This striking stamp from the Republik Maluku Selatan (RMS) features a beautifully illustrated cuscus (a tree-dwelling marsupial native to the Maluku and surrounding islands). The design depicts the animal perched gracefully on a tree branch, rendered in vivid tones of green and ochre against a tropical forest backdrop. The denomination reads 2½ K, with the bilingual inscription “POS POSTAGE,” and the country name boldly printed at the bottom.

Though the RMS was a short-lived separatist state declared in 1950 in the South Moluccas (now part of Indonesia), it issued several cinderella stamps—non-postal, symbolic issues promoting national identity and independence. These issues are now philatelically valued for their rarity and political-historical context, often collected as examples of “unrecognized state” postal labels.