From: Kenneth Whistler (kenw@sybase.com)
Date: Tue Feb 14 2006 - 18:02:23 CST
http://www.jaysmith.com/Specials/World/World-British-Commonwealth-North-Borneo-S
tamps.html .
>
> (I suppose it could actually be
> Malay in Arabic script rather than Arabic)
Yeah, I would say the whole collection of North Borneo stamps
here have the denominations written in Chinese and Malay.
The Chinese on these stamps has some very odd glyphs.
The 1887 8c green Coat of Arms reads ba1fen1 <516B, 5206> "8 cents",
but with two of the oddest glyphs I've ever seen. They might be
seal or bronze forms.
The 1899 4c on 12c blue and black Saltwater Crocodile reads
shi2er4xian1shi4 <62FE, 8CB3, 4ED9, 662F> "twelve cents",
but the first two have strange glyphs, as if they were engraved
by someone who couldn't read Chinese and who was copying characters
from some source copied from someplace else, also by someone
unfamiliar with the characters. The "xian1shi4" must be some
attempt at a local (Hakka?) Chinese transliteration of 'cent', with
the shi4 more likely pronounced "ti" -- cf. the usage of the
component shi4 as the phonetic in words like ti2 "carry"
(U+63D0).
If the Malay (in Arabic) is written as strangely as the Chinese
in some cases, I wouldn't be surprised if it were hard to make
out, too.
--Ken
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