pewter on is RM25.

I am glab I bought both and got the stamp week cancellations as well as the designer's signature on them.

Now, if you look at ebay or some of the philatelic website, you may notice this miniature sheet ("MS"). It is not listed in the catalougue by International Stamps and Coins. This MS was issued by the Southern Colour Print in commemorative of the Stamp Week.

Southern Colour Print is a New Zealand Company specialised in the secure printing of stamps, books etc (see more details at http://www.gsponline.co.nz/). They were present at the 1997 stamp week, on invitation by Pos Malaysia, to demonstrate the printing of MS. Thus, this was the design that they had come out. Very limited quantity of this miniature sheet were noted. I was glad to get the New Zealand designer's signature on this cover too.

1995 Marine Paradise

1995 The Marine Paradise of Malaysia Booklet of Private FDC

In the olden days, Postal Services in Malaysia had not issued its own First Day Cover. Thus, the public had made their own private catchet to commerative a new stamp issue. This is why if you look at the highly porpular Merdeka FDC, you could see so many version of it. At the 50th years Merdeka Anniversary Philatelic Exhibition in Penang in 2007, 30 official Merdeka FDC and 50 unofficial Merdeka FDC are display as exhibits, which marked how crazy the people at that time about that event and the releasing of a stamp to commerative it.

However, in the 1960's, when Pos Malaysia started to issued FDC, private cachet is not so popular anymore. Thus, the activity of making private cachet for stamps first day of issue seem to die down until year 1995, where The Marine Paradise of Malaysia booklet was issued. Pos Malaysia had not printed any FDC nor pictorial cancellation regarding this stamp issue. Thus, a very limited version of this FDCs were made by public. As far as I know, this is the only version I have seen so far.

2006 600th Anniversary

2005 - 600th Anniversary of Malaysia - China Relationship

This is a FDC to commemorative the 600th anniversary of Malaysia-China relationship. What is unique about this cover is that it is endorsed by the Maritime Archaeology Museum of Melaka (see its official chop with UNESCO membership number at the front and back).

A museum would only endorsed/certified an item if:

1. The item is a collection of the museum and sold to the public

2. To certified that the item is genuine and not a replica

As the FDC is sold out to me as part of the Museum collection, thus, it is endorsed.

Maritime Archaeology Museum of Melaka (“MAM”) operates as a non-profit organisation and registered under United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (“UNESCO”) with the membership number 29766MY. The main purpose of this museum is to study and research on the history of trading relationship of Melaka with the rest of the world in 14^th to 17^th centuries. One of the most important elements in their study involved the mean of exchange used in the trading at that time, the tin money (or also refers to as the animal money).

The tin money is also featured in the miniature sheet above and the back of the cover. It has various animal shapes. The known ones are cockerel (chicken), fish, grasshopper, crocodile, goat, cow, tortoise and elephant. All these “money” which imitate the animal shape are evident of trading and diplomatic relationship with other culture/country. For instances, in ancient Egypt, the crocodile was both hunted and worshipped because of its extreme strength. Tortoise is symbol of longevity among the Chinese. Cow and Elephant are regards as the holy animal in India and Burma (or Thailand). Cockerel is also regards as “bringer of the dawn” and “guides for the afterlife” in the Quran, which hints the trading relationship with the Middle East. If you wish to know more about the 600^th years relationship of Melaka with China, or the rest of the world, please pay a visit to MAM and the COO of the museum would be happily telling you stories from the ancient time.

<-The people of Ancient Egypt worshiped Sobek, a crocodile-god associated with fertility, protection, and the power of the Pharaoh

Other Samples of Tin Money ->

Interesting Facts

One week before the original issue date (7th July 2005), it was pointed out to Pos Malaysia that the 50 sen stamp depicts an ancient ceramic plate with verses from the Koran. This 50 sen stamp was recalled and replaced with another one depicting a business meeting between a Malay and Chinese trader. This deferred the issue of this stamp to 21 July 2007. The subject ceramic plate may be seen from the scan of the Folder below.

The ceramic plate in the folder was originally featured in the designed. It was last minute changed. Even now, if you check the Pos Malaysia official website, www.pos.com.my, Pos Malaysia also did not list out the 50sen stamp in their product list.

The original design of the miniature sheet had also changed. The left hand side was the original design while the right hand side was the final product. The coins with the jawi word on it was removed and the China Trader clothing was also changed. I heard that the original design miniature sheets were printed and some may had leaked to the public. But so far I have not seen any.

1966 PO Exhibition

1996 Penang Post Office Philatelic Exhibition Cover

This is an exhibition cover posted from the Post Office Philatelic Exhibition (Pameran Setem Pejabat Post) in 1966. The exhibition ran for a period of 19 days from 17 August - 4 September!! Wau, that was pretty long. It could be the exhibition held for the longest period in Malaysia history.

The cover has a very nice design featuring the 1965 Malaysia birds series. What are odd about it is the stamps affixed on it. Those are Singapore stamp commerating the the 1st anniversary of republic issued on 9 August 1966. As mentioned in my previous blog, Singapore had merged with Melaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form "Malaysia" as the result of 1962 Merger Referendum of Singapore. Singapore was expelled from the federation two years later, on 9 August 1965 after heated ideological conflict between the state's PAP government and the federal Kuala Lumpur government.

So if Singapore was expelled from Malaysia in 1965, was its stamps still valid to be used for postal purposed within Malaysia? Ironically, the cover was also cancelled on 31 August 1966, Malaysia national day. Classic.

1995 FFC

1995 First Flight Cover ("FFC") - KL to Vancouver

Have you ever come across such cover? It is call the first flight cover. A "First Flight Cover" is a commemorative envelope for an airlines inauguration of a new route or service, which is similar to the FDC which commemorative for issue of new stamps. They can be anywhere from plain envolope to very nicely designed covers with colorful (sometimes pertinent) stamps and cancellations.

First flight cover normally come in pairs. For examples, please see the 2 cover below:

Cover A

Cover B

Both the covers were to commemorative first flight of the Malaysia-Singapore Airline to Perth and vice versa. Cover A was sent from Singapore to Perth while Cover B was sent from Perth to Singapore. Both the cover affixed with the actual postage cost required for such destination at that time. Thus, they are valuable items for aerophilately research. From my experience, matching pair of FFCs are really hard to come by.

I have not come across any documentation/catalogue which outlines all the FFC in Malaysia yet. I hope those who are specialized in this field could one day publish more information for Malaysia FFC such that it benefits all stamp enthusiasts.

1963 Malaysia

1963 - Malaysia Celebration

In 1963, Malaya along with the then-British crowned colonies of Singapore, Sabah (British North Borneo) and Sarawak formed Malaysia. The Sultanate of Brunei, though initially expressing interest in joining the Federation, withdrew from the planned merger due to opposition from certain segments of its population as well as arguments over the payment of oil royalties and the status of the Sultan in the planned merger.

This FDC was issued to commemorate the formation of Malaysia. It has a pic of the former prime minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) and Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah (also known as the "Malaysia Father of Independence") being welcomed at the Kuala Lumpur Airport (Subang Air Port) after successfully discussed the "Malaysia talk" in London in 1962. This pic marked one of the classic moment in the formation of Malaysia. Lee Kuan Yew looked pretty handsome then.

What amazes me is that the graphic resolution used in this FDC. It should be around 300dpi. With the 1963 technology, is it even possible to privately print such a high resolution covers? Just look at some of the other 1960's covers:

Now, if you compare the FDC design of that era, you will understand why this privately made cachet is so special. However, unfortunately, the cover is in a very bad condition and thus should not worth much... sad.

The above is the official FDC issued by Pos Malaysia (formerly known as Jabatan Perkhidmatan Pos). If you have this FDC, you will notice that the "Berjaya Malaysia" at the top left corner is pasted on it after the cover being printed. I believe there is some printing error on this cover. If any reader have any info about this, you are welcome to share it under "comments".

1996 Stamp Week

1996 – Stamp Week: Wildlife

1996 Stamp Week was the first stamp week organised by POS Malaysia from 2 - 7 December 2006. It was held in GPO Kuala Lumpur. The Stamp Week was a really great event with more than 15 booths of stamp dealers (if I remember clearly) from local and other Asia countries participated. The artist for this set of stamp, Mr Tay Yew Kiang, was also present to sign for the FDC.

The "Stamp Week '96" cancellation could only be gotten at the stamp week venue. This issues did not have the day-to-day stamp week cancellation.

The event was very grand with tons of people, dealers and stamp club participated. If you compared it to the recent 2007 stamp week held in 1 Utama Shopping Center with only 3 dealers and 1 Pos Malaysia booth, you will know what I meant. I wonder if it is due to the limited budget or the declining of Malaysian enthusiast in philately, the Stamp Week event is getting smaller and smaller…..

One special item worthwhile to be added to all philately fanatic collection is the Litho Print special cover. It originally cost RM15.

Litho actually refers to "lithography" in short. Lithography is a method for printing on a smooth surface. Invented by Bavarian author Alois Senefelder in 1796, it can be used to print text or artwork onto paper or other suitable material.

Lithography is a printing process that uses chemical processes to create an image. For instance, the positive part of an image would be a hydrophobic chemical, while the negative image would be water. Thus, when the plate is introduced to a compatible ink and water mixture, the ink will adhere to the positive image and the water will clean the negative image. This allows for a relatively flat print plate which allows for much longer runs than the older physical methods of imaging (e.g., embossing or engraving).

If you would like to find out more about lithography, please refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithography

1965 Birds

1965 Birds Definitive Series - Post Office Stamp Exhibition

As the first post for this blog, I would like to show you my personal favorite cover of all time. The 1965 national definitive series were the first definitive stamps issued after the independence before they were replaced by the 1970 national butterflies series.

This sets of stamp contained 8 stamps featuring birds in Malaysia with denomination of 25c, 30c, 50c, 75c, $1, $2, $5 and $10 (total face value of $19.80 on the FDC). $19.80 meant a lot in 1965!!! Just imagine, a bowl of noodles would only cost you 30c at that time while now it cost you like $3. Due to the high value, it was pretty hard to get a full set on the FDC. The FDC you will normally find from dealers and collectors would only be the low value from the sets, ie: 25c, 30c, 50c, 75c. This set has a lot of variety such as watermark inverted, blue omitted, dot in “Y” etc in them. For details of these, please check the Standard Catalogue of Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei by International Stamp & Coin Sdn. Bhd.

What makes this FDC a little bit more special is its “1965 Pameran Setem Pejabat Pos” (which mean “Post Office Stamp Exhibition”) cancellation. I am not sure where the venue of this exhibition held. But I guess it should be at Dayabumi Complex, Pos Malaysia Headquarters. If any of the readers have any information about this event, please also share it with us under the “comments".