Kuwait placed itself under British protection in 1899, because it was afraid of the Ottoman Turks who were expanding their influence in the Persian Gulf. (Nice how history repeats itself, with a bit of a twist, isn't it?)
It was originally too small to justify having its own post office and stamps, so the Kuwaiti Post Office was operated by the British Indian post office. At first, they simply supplied Indian stamps, and postmarked them Kuwait. (These can be quite scarce, and worth a bit of money.)
Later on, in 1923, they began simply overprinting the Indian stamps 'KUWAIT'. This probably helped with the accounting, between Kuwait and India. (Quite a few places outside British India used Indian stamps overprinted with their own names: Kenya, Zanzibar and British Somaliland are examples.)
Your 3 Anna stamp was issued in 1933. There are two types known. One has the watermark of stars pointing to the left (as seen from the back of the stamp), the slightly scarcer variety has the watermarks stars pointing to the right. (Gibbons valued these two stamps at £2.50 and £3.25 in the 2011 catalogue.)
Quote: At first, they simply supplied Indian stamps, and postmarked them Kuwait.
That's what collectors hunt for as their collection grows, you kind of forget the stamp, and hunt for strange exotic and rare cancellations in the "duplicates" box.
That's why you should never destroy a stamp no matter how common it may appear.
I agree with you ROD, keep all copies, you never know when you collecting interests will change and you might have something you passed over the first time! BOb
That's right Postat, I find my cynosure has changed over time.
Let's take an example, the rarest stamp in the India Catalogue exists as a singleton behind a "Theft Prevention" cancel like these I show at the bottom.
Now one would assume, the sheet from which it came were all used as such, and were thrown away as being "ugly" by previous collectors.
Disclaimer: While a tremendous amount of effort goes into ensuring the accuracy of the information contained in this site, Stamp Community assumes no liability for errors. Copyright 2005 - 2026 Stamp Community Family - All rights reserved worldwide. Use of any images or content on this website without prior written permission of Stamp Community or the original lender is strictly prohibited. Privacy Policy / Terms of UseAdvertise Here
Posted 09/21/2011 6:59 pm
