Indonesia

15th December 1948

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Riau-Lingga Archipelago
UNTEA, West Irian
South Moluccas

11, a-d


Republic of Indonesia Δ	United States of Indonesia ‡
1948 Sc1 FICC 623	1950 Sc333 SG574 FICC 632	xxx

‡ There are two versions of this stamp:
Sc333 - 17th Jan 1950, size 20.5x26mm, perf 12½x12 (SG574); and
Sc334 - 22nd Jun 1950, size 18x23mm, perf 11½ (SG575).

Description	Scott#	SG#
Repulic of Indonesia
1 sen dark turquoise green and brown	1	not
other values 2s to 5 rupiah	2-22	found
United States of Indonesia
15 sen scarlet	333	574
15 sen scarlet ‡	334	575

Gibbons[1] states,

"The Republic of Indonesia consists of the former Netherlands Indies and West New Guinea, now known as Irian Jaya. It comprises Java and Madura; Sumatra; Sulawesi (formerly Celebes); Kalimantan (formerly Dutch Borneo); the Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali, Lombock, Sumbawa, Sumbaba, Flores and Timor); the Moluccas; the Riau-Lingga Archipeligo; and hundreds of smaller islands.

"During WW2, the Netherlands Indies were occupied by Japan. After their surrender Dutch rule was restored without difficulty in those islands already captured by US and Australian troops, but he Dutch never regained complete control in Java, Madura and Sumatra.

"An independent republic was proclaimed in Java, Madura and Sumatra in August 1945 … [a]s no Dutch forces were available, British Indian troops were landed in Java and Sumatra … to receive the Japanese surrender and to maintain order. In November, they besame involved in heavy fighting with Indonesian Republicans at Soerabaya.

"… In September 1948 the Netherlands Indies were officially renamed Indonesia … In December 1949, Indonesia, comprising all the former Netherlands Indies except New Guinea, became independent as an an equal partner in the Netherlands-Indonesion Union (NIU) … During 1950 the states of the USI were successively amalgamated with the original Indonesian Republic (Java and Sumatra) until in August a unitary state was proclaimed … the NIU was dissolved in August 1954."

	image
Indonesian Republic Java and Madura	Indonesian Republic Sumatra	Netherland Indies
1945 Sc1L1 SG-J1	1946 Sc-2L1 SG-S1	1870 Sc1 SG1


Japanese Occupation Java	Japanese Occupation Sumatra	Japanese Occupation Japanese Naval Control Area
1943 Sc-N1 SG1	1943 Sc-N18 SG18 Θ	1942 SG80 ¤


Dutch Rule Restored	Indonesia	Republic of Indonesia
1945 Sc250 SG467	1948 Sc294 ◊ SG532	1948 Sc1 SG?


United States of Indonesia	Indonesian Republic
1950 Sc333 SG574	1950 Sc359 SG602

Θ According to Gibbons [1] the 3½c rose red and 10c grey-blue were the earliest issues of the first set.
¤ This is the correct stamp and the correct black overprint but it is described in colnect as a "Telegraphic Money Order", presumably because of the additional red overprint. It is the closest example found and will be shown until it is bettered.
◊ Scott lists this as Netherlands Indies Sc294.

Indonesia, Phases
Gibbons	SG	Date	Scott	Sc Neth Indies	Sc Indonesia
Indonesian Republic		1945-49	Revolutionary issues
- Java and Madura	J1-J78	1945-49	- Java		1L1-1L49
- Sumatra	S1-S179	1946-49	- Sumatra		2L1-2L85
Netherland Indies	1-466	1870-1945	Netherland Indies	1-249
Japanese Occupation			Japanese Occupation
- Java	1-14	1943	- Java and Sumatra	N1-N4
- Sumatra	15-71	1943-41	- Sumatra	N15-N26
- Japanese Naval Control Area †	80-162	1942-43
Dutch Rule Restored	467-531	1945-48	Netherland Indies	250-293B
Indonesia	532-573	1948-49	Netherland Indies	294-332
		1948-49	Republic of Indonesia Δ		1-119
United States of Indonesia (USI)	574-601	1950	United States of Indonesia		333-358
Indonesian Republic	602+	1950+	Republic of Indonesia		359+

† Borneo, Celebes, Moluccas and Lesser Sunda Islands. Scott shows images of some of these overprints with a general comment about the variety of occupation overprints used in the area.
Δ This run of stamps, listed under Indonesia in Scott, has not been found in Gibbons Part 21 (South-East Asia) or Part 4 (Benelux).
Minkus [2] states that these stamps "were printed abroad during the blockade of the Republic of Indonesia by the Netherlands. … According to the PTT of Indonesia, a great part of the documents relating to the stamps were lost during that turbulent time. The stamps inscribed REPOEBLIK were prepared for sale on Dec 15 1948 and reported issued Aug 17 1949 in [the] UPU bulletin of Aug 1951."

Riau-Lingga Archipelago

1954 Sc1 SG1

Riau-Lingga Archipelago

The islands in the archipelago lie close to Singapore. In order to ease trade, the Indonesian currency was linked locally with the Singapore Dollar and the stamps overprinted to deter speculators taking advantage of currency fluctuations.


UNTEA	West Irian
1962 Sc1a SG1	1963 Sc20 SG1

West Irian

North West New Guinea was a Dutch possession using Netherlands Indies stamps until 1950. Indonesia repeatedly claimed the territory and in August 1962 the UN took control until transfer to Indonesia in May 1963 when its name was changed to Irian Barat (West Irian).

South Moluccas

1950 SG1

South Moluccas

The South Moluccas resisted inclusion in unitary Indonesia and in April 1950 declared independence. Indonesia gradually recaptured the territory. Gibbons [1] notes that several issues of pictorial stamps were sold in the US in the period, but there is no evidence that they were sold in South Moluccas.
Scott [3] states, "It appears that stamps of the so-called republic of South Moluccas were privately issued and had no postal use. Accordingly, they are not recognized as postage stamps".

[1Jul19] Tim Balm, FICC's auctionmaster and editor of the Journal, has supplied scans of the South Moluccas SG1 and the first set, adding that in addition to SG1-17, there are two extra denominations, a 12.5 and 15 sen issue. The Dutch dealer who supplied the stamps cited the set as being Zbl #1-18, 24, Zbl being the Zonnebloem Catalogue for Indonesia, published in Dutch.

South Moluccas

1950c Zbl #1-18, 24

The February 2019 edition of the FICC Journal (Vol. 27 no. 1) enlarged on the South Moluccan story,

"According to Linn's Almanac, before being exiled, the provisional government overprinted 17 Dutch Indies and Indonesian stamps with "Republik Maluku Selantan" and "likely placed them into local use". These are the stamps listed in the Gibbons Catalogue. A used copy of the SO-sen denomination (SG #13) is shown at right [fig. 1]. This stamp has not been submitted for a certificate, so no claim of authenticity regarding the cancel is provided.

Wiki indicates that the post-1950 stamps may have two primary sources.
Possibly issued/sold by the Government in Exile: Reference 7 (provided within the Wiki entry) indicates that the Backman Catalogue lists a set of four stamps ( 4-sen brown, l 0-sen blue, 25-sen purple, and 50-sen red) as the first issued by the Government in Exile. These were soon followed by a fifth stamp in the set (I-rupiah green). These 5 stamps are shown below, left [fig. 2]. Backman #6-7 are larger orange 2½ rupiah stamps -#6 is imperforate and #7 is perforated. Many more stamps from this source are listed in Backman, including some "General Macarthur" issues produced circa 1966.


Government in exile	Stolow Issue
fig. 2	fig. 3

Stolow Issues: The Wiki entry also describes stamps produced/sold by Henry Stolow (of J&H Stolow), starting in 1955. Approximately 150 stamps in triangular or rectangular shape picturing colourful animal and plant themes were placed on sale in the USA. All are printed with "REPUBLIK MALUKU SALAT AN" and have no date of issue. An example of one of these is shown above, right [fig. 3].

Sources: ScS [3], SGP21 [1], Mink1 [2]. FICC Journal Vol. 27 no. 1, Wikipedia.

Images from David Olson, Colnect, ebay, TB.

FI ref: 623, 632, 632a, 641, 669, 671

Page credit: NB

Page created 15 Jul 2016

Page updated 01-Jul-2019

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