Visitor

More Than 1,000 Visitor

When I started this blog on 15 March 2008, I have never imagine this blog could actually reach 1,000 visitors in just 8 months time.

As this was an historical moment in my blogging history, I would share a little statistic about this blog:

- there were 46 blogs being written (not including this one)
- average 5.75 blogs written per month
- approximate 1.4 blog written per week
- there was an approximate 22 visitors per blog
- covers tagged "Exhibition" was most frequently written (17 in total)

Thanks everyone who enjoy this blog. I will continue to bring you interesting covers and hope to earn a "wah!!" or "wau!!" from every one who visit here.

1996 Istanbul Exhibition

1996 Istanbul Exhibition

"1996 Butterfly - Istanbul World Philatelic Exhibition Cover"

As promised in my previous blog, I present you the 1996 Butterfly Booklet on Istanbul World Philatelic Exhibition Cover. The exhibition was held from 27 September - 06 October 1996 which attracted 4,000 participants, including Pos Malaysia.

The International Philately Federation Congress was also held in conjunction of this World Philatelic Exhibition. The exhibitions opened at the Lutfi Kirdar International Convention Centre and the Harbiye Military Museum and Culture Village. About 700 philatelists from all over the world will exhibit their collections. The exhibition played an important role in promoting Turkey abroad.

"Exhibition Cancellation"

The cancellation resembled the logo of the Istanbul 1996. Is this Jawi character, Istanbul building structure or ... I am not sure.

1996 Butterflies

1996 Butterflies Booklet on FDC

"Butterfly FDC - Design A"

Follow up with the beautiful proton booklet issue in 1995, Pos Malaysia introduced the butterfly booklet in 1996. However, despites high anticipation, no official FDC issued by Pos Malaysia. When I learned about this at that time, I asked myself: " How can this still happening after 43issue of booklet?!! (the previous issues without official FDC were Marine Paradise, Turtle, Proton)". Apparently Pos Malaysia was rather slow in meeting the public demand.

Stamp enthusiasts had designed some rather cretive private cover to commemorate this issue. Design A was my personnal fauvorite. The cover was nicely designed with a butterfly flying towards a HIBISCUS flower. See... Like I told you: Malaysian love their national flower!!!

"Design A - Description"

If you look carefully, the "flying motion line" behind the butterfly was actually made up of words which describe the technical details of this issue. The background of this cover was actually a painting of several butterfly around some lily flower.

The designer had also added some shadow effect to the main flying butterfly (please click design A picture to get a larger picture), which make it more lively and 3d. A true masterpiece indeed, especially with its printing effect. I would suspect that this was done by bubble-jet printer, which was considered a pretty "high-tech" printing in 1996.

"1996 Butterfly Cancellation"

A nicely designed cancellation with curve line to match the flying butterfly. FDC design A had match this theme perfectly by showing the same effect. As illustrated by the cancellation, the booklet was issued on 27 September 2008. I still find it pretty weird today that Pos Malaysia issued an official cancellation but not FDC. If anyone know why Pos Malaysia do it so, please enlighten me as well as fellow readers of this blog.

"Butterfly - Design B"

This was a second design from a Kuala Lumpur stamp dealer. I think his inspiration was from some Chinese paper cutting art. See below for a sample:

"Chinese paper cutting - Butterfly"

Chinese in China would normally hang paper cutting on window and wall during Chinese New Year as decorative. Paper cutting was a rather traditional art skill which still popular among youngsters. Chinese believe hanging paper cutting with auspicious symbol would bring good luck, health and even fortune to the family.

"Butterfly - Design C (Shah Alam)"

Design C was not bad actually (if you don't compare it with design A and B). Did anyone notice that all the FDCs (design A, B and C) had only 2 colours?

Design A: Black and Red
Design B: Blue and Dark Green
Design C: Light Green and Pink

But trust me, in the 1990's, 2 colours private FDC was considered to be really rare already. Just look at the Marine Paradise and Proton issue and you will notice the similarity. Anything more that 2 color should cost quite a bomb even just to produce it.

"Butterfly - Design D (Melaka)"

Lastly, the melake stamp dealer had design this version. It is actually longer than the normal FDC envelope and feature a full pane of butterfly booklet stamps. The empty booklet glued on the side make it rather presentable. An overall good design.

"Istanbul 1996 logo"

As you may notice, the booklet actually carried the Istanbul '96 World Philatelic Exhibition logo. This means that the booklet was also issued to commemorate this event. And yeah, I have also got the exhibition cover for Istanbul 1996. So stay tune to this blog and I will showcase it to you in the future.

1991 Phila Nippon

1991 Tokyo, Japan World Stamp Exhibition

"Phila Nippon'91 souvenior cover"

This was a cover issued to commemorate 1991 Japan WORLD stamp exhibition in Tokyo from 16 to 24 November 1991. Nothing too fancy about this cover as Pos Malaysia (refer to as Postal Services Department of Malaysia at that time) decided to keep it simple. It had a hibiscus flower, the national flower of Malaysia, on the cover.

In the early day, Pos Malaysia seem to be obsess with this flower and we can see it quite often in most of the stamp design. However, its appearance have drop in the recent years.

Does anyone know that Hibiscus is also the national flower of South Korea?

However, their Hibiscus is of a different species from Malaysia.

"Hibiscus Syriacus - South Korea National Flower"

South Korea national flower is "Hibiscus Syriacus" while Malaysia national flower is "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis". The obvious different is the colour, one in bright red while another in purple (a bit pinkish). Hibiscus is also known as Rosemallow.

"Phila Nippon'91 Exhibition cancellation"

No special stamp (overprint etc) introduced for this event. Pos Malaysia used the boring national fruit series. However, Rambutan + Hibicus = truly Malaysia!!! What more can you ask for?

In a world exhibition, the participating country would normally bring their own cancellation. to commemorate the event The above was Postal Services Department of Malaysia cancellation for Nippon'91. Visitor to the event would normally have lot of fun collecting all the different cancellations from different country regarding the event.

I will show you some cover in the futher bearing various cancellation from different postal services participating in the stamp exhibition.

1965 Methodist Church

1965 Methodist Church Cover

"Methodist Church Cover - front and back"

I always believe that every cover tell a story. The stamps, pictures, words or even content of a letter/cover could be a significant piece in the history of a nation. This cover, for instance, have recorded a history of Methodist Church movement to Singapore, Malaysia, Sarawak and even the whole of south east Asia.

The cover was sent from Singapore to USA. I have calculated the postage on the cover and discovered that is was $4.70 !!! That was a really high postage changes as $1 should be able to feed a family of 3 for a week at that time. This letter should be sent by air. It was sent on 29 December 1965 and arrived in Alabama, USA on 3 January 1966 (6 days).

"Malaysia - Singapore bridge?"

Many entities have printed their own envelope in the history for various purpose: for advertising, convey certain message (environmental msg etc), uplift corporate image etc. This cover was obviously printed to commemorate Methodist Church movement to south-east Asia. I could not figure out where is the picture on the front taken from. My guess was the Malaysia-Singapore bridge. However, I could be wrong.

"Methodist Church Slogan: One People"

On May 10, 1939, Bishops from the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Protestant Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South declared "the Methodists are ONE PEOPLE," thus becoming the Methodist Church. "One People" have become the slogan for methodist church missionary in the 1960's.

"Missionary to Sarawak and Indian"

"Chinese and Kenyah"

This cover was interestingly colorful and full of details. It just don't make economic sense to produce such cover unless you are mass producing it. Remember, this was the 1960's and there was still no laserjet colour printer at that time!! This lead me to believe that there should be quite a number of these cover available in the hand of collector. However, this is the only one I have seen so far.

As illustrate on the back of the cover, the Harries family was the missionary send to established Methodist Church and spread the word of god in Sarawak in the 1960's.

History: Methodist Church of Malaysia

The Methodist Church in Malaysia shares part of its heritage with the Methodist Church in Singapore as both the territories shared a similar political history.

The history of the Methodist Church in Malaysia began 120 years ago following a decision taken at the South India Conference held in Hyderabad in 1884, when William Oldham was appointed as a missionary to Singapore in 1885.

The Tamil work started with the coming of a Ceylon Tamil, Mr Underwood. In 1894 the Tamil work was started in Penang by the Pyketts, and in Kuala Lumpur by the Kensetts and was continued by Rev. S Abraham from Ceylon in 1899.

Methodism came to Sarawak in the year 1900 when a group of immigrants came from Foochow in mainland China. Missionaries came in 1903 in the persons of J.M Hoover and G.V Summers. Methodism grew rapidly in the town of Sibu and a solid foundation was laid.

The work among the indigenous people, the Ibans, began in 1937 with pioneers like Lucius D. Mamora and Paul H. Schmuker who took the Gospel to the longhouses.

The Methodist Church in Singapore and Malaysia became a self governing body in 1968. After the separation of Singapore from Malaysia, the Methodist Church in Malaysia became autonomous in 1976.

PS: I found it strange to put the Kenyah boy in the cover instead of Ibans as Iban is the major tribe in Sarawak. However, I really like the Kenya boy coconut head hair style. :)

2002 Stamp Week

2002 Stamp Week

"2002 Stamp Week Private Cover - with First Day and Daily Stamp Week Cancellations"

For the 2002 stamp week, Pos Malaysia had celebrated it with a twist. Instead of holding the stamp week event at Kuala Lumpur (normally the GPO), they had held it in Penang. The whole idea was to let Penang people to have a chance to participate in such a great event without having to travel all the way to Kuala Lumpur. However, it became a really hard challeange for people staying in Johor to go there, as it will be a 8 hours drive. . . .

Anyway, it should have been a great event (although I had not gone there, I was a poor student study in Klang that time). I was told that the event was held in GPO Penang. If this information was not true, please kindly tell me. The event was held from 17 - 23 December 2002 (8 days).

A series of stamps featuring the Tame (yang Jinak) and the Wild (yang Liar) animals was issued. And continueing from the effort to ripe collector monies since 1999, Pos Malaysia had decided to issue the stamp in the following denomination: 2 x RM0.30, 6 x RM1. Yes, 6 RM1 stamp!! 2 on se-tenant pair (the birds) and 4 on 2 separate miniature sheet ("MS"). I believe the se-tenant pair RM1 birds stamps was plant to be issued on RM0.50 denomination when Pos Malaysia decided "Who cares about those collectors view, let them pay more!!".

"2002 The Tame and the Wild Original FDC"

Despite the fraustration I had on the location to held the stamp week the denomination of the stamps, this issue was really a magnificiant work of art. The design of the stamps, cover to the cancellation clearly illustrated that this was a top notch issue, which was highly seek after from collector over the work.

The so called "stamp week private cover" as shown on the top was actually a master piece I bought from a stamp trader from Penang. He had actually cut out the hamster and the stamp week logo from the original FDC (as above) and pasted them on the supersize blank cover, to create this one-and-only FDC which fits all the stamps, cancellations and 2 x miniature sheet.

"First Day Cancellation"

Interestingly, Pos Malaysia did not intruduce any individual "Stamp Week Cancellation". If you have been following my blog, a stamp week cancellation was a cancellation to show the duration and date of the stamp week, as well as the location of it (for instance, "17 - 23 Dec 2002, Penang"). Instead, this issue have the normal cancellation (as above) which illustrate a mouse and cat on 17 Dec 2002, and stamp week daily + stamp week combo cancellation from 17 Dec (2 cancellation of the same day!!) to 23 Dec 2008.

As you can see, the daily cancellation was design with and animal on the stamp and idicate whether they are either "tame" or "wild". I will showcase them one-by-one below:

"Gold Fish (Tame) and Bubble Fish (Wild)"

"17 Dec Cancellation - Gold Fish and Bubble Fish"

That's what I call syncronized stamp and cancellation. I am not sure the real name for the "bubble fish" but that's what I normally call it. In Malay, it is called Ikan Buntal. I know that it was poison and not edible. So if you caught one when fishing, please just let it back to the water before it inflated itself, like a baloon in the miniature sheet. The fish don't inflate itself for fun. It only do it to scare off enemy. I saw some fisherman selling some fully inflated, dried one as hanging ornament in the Kukup fishing village. I personally don't really fancy about hanging a death fish in your house, but it may be cool.

"Cockatoo (Tame)"

"18 Dec Cancellation - Cockatoo"

In my previous blog here, I mentioned that this bird was not origin from malaysia and does not exist in the wild. Looking back at this stamp, I think I am right as it categorised the bird as "Tame" (you can see the "Yang Jinak" on the cancellation). Can anybody studying zoologist or bird confirm this?

Looking at this stamp make me realised that Burung Kakak Tua (cockatoo) was a parrot, not a crow. When I was singing the children song "Burung Kakak Tua" in primary school, nobody explain to me how this bird look like, so I always think it was a crow as crow always go "Kak Gak Kag".

Anybody still remember the song "Burung Kaka Tua"? The lyric go like this:

Burung kakak tua
Hinggap di jendela
Nenek sudah tua
Giginya tinggal dua

Lechum Lechum Lechum Mu la la
Lechum Lechum Lechum Mu la la
Lechum Lechum Lechum Mu la la
Burung Kakak Tua

Those would like to do a sing-along with you kids could go and download the midi file here.

"Owl (Wild)"

"19 Dec Cancellation - Owl"

Owl, a bird of prey that hunt behind the shadow of the night. Did you know that this bird can fly without making a sound?

"Meow (Tame)"

"20 Dec - Cat"

Meow ...... Cats, how adorable. They will only pester you when they want food and they know how to clean themself. A perfect pets for everybody who hate dog.

This stamp and cancellation make a nice collection for thematic collector of "cats on stamps". Please click ---> here for a nice web page about cats on stamp and post-mark of cats.

"Wild Cat / Clouded Leopard (Wild)"

"21 Dec Cancellation - Wild Cat"

I am not sure if I should call this "Wild Cat" or "Clouded Leopard". But the Malay translation was "Kucing Batu" so I guess "Wild Cat" was the appropriate term here. But I am really not sure what's the different between both of them.

"Squirrel (Wild) and Rabbit (Tame)"

"21 Dec Cancellation - Rabbit (Tame)"

"23 Dec Cancellation - Squirrel (Wild)"

Rabbits are ground dwellers that live in environments ranging from desert to tropical forest and wetland. Their natural geographic range encompasses the middle latitudes of the Western Hemisphere. In the Eastern Hemisphere rabbits are found in Europe, portions of Central and Southern Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Sumatra, and Japan. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) has been introduced to many locations around the world, and all breeds of domestic rabbit originate from the European. So the rabbits we see in Malaysia were not origin from the land there.

Squirrel, wild. No body keep them as pet. They bite. And remember the old saying of Malay, "sepandai-pandai tupai melompat, akhirnya jatuh ke tanah juga" (which translate to english as "no matter how good a suirrel jump, it may fall to the ground one day"), which mean "no matter how good you are at something, you may fail one day too".

SPECIAL ISSUE (Pewter, Gold and Nobium FDC)

Royal Selangor also issued some special FDC to commemorate this issue.

"Pewter FDC - Cheetah (Wild) and Meow Cat (Tame)"

The wild big cat on this cover is obviously an African Cheetah. Why is it even doing on the cover? It was not even featured in the stamp and it was not even found in Malaysia wild? The Pewter FDC original price was RM33.

The little kitty on the cover just reminded me of the "puss-in-boots" from Skrek. See below:

"Meeeowwwww"

"24k Gold FDC - Cockatoo (Tame) and Eagle(Wild)"

Another bird of prey, the eagle was featured on this cover. The stamp was not actually full gold. It was gilded pewter coated in 24K gold. Original price: RM85.80.

"Nobium FDC - Cow (Tame) and Sumatran Rhinoceros (Wild)"

The cover original price was RM137.50. Sumatran Rhinoceros (as illustrated on the cover) are now critically endangered, with only six substantial populations in the wild: four on Sumatra, one on Borneo, and one on peninsular Malaysia. Their numbers are difficult to determine because they are solitary animals that are widely scattered across their range, but they are estimated to number around 300. The decline in the number of Sumatran Rhinoceros is attributed primarily to poaching for their horns, which are highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine, fetching as much as US$30,000 per kilogram on the black market. The rhinos have also suffered from habitat loss as their forests have been cleared for lumber and conversion to agriculture.

So please, if you see this blog, please stop buying these product, or you will destroy this creature, a beautiful natural heritage for our children.

1970 Sarawak Exhibition - Update

Subsequent to my blog regarding the 1970 Sarawak Exhibition, George Wu, blogger from Gulfmann Stamp Collection have provided me with his certificate of membership for the Sarawak Philatelic Society. The Society postal address was:

PO Box no. 376, Sibu, Sarawak.

I have uploaded the Certificate of Membership to share with fellow collector:

However, we still have no information as if the society is still active or such. Anybody who have more information is more than welcome to share it here under "comments".

Once again, thank George Wu for the information.

1999 Golf World Cup of Golf

1999 World Cup of Golf

"1999 Golf World Cup Commemorative Cover with Limited Edition MS"

The cover you see above may be the most expensive cover in the history of Malaysia modern philately. I last saw the miniature sheet sold at around USD$90 in ebay.

The stamp and cover was issued in 1999 to commemorate Golf World Cup held in Mines Resort & Golf Club from 19 - 21 November 1999. The commemorative cover will only be available if you bought the limit issue folder, which contain the cover with stamp and fdc and a special booklet outline the world cup. The folder was originally sold at RM25.

However, what make this cover valuable is the limited edition sheetlet with the design which outline 18 holes of the Mines Resort & Golf Club. Only 300 sheetlets were issued and sold in GPO Kuala Lumpur. Yes, 300!! No kidding. At that quantity, it had become one of the rarest stamp sought after by hardcore collector.

In this tornament, Tiger Wood won his first world cup individual title and team title with Mark O’Meara, bringing the world cup back to US since 1995.

"1999 Tiger Wood"

The United States won the 32-team World Cup on Sunday (21 Novermber 1999), with Woods producing the best score in the tournament’s history and taking individual honors by a record nine strokes.

His overpowering performance allowed the United States to erase Spain’s lead over the last nine holes, ensuring that the cup would return to the United States.

Woods shot a 6-under-par 65, more than offsetting a 77 by partner Mark O’Meara. He finished at 21-under 263 and O’Meara had 282 for a five-shot victory over Spain, 545 to 550.

“Tiger rose to the occasion,” O’Meara said. “He met the challenge.”

Woods won of $200,000 from the team prize plus the individual award of $100,000.

In 1999, the United States has won 22 of the 45 World Cups. But it had not won since Couples and Davis Love III swept four in a row from 1992 through 1995.

Backed by Woods’ course-record 63, the Americans took a seven-shot lead over Spain on Saturday (20 November 1999). But the Spaniards still had a chance.

Spain team's Miguel Angel Martin and Santiago Luna made the turn Sunday one shot ahead. The United States was hurt by O’Meara’s front nine of 4 over.

Then Woods birdied the first four holes on the back nine while Luna followed a double-bogey on the 10th with bogeys on the next two holes. The Americans led by five.

Woods’ 263 total beat the 265 set by Fred Couples in the 1994 World Cup, although Couples was 23 under on the par-72 Dorado Beach course in Puerto Rico.

This cover really marked a historical moment in Golf history, as well as Malaysia Philately history.

1991 Youth Exhibition

1991 Youth Exhibition ("Pameran Filateli Remaja")

This was another exhibition held in Manara Maybank (if you are following my blog, the previous one was MALPEX'89). It was held in Balai Seni, Menara Maybank from 18 - 27 October 1991.(10 days). I don't really have the first day exhibition cover for this exhibition. The picture above (I am sorry as it was a bit blur) was taken from the Melaka Stamp Muzium. It showed the exhibition cancellation and the 1st day cancellation of the Youth Philately Exibition. 10 daily cancellation was introduced. But so far, I have only seen the "exhibition cancellation" and daily cancellation of 18 Oct and 20 Oct. If anyone have the whole collection of the cancellations, I would really apppreciate if you can share it with me.

"Exhibition Cancellation"

"18 October cancellation"

Above was the enlarged version of the first day and exhibition cancellation. I am sorry as this is the clearest it can get. If you need to see the clearer version of this, you should go to Melaka Stamp Museum. It is small yet pretty informative and the entrance fee is only RM1!!!. As for the signature on the cover, I guess it was from someone who formally open the event.

My beautiful wife - in front of Melaka Stamp Museum :)

I hope the pic above would encourage everyone to pay a visit there. hehe. Just google Melaka Stamp Museum and you should be able to get there pretty easy.

"1991 Youth Philately Exhibition - Italy Day"

Now the exhibition cover I owned is this "Italy Day" cover with a set of frama label. It was when I obtained this exhibition cover that I discovered that Malaysia actually have the postal stationary known as "Frama Label". It was issued in 1987 and the one-and-only Frama Label vending machine was located in GPO Kuala Lumpur.

"Malaysia Frama Label Machine"

The above is the vending machine which print the Frama Label (pic taken from "Gulfmann Stamps Collection" blog, provided by kkkhor). And, like most of the public facility in Malaysia, it was broken.

"Italy Philately Club Invi Card??" Can anyone translate this?

If you are wondering why would there be "Italy Day" or "Hari Itali" during a Malaysia stamp exhibition... so do me. I guess Italy Philately was a c0-organiser of the event or they have have some exhibition booth at this exhibition, which warrant a day dedicated to them.

"Italy Day Poscard"

I also collected a Italy poscard, with Youth Philately Exhibition'91 overprint, Malaysia Map as the background and Italy stamps imprinted on it. A marvelous collector item.

I have gone a bit long winded today showing off my wife, Frama Label vending machine etc as it have been some time since I last update my blog. Being quite lazy recently and try to take it slow to enjoy my new life here in Australia. Thanks for everyone who are sending me emails to request for stamp/postcard/fdc exchange. I really appreciate that. I will try to drop you a nice cover from Brisbane (disclamer: the above statement was a presumption clause and does not commited to any act to comply).

Till next time, happy collecting. Cheers.