Malaya Stamps (2nd Post)

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I was thinking for a long time in doing a post about the Malaya 'Tiger' series ... however something unexpected happened.. I couldn't find the major part of my stamps from this beautiful series...I don't know how things happen to you, but when some big lots arrive at my home , I sometimes divide them in small envelopes and stock them in some lockers I have for that purpose... but this time something happened and I cannot find the envelop with many stamps from this series that I previously had separated..I only find 16 stamps that remained mixed with some others... after thinking for a while I decided to do a first introduction to this series, because the series is a real joy to a collector and I leave the task of finding the remaining stamps for another time... I sincerely hope to find them and if possible to buy a lot more , because as we will see color is the decisive factor in this series and a great variety of shades could exist for each stamp.. it is a great , great series ...!!

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Tiger Series

Designer Unknown
Printer De La Rue & Co. Ltd, London
[Typo] Printed
Issues : 1st (1900/1901) Perf:14  Wkm : Single Crown CA
           : 2nd (1904/1922) Perf 14 Wmk : Multiple Crown CA
           : 3rd (1922/1934) Perf 14 Wmk : MultiScript CA

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Our first task is to locate these stamps "on the map" ... You can find them in any catalog under Malaysia / Federated Malay States...."On July 1896 the States of Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak and Selangor were organized on a Federal Bases to be known as the Federated Malay states"[SG] "stamps of the Federation replaced those of the individual States and were used until 1935 , when individual issues were resumed "[Sc]
As you can see the main design is composed of Vignette and frames with Country and Currency labels in the frame Color and White respectively... Vignette and frames could be of the same color or of different colors and here resides, in my opinion, the real attractive to the collector.. the possibility of the existence of different shades is enormous and so acquiring many of these stamps could be "time well spent"...the combinations of colors or simply the code of colors is the same from the 1st to the 2nd issues for example, so there must be another factor of differentiation... after seeing the small introduction above , we see clearly that the Wmk is decisive and have the First (or should I say "the last"..?) Word in the classification of these stamps... a curious aspect about the Wmk, is that 'what is normal and abnormal' in Philately clearly differs from Issue to issue... this time and in these stamps, the Normal is to have a Sideways Wmk and so what is usually an error is Normality in this case...( when I pick the first stamp and put it against the light , just to see if it was or not possible to see the Wmk clearly, I saw a sideways Wmk and immediately thought of having a rare stamp or something , but unfortunately THAT WAS NOT THE CASE!!!..)
I will use for the classification the SG catalog, but whenever is possible I will give the Sc codes... the SG , this time is preferable because it presents a wide range of color varieties than my normal Sc World (a more General Catalog...)

This is the only stamp I have from the first series of 1900/1901... it is a Grey brown and Carmine stamp.. the problem is that the stamp isn't Carmine, but Carmine rose , Deep rose or just rose, instead...the other options would be Black and Carmine and Grey and Carmine...the vignette is clearly a Grayish brown but the frame simply don't match any of the possibilities.. I even thought that I could be wrong in my wmk appreciation, and if that was the case , it would fit in the Grey and rose variety... but that particular variety was printed with Chalk surfaced paper, a well know blocker of the Wmk's visibility at "naked eye" (You are only able to see spots , without any identifiable part of or parts of the wmk..) and I wouldn't be able to see it so clearly as I do... this time I will classify it as a Grayish brown and Carmine...

I will start by saying that in this issue we have two dies from the 1c and 4c...there are two distinctive points , but I will only state one : the line below the label Malay, is thicker in die 1 and thinner in die 2...

this are examples of the two 4c dies, with the difference in the line below the label well represented...
1) The first two green 1c stamps are examples of Die 2 stamps...other varieties are listed (Grey brown and Green, Grey and Green , Yellow Green and blue Green).. I think , and without a color sampler, that at least one of them could be labeled as Blue Green , but I think a Deep green would fit much better to these two stamps...
2) a 2c Green stamp with no surprises (the only possibility..)
3) A Carmine stamp .. 3 other possibilities exist (gray and brown,gray brown and brown, and simply brown..)
4) 5) stamps 4 and 5 are just examples of the Scarlet Type 2 and Type 1 respectively..
6) a 5c stamp and it could be one of two possibilities... it depends on what we consider a Deep Green and a Green.. (Colors continue to be a challenge to me...I need that Color Sampler!!!) the stamp could be : Green and Carmine on Yellow, or Deep Green and Carmine on Yellow...(I should say that the yellow could be pale Yellow or orange yellow..).. Complicated isn't it?? (You are now starting to imagine the number of different shades we can find only in this stamp.!..)
7) This is another beautiful combination, this time  of Grayish brown and Purple..it is interesting to see that the two gray varieties listed in this and in the next stamp are both Grayish brown (at least , for me when I look to this gray I find a brown end, like a brown filter...)...
8) this time the stamp is clearly a Grayish light brown and claret...
1904/1922 "Tiger" (22)  Sc(38,38,40,42,44b,44,29,?,?)

Now, some stamps from the third issue of this series... the series has the particularity of being monochromatic until the 10c stamp, where the combination of two colors for vignette and frame begins..
1) two orange 4c stamps ... the fact is that catalogs talk about orange stamps, but we have in this case two deep orange stamps... there is one more possibility : Carmine Red..
2) the 5c purple on yellow variety...
3) the 5c brown variety...
4) a 6c orange .. it could be also scarlet..
5) a dull purple and black stamp
1922/1934 "Tiger" (30)  Sc(57,57,58,59,60,66)

well, i think that for a first introduction to this series, I gave a strong emphasis to the color, in detriment to other important factors like the wmk or the History of the Region itself,but with only 16 stamps, I can't do much better...let us wait for a future post with many more stamps and a higher level of detail...to end this introduction,I will ask for some comprehension because color is not one of my strong points and so , an Expert viewer that could be passing by the blog, could find many mistakes in my classification.. I can only say that I hope this will get better with time , and with the well needed help of a color Sampler!!!
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Now is the time to introduce some stamps of another well known group of series...I personally call it "The Sultans Series"...these series were issued between 1949 and 1951 and they used our well known Palm Tree Design,used by King's George V and VI , but with a portrait of the Sultan of the State in question...We are not talking anymore of  Federated stamps, but of stamps issued by the individual states...

"The Malayan Federation comprised the nine States of Johore, Pahang, Negri Sembilan, Selangor, Perak, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Trengganu and the Settlements of Malacca and Peneng" [Sc] "The Malayan Federation was formed on 01 February of 1948 , and became an independent member of commonwealth on August 1957" [SG] "The Malayan Federation joined the Federation of Malaysia in 1963" [Sc]

I only will show stamps from 6 States ; some of the others will be shown in a future post.. ...................................................................................................................................................................

"Sultans Series"

Designer : ....
Printer : ....
Paper : Chalk Surfaced
Wmk : MultiScript CA
Perf : there is a small disagreement between the two catalogs, because SG says 17.5x18 and Sc 18...

1) Johore State : Sultan Sir Ibrahim
2)3)  Selangor State : Sultan  Hisam-ud-Din Alam Shah
4) Trengganu State : Sultan  Ismail Nasiruddin Shah
5)6) Pahang State : Sultan Sir Abu Bakar
7) Perak State : Sultan Yussuf Izuddin Shah
8) Kelantan State : Sultan  Ibrahim

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There is not much to say about these group of series.. 

The importance of the hat in the Malayan culture is obvious, and I think that we occidental people shouldn't be laughing in the inside , because the hat for us had and continue to have (at some levels..) status significance, and I think that what is shown in these stamps, is exactly that .. the High status and Power of the Sultans , with their "exotic" (for me , they are exotic, for them they are normal, and we should not discuss our tastes...) hats.

now some spare stamps..

To end this post, I have a group of 10c Royal Wedding stamps from 1948 from 7 of the states of the Malayan Federation... sorry for the Perak's State stamp (the strange discoloration was a scanner malfunction..)

That's all for today...

SeeYou

Palm Trees

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Only Yesterday i remembered that I completely forgot that this blog has already one Year... Yes, one year has passed , since March 2014, when I wrote the first two posts for the blog.. I read them today , and I get the idea that my goal was very different from that I have today... My constant search for a stable and coherent model for the blog was always bumping in my need of keeping all this project as 'fun' and not as a daily job like many others.. With time I began to make several posts for week, and the discussion at that time was the size of the posts and the number of stamps I should present in each of them... I never hold this interior debate from You, always giving updates on my latest thoughts about it..Now that I have 2 blogs , one with several posts by week and other in a weekly bases, I am beginning to think that what I have is something similar to a daily Job.(.) .... I can even think that all of this Computer activity is keeping me away from the real challenge that was and still is in front of me.. to get a job..! Am I wasting time?? 

Well, together with these more philosophical questions, I have spent my weekend doing some stamp work...after a quick look at the stamps I have from Malaya , i decided to dedicate this post to one single design... 

 Here it is the design I was mentioning , where we have King George VI in the Center of an Oval shaped figure with interior lined background..in the exterior of this figure (also with lined background ), we have two palm trees , one in each side of the Oval figure..The oval figure rests above some land from where the palm trees emerge..All this scenario is kept inside a frame with values at right and left and State Labels at the center , both below the land ; 'Malaya' is  at the Top of the stamp, above the Oval figure and the Palm trees....

 I am aware that this should be a 'boring' post for many of You, but due to the quantity of stamps I have with this design , I have no other option then to ' pick the bull by it's horns' and present them now... I will start like always, chronologically...

This design , with the King and the Palm trees , exist also with King George V, but I will present only King George VI stamps...The first time the design appears , it was issued by 'Straits Settlements' ..(what is this??)..well, the history and development of this part of the British Crown could be considerate as one of the most difficult to explain... I will just consider that Straits Settlements was a group of 3 settlements, Mallaca, Penang and Singapore who was joined latter by the fourth settlement of Labuan.. Straits Settlements became a separated Colony in 1867...
This series of Straits Settlements is dated from 1937/1941... it is a Watermarked series, but  it presents us, like most of the King George VI stamps with this design, a paper that was used several times in other British stamps, that is very smooth and flat in the front .. it is called Chalk- Surfaced Paper... this paper has the particularity of making almost impossible the visualization of the Watermark without the utilization of external tools.. that is to say, You can not see the Watermark using only Your eyes..! knowing that some of these stamps could present Inverted Watermarks and other watermark variations or errors, I classified  them , leaving all this Watermark business to another time... All this stamps must have another detailed view before they definitely join the collection...(when I say ' all the stamps' I mean it (the originals and the duplicates- spare stamps-..) ;
 to start the classification of this series , I need to know of the existence of two different types...

 Type 1: the lines of the external Background and the branches of the Palm Trees , touch the Oval frame... in the picture presented at the [Left] this is clearly seen , but there are other cases where this distinction is not so clear...  Type 2 : in type 2 the lines of the background and the palm trees do not touch the oval frame , because of the existence of a white oval line surrounding the oval frame... it is visible in the picture at the [right] , where we can see that the background lines do not cross this exterior defense of the oval frame... 
Straits Settlements 1937/1941 "King George VI" (15) [Typo (De La Rue)] Sc(239c,240,241a,243,245,250)

 After the Japanese Surrender in 1945, Malaya was officially under  British Military Administration... British troops landed on the Islands... Using the stock existent of stamps printed by De La Rue  in the Pre-War period, the Straits Settlements stamps were then overprinted with ' BMA Malaya '... these stamps were used in the Malaya states and in Singapore..., the existing types are again in order, and some new papers were used but they are treated as varieties (they appear in the SG Catalog and not in the Sc World catalog..)

 At the right we have now same spare stamps , with some different color shades, but the main reason they appear here is that I haven't yet done the Watermark Work, so all these stamps are still 'aboard'...

1945/1948 "Straits Settlements stamps Overprinted with 'BMA Malaya'" (15) [Typo (De La Rue)] Sc(256,257,258,260,262,268)

 Singapore issued two series with this Design...Here are some stamps of the first series from Singapore.. These stamps have  Perforation 14 and in both series the same smooth and flat paper is used ...we have single color stamps until the 15c stamp and from here we have bi colored stamps... I think I must highlight that in SG catalogs the color of the Center Oval figure came first and then the color of the rest of the stamp.. in Sc catalog , the opposite happens .. the

 surrounding colors came first and them the center color... 
Together with these stamps I present a group of 4 10c spare stamps...

Singapore 1948 "King George VI" (15) [Typo (De La Rue)] Sc(1,2,4,9,11,12,14,17,18)

 Now some of the stamps of the 2nd series are presented.. they have a very unusual perforation (17.5x 18) and this fact increases the difficulty  to own stamps with good and clear  perforations... in this series is highly advisable to do our Watermark Homework correctly in the 1$ stamps , because that could turn into a very profitable time..

now I want to ask a simple question : in two of the dollar stamps (1$ and 5$) I can find some weird abnormalities, but i don't know if they are usual or not , but I really think they should be listed in the catalogs as Varieties...

At the left  , two pictures of two different 1$ stamps are presented.. the fact I wish to focus is the presence in the 2nd picture [DownLeft] of portions of the land inside the Oval figure.. the normal in any other of the stamps here presented is to have no land inside the Oval figure  or just a small touch of the figure in the land (as presented in the picture [AboveLeft]..Now the question... Why can't this be considered as a variety, if I proved that it doesn't always happens but it could happen..?? which of these two 1$ stamps is the normal one??

At [Right] we find another small example of this 'land intrusion' in a 5$ stamp...
[Down] some more spare stamps from this series.. 

Singapore 1948/1952 "King George VI" (18) [Typo (De La Rue)] Sc(1a,2a,4a,5,8,9a,11a,13,14a,15,17a,18a,19a,20a)

These are Penang stamps.. Penang was one of the Straits Settlements states, and joined the Federation of Malaya States in 1948.. the stamps presents no differences from the others, Watermarked, the same paper, and perforation 17.5 x 18... 

Penang 1948/1952 "King George VI" (20) [Typo (De La Rue)] Sc(4,6,8,11,13,19)

Malacca also joined the FMS in 1948..

Malacca 1948/1952 "King George VI" (20) [Typo (De La Rue)] Sc(4,5,6,9)

Sorry for this 'boring' post , but I think in the end it was very good for me to learn something about these stamps ... I have to think clearly in buying some Watermark detection Automatic Machine , because the old detection with liquids is not  practical ....

I think next week I will have some India stamps...

SeeYou..