How Many Countries

My head is spinning

I finally had some time to "play" so I decided to sort through my unidentified stamps. I'll need some help with a few later but I'm geting good at searching them out on my own.

I find new countries everytime I search. tonight it was:

Oecussi-Ambeno
Eynhallow(scotland)
Montserrat
Barbuda
Nauru
Buryatia
Dhufar

I alwready have stamps from over 200 coutries; how many more can there be

Dianne

I don't really know how many stamp issuing countries (dead and alive) there are, but I would guess 400 or so!

A little over 300.....if you include all the places that don't exist any more it's about 350 or so.....more if you count all the places that have changed names or places that were/weren't and now are again.....like Armenia.

Buryatia......I not sure this is a real place, could be a fake country. Can anyone confirm ?? It's not in my 2008 Scott cat.

Buryatia is located in the South-Central region of Siberia along the eastern shore of Lake Baikal.

Area: 351,300 km².
Borders:
internal: Irkutsk Oblast (W/NW/N), Chita Oblast (NE/E/SE/S), Tuva (W).
international: Mongolia (S/SE).
water: Lake Baikal (N).
Highest point: Mount Munku-Sardyk (3,491 m).

From Wikipedia:

The Republic uses the postage stamps of Russia, so it does not issue its own postage stamps. Stamps of Buryatia or Buriatia offered on ebay are fakes.

I'd never heard of it later so I went to the ultimate source, and like Modern says their issues are fakes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buryatia

And this is why I need the Stamp collecting for dummies book

On the bright side it was in one of the lots of 1000 stamps that I bought for $1.25.

Dianne

I'm not so sure about these either....

Oecussi-Ambeno
Dhufar

They are not in Scott.

OMAN STUDIES CENTRE OMAN PHILATELY NETWORK
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The "Dhufar" issues of the "Oman Imamate State"

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Chapter 1: The first Dhufar issue of 15 April 1972

Where is Dhufar ?

Dhufar, sometimes transliterated as Dhofar or Zufar, is the name of a region in South Arabia between Hadramaut, the Rub' al-Khali and the Huqf and Jiddat al-Harasis areas. It is one of the main regions of the Sultanate of Oman. Although Dhufar is historically, geographically and culturally distinct from Oman, there was always a close relationship between Oman and this region due to geographic proximity. The region was brought under closer control of Muscat's Al Bu Sa'idi sultans towards the end of the 19th century in an effort to thwart Ottoman designs upon Dhufar. Since then, Dhufar has always been an integral part of the Sultanate of Oman (officially known as Sultanate of Muscat and Oman before 8 August 1970).

During Sultan Sa'id bin Taimur's reign (1932-70) in Oman, Dhufar was very much administered like a private property of the Sultan who prefered it to Muscat and even made Salalah his residence in the late 1950s. The 20th century Imamate in the Omani Interior (which lasted from 1913 to 1955) never extended to Dhufar. Even after the imamate ceased to exist in Oman's interior and the Imam and some of his followers established their organisation in exile, their movement actually never laid claim to Dhufar.


After 'State of Oman', now 'Dhufar': plans are made early in 1971

Nevertheless, Youssef Salim Tadros, the imamate organization's able Lebanese stamp agent in Beirut and "Postal Counsellor" to the Imam's "Omani Mission to Lebanon" since 1966, made plans to issue stamps for Dhufar as early as in spring 1971. The Dhufar issues by the "Oman Imamate State" were modelled after such issues as Ajman's for Manama or Sharjah's for Khor Fakkan. As Dhufar was a province apart within [the Sultanate of] Oman, separate issues seemed to make sense in a certain way.

Oecussi-Ambeno is a providence in East Timor

In the 1970s and 1980s, New Zealander anarchist Bruce Grenville began a hoax, claiming to have founded the sultanate of Occussi-Ambeno. He invented a history for the state of tribes united against the Portuguese. He then printed stamps, letterheads, and so forth, which generated income by mail order. He even established diplomatic relations with a few small states, including Monaco, Liechtenstein, and the Republic of Minerva. [1]

Tom

They were all part of bulk purchases $1.25 for 1000 stamps and I did get my money's worth with older Swiss, French, Danish American and even a few Newfowndland stamps.

I Did find it interesting learning about these obscure Republics and countries.

Dianne

geez rick.....

Have you got a hemi attached to your computer ???

It's amazing how many little "countries" have been declared into existence by sultan's, kings, despots, etc.

rlorenz

Thanks for that wonderful insight.

Because I don't collect stamps as an investment and strictly for pleasure I don't mind the odd "fake stamp if it has some history behind it.

Hope you don't mind if I use youre research when I print my pages for these countries.

Dianne

Dianne, there are many people who put together mini-collections of fake stamps and stamps from non-existent countries. You're right in that they can be really interesting.

Greg

I've always loved history and geography so these stories intregue me.

Tom

what the hay's a hemi

Dianne