Phnom Penh Postmarks Part 4: 1992-2008

By Graham Shaw

In this, the final part of a review of the postmarks of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, from the earliest known examples, the emphasis is on the postmarks used for standard mail operations and, therefore, excludes FDC’s and also postage sent by those affiliated with the United Nations Advanced Mission in Cambodia (UNAMIC) from late 1991 and those of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) from 1992 as most such cancels depict their individual national postmarks rather than those of Phnom Penh or Cambodia.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the postmarks of Phnom Penh between 1992 and 2008 is the way in which the country name of Cambodia has been used in a variety of different ways at times that contradict the official line of the Cambodian Government as well as a wide range of postmark designs.


Fig. 1: Kampuchea postmark RP2 used during the State of Cambodia regime.

Fig. 2: Kampuchea postmark RP3.

For example, the postmark shown at Figure 1 is from March 1992 when Cambodia was officially known as the ‘State of Cambodia’; however, the postmark clearly shows ‘Kampuchea’ as the name of the country, the name used during the 1980’s. It is assumed that this postmark is simply a leftover from the previous regime and used in conjunction with other postmarks originating at different times from 1970 onwards as well as more newly made hand stamps and machine marks.

The Khmer language text at the top of the postmark at Figure 1 does not include the country name, unlike the western script at the bottom that clearly shows ‘Kampuchea’. The numbers used for the day, month and year appear to be separated by a dash, the last time that this formatting appears to have been used up to the present day. The Khmer text also shows that this postmark was for RP2, whereas no such text in western script is shown at the bottom of the postmark.

Fig. 3: The Phnom Penh 3 variation.

Figure 2 shows a variation on this Phnom Penh postmark with the Khmer text at the top showing RP3 but no country name, whereas the western text at the bottom only indicates RP with no number but does include the country name, Kampuchea. A further variation is shown at Figure 3 where the western script at the bottom of this 1992 postmark clearly shows Phnom Penh 3 and the country name, Kampuchea.

Fig. 4: An early 1970’s postmark still in use in 1992.

Fig. 5: The new meter mark in red.

A further example of this mish-mash of formats spanning the previous 20 or more years is shown at Figure 4. Here we have the postmark format that was introduced following the 1970 coup d’etat that overthrew the then Prince Norodom Sihanouk and still in use in March 1992, more than 20 years later. The country name does not appear in the Khmer nor the western scripts on this postmark.

At the very same time as the postmark at Figure 4 was in use, we also see the first examples of machine printed postmarks at the central post office in Phnom Penh, as shown in Figure 5. Such meter marks seem to be predominantly in red with the round part of the postmark to the left without the country name shown in either the Khmer or western script. No dashes appear between the numbers for day, month or year. To the right is the postage amount in Cambodian Riel in a vertical, rectangular shape in red with the country name at the top in French, ‘Cambodge’. At the bottom, we see, ‘Postes’, in both Khmer (upper text) and French (lower text).


Fig. 6: An example of how the meter mark was used as a form of surcharging existing stamps.

Of note, however, is that the red meter mark was used both for the full postal rate, e.g. 250 riel, and acted as a form of surcharge to standard commemorate and definitive, stamps used at the time. Figure 6 shows an example of a 0.20 riel stamp surcharged with 250 riel using the red meter mark in March 1992. This reflects the rise in inflation experienced in Cambodia at this time as the borders opened and a massive influx of ‘western’ goods and services occurred during the period of UNAMIC and UNTAC, as mentioned above. It may also reflect the lack of stock of higher denomination stamps printed at a time when the cost of living was generally lower.


Fig. 7: The new boxed look postmark from the late 1990’s.

The red meter mark appears to have been the prominent postmark at the central post office in Phnom Penh for much of the period between 1992 and the end of the decade. It is in 1999 that a new design for the Phnom Penh postmark appears. Figure 7 shows one of the earlier examples from March 1999, a design that continues to be used to this day, although in much more limited numbers than in the late 1990’s and the early part of the 21st century. This new approach to the postmark is usually seen in black and comprises a black box to the left that includes only English language script with ‘Phnom Penh’ at the top, the date on the next line, e.g. 28 Mar, the time of the posting, e.g. 9 – AM, the year, e.g. 1999, and finally the country name at the bottom of the box, ‘Cambodia’. No Khmer or French language text appears in this box unlike in previous examples of the Phnom Penh postmark. This may reflect Cambodia’s entry into the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) where the working language is English.

To the right of this new, boxed-style, postmark is a rectangle with only ‘Phnom Penh’ written in Khmer text at the top and ‘Phnom Penh – Cambodia’ written in English at the bottom. Once again, the Khmer text for ‘Cambodia’ appears nowhere on this postmark. Also, no longer is any amount shown as part of the postmark, perhaps reflecting the more stable economic situation in Cambodia at this time and, therefore, no longer the need to surcharge stamps that had been printed in earlier times but did not match the monetary needs of the postal service.


From other examples of this boxed approach to the Phnom Penh postmark, there appears to have been only one time of the day for the formal collection of mail at the central post office, i.e. 9am, as seen in Figures 8 a, b and c.

Around 2002 we see the use at the central post office of a new meter mark in red, primarily for parcels with a postage rate considerably higher than any stamps available to the post office staff. Figure 9 shows an example from a parcel that cost 37,900 riel (approximately USD9.50) to send in 2002. As with the postmark shown at Figure 5 from the early 1990’s, the rectangle to the right of the overall postmark includes the country name, but now it is in French rather than in English as shown on the postmarks of the late 1990’s. And as with the 1992 red meter mark, the bottom of the box on the right shows ‘Postes’ in French (lower) and Khmer (upper), respectively.


Fig. 9: A meter postmark used mainly for high denomination postal items such as parcels.

The round part of the postmark to the left is completely different from anything seen previously. ‘Phnom Penh’ appears in Khmer text at the top of the postmark and in western script at the bottom. To the left is the postcode for the central post office in Phnom Penh, 12000. The text on the right side of the round postmark is difficult to decipher and requires further research to ascertain its meaning.


Fig. 10: the complex information in the centre of this 2004 postmark.

In 2004, examples appear of a postmark that is often adhered to postage using a roller and includes five black wavy lines over the stamp used. What makes this postmark notable is the rather complex nature of the data included on the round part of the cancellation to the left of the postmark. As can be seen in Figure 10, the central part of the round postmark includes in one line with only full stops (.) to separate each piece of information, the day, the month, the year and then the time, e.g. 14.05.04.1 45, denoting May 14, 2004 at 1.45pm.


Fig. 11: A Cancelled on Arrival postmark with relatively complex information in the centre of the postmark from 2005.

In addition, ‘Phnom Penh’ appears in Khmer text at the top of the round part of the postmark with ‘Phnom Penh CD Cambodge’ written in French text at the bottom. Examples of this form of postmark have only seemed to appear during 2004 and 2005 and no earlier or later. Figure 11 shows the same complex approach to the provision of data in the centre of the postmark but this time on a ‘Cancelled on Arrival’ (CA) version from February 2005.

However, since the late 1990’s there has been the consistent use by the central post office in Phnom Penh of a postmark format using Khmer and French language script, as shown in Figure 12 a-b.


The variation in this standard postmark design is in the middle of the lower text where ‘RP’ is sometimes replaced with ‘RP2’, for example. Since 2006, the central post office has also been using a postmark design in Khmer and English languages to mark the arrival of postal items, as seen in Figure 13 and 14, respectively. ‘A1’, on the postmark shown at Figure 13, denotes mail arriving during the morning at the central post office, and ‘A2’ denotes afternoon arrivals.

Fig. 13: A1, morning post arrivals.

Fig. 14: A2, afternoon post arrivals.

Finally, there is a Phnom Penh postmark used only for internal mail within the central post office itself, such as when sending an invoice to members of the public who rent a post office box, for example. This postmark has ‘Phnom Penh’ written in Khmer text at the top, and ‘Phnom Penh – Cambodia’ written in English at the bottom. Unlike all the other postmark formats currently in use by the central post office in Phnom Penh, this final design has the month shown as abbreviated letters, e.g. ‘Mar’, for March, rather than numbers and also includes the postcode for the central post office.