An 1884 cover bearing two Straits Settlements stamps sold for $39,990 at Spink Singapore on September 20.
It was sent via a British post office in Thailand to an address in Germany. The top right is printed "S.J. Smith's Printing Office,/Bangk'olem Point, Bangkok, Siam".
 The Straits Settlements were crown colonies in Malaysia |
The Straits Settlements were, at the time, British territories on the Malaysian peninsula. They began issuing stamps in 1867 after they became crown colonies.
Before then Indian stamps and handstamps were used instead.
The stamps are particularly sought after by collectors as they were issued in small numbers, causing problems with supply.
This led local post offices to develop creative ways round the shortages, often through the use of overprints.
The lot displays a Straits Settlements 1882 8c orange and an 1883 CA 2c pale rose stamp, both of which are tied with a Bangkok circular datestamp.
A cover featuring an 1854 2a green block of four realised $25,593.
Sent from the Dutch East Indies to Amsterdam via Marseilles, the lot is one of only six Straits Settlements covers cancelled en route (a circle of dots cancellation was applied in Singapore).
A Straits Settlement cover displaying the only known combination of 8c and 2c stamps realised $42,000 at Gartner Auctions in February last year.
We have this Malaya 1892 32c error issued in the Straits Settlements.
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