1992 Meter Stamps

Dr Gale J Raymond, in his article ""UNTAC Cambodia: Namibia Peacekeeping Forces" published in ICP #128 (The Indo-china Philatlist, journal of Society of Indo-china Philatelists), gave the information that two French meter postage stamp machines were brought to Phnom Penh in early 1992. They were supposed to solve the problem of high denomination postage stamp shortage. Below serves as a quick glance over their 1992-1999 service period.





This outoging cover from Phnom Penh dated 29th February 1992 has an early use of French meter stamp. Meter stamp usage can be generalized in four categories.

As inflation was making most stamps inadequate for international postage, postal clerks simply franked an obsolete low face value stamp on mail, then cancelled it by meter stamp which paid the actual postage. The cover shown above falls into this category, 950r meter on a 5r stamp.

Sometimes no stamps were used, only the meter stamp was applied. Maybe the postal clerks finally realized that mail could go without a postage stamp, or they were too lazy to find one. Here is a fine example of meter with no postage stamps, another cover from Phnom Penh to Washington DC.





Meter stamp was used in a supplementary way when "practically usable" postage stamps were handy. In 1993 it was quite common that partial postage was paid by postage stamps, and the rest filled up by meter. This UNTAC cover features a 50r stamp with 480r supplementary meter postage.





The fourth usage was, when high denomination postage stamps were in sufficient supply again in 1994, the meter machine then used for cancellation only, or for parcel postage. The 1995 cover below was franked with a 1500r stamp which paid all the postage, meter machine was for cancellation.

To my observation, all meter postage machines ceased service in late 1999. Starting from 1998 Cambodia had some new machine cancellations, but they were merely killers without bearing postage.





Meter machines were available not only in Phnom Penh. There are examples of meter stamps from other cities and places. The UNTAC cover shown before bears a meter stamp of Chbar Ampeou, a commune in southeast of Phnom Penh. Below is a meter stamp from Kampong Cham, the capital of Kampong Cham Province.






If the CPO had 2 meter machines or more, there is no sign on the franking to distinguish them. Interesting enough, there is a variation with a little cross in each side of the spacing between the French and Khmer words on the round datemark. It is not known if this variation is from the CPO or some sub offices in Phnom Penh.

Radio Phnom Penh

These are the 2 sides of a Radio Phnom Penh greeting card sent to a listener in the Philippines.

Radio Phnom Penh, which called Voice of the Kampuchean People (VOKP) after Khmer Rouge fell, started to operate by the late 1980s as the state's mouthpiece.

Based in Phnom Penh, the station is now known as Voice of Cambodia.

I have the luck to reach Mr Manfred Lepp, the addressee of this card. He is kind enough to provide some background information:

"Back in 1990 I was sending a reception report to this station when they were still broadcasting on shortwave. Then later on they sent me this card, which you got from me. I have no further connection with the radio station, but I can give you a little information about it:

Now they are only transmitting on mediumwave 918 kHz from 2230 UTC to 1600 UTC (= 06:30 in the morning up to midnight Hong Kong time) with a power of 120 kw.

The station address is:

National Radio of Cambodia
20 Street 106
Sangkat Wat Phrom
Phnom Penh 12202
Cambodia

The last time I could hear this station was just recently when I was in Myanmar but with heavy interference from Radio Thailand operating on the same frequency. In the Philippines I cannot hear it at all because the Philippine station DZSR on the same frequency is just too strong."

My profound thanks to Mr Lepp for his kind response and valuable information.


Now back to philately. The card has a 170 riels postage. A sharp postage increase in December 1991 due to inflation has consequently led to high denomination stamp shortage. From information by the International Monetary Fund, we can see the inflation trend of Cambodia from 1987 to 2008:



In 1989, centrally controlled economy was no longer practiced. Just as most former socialist countries had experienced, transformation to market-oriented economy brought considerable negative impacts on monetary and financial stability, and one of them is inflation. Stamps obsoleted quick when inflation ran faster than the stamp printing machines.

On top of inflation, peace brought by the Paris Conference on Cambodia 1989 has made UN and NGO staffs flock to Cambodia. The sudden mail traffic boost resulted by these foreign aiders' correspondence also contributed to a significant demand on high denomination stamps for postage.

The postal authority tried to solve the problem by surcharging existing stamp stock, but very soon they realized that surcharges were too easy to counterfeit.

A second solution then came up. The French flew in meter stamp machines. In such a way, high denomination stamps were no longer needed in great amount to make up the postage.

My next blog entry will show samples of the French meter on covers.

Chinese Navy visits Sihanoukville

China has tried to maintain good relationship with Cambodia since 1990s. As you can guess, the kindness is probably for the sake of business exploration, and recently, for petroleum found offshore near Sihanoukville. On the occasion of 50th anniversary of Khmer-Sino diplomatic relationship in 2008, the two countries crowned the year "Cambodia-China Friendship Year". Celebration includes the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) sending a vessel to Cambodia as their very first ship visiting the Kingdom.

"Zheng He", a PLAN training boat with 411 men on board, left Zhanjiang (formerly Kwangchouwan) of China on 2nd November 2008. It was the last stop on Chinese soil and 4 days later the vessel proudly sailed into Port of Sihanoukville.

USA has sent 4 vessels to Sihanoukville before and now China wanted to flex muscles as well.




This is a photo from Xinhua News Agent, it shows "Zheng He" arriving Sihanoukville. The visit inlcuded cocktail parties, vessel's open day, football and volleyball matches between the Cambodian & Chinese navies and delegation meetings.

The training boat then sailed for Bangkok of Thailand and Danang of Vietnam after Sihanoukville's trip ended.

The official navy cover below commemorates this three countries trip of "Zheng He". It features stamps and arrival postmarks of all three stops:

• the Chinese "PLAN Day" stamp postmarked 25th October in Dalian (Dairen), the port where "Zheng He" originally harboured in,
• the Cambodian "50th Anniversary of Independence" stamp postmarked 5th November in Sihanoukville,
• the Thai "HM King Bhumibol" definitive stamp postmarked 10th November in Phra Khanong of Bangkok,
• and the Vietnamese "BirdLife" stamp postmarked 18th November in Danang.

This cover was jointly issued by PLAN and China National Philatelic Corporation, the state owned company for producing and distributing Chinese philatelic products. Print run is 11,000, not small for its kind. An arrival backstamp dated 30th November 2008 of Dalian is on the back, it was the day when "Zheng He" was back to its marine base.

There are stamp and postmark variations for this cover. The Sihanoukville postmark can be in blue or black ink, and at least 3 other Vietnamese stamps are used for franking. Danang's postmark can be "Da Nang 1 GD" or "Song Han".

Sihanoukville, where "Zheng He" visited in a high profile way, is the only deep water port of Cambodia. The laid-back town has been gaining her former glory as a commercial seaport and holiday destination since the civil war ended. In 1990 Cambodia issued a set of 3 stamps featuring Kampong Som, Sihanoukville that is.





Sihanoukville used the old name "Kampong Som" in 1980s and early 1990s. The city restored her French name "Sihanoukville" after Cambodia became a monarchy again in 1993. Below is a cover from Sihanoukville to Washington DC with postmark bearing the Khmer name "Kampong Som".

Information source:

"Training Ship of Chinese Navy Zheng He Visits Cambodia", Xinhua News, 5th November 2008.

"PLA Navy Training Ship Zheng He Visits Thailand ", PLA Daily, 11th November 2008.

Diplomatic Mail of Kampuchean Embassy

Again nothing to do with Cambodian philately. Just that I think this item is scarce and interesting.

Dated 27th October 1979, this is a letter sent by the Embassy of Democratic Kampuchea in Beijing to the Embassy of Republic of Zaire by ordinary mail as printed matter. It informed the Zairean ambassador that the Kampuchean ambassador was away.

The letter is franked with a 1.5 fen Chinese definitive for basic postage. An eye catching red rectangular ink stamp indicates "printed matter". The blue rectangular ink stamp on the top left corner says "Telecommunication Receive & Dispatch Seal of Embassy of Democratic Kampuchea in China". Quite a surprise that diplomatic documents were sent cheap like newspaper, is this a common practice? Shrug.

Victories of the invading Vietnamese has made Khmer Rouge abandon the capital city Phnom Penh in early January 1979. The nutty Maoist group retreated to the northwest dense jungles near the Thai border for guerilla and stayed there for the next two decades. Once Khmer Rouge had fled, Vietnamese promptly installed "People's Republic of Kampuchea" but failed to secure international endorsement , Khmer Rouge remained on the seat of Cambodia at the United Nations until 1993.

Pure Philatelic Items and Fakes

In my previous blog entries I mentioned that there are people who make fakes. Today I give some more examples.

Above is the written side of a postcard. The stamp was issued on 13th April 1994, so the postmark makes it look like a first day cancellation. The truth is, this RP2 postmark did not exist back in 1994. Many similar "first day" postcard fakes exist, collectors are adviced to watch out.

This postal cover is not fake, it is just amusing. It did go through the postal system, but purely philatelic. It was mailed at the Central Post Office (the postmark tells), and the destination is the Central Post Office (PO Box). Not to mention a local letter would have the "Par Avion" (by airmail) ink stamp.

Did Darwin tell you that practice makes evolution? Another goodie from the same creator. This time the cover was mailed at Boeng Pralit branch office to CPO, not sent and received at the same spot. However it cannot hide the fact that the cover is purely philatelic.

The first clue is the postage. Usually it costs 500r or 800r for domestic mail, this cover is unreasonably overpaid. If the content were such heavy, the cover condition would have given a hint. The second clue is, Phnom Penh dwellers don't really send letters to reach each other, they use telephones and fax since mail is too unreliable and too slow. Important documents are always sent by private express delivery companies such as Fedex, TNT, DHL, UPS.

Intracity commercial covers are rare, as there is no proper reason for them to come into existence. Certainly it does not harm to include some of the philatelic covers in your collection, but you should always remind yourself that they are artificial.