Tag: fake stamp

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Fake Yemen stamp 1966, deposed King Badr studies grave choices of John F Kennedy

North Yemen’s Rassids Royal House was forced out in 1962 and the Mutawakalite Kingdom abolished. On the other side of the world in 1963, American President John F Kennedy was assassinated. It is kind of strange then that a Mutawakalite postal authority would issue a stamp on JFK’s memorial opening in Virginia in 1967. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The story of how this stamp came to be begins with an American child stamp collector named Bruce Conde. He wrote a letter to then North Yemeni King Ahmad hoping to be sent real Yemeni stamps. He got a letter back from then young Prince Badr who was also a stamp collector. The two became pen pals and eventually Conde was invited to North Yemen. He converted to Shia Islam and was decreed a Yemeni citizen. In 1962, King Ahmad died of natural causes and Badr became King. Before the stamps of North Yemen could reflect having a philatelist King, Nasser’s Egypt funded a coup by the Royal guard that forced King Badr and Bruce Conde out of the capital Sana. From mountainous areas of the country, King Badr, with the support of Saudi Arabia was able to maintain an insurgency. Bruce Conde was authorized to issue stamps to raise funds for the insurgency. Eventually the Saudis tired of the lack of success and made peace with the recognized Egyptian backed government. King Badr went into exile in London where he died in 1996. Bruce Conde was left without a country as he renounced USA citizenship and North Yemen renounced him and his stamps. He moved to Morocco.

King Badr in 1962 during his short time on the Throne

Since this stamp is fake, there is no catalog value.

What to do about a grave memorial for President Kennedy was an area of discussion after his death. The family initially intended to have him interred in the family cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts. His died soon after childbirth child Patrick had been buried there a few months before. The widow Jaqueline Kennedy however had other ideas. She wanted him buried in a valley at Arlington National Cemetary that Kennedy had found peaceful during visits there. She also insisted on an eternal flame. This was inspired by two things. An eternal flame for France’s fallen soldiers at the Arc de Triumph she had seen on her Paris trip. Also the T. H. White book Candle in the Wind that was the basis for the play Camelot, a family favorite. Many thought the eternal flame tacky, but thought it would be wrong to go against the widow’s wishes.

Jacqueline Kennedy contracted family friend and landscape architect John Warneche. There was a simple New England style black granite  headstone flat to the ground of grass with the body facing the Washington monument and in the shadow of Arlington House, the former home of General Robert E Lee. When the three acre site was ready in early 1967, John F Kennedy and two children died in infancy were interred. Later they were joined by Senator Robert Kennedy after his own assassination and later by the widow Jacqueline upon her natural death in 1996 and Senator Edward Kennedy in 2009.

The grave stone and eternal flame at Arlington National Cemetery. Robert E Lee’s former family home is in the background.

The Eternal Flame went out briefly twice. Once when a group of Catholic schoolchildren sprinkled holy water on it. Later during an exeptionally heavy rain the electric gas igniter was flooded and shorted out. In 2012, the igniter system of unique design started clicking loudly and was replaced while keeping the flame going.

A real American stamp honoring President Kennedy’s eternal flame

Well my drink is empty. I think I will have another since a nice story was found from even a fake stamp. Come again next Monday for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. Next week’s won’t be fake, I promise.

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Saharaui, semi nation on the other side of the wall, of course with fake stamps

Nomads want independence, but colonialism can survive if it is not European colonialism. It can get totally entrenched once there is a wall. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp looks real enough. They were printed in Britain and some issues were labeled Sahara Occidental. At the insistence of the Moroccan Postal Authority the Universal Postal Union has condemned these issues based on the fact that there is no Sahara republic and no postal service in rebel areas. They have gone so far as to declare dealers in these issues which have been issued now for 30 years as disreputable.  The old Spanish Sahara issued stamps long enough. So a Sahara stamp that omits Spain makes some sense. However the country is more an aspiration than a reality. Given the trajectory of some African nations post independence, perhaps hope is better than the later reality.

Catalogs do not recognize stamps of Sahrawi. The UN both recognizes the Polisario Front as the spokesman for the Sahrawi people and Morocco as the administrative power. So stamps are not official although they may be available for postage in Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria and the few towns the Polisario controls. I am going to guess the value at 25 cents.

The Spanish Sahara was a mainly nomadic area of about 100,000 people. Spain was under a lot of pressure from Morocco and to a lesser extent Mauritania to exit their colony. Spain also faced a movement within the colony for independence. When Franco died in Spain, the new Spanish government withdrew it’s officials and declared to the UN it’s administration over. Spain left an ungoverned vacuum. There had been a secret deal stuck though that divided the Spanish Sahara between Morocco and Mauritania. The people were not consulted.

A Spanish military asset in the colony had been the Tropas Nomadas. This was an indigenous military force that formally had Spanish officers. A quite large number of Saharan tribesman had served with the force and during the last year of the colony the force had transferred it’s allegiance to the local pro-independence Polisario political front. Being a desert force, it was fairly lightly armed and mainly dependent on camels and a few Spanish Land Rovers for mobility.

The day after the Spanish declared their administration over, the Polisario declared the Sahrawi Arab republic. The laid claim to the entire territory but with a temporary capital until Laayone was liberated. The Moroccan army tried to enforce the deal and occupied most of the coastal area. Many of the Sahrawi people decamped for refugee camps in sympathetic Algeria. Mauritania gave up it’s territorial gain after 2 years unable to fight the Polisario but Morocco took over their area. Morocco than built a long wall that left the Polisario out with just the landlocked dessert. Many African and Arab countries recognize Saharawi but the wall has seemed to make the situation permanent.

A Spanish actress waves the Sahrawi flag while visiting the Polisario held area
There is of course another side as to what Moroccan administration offers the Sahara. Here is a new solar energy project that opened in 2018. Morocco is earning many international brownie points for a project like this. A closer look however reveals it was funded by the African Development Bank, the Saudis and you guessed it, Spain. Solar projects in the desert don’t work to well as the solar panels need to be washed regularly with a high pressure water hose, So where to get the water?

Former American Secretary of State James Baker tried to mediate at the UN’s suggestion. He proposed a joint administration between Polisario and Morocco for four years allowing the return of refuges. This would be followed by self determining elections that most thought Polisario would win. Morocco refused to accept the peace plan.

My drink is empty. By all accounts the disputed area is a fairly desolate place, so economically the people are probably better off with Morocco as they were with Spain. That said, it is amazing that the people were never given their say. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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China Famine stamps in the 1920s, signal your virtue by decorating your letters

If there was a benefit to China opening up to western countries, it was when there was a crisis, help would come from far away. Probably too late and with a lot of hucksters involved. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp is not useful for postage. The idea was that people would buy the stamp, mostly in the USA, to decorate their letters. The proceeds would go to famine relief in China. It was not to be used for postage either in the USA nor China.

Since todays stamp is not an official issue of a government, it is not in any catalog. I did find one identical to mine on Ebay for $5.00. This stamp was issued after the famine by the China International Famine Relief Commission.

The famine of 1920 centered in Northern China in the area south of Beijing. The previous year had been very dry and so the harvest was small. The area had been heavily denuded of trees and it is thought that that contributed to the drought as tree roots tend to hold moisture longer. The area had been hit by a much deadlier famine in 1879. The famine in 1920 was believed to have killed 500,000 people.

China was in it’s warlord period. That does not mean the government did not do things to help. The tax on shipping grain between provinces was dispensed with in order that grain could pass more easily and cheaply from less affected areas. The distilling of grains into alcohol was also banned in Beijing to lessen this demand for grain. 1921 was a wetter year and so the harvest was better and that ended the famine.

During the famine, a different aid agency sold a 3 cent stamp raising over 4 million dollars. The three cents was supposed to equate to feeding one Chinese person for one day. This group wrapped up  with the 1921 harvest that was the end of the famine.

This bunch of sad sacks reports to be victims of the 1920 drought in Shaanxi

Todays stamp was the issue of a later group, the China International Famine Relief Organization. It issued relief stamps in several denominations from 1923-1929, both in the USA and China. They usually sold in the period of Christmas through to Chinese New Year. These were much less successful in raising money. The famine being over the overage was spent on making the area less drought prone. Most years however the stamp sales did not cover expenses.

Here is a much later fake stamp from yet another fake? relief committee. By then perhaps we should of stopped sending money and just sent mirrors

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast those who bought these stamps in order to help people they didn’t know so far away.  Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Come to Bhutan, see our wildlife, maybe even an abominable snowman, and buy a Bahamian fake stamp

Enjoy mountain climbing in the Himalayas after being enticed by the exotica of a 60s fake stamp. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and dream of your next mountain adventure. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamp today is from Bhutan during the Burt Todd period. There were some pretty wild stamp offerings in that period. From stamps shaped like miniature phonograph records that would play the Bhutan national anthem, to stamps that were scratch and sniff to stamps that resembled coins, it was a wild time. So a stamp of what most believe to be a mythic figure seems almost mundane.

The stamp today is issue A14B, a 4 chetrum stamp issued by the Kingdom of Bhutan on October 12th 1966. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations that offered glimpses of the mythical creature the yeti, which is sometimes called the abominable snowman. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents in mint condition.

Bhutan is a majority Buddhist landlocked country in the Himalayan mountains bordering India to it’s south and the Tibet region controlled by China to it’s north. It is a very isolated place but maintains close relations with India. It had never been a colony in it’s history. In 1962 a road opened up which better connected Bhutan to India and increased mail volumes. An American named Burt Todd that had traveled there and became friendly with the King suggested issuing stamps was a good way to raise funds for development and introduce Bhutan to the world. Mr. Todd set up a company in the Bahamas and was granted by Bhutan Post the right to issue stamps on the countries behalf.

King Jijme Dorje of the Royal House of Wangchuck. Everybody have fun tonight. Everybody Wangchuck tonight

The company was not part of the regular philatelic scene so the stamps were not quickly recognized by collectors. To drum up interest, ever more wild issues were dreamed up with some interesting printing techniques. Of course some found this clownish and indeed Indian advisors suggested reigning in Mr. Todd and printing stamps that were of more use locally with face values more in line with postal rates. This lead to a series of Indian overprints of this issue and others to be more useful as stamps. In 1974 Mr. Todd’s contract to make stamps was not renewed and a New York outfit took over a more mundane stamp issuance that was more in the philatelic system. Bhutan has developed quite successfully and sells hydroelectric electricity to India and Bangladesh, but not China. Tourism is also a growing activity. Mr. Todd’s wild stamps look ever more predictive as many smaller countries seek out specialty philatelists with bold offerings.

The abominable snowman is usually known locally as the yeti, is a mythic creature that lives high up in the Himilayas in Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet. Many mountain treks have come across animal tracks in the snow that imply a large animal. There is some thought  that Tibetan blue bears spend a portion of their teens living up trees and that twist their front claws to make the animal tracks seem unique.

Yeti or Abominable Snowman. Fake animal for a fake stamp

Well, I have come to decide that I am to lazy to climb a mountain in Bhutan so instead I will pour another drink and toast the philatelic creativity of Mr. Todd. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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A never issued stamp from an occupied Ethiopia by way of Switzerland

How should we think about a never issued, though officially sanctioned stamp. Well, by discussing the situation that brought it about. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The visuals of this stamp are disappointing to me. A nurse helping out on a stamp is perhaps a good way to draw sympathy for the plight of the Ethiopian people. The style of the stamp is very reminiscent of French or Portuguese stamps from their then African colonies. This is just wrong. What made Ethiopia so special and the then circumstances so tragic is that Ethiopia was the one area of Africa never to have been conquered by the Europeans. This was only to suffer an invasion by a second string Africa player Italy at the end of the colonial period. This was not the time to issue stamps that matched the style of African colonies. The printing was done in Switzerland however and in this philatelists opinion, too much of the design work was seceded to them.

The stamp today was never issued. although Scott has given it issue A39. Versions were issued in 1945, about 10 years after printing with a red V for victory. There are also versions with surcharges and mistakes in overprints. A unissued stamp like mine without overprints is worth $1.25 according to the Scott catalog.

Haile Selassie assumed the title of Emperor of the Ethiopian empire in 1930. There was an interesting period before that where there was an Empress, his mother, and an himself an Emperor with a regency. His mother tried to stage a coup and have him removed but the palace guard was loyal to Haile Selassie and he was able to become sole ruler. It was an expansionist empire that succeeding in taking over the Arab African Sultanate of Jimma  after the death of their Sultan. This was accomplished militarily and his army also put down several uprisings in the early years. There were also Ethiopian designs on the Italian area of Eritrea, which would have gave Ethiopia an outlet to the sea.

In 1935 Ethiopia was invaded by Italy. Allegedly the purpose was to avenge an Italian defeat in an earlier war and to end the practice of slavery in Ethiopia. Fighting went on for about 8 months but Ethiopia eventually was conquered and Haile Selassie went into exile, first in Jerusalem, and later in England.

Haile Selassie made an impassioned plea for his nation at the League of Nations where Ethiopia was a member and therefore entitled to mutual defense if attacked. Large European nations were in no way willing to go to war with powerful Italy, ignored Ethiopia’s plea, and recognized Italian sovereignty. Italy did indeed end the widespread slavery in Ethiopia and started a project of modernization including road building and 30 thousand colonists.

Once World War II broke out, Italy’s time in Ethiopia was numbered. A British and South African force invaded in 1941 and quickly defeated the Italians. Haile Selassie was again recognized as Emperor of Ethiopia and ruled until ousted in a coup in 1974. Eritrea was given to Ethiopia after the war. Interestingly though Haile Selassie was removed by coup, his son took his throne 3 times. Kind of. First in the early 60s there was an attempted coup while his father was traveling abroad. He signed accepting the throne under duress but returned power to his father when he returned. The military coup that replaced Haile Selassie announced that his son would be recognized as Emperor upon his return. His son chose not to return and the monarchy was abolished 6 months later. When the later communist regime appeared weak in 1989 the son self proclaimed himself emperor from London. His proclamation was not recognized in Ethiopia and he did not return. Haile Selassie died in confinement in his palace in 1975 and his son died in 1997.

Haile Selassie is thought of as the Messiah of God by the Rastafarians mainly in Jamaica. The Emperor was always a member of the Ethiopian arm of the Coptic Egyptian Orthodox church. He did not condemn the Rastafarians allowing them a village in Ethiopia but dispatched Ethiopian bishops to the West Indies to try to bring then into line with church teachings.

Well my drink is empty and again I am confronted with a fake stamp. That does not mean it did not tell a good story. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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Kamchatka 1994, fake stamps that do serious moral and economic harm to the Russian Federation and discredits the Russian Postal Service

In 2000 the Russian Federation appealed to the Universal Postal Union in Switzerland to help them put a stop to entities outside Russia from producing topical stamps purporting to be issued by regions of Russia with some autonomy. Hence most of these fake stamps come from the 1990s. This one I think is implying it comes from the Kamchatka Krai though the spelling is pretty wild with Roman script and that weird number 3. Some times it is difficult to figure out what a real stamp designer is trying to get across. Designing fake ones must add another level of challenge. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

If you are not an employee of the real Russian postal service trying to get collectors to appreciate what real Russian stamps have to offer, than perhaps you can appreciate this stamp. The fall leaf in the mouth of the turtle is a nice touch though I would imagine Kamchatka to be less deserty.

This is a fake stamp so there is no catalog value. I did a search for Kamchatka stamps on Ebay and only found legitimate Russian and Soviet issues showing off nicely Kamchatka volcanoes. Russia and the UPU must have done a good job stamping out these type issues.

The late 16th century saw Russian and Cossack explorers push into the Kamchatka peninsula and claim it for the Czar. The found the place very sparsely populated with Itelmen natives that were closely related to other Eskimoes of the Russian far east. Interesting they also found evidence that the Japanese had been there, including one living in a Itelmen village. The Russians thought he was a Hindu from India because Tokyo then called Hondo and Hindu were confused. He was sent to Moscow and Peter the Great helped him establish a Japanese school. There was also much talk among natives of an earlier expedition by Russians under a mythical Russian explorer called Fedotov, whose people had stayed on and intermarried.  The Itelmen the legend says thought them gods and left them alone until they witnessed a murder among the Russians. They then murdered them and looted their village. Well people should keep their bad behavior to themselves.

A 19th century Russian depiction of an Itelmen. What is he about to do with that knife?

There was much hardship for the Russian explorers who faced many uprisings and stolen reindeer from their Eskimo guides as well as rebellious Itelmen. The Itelmen had it even worse for the encounter with the Russians as they contracted and were greatly thinned out by small pox. The suicide rate, the Itelmen had also discovered Russian vodka, was quite high. The Czar made it illegal for an Itelmen to kill himself and the Russian Orthadox Church made extra effort to convert and assimilate the Itelmen.

There was a period when the area had legitimate stamps of their own. Between 1920 and 1922 a red Soviet aligned Far Eastern Republic was allowed to exist as a neutral buffer state during the white-red civil war. The red Soviets were worried that Japanese soldiers in Vladivostok would attack them. The Far East Republic did not go well with a coup against the installed government and the rural areas breaking off as an autonomous region. The stamps were mostly overprints of old Czarist issues.

Real Far Eastern Republic stamp from 1922

Today the area is overwhelmingly populated by Russians. Intermarriage meant that Idelmen no longer based their ancestry on pure blood, but rather on the the practice of the Itelmen language. Fewer than 100 mostly older people now speak it.

Well my drink is empty and on Monday there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Fake Equatorial Guinea 1976, Looking forward to an Olympics they would not attend

Can you really boycott an Olympics when there is no Olympic team to send. Of course, especially when you are doing it with fake stamps. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Equatorial Guinea was in a bad place in the 1970s. The Dictator, Macais Nguema had changed his title from President to “the Unique Miracle”. His rule was not known for good governance. From 1972-1979 it is known that the Central Post Office left over from the Spanish was padlocked and there was no mail service. There were however many stamp issues emanating from Spain. They are considered fake.

We do know however that this was an 11 stamp issue in various denominations issued May 7th, 1976. There was also several souvenir sheets including one embossed in gold foil. It would be another unique miracle if any of them had any value.

South Africa had been excluded from the Olympics starting in 1964 over their then apartheid policies. Therefore there was never an invitation to attend the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal. The Supreme Council of Sport was at the time the governing body for organized sports in black Africa. They desired a way to show solidarity with violent protests then happening in black South African townships like Soweto. They hit upon the sport of rugby. This was not an Olympic sport, but a team from New Zealand was playing a series of matches in South Africa with integrated teams. New Zealand was invited to the games and the Supreme Council of Sport would pull the African teams already there if New Zealand was not removed. Over 40 mostly African nations boycotted the games with the Olympic Committee reminding that rugby was not their business since it was not an Olympic sport. The boycott had the desired effect with several news cycles dominated by South Africa’s apartheid policy.

Equatorial Guinea was officially a boycotter but the reality was that they never sent a competitor to any summer or winter Olympics prior to 1984. To date, they have never sent a competitor to a winter Olympics. The country does have an important footnote from the 2000 games in Sydney. Swimmer Eric Moussambani recorded the slowest time in Olympic history during a 100 meter Freesyle heat. With disqualifications of the other two swimmers due to false starts, he won the heat. Mr. Moussambani had never before been in an Olympic size swimming pool and was barely able to complete the distance. Nonetheless his time was a national record in the event. The press labeled him Eric the Eel and congratulated him on his courage for finishing. When he finished the cheering was so loud he thought he had won the Gold. He is currently the coach of the swim team of Equatorial Guinea.

Eric the Eel after finishing

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Eric the Eel. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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Fujeira/Fujairah 1960s, Invoking Goya’s The Forge to tell the guest worker what is expected

Here we have another of Finbar Kenny’s Dune stamps issued under the apparently misspelled name of the then Trucial State of Fujairah. The stamp trade calls them fake, but these little village states are interesting and why not relate the subject of the stamp back to the place however tendential. Kenny’s topicals were beautiful if fake and perhaps unfortunately evocative of the future of the hobby. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp is now over 50 years old and I am fascinated by the spelling discrepancy of the name. Even if you look at the Arabic the spelling is different. Does an Emir just decide to change or is it one of those things that just changes to better reflect local pronunciation?

Finbar Kenny’s stamp output is considered by the trade as fake. The stamp professes it’s value in Dirhams  which puts it after 1966 when that currency replaced the Indian Rupee in the Trucial States. The area was annoyed by India’s devaluations. Join the club. Fujairah postage was handled by the UAE post 1971.

Fujairah was a small village of 50 houses that may have broken away from Sharjah around the beginning of the 20th century. The Bithnah Fort had been built there to protect a trade route that traveled up a wadi, (a usually dry creek bed)going inland. The original purpose was to protect from Wahabis but later control of the fort signified if the area was leaning toward Sharjah on one side or Muscat on the other.

Bithnah Fort

The British had decided that Fujairah was a part  of Sharjah which they had a protectorate deal with so it didn’t really matter who had the fort. That changed in 1952. A British oil company wanted to make sure the petroleum exploration concession stood up anywhere in the area so suddenly the British granted Fujairah recognition and protectorate status. Yay team another Emir gets paid! There wasn’t oil in Fujairah. The big current industry is a cement factory and the bulk of the population are guest workers from India. So much so that the schools follow the standard Indian syllabus. Perhaps the British oil company should have skipped the Emirs and dealt directly with by then independent India as successors to the British in the area. The oil wealth of the UAE pays for new development. Among them is a new beach resort near the Oman border called the Al Fujairah Paradise. The average high daily temperature is over 90 degrees Fahrenheit with summer months over 100 degrees. Paradise or Hell on Earth?

Spanish Painter Goya painted the Forge to show off strong workers dealing with molten hot iron. It is thought to be an allegory to the tough Spanish people dealing with the recent intrusion of Napoleonic era France. The iron forger is putting his strength behind an anvil to work the hot metal. The anvil of history at the time was a concept that would correct short term injustices. Perhaps the Indian toilers in hot modern Fujairah can relate to both Finbar Kenny and Goya.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till tomorrow when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

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Oman”State”1969, the state of being a fake stamp

In 1969 Oman was known as the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman. That name was about to be shortened to Oman as the Sultinate was facing attacks from pan Arabist from South Yemen and wanted to present themselves as a united country. Nearest I can tell this stamp does not emanate from the rebelling area of Dhofar, just another one of those 60s fake stamp promoters. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

These small royalist enclaves were sure hotbeds of fake stamps. We have covered the stamps of the no longer in power Royal government of North Yemen here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/      . and Finbar Kenny’s “Dune” stamps here, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/04/10/sharjah-lets-you-enjoy-modern-art-thanks-to-finbar-kenny/ . Since this is not a real stamp there is no catalog value or official issue date.

The postal history of the area is interesting with the first post offices opened by the British East India company in Muscat. Muscat was a trading post city ruled by a Sultan while the interior area was known as Oman and had much autonomy to have a more traditional religious government under an Imam. The Sultans Royal House also controlled the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar until it was conquered by Tanganyika in 1964, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/  . The discovery of oil in the interior led to a period of war as the Imam had to be displaced so that the oil revenue would go to the Sultan. This pitted the Sultan and his backers in Iran and Great Britain against the Iman and his backers in Saudi Arabia. The Muscat Sultan won that battle and the Iman went into exile. He tried and failed to get international recognition for his Imamate of Oman.

Having won that battle did not make everything rosy. In the 1960s, the traditional governments faced a growing threat from Marxist pan-Arabist that viewed the Sultans, Kings, and Emirs as illegitimate and tools of colonialists and economic exploiters. The pan-Arabist had come to power in neighboring South Yemen and there was an immediate pulling away of the trading post of Aden into a bigger all Arab but no longer trading city. South Yemen immediately started funding separatists in the neighboring region of Dhofar. Muscat had much more oil than Yemen and if you are not going to trade, the money must come from somewhere.

Muscat and Oman had to modernize to meet this new threat. Part of this was taking the name of Oman. The oil and loss of Zanzibar had shifted the country already from coastal trading to cashing the checks of interior oil wells and the deeply religious of the interior were natural rivals of the “infidel” pan-Arabists flooding in from Yemen. Part of the modernizing was Qaboos bin Said overthrowing his father. This was mostly bloodless except the old Sultan managed to shoot one of the coup plotters. Unfortunately for him while cocking his pistol he also shot himself in the foot. The old castle had of course lots of escape tunnels but when your coup plotter is your son he knows them all too and now with a hurt foot, you are not so fast moving. The old Sultan was captured and signed the abdication papers. Oil wealth then allowed him to live out his years at a suite in the Dorchester hotel in London.

Again with military help from Britain and Shah era Iran, Oman was able to defeat the Yemenis in Dhofar. The focus on the interior of Oman versus the trading of Muscat remained. Muscat is not a modern trading post in the manner of Dubai or Qatar. Qaboos bin Said remained Sultan till his death early this year. The oil will eventually run out. His legacy might be tarnished by not putting in place a system that can remain prosperous without the oil.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Ajman 1960s, check out the rocket, were you able to bring up any pearls

Ajman was a tiny pearl diving village occupied seasonally by Nomads. Thanks to Finbar Kenny there were stamps, big colorful stamp designed to get kids interested in stamps, or at least buy a starter pack from the Macys Department Store. Things can get pretty weird when a hobby goes big business. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Stamps like this from Ajman are considered fake by the hobby. So I cannot give you a value or an exact issue date. That is not to say the “Dune” stamps were not influential. Mr. Kenny hoped that by making stamps more colorful and on subjects more relatable to a wider cross section of kids, he could sell more stamp collecting starter packs. It did not work, neither Macys or any other big department store currently have a stamp collecting department. What it did though was inspire real country stamp designers go down the same road of appealing to the immature would be collector. That did not boost the hobby.

Ajman was a tiny but fortified pearl diving village in what was then known as the Trucial States. Today it is one of the United Arab Emirates. As recently as the early 20th century the population was only 750 people and the town was only occupied seasonally. There was a pearl diving season and a palm date harvesting season. For the date harvesting season, most of the population moved to Muscat in modern day Oman. Pearl diving mostly went away after Japanese advancements in cultured pearls and dates just are no longer lucrative enough to travel for.

The Maim tribe conquered Ajman around 1816. Depending on who you ask the ruling Sheik may have been a vassal of the ruling Sheik of nearby Sharjah. After a sacking of a neighboring trucial state by the British in 1822, Ajman signed on as a British Protectorate that left the local Sheik in charge. Don’t get too annoyed at the British, these villages were constantly sacking each other. Ajman had special and repeated problems with the Sheik of Muscat. Remember it was there the nomads were precuring the palm dates.

Sheik/Emir Rashid bin Humaid Al-Nu’aimi ruled Ajman from 1928-1981. He sold the rights to print stamps in the name of Ajman to Finbar Kenny. The arrangement ended in 1971 when Ajman became part of the United Arab Emirates. The Emirs decided to band together with the end of British Protectorate status.

I mentioned Finbar Kenny was the head of the stamp department of the Macys department store. At the time, in the 1930s, it was common for there to be a table near the elevator displaying stamps to children. Mothers could leave their children there to be entertained while they shopped. Kenny through contacts started participating personally in some sales of very high end stamps. He then had the idea to make stamps that his tables might have more luck with by buying the rights to small independent countries no one could find on a map. Many of the Trucial states signed on to Kenny’s plan. In 1971 the formation of the UAE ended Kenny’s deals as the UAE would have a postal system and do there own stamps. Finbar Kenny then signed up the Cook Islands in the Pacific to continue his business with stamps under their name. That did not go well. The leader of the Cook Islands demanded a loan backed by future stamp revenues. After this bribe was paid, the American government arrested Finbar Kenny under the foreign corrupt practices act. He was fined $50,000 and naturally the Cook Island “loan” was not repaid. Things can get pretty rough when you spend too much time in the dunes or Gilligan’s, excuse me Cook, Island.

American philatelic entrepreneur Finbar Kenny holds ‘the world’s rarest stamp’, a British Guiana 1c magenta, at the Stanley Gibbons Catalogue Centenary Exhibition in London, 28th January 1965. (Photo by Stan Meagher/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images). No Dunes that day

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Finbar Kenny. I don’t think over the long term he was good for the hobby but I admire his creativity in the cause. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting