Brunei was a British Protectorate beginning in 1888. Stamps from Labaun and local issues were used until the Post Office opened in 1906. Initially overprinted Labaun stamps were sold, until the first stamps printed for Brunei were issued in 1907. The design of a native scene was used in varying forms for definitive issues until 1952 when it was replaced with an image of the Sultan. Identifying the Brunei issues is primarily a matter of determining the difference in the watermark, and the various color shades which resulted as the stamps were reprinted during the course of the set's production.

The 1947 set was issued after World War II using primarily new colors for the values. Only the 5c and 6c issues were printed in the colors previously used. Just prior to this set, stamps from North Borneo and Sarawak overprinted BMA were used in Brunei. All of the stamps in the 1947 set were printed on paper watermarked Multiple Script CA. Identifying stamps from this set is done by evaluating the perforation differences, determining some color shades, and noting the variation between the previous set and this set for the 5c and 6c values.

The stamps were initially issued perforated 14. Later printings of the values up to 50c were perforated 14.5 by 13.5 or 13.25 x 13. I would suggest that you use a Perforation Gauge like the Gibbons Instanta Gauge to check your stamps. This gauge uses a continuum of lines on clear plastic. To use it, just slide the stamp edge along the lines until they match up with the perforations. This provides a much more reliable measurement than the gauges with the dots, in my opinion.

If you have trouble determining the watermarks on these stamps, try looking at them face down against black paper. The stamps watermarked Multiple Crown CA will have sans serif letters with a crown that is narrow and straight edged. The Multiple Script CA watermark has cursive letters and a crown that is more rounded. See the images of the two watermarks below for reference. They are shown as normally seen from the back.

You probably need a few copies of the stamps to accurately sort the surface and paper colors. I typically compare them against both white and black paper. Look for differences that are not too subtle. There was always variation during this time period, but typically the color changes result from mixing new ink for a second printing. They did not have computer color analysis during this time period, so things are just not exact. The color descriptions and print dates come from the "The Printings of King George VI Colonial Stamps" by W. J. W. Potter & Lt. Col. R. C. M. Shelton. The examples shown are my best guess as to the stamps that I have found that match the description. If you have better examples. please feel free to share.

The 5c and 6c issues have the same color as the 1947 set, but differ in width and in the paper and gum type used. The stamps from the 1924 set are about 1mm shorter in width from the 1947 set stamps. You can see this difference if you put one on top of the other. You should also note that the paper and gum differ. The 1924 set is printed on paper that appears off-white and thicker compared to the whiter thinner appearing paper from the 1947 set. This difference is seen best by looking at the stamps against black paper. Use the other stamps from the 1947 set to understand what the paper and gum look like from this time period.

The listings used for this article come from Potter & Shelton's publication as listed above. This listing was published by Stamp Collecting Ltd. in 1952. It contains descriptions of many of the King George VI sets by printing. Over the years it has been determined that there are some printings missing from this list, and as always with color - there are debates over the accuracy of the description. That being said, it is still one of the most comprehensive listing of King George VI era stamps. I have also consulted "Brunei, The Definitive Issues and Postal Cancellations to 1974" by E. Thorndike to compare it to the Potter & Shelton listings.

The catalog numbers are from the 2008 Commonwealth King George VI Postage Stamp Catalogue (CW), 2013 Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue (SG) and the 2011 Scott catalog (ST). The description and dates are from the Potter & Shelton listings. Please contact Murray Payne to obtain a copy of the CW publication. You can access any of the publication web sites from my Links to British Colonial Stamp Sites.

The images were saved in a larger size and at a higher resolution so you can more easily see the details used in sorting them. Please be patient if it takes a few minutes for this page to load.

This article was written to help you identify your stamps.
Please feel free to ask a question, or include a correction.