This article was originally published in the New Zealand “Stamp Collector”, the official journal of the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand (December, 1976).

Almost everyone you meet in Indonesian office or business circles seems to collect stamps. There is keen competition for any stamps arriving on office mail, particularly for attractive pictorials. Not all of these collectors are building up their own collections–there is a steady demand for used stamps from the philatelic trade and many people make money on the side, accumulating and selling stamps. There is a market, too, for unused stamps prised off letters submitted for posting; so it is customary to match your mail being stamped and cancelled before you cave the post office counter.

makethumbdetails Indonesia

Not only are the post offices in Indonesia crowded with long queues but the shut at 1 p.m. Outside each post office one finds half-a-dozen or so boys with trays or stands from which one can buy postage stamps, letter forms, envelopes, aerogrammes, and stamped revenue paper for legal documents. The prices are outrageous–about four times the cost inside the post office doors, but sometimes worth the money if you are in a hurry or the doors are locked.

It is not easy to find stamp dealers in Jakarta although it is a very large city with a population that is officially 5½ million people, but thought by some observers to be closer to 10 million. The city has very few shops as we know them. There is one large department store on the main street and this does have a section in the stationery department which sells stamps. There are packets of short sets and mixtures of Indonesian and foreign issues and a line of stock books with “collections” of Indonesia, the Japanese Occupation 1942-5, and various unissued revolutionary series. They are relatively expensive; several selections were priced at between $100 and $200. These stock books appear also in the book stores of hotel lobbies and in some of the antique shops. All appeared to be the same and it turns out that they were supplied by one dealer in East Java.

Elsewhere than in the department store, stamps can be found on the antique stalls, in the bazaars, where most of the city’s retail trade is carried on, but the variety is small and stocks limited. However, the post office in Jalan Akini Raya has attached to it the Philatelic Centre. A small counter sells definitives and commemoratives, many of which are not readily found in the ordinary post offices, but no postal stationery is available. The counter is at the entrance to a large room which is in fact the headquarters of the Philatelic Society of Indonesia. There are permanent display stands on which from time to time exhibitions are shown (e.g., a collection of U.S.A. assembled by members in honour of the Bicentennial of the American Revolution, which was on show in July, 1976). There is a rostrum for speakers and an array of chairs. On the last Sunday of each month in the morning there is a display or an auction, sometimes both. On the second Sunday of the month there is a children’s meeting.

The regular Sunday meeting is well patronized by dealers, some full-time but mainly part-time, who customarily operate from their home addresses and thus it is necessary to visit them in the evenings. Those, whom I bought stamps from had impressive stocks, not only of Indonesia but of world issues also.

At the Sunday morning auctions the main interest (and highest prices) attached to Netherland East Indies and earlier Indonesian material. General lots and common Indonesian values went for a few cents, but strongly competitive bidding brought prices well above catalogue for desirable single stamps or sets.

A good half hour was allowed for inspection of the numerous lots beforehand. The auction was, of course, in Indonesian and conducted at a quick-fire pace, so that one needed a good ear to follow the bidding. I nevertheless managed to obtain a few interesting items at modest prices.

All stamp auctions, or philatelists, must have something in common. Those two characters, the man who dashes up to the table at the close of the sale for a quick look through the passed in lots, and the other who, as soon as the bidding starts, asks to see the lot and gives it close inspection before bidding or not–they were both there and it made one feel quite at home.

This article republished by permission of the Royal Philatelic Society of New Zealand.