Thursday, January 30, 2014

Unusual Postmark Cancellations on Brunei Stamps



If you just take a glance at these stamps from my collection, you would not have noticed anything different. Just ordinary used Brunei stamps. They are old though. The 1 cent was issued in 1908 and the 5 cent was issued in 1916.

Look closely. Look at the postmarks.

Now you can see. The 5 cent stamp was postmarked Labuan on 9 November 1922. The 1 cent was postmarked Kingstown on 6 September 1910. You all know where Labuan is. Kingstown? That's somewhere in the West Indies.

Theory? Probably the stamps when affixed to the envelope escaped from being postmarked in Brunei but when it landed in Labuan, the postmaster there affixed the cancellation so that the stamp can not be used. Similarly with the Kingstown postmark. The other interesting bit was that someone in Brunei wrote a letter to someone in Kingstown. If the stamp can talk, what interesting tales can it have.

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