🇧🇩 The Bangladesh postal service issued a single stamp, 4 stamps in a se-tenant block and an imperforate miniature sheet on 16 December 2016 to commemorate the country's 45th National Victory Day which marks the anniversary of Bangladesh's defeat of Pakistani forces to ensure the independence of Bangladesh.
The single stamp depicts the country's first prime minister and father figure, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, with the country's 2nd national flag in the background while the other stamps and miniature sheet depict scenes of resistance by the people against the Pakistani forces. An excellent set. Rating:- *****.
🇸🇬 In Blog 808 I mentioned and illustrated the pair of stamps issued by Singapore Post as its half of a joint issue with Pakistan Post. A "Collectors sheet" was also released and this is now depicted here. Even though it is sold at a price above face value I do like the item. The date of issue was 18 October 2016. Rating:- ***.
🇲🇲 The postal administration of Myanmar has issued its first stamp of 2017 to commemorate the country's 69th Independence Day. A local news report announced that the stamp was put on sale at 781 Region and State post offices on 4 January 2017. This is an interesting single stamp. Rating:- *****.
🇦🇺 Four values from Australia Post's Christmas stamps, in self-adhesive format, were also issued with attached labels as depicted below. Clearly there are some members of the public who may have wished to place personalised stamps on their Christmas mail so they are quite interesting. Rating:- ***.
🇸🇱 And so, as inevitably as Day follows Night, we arrive at this week's paraphilatelic products from Stamperija though pleasingly the philatelic reputation of only one Commonwealth country is dragged through the mud this week (the other willing victims being Niger and Central African Republic) - Sierra Leone. It would be fair to say I suppose that its philatelic reputation was sacrificed as long ago as the 1960's and that Stamperija is only the latest of a string of agencies to take advantage of the country's poverty to use its stamps as a way of making money out of the unfortunate country and those interested in its stamps. Sadly over recent decades, Sierra Leone has had rather more to worry about than its philatelic reputation.
Anyway, there are the usual 10 "sheetlets", each made up of 4 different "stamps", along with 10 miniature sheets. The subjects featured are:- 50th anniversary of the launching of Luna 10, Nobel Prize winners, Concorde, Horse transport, Space tourism, Birth Centenary of Ferruccio Lambhorghini, 510th anniversary of the death of Christopher Columbus, Death Centenary of Max Immelmann, 50th anniversary of the Toyota Corolla and Steam trains. The stated date of issue was 28 November 2016. Rating:- 0.
Can the Sierra Leone issues really be classed as stamps? Since it is quite clear they are not being issued with postal use in mind. I just wonder where the line can be drawn between genuine postage stamps and revenue raising labels. Do you cover Mali here? They issue a lot of Round stamps and as a collector of these shaped stamps I have had to make the decision not include Mali in my collection.
ReplyDeleteJohn, good choise not including those stamps inscribed 'Mali'. Those are all illegals. Not issued by Mali and not by an agency.
DeleteHello Stewie1911 - I do not usually look at Mali issues but when I saw your message I looked at what was for sale on Delcampe and the circular "stamps" there clearly are bogus stamps. Collectors must be very careful of what is being sold on Delcampe - there are numerous bogus issues on offer especially from African countries including a number of Commonwealth territories. Collectors beware!
DeleteHey Everyone. I am very grateful to you all for bringing to my attention the fact that Mali and other African state stamps are mostly bogus. I was completely unaware of this fact. I chose not collect them purely because the expense and the possibility that they were not issued for mailing purposes. Can anyone supply me with a website I could go to to learn more? Best regards, John.
DeleteWow, I didn't realise the scope of the problem until I checked out Stamperija website. It seems I have been suckered into buying some of these bogus stamps, which is a bit of shame as some were bought for me as gifts. I am now faced with the unhappy task of screening out these fakes from my collection.
DeleteDear John, Thank you for your interesting comment. As regards the status of Sierra Leone "stamps" issued by Stamperija I like to think of them as "philatelic collectibles with theoretical postal validity". These philatelic items are produced by the agency according to contracts agreed with the postal administrations whose names are printed on these items. Generally they do not appear to be sold across ordinary post office counters so that ordinary members of the public can buy them for use on their mail. However if the various national Post Offices chose to do so I presume that the Stamperija-produced items could be sold for use as receipts for the pre-payment of postage - that is - "postage stamps" providing they were made available to the public in reasonable numbers.
ReplyDeleteI visited Uganda when Stamperija was producing philatelic items for Posta Uganda and such items seemed to be sold only from the philatelic counter in the main post office in Kampala and nowhere else. Last year I visited Mozambique and visited some small post offices and did not find any Stamperija-produced items for sale but I did not have the opportunity to visit the main post office in Maputo.
I think you are right that these are not (postage) "stamps" and, like you, I do not spend any of my money in obtaining such items and do not include them in my collection. As regards the Commonwealth territories (Mozambique, Solomon Islands and Sierra Leone and previously Maldives and Uganda) Stanley Gibbons does not give these "stamps" a Catalogue number and merely lists them in the Catalogue appendix.
As Mali is not a Commonwealth territory I do not write about any of the items with its name printed on them in this Blog.
I do not think that you should have any doubts about your decision not to include such items in your collection.
Best wishes.
Dear John, I am not aware of a site which identifies all the bogus stamps currently appearing on the market - I've drawn attention to some of them myself in the past but there is just too many to mention them all and I also concentrate on the issues from Commonwealth countries and so I do not cover all territories which are affected by these items.
DeleteAnything from Stamperija is NOT bogus since the agency produces its products according to contracts it has entered into with the countries whose names appear on its products. However, there's little to suggest that their products are actually sold in ordinary post offices in most of their client territories and Stanley Gibbons Catalogue usually relegates their products to the Appendix and does not give such items full Catalogue status.
Stanley Gibbons also relegates a proportion of issues sold by IGPC on behalf of various client territories to the Appendix but the Catalogue editor is rather inconsistent and unpredictable in his choice of issues which he places in the Appendix. Many issues not relegated to the Appendix are just as likely to not be available across ordinary post office counters as the sets banished to the Appendix.
The bogus stamps can be identified because they very frequently are imperforate, are crude in design and printing and are often irrelevant to the countries whose names are printed on the items. Many respectable territories, often with conservative new issue programmes, have been affected by bogus issues in recent months. There is an internet dealer based in Russia who has been selling bogus issues recently - ice hockey stamps from Malawi and Kenya and so on.
I hope this is helpful.