The British Protectorate of North Borneo is now the province of Sabah, the northeast portion of insular Malaysia. In northern Borneo.
...the North Borneo Company had a philatelic market in mind when designing these stamps. They are designed not only for postal purposes but also serve as collectibles, which of course increases the government's revenue further.
As a result, many North Borneo stamps are considered to be among the most beautiful stamps compared to other Commonwealth countries but remain relatively unpopular among collectors because of the mass production not matched by authentic postal requirements. - Marcel, North Borneo Stamps
6 comments:
Which just kind of shows that collectors have their priorities mixed up.
I'd rather have the pretty stamps.
You take the BORE out of BORNEO!
Oops I hit the wrong button.
'The Land Beneath the Wind' --Agnes Keith wrote about living in Borneo as the wife of a British foreign service officer (busy, no doubt, protecting the native peoples out of their resources) who was a prisoner of war after the Japanese invasion. 'Three Came Home' was her semi-autobiographical account of those years; she also wrote a novel about a writer who was in a prison camp (which may have hinted at details that she left out of her book.) Her books plus a natural history book about orangutans--that's the sum and total of my Borneo lore. And now doesn't it have a new name?
Owl: I guess, deep down, I'd rather be surprised to find I had incredibly valuable stamps. But that would have required a different grandfather, I suppose. And I do like the vintage prettiness.
Elaine: Leaving... "NO"?
As far as I know, Borneo is still Borneo. I'll check, and report back if there have been any developments.
Extra points for the tapir.
Back when I was collecting stamps (in the mid-late 80's) Umm al Qiwain, one of the tiny Arab Emirates, flooded the stamp collecting market with endless cheap colorful stamps. I've always thought it was an interesting revenue/marketing strategy. I seem to remember Bhutan doing some great collector-aimed stamps, to.
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