Postage and revenue stamps and postal history of Sarawak

Last updated

Sarawak issued stamps that functioned as both postage and revenue purposes from 1869 to 1949 from the period of Raj of Sarawak, Japanese occupation, British Military Administration, to Crown Colony of Sarawak. [1]

Contents

History

The first stamp in Sarawak was issued in 1869, featuring the potrait of James Brooke with facial value of three cents. Sarawak stamp 1869 No1.JPG
The first stamp in Sarawak was issued in 1869, featuring the potrait of James Brooke with facial value of three cents.
A $1 revenue stamp issued in 1918 featuring the potrait of Charles Vyner Brooke. 1918 $1 revenue stamp of Sarawak.jpg
A $1 revenue stamp issued in 1918 featuring the potrait of Charles Vyner Brooke.

The Brooke government first issued postage rules on 1 March 1869, after the death of James Brooke. The rules stated that one stamp should be affixed for all letters below half an ounce in weight, an additional stamp for every additional half-ounce until four ounces, and one stamp should be affixed in all receipts and paid bills, all legal bills of sale, all legal agreements, all bills of lading and Mate's receipts. [2]

The first stamp in Sarawak bears the portrait of James Brooke with a facial value of three cents was issued together with postal rules on 1 March 1869. The stamp was not only for local postage of inland Sarawak but also had franking rights for postage to Singapore, where another stamp from the straits settlement would be added to carry the postage to their destinations. [2] The stamp was also designated for revenue collection. [3] The stamp was manufactured by Mr Charles Whiting based in London through a lithography process. The letters "J" and "B" appear at the upper left and right corners while the letters "R" and "S" appear at the bottom left and right corners respectively, representing "James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak". [2]

Another stamp was issued in 1875. A 3c black inscribed Sarawak Receipt Stamp portraying Sir Charles Brooke was issued, and ten years later in 1885 this was reprinted in red. The first issue in black is scarcer than the red stamp, but neither of them is particularly rare.

Around 1887, various postage stamps were overprinted with a large R to specify fiscal use only. Some were also additionally overprinted REVENUE ONLY. apart from the initial overprint to confirm this. All overprinted issues were withdrawn on 30 June 1900, the day before a new vertical design was issued, again portraying Sir Charles Brooke. These remained in use until the Rajah's death, and in 1918 this set was reissued with the portrait of the new monarch, his son Sir Charles Vyner Brooke. Some of these were also overprinted with provisional surcharges in 1934. The 1900 and 1918 sets also exist overprinted CUSTOMS diagonally. [4]

Japanese forces overran Sarawak in December 1941. Initially, revenues from the 1918 issues were handstamped in Japanese, but these were quickly replaced with postage stamps overprinted in various Japanese characters. These were used until Sarawak was liberated by Australian forces in 1945. After the war, postage stamps were used for fiscal purposes. Sarawak joined the Federation of Malaya and North Borneo to form Malaysia in 1963. Since then Malaysian revenue stamps have been used in Sarawak.

See also

Related Research Articles

North Borneo, located in the northern part of the island of Borneo, was a British protectorate from 1888 and a British Crown colony after 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamp</span> Adhesive label used to collect taxes on products

A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, and many other things. Typically, businesses purchase the stamps from the government, and attach them to taxed items as part of putting the items on sale, or in the case of documents, as part of filling out the form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postage stamps and postal history of Malaysia</span>

The history of postage stamps and postal history of Malaysia, a state in Southeast Asia that occupies the south of the Malay peninsula and Sarawak and Sabah in the north Borneo, includes the development of postal services in these periods:

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Brunei.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of the United Kingdom</span>

Revenue stamps of the United Kingdom refer to the various revenue or fiscal stamps, whether adhesive, directly embossed or otherwise, which were issued by and used in the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, from the late 17th century to the present day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of Mauritius</span>

Mauritius issued revenue stamps from 1 March 1869 to 1904. There were various types of fiscal stamps for different uses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of Tasmania</span>

The Australian state of Tasmania issued adhesive revenue stamps from 1863 to 1998, although impressed stamps had appeared briefly in the 1820s. There were general revenue and stamp duty issues, as well as a number of specific issues for various taxes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of South Australia</span>

The Australian state of South Australia issued revenue stamps from 1894 to 2003. There were various types for different taxes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of Zululand</span>

The British colony of Zululand issued revenue stamps in 1888. The only set consisted of seven values of 1d, 1s, 5s, 9s, £1, £5 and £20 of Natal revenues overprinted ZULULAND in a similar overprint to that used for postage stamps. The 1d later became valid for postal use as well. All the higher values now command high prices and are quite rare. In addition to this issue, the same Natal £5 is known with a different overprint in violet, but it is not known if this was a legitimate issue or not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of Cyprus</span>

The island of Cyprus first issued revenue stamps in 1878 and continues to do so to this day. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus also issues its own revenue stamps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of Bechuanaland</span>

Bechuanaland first issued revenue stamps as Stellaland in 1884. Note: this information is wrong. Bechuanaland was split into British Bechuanaland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. British Bechuanaland was added to the Cape Colony and the Bechuanaland Protectorate was governed from Mafeking until the seat of government was moved to Gaberone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of Nyasaland and Malawi</span>

Nyasaland, now known as Malawi, first issued revenue stamps as British Central Africa in 1891 and continued to do so until the late 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of Hong Kong</span>

Hong Kong issued revenue stamps from 1867 to the 1990s, both when it was a British colony as well as when it was under Japanese occupation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of Malaysia</span>

Malaysia first issued revenue stamps as the Straits Settlements in 1863, and continues to do so to this day. Over the years, a number of entities in modern Malaysia have issued revenue stamps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of the Malay States</span>

Over the years various Malay States issued their own revenue stamps. Now most states use Malaysian revenue stamps, except for Singapore which is independent and no longer uses revenue stamps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revenue stamps of Uganda</span>

Uganda issued revenue stamps from around 1896 to the 1990s. There were numerous types of revenue stamps for a variety of taxes and fees.

Revenue stamps of Fiji were first issued in 1871 or 1872, when the Fiji islands were an independent kingdom. The first revenue stamps consisted of postage stamps overprinted with the letter D.

Few revenue stamps of Nigeria and its predecessor states have been issued, since most of the time dual-purpose postage and revenue stamps were used for fiscal purposes. The first revenue-only stamps were consular stamps of the Niger Coast Protectorate and the Southern Nigeria Protectorate, which were created by overprinting postage stamps in 1898 and 1902 respectively. The Northern Nigeria Protectorate did not issue any specific revenue stamps, but a £25 stamp of 1904 could not be used for postal purposes due to its extremely high face value.

British Somaliland, a British protectorate in present-day Somaliland, issued adhesive revenue or fiscal stamps between 1900 and 1904. All Somaliland fiscals were revenue stamps of India overprinted BRITISH SOMALILAND.

Revenue stamps of Guyana refer to the various revenue or fiscal stamps, whether adhesive, directly embossed or otherwise, which have been issued by Guyana since its independence in 1966. Prior to independence, the country was known as British Guiana, and it had issued its own revenue stamps since the 19th century. Guyana used dual-purpose postage and revenue stamps until 1977, and it issued revenue-only stamps between 1975 and the 2000s. The country has also issued National Insurance stamps, labels for airport departure tax and excise stamps for cigarettes and alcohol.

References

  1. ↑ "Know more about antique Sarawak postage at FOSM talk". The Borneo Post. 10 August 2016. Archived from the original on 5 June 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Bertram W. H. Poole (May 1906). "II". Sarawak - A complete history of its postage stamps. London: D. Field. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 February 2023. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  3. ↑ Fred Melville (1907). The Postage Stamps of Sarawak. London: Charles Nissen & Co. p. 16. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  4. ↑ Barefoot, John. British Commonwealth Revenues. 9th edition. York: J. Barefoot, 2012, pp. 343-344. ISBN   0906845726


PennyRed.jpeg

This philatelic article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.