Welcome

You have landed on the philatelic hobby website of Masya S. Ong in Singapore.

Hanacaraka is the name of the Javanese alphabet that I adopted for use as my personal domain when I lived in Indonesia, and that I have continued to use since. This site used to contain a listing of the various temples on Java that became redundant with the rise of travel blogsites with more updated information. During Covid I rededicated the site to my philatelic hobby, initially mainly to post swap lists that I have now moved to Colnect.

Collections

Countries with a story to tell

My collection covers selected politically, culturally or economically significant countries whose story is told effectively through their stamps. Typically these collections end in the 1990s, so that they can be contained in a single album. A brief listing can be found under the Collections tab.

I am progressively (re-)mounting these collections and am adding wishlists as I go along. These wishlists and my swapbook are posted on Colnect.

Postmarks

For all my collections I aim to get copies with clean cancellations showing as many place names as possible. For Malaysia I actively collect regional definitives with inner-state cancellations.

Economic History

For the Straits Settlements and its successor countries, my interest is in economic history. A colorful picture of Singapore's early trade arises from studying the endorsements (chops) on the early issues of the Straits Settlements, and the stamps of the post-independence period tell the story of the development of the national economy.

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Latest updates

Wishlist - See my updated Wishlist on Colnect (links to external site)

Gallery - Stamps from modern Malaysia

Collections - Updated listing