2012 Cambodia Post Revenue Rose By 8.1%

Cambodia Post announced that there was a 8.1% revenue increase year-on-year in 2012.

Ork Bora, Director-General of Cambodia Post, confirmed in the annual general meeting held on the day before (10th April) that the now semi-autonomous company enjoyed more than 4.05 million USD revenues last year, compared with 3.75 million in 2011. 

Bora reviewed that Phnom Penh has generated 2.93 million USD while the 23 provinces added 1.12 million USD.  Total expenditure of the year was 3.85 million USD.

“We received good business performances in the two years since our transformation be­­cause we upgraded and bettered our services and coverage in order to compete with some 20 other private companies .... we also increased the number of deliveries locally and abroad.” Bora said in another occasion.

Cambodia Post was a state owned national postal company until January 2011 when it was privatized.  After privatization Cambodia Post recorded a 60% jump of revenue in 2011.

(info sources: Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia Daily, Cambodia Sinchew Daily, Jianhua Daily)

1990 Mongkol Borei Cover to Phnom Penh

Here is a 1990 Cambodian domestic letter sent from Mongkol Borei (spelt "Mongkol Borey" on postmark) of Banteay Meanchey Province to the national capital, Phnom Penh.

Mongkol Borei is the southernmost and most densely populated district of Banteay Meanchey.  The district is named after a river of the same name which runs from Prachinburi of Thailand to Tonlé Sap (Great Lake) of Cambodia.

Mongkol Borei used to be in the historic province of Battambang.  In  the18th century Siam annexed northwest Cambodia, since then the area was under Bangkok's rule until 1907 when Siam was obligated to cede the conquered Cambodian territory to France under the Franco-Siamese Treaty.

In 1988 Battambang Province was split.  Five northern districts including Mongkol Borei were separated to form the new Banteay Meanchey Province.  Banteay Meanchey means the fort of victory, and Mongkol Borei means the blessed town.   This land of victory and blessing is predominantly rural, important economic activities include farming and fishing.

Map showing Mongkol Borei with Banteay Meanchey Province in red.

The Great Crown of Victory on Cambodian Stamps

During the 1st February parade of HM King Father Norodom Sihanouk's funeral, three of the many royal regalia items were included in the procession as a visual representation of King Father's sovereign status - the Great Crown of Victory (Preah Moha Mokot Reach), the Scared Sword (Preah Khan Reach) and the Royal Gold Shoes (Preah Soporbatuka).

The Great Crown of Victory (Preah Moha Mokot Reach) is the royal crown worn by Cambodian sovereigns during the coronation ceremony.  Made of solid gold weighing 10kg and precious stones, the crown is in the form of cone in several stages finishing in a tapering spire, symbol of the mythic sacred mountain "Phnom Preah Somerureach" (Preah Meru - the Central Mountain) where divinities live.  During the coronation ceremony, the head of royal Brahman priests, on behalf of the royal government and Cambodian people, respectfully offers land, water, forest and mountains throughout the kingdom to the new king for his rule.

This postcard features three king's crowns, 

the leftmost elaborately decorated crown is the Great Crown of Victory.

 This is one of the oldest surviving photographs depicting

the Great Crown of Victory, HM King Norodom I in royal regalia taken in 1860s.

The Great Crown of Victory is the only regale which has appeared on Cambodian stamps since 1980.

600r and 800r stamps from the 2001 set "80th Birthday of HM Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia"  

show the King Father with the Great Crown of Victory.

Royal regalia is not only an essential part of the Cambodian monarchy, it is the symbol of nation.  During Lon Nol's coup d'état in 1970, the crown and some other regalia disappeared from the Royal Palace and  they are never found.

HM King Norodom Suramarit wearing the Great Crown of Victory
on this 1959 maxicard.

In 1993 when the Cambodian monarchy was restored, the King Father instructed that no new regalia be made for his coronation with at view to economy.  Gilded remakes were used for HM King Sihamoni's enthronement in 2004.

A remake of the Great Crown of Victory was used in HM King Norodom Sihamoni's coronation.

Sihamoni on Chinese Commemorative Covers

Two Chinese commemorative covers have marked the occasion of HM King Sihamoni's visit to Henan Province of PR China.

Issued by the Henan provincial postal authority on 5th August 2012, the commemorative covers feature the greetings "Friendship Forever Between China and Cambodia" written by His Majesty in Khmer and the corresponding Chinese translation, and each a tourist hot spot of Henan as pictorial design: the Longmen Grottoes, and the Shaolin Monastery.

His Majesty's trip was honoured by two Chinese special commemorative postmarks, one from Luoyang (showing peonies), an ancient Chinese imperial capital located in Henan, the other Zhengzhou (showing a kungfu monk), the provincial capital of Henan.

Cambodia did not issue any philatelic material for the visit so a Cambodian embassy seal was used to tie the Cambodian stamps franked on the commemorative covers.

Invited by the Chinese President Jintao Hu, His Majesty stayed in Henan from 5th - 7th August 2012 during his official visit to PR China from late July to early August.

1989 Cambodian Stamp Celebrates Cuban Revolution

In 1989 Cambodia issued a single 12r stamp to celebrate the 30th anniversary of 1959 Cuban Revolution victory.

The stamp features a young Fidel Castro holding up a sniper rifle.  On the red background there is the number "30" in white with black inscription in French at the leftmost: "30e Anniv. du Triomphe de la Revolution Cubaine".

The Castro image is inspired by a Miami Herald file photo dated 8th January 1959 which captured the fervent moment when Castro cheered to celebrate the victory of Cuban Revolutionary Movement over Fulgencio Batista's regime (shown below).

Major world stamp catalogues do not give the date of issue of this single stamp set, neither does the Cambodian stamp catalogue published by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Cambodia in 1997.

Serious collectors turn to official FDC to look for issue date information, yet the cover refuses to a shed light: strangely all first day commemorative postmarks on the FDC prepared by the Cuban printer are wrong, they are in fact the Laotian first day cancellation for the same commemoration on Laotian stamps:

The authentic Cambodian postmark is not seen anywhere.  In post 1979 Cambodian philatelic history this is the sole case which an official FDC has no corresponding first day postmark.

The last public material providing date of issue information is the philatelic advert.  However adverts are not postal stationery, stamp collectors and philatelists rarely include them in their collections, and so the issue date mystery has been left unsolved by stamp catalogues for more than two decades.

Here is a scan of the authentic advert:

As seen, the date of issue is 7th February 1989.

Notice the image of Castro illustrated on the stamp image, it is printed in chestnut brown.  The final design on stamp has it in grey.

Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba on 1st Janurary 1959.  The following day Castro's forces took over Havana which marked  the end of Cuban revolution, nevertheless most countries which put out stamps to commemorate the revolution anniversaries choose to issue in months earlier or later than January.

Chinese Mourning Postmark for King Father Sihanouk

HM King Father Norodom Sihanouk passed away at Beijing Hospital in Beijing, capital of PR China on 15th October morning.   It is mourned by the Nanjing postal authority of China Post with a commemorative postmark available for public stamping at a small fee.

The postmark is rectangular with a stylized portrait of His Majesty.  The Chinese script says "King Father Norodom Sihanouk of Kingdom of Cambodia, great friend of Chinese people, died of illness on 15th October in Beijing".

In Memory of HM Norodom Sihanouk

With all respect and love, in memory of

Preah Bat Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk, 1922 - 2012

Errors, Freaks and Oddities of Cambodian Stamps

Errors, freaks and oddities (EFO) have been adding surprises and pleasure to philately since the Penny Black time. Cambodia has her own EFO too, however they score very low market value because little attention has been attracted.

EFO are three different things. Error is a production mistake replicated on many stamps. The most stunning and well known post-1979 error is the inverted farmer:



This invert error of the 500r threshing stamp from the 2000 definitive set is resulted from a sheet of partial prints being carelessly re-inserted into the printing press upside down for the pink colour.

Recent design errors include the 2005 Flowers (Lotus) issue, the 2006 Dolphin issue and 2008 Aquatic Plants issue. They have been covered in my previous blog entries.



Freak is a one-time mishap in the production process. Misperforation is a typical freak:





Oddity involves mirror production mistakes yet the final products are within the bounds of usability. Common oddities include colour misregistration and interference in inking by foreign objects. Below shows an ink interference on a 1986 "Halley's Comet" stamp, and the famous "white pole" on a 1980 "National Liberation" stamp which is the result of minor colour shift.






Essays, proofs and official imperforated stamps are not considered as EFO. Collectors are advised that valid EFO have to be from legitimate source, which is to say, they are obtained either from post office counters or authorized sales agencies.

Items smuggled from printers or post office archives are not considered EFO, they are classified as printers' waste or illegal materials denounced by philatelists and rejected in exhibitions. The following shows a printer's waste of Cambodian 1994 "World Cup" single colour proof on Lao 1994 "World Cup" full colour proof:

1975 Last Cover of Phnom Penh ?

Just yesterday a dealer put up a Phnom Penh to Phoenix of Arizona commercial cover on an online auction site. It is claimed that the cover dated 1975.


From the postmark the date and month clearly reads 12th April, if the year is indeed 1975, the cover would be have been one of the last mail out of Phnom Penh before Khmer New Year, airport closed and then the city taken by Khmer Rouge. Last day covers are rare and scarce.

To confirm whether the cover has the last day luck, it is crucial to read the year. The year is actually quite illegible, nevertheless by using computer software to adjust brightness and hue, truth is revealed:



The year reads 1972.

The dealer either makes blind guess, or he lies, hoping this common cover fetch good money.

Cambodian Offcial FDC with Wrong Postmarks

Most Cambodian stamps issued since 1980 have official FDCs. In general these FDCs are properly prepared but errors do happen, and due to ridiculously small attention they receive, the errors are little known and documented.

The following error might have been discovered by finger counted specialists but it has not been reported anywhere before, as a result most collectors of Cambodia are unaware of it. There involves the national independence celebration FDC issued on 9th November and the 10th anniversary of International Volunteer Day FDC issued on 30th December:




Pay a little attention to the cancellation, the commemorative postmarks are swapped: the International Votunteer Day pictorial postmark is on the national independence FDC while the national independence pictorial postmark is on the International Votunteer Day FDC.

left: FD pictorial postmark for independence day;
right: FD pictorial postmark for International Volunteer Day.

The FDCs were prepared by COPREFIL with no hand-back cases recorded at Phnom Penh CPO, this means all FDCs of the two issues have the same error. In case there are samples with correct postmarking, they are latter-day creations by fake makers.

Cambodian Diana Bogus Stamps at Michael Rogers Mail Sale

In mail sale #103 of Michael Rogers which just closed on 27th April 2012, lot #1967 is a set of Cambodian 1997 Princess Diana commemorative "deluxe sheets".

Below is a screen capture of the online sale list relevant section, lot #1967 has a thumbnail of one of the eight sheets:

These so called "deluxe sheets" have been covered in my 23rd June 2009 blog entry "Bogus Princess Diana Stamps".

Cambodia released a sheetlet of 8 stamps with a label in commemoration of Princess Diana on 15th December 2007 (Sc 1685 / Mi 1778-1785). FDCs are the only related product produced by the Cuban printer COPREFIL and sold by agent Global Philatelie GmbH.

Probably due to time and energy saving, the creator used the same selvedge patterns on a few other bogus items as well, some Diana themed, some not. Below shows two of them:

Here is the origin. The generic selvedge patterns are cropped from 1998 Diana commemoratives of Chad (Sc 774):

Collectors are reminded that the Cambodian issue is not part of any omnibus series, it does not share uniform design with those of other countries.  The so called "deluxe sheets" are 100% bogus.

Sometimes counterfeits or even bogus items do appear in public auctions and sales of reputable dealers, chaotic stamp floods and lack of reliable information contributes to the hardship of distinguishing authentic issues from bogus.

The authentic 8v plus label Diana sheetlet of Cambodia is illustrated below. Notice the decorative selvedge line box, if deluxe sheets were issued, it is logic that the same orange line box would have been employed, not the garland.

Please click here for my 23rd June 2009 blog entry "Bogus Princess Diana Stamps".

US Defense Attache Office in Phnom Penh

Postmarked 30th June 2000 and received on 5th July, this is a mail from the US Defense Attache Office (USDAO) of the US Embassy in Phnom Penh to Sugar Land of Texas. It was delivered by the US Air Force postal service which takes care of both US army and air force mail.

Seal of USDAO

USDAO in Phnom Penh is the representative of the American Secretary of Defense, the Military Service Secretaries and the Commander of US Pacific Command. The office also serves as military advisors to the Chief of Mission and provide liason with the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.

Prior to July 1997 Hun Sen's coup, the US had been the biggest supplier of military aid to Cambodia, but defence assistance was prohibited since then until 2005 when Washington announced that it would overturn its ban on military aid to Cambodia.

Currently the major military donors of Cambodia are China, Vietnam, Australia and France.