Tracing the history of the country from postage stamps.
THE District Officer had just closed the door to his office when he hears a commotion outside. He continues his daily routine, contented in the knowledge that his trusty secretary would be able to settle any trivial matters expeditiously.
Unfortunately for him, that isn’t the case today. In just a matter of minutes, a rapid succession of knocks is heard on his door. Before he can even answer, a red-faced man barges in with his secretary following closely behind apologising profusely for the unintended intrusion.
The District Officer signals to his secretary to leave. As soon as the door closes, the Kuala Lipis postmaster begins to explain his predicament in a most urgent manner.
It seems that the shipment of three-cent stamps from Pekan has been delayed and to make matters worse, stocks at the small rural post office have completely run out.
The slightly rotund postmaster, at his wit’s end, starts to tear at whatever little hair that’s left on his head.
The District Officer remains seated and looks calmly out of the window. The tranquil Pahang River has always been his source of inspiration each time he’s faced with problems plaguing this new Pahang capital.
Barely minutes later, he turns towards his uninvited guest and says; “Get me a few sheets of the five cents stamps, a pair of sharp scissors and some red ink.”
What John Fortescue Owen did after that will go down in history as one of the most amazing incidents in Malaya’s philatelic history.
On that fateful day of Aug 1, 1897, Owen deliberately cut every five-cent stamp sent to his office into two.
Then he placed his official mark of approval by scribbling “3 JFO” on one segment and “2 JFO” on the other. It was nearly noon by the time he finished the entire lot.
Owen then turned to his postmaster and proudly proclaimed that his handiwork would tide the post office over until the already indented supplies arrived.
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CATALOGUING HISTORY
Excitedly, I study the example of the now-famous Pahang Bisect stamp in the latest Gibbons Stamp Monthly magazine.
I’m rather taken aback when I see the prices as these tiny mutilated pieces of paper with Owen’s initials have skyrocketed!
What were produced to prevent a shortage crisis in a small quiet Pahang town exactly 120 years ago have now become highly prized collectors’ items.
This is Economics 101 all over again — supply and demand. Stop-gap measures like the Owen incident produced unique stamps in very limited quantities and eventually drove prices through the roof.
The story is very different for the original five-cent stamp. It was printed by the millions. In its uncut form and devoid of Owen’s penmanship, each of these blue-coloured stamps is only catalogued at just a few pence today.
The Gibbons Stamp Monthly and the Stanley Gibbons catalogues are important literature for philatelists.
Stamp collectors all over the world buy these publications to keep abreast of the latest philatelic developments as well as to find out the latest value of their collections.
These reference materials are published by Stanley Gibbons, a 161-year-old public listed company which still conducts its business at the Strand in London.
The company is named after its founder, Edward Stanley Gibbons, who started dealing in stamps when he decided to set up a side counter at his father’s pharmacy in Plymouth in 1857.
His big break came just six years later when he was lucky enough to buy a sack full of the rare Cape of Good Hope triangular stamps from two returning sailors. He sold the stamps at a huge profit and raised enough capital to start his own venture. The rest, like they say, is history.
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PRECIOUS STAMPS
The first stamps used in this country were borrowed from India. These adhesives were sold in the post offices of Malacca, Penang and Singapore as a temporary measure while waiting for the first Straits Settlements stamps to arrive from England.
The postmarks used back in 1867 were very different compared to the ones we see today. The cancellers at that time had numbers instead of place names. Malacca was designated with B109, Singapore B172 and Penang B149. The prefix B represented the Bengal postal administration which oversaw, among other places, the postal activities in the Straits Settlements.
Shortly after that, the Straits Settlements began using their own stamps which featured Queen Victoria’s effigy. The practice of using English monarchs on stamps from these colonies continued for almost 90 years, until Malaya achieved independence in 1957.
The usage of postage stamps in the Malay states during the late 19th century is closely related to the spread of British influence in this region.
The Pangkor Treaty in 1874 opened the doors for the British to enter Perak. Initially, the state had to borrow stamps from the Straits Settlements as a temporary measure until stocks for the newly-printed Perak stamps arrived.
In the closing days of the 20th century, the British administrators decided to unite Perak, Selangor, Pahang and Negri Sembilan under a single entity called the Federated Malay States.
This decision also meant that a special stamp issue had to be produced to reflect the new union.
Several designs were proposed and finally everyone agreed on the one featuring a leaping tiger for the lower stamp values.
Stamps for the higher denominated dollar values featured a group of elephants with their mahouts.
Looking closely at these higher value stamps, I notice something unusual — one of the elephants is facing the wrong direction! I suppose something must have distracted the little pachyderm just when the photograph was about to be taken. By that time it was probably too late. The baby elephant’s bottom was to end up prominently displayed for posterity!
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STAMPS THROUGH HISTORY
Up until the early 20th century, the Unfederated Malay States were under Siamese rule and stamps featuring King Chulalongkorn were sold in their post offices. Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu only started issuing their own postage stamps after the signing of the Bangkok Treaty in 1909. This treaty transferred suzerainty of these four northern states to the British.
Kelantan and Terengganu issued stamps featuring their ruling sultans a few years later while Kedah chose to print her stamps showing the paddy plant and the Balai Besar.
Malaya’s rice bowl state only began issuing stamps bearing the image of her monarch in 1937. This magnificent set featuring Sultan Abdul Hamid is acclaimed today by many philatelists as one of the most beautiful pre-war stamps issued in this country.
Even stamps were not spared abuse during the Japanese Occupation. Many post offices were looted during the chaotic months leading to the Japanese arrival. Whatever stocks left were subsequently overprinted with Japanese katakana characters.
These additional printings were specially positioned in the middle to obscure the sovereign’s head on the stamp. This was one of the many techniques employed by the Japanese to psychologically exert their presence in Malaya.
Things didn’t begin to look up immediately after the Japanese surrendered. The entire postal system was in shambles. The British returned to deserted and ransacked post offices. The situation was so bad that letters were allowed to be sent postage-free for the first few months while the authorities slowly began picking the pieces.
Stamp shipments diverted to Australia just before the Japanese Occupation were expeditiously brought back. These adhesives were overprinted with “BMA MALAYA” to reflect the military administration in charge of Malaya at that time.
The first stamp to be issued after WWII was mired in controversy. By late 1945, an idea to unify the entire Malaya Peninsula surfaced and the Malayan Union became a reality a year later.
This new administration was met with much opposition as it reduced the powers of the sultans as well as liberally gave citizenship to non-Malay residents.
Bowing to public pressure, the British authorities quickly abandoned the Malayan Union and replaced it with the Federation of Malaya.
Unfortunately by that time, stamps to commemorate the doomed Malayan Union had already been printed in England and was ready for shipment to Malaya.
Their delivery was halted and the order came from above for all stocks to be destroyed.
Miraculously, for reasons unknown, some of these controversial postage stamps survived. Today these unissued red-carmine coloured stamps command a high price among collectors.
The use of postage stamps increased as the population of the young Federation grew. Malaya began issuing a plethora of new commemorative stamps after achieving independence on Aug 31, 1957.
This gave rise to an army of stamp collectors eager to complete their albums with every stamp ever issued.
Fast forward to the present day and things are now very different. Today, we rarely send letters. We still visit the post office but it’s normally for reasons other than buying postage stamps. The Internet has given us the option of emails and social messaging which offer both convenience and speed.
As I continue to flip though the Gibbons magazine and wonder if there’s any chance of another Pahang Bisect incident happening in modern-day Malaysia, I hear the postman calling at the gate. It turns out that he has a letter for me from a long-lost friend residing on Lamma Island. He didn’t provide any email addresses or telephone numbers. It looks like I’ll be paying the local post office a visit very soon. I wonder how much it costs to send a letter to Hong Kong these days.
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