The Stamps Of Lesotho (Ex Basutoland)

Lesotho (Pronounced : Le Soo Too)



1982
Steiner Page 45



Penny Black in Gold



Sc#318 1980

I've always like collecting little known, out-of-the-way countries such as Lesotho. I could fit all of my Lesotho stamps on one side of one Vario page right now, but I have no doubt that will grow.

Me too.
I don't have many, I only collect what comes across my desk, say in a "worldwide" mixture.
It also helps to reinforce where countries are located,
I kinda think, ah! Lesotho, Basutoland, bottom RH corner of Africa.

They always come in handy as items for Thematics.

The motto of the country is very poignant. Without these two, you cannot have the third. Sometimes, unfortunately, we only have one of the two. Are there any other countries with a wish for rain so prominent in their national psyche (apart from UK and Norway, of course...)?

Reminds me to get my Basutoland postmarks collection sorted out as well.

I reflected on that too,

Australia oftentimes pray for rain, in some regions.
Farmers on the cusp of the desert regions find it increasingly hard to remain.

Basutoland, not even a single readable Pmk in my collection.

I always like to have at least one stamp from every UN member. I only have a few stamps from Lesotho. I guess there are some nations that are a little off the Stamp Collectors "radar". Its about population, literacy, economics and a link to the the traditional centres of philatelic activity....London, Paris, New York etc.
Just recently I discovered a seller who has some nice Lesotho stamps and I have bought a few to increase my numbers.
I draw the line at Disney stamps. ...no way.

Disney, Elvis and Princess Di!

Yes.
In the 1960s, the Philatelic press tried to wean young collectors away from CTOs of USSR spaceships, Romanian sports, Polish flowers and East German everything. But my recollection is that in the 1970s, agents had dubious omnibus issues.
Again my recollection might be faulty but I think Gibbons refused to recognise stamps with unlikely high values, little or no evidence that a stamp had actually been in a post office on a small island in the West Indies. Or that the subject of the stamp had any meaningful connexion to a former French colony in North Africa....I think the first ever CTO stamp I had from Mali depicts Maralyn Monroe.
I certainly dont blame small impoverished countries for being part of this.
And certainly my golden rule about collecting is that there are no rules. To each his/her own. Someday I must go thru my albums and weed out the CTO and mint stamps that I now regard as dubious.
In the specific case of Lesotho, I dont suppose I have more than 20 stamps and would target having about 50 by the end of 2017. There are some beautiful wildlife/flowers issues out there.

Views of Qiloane.

Hello.
These two series came to my hands some time ago. I liked them and assembled them together.
I have some more, but few.
Regards.

Hi Roberto,
nice treatment!
Rock paintings for me always hold fascination.
We have many here in Australia also.

Hello All,

We have enjoyed this thread and thought the following might be of interest.

We returned from Zambia in 1969, back to our home in Melksham, Wiltshire and at that time we had the Lesotho set of rock paintings.
We showed them to a local artist friend and asked him if he could paint some of them.

He had never tried anything like that before and thought it would make a change from his usual output. He really enjoyed doing it and we were very impressed with the results.

Here they are on our wall in the lounge along with a pair of Zambian masks and a 'representative' artwork we bought in Ipswich.

We no longer have these stamps and think we must have left them with the artist to keep.

On a collecting level, Lesotho had a very conservative issuing policy until the 1980's , after which they went a bit mad. I, personally, reckon the rot set in with the 1982 Christmas set, and looking at the "S.G. Stamps of the World" I am glad I did not decide to collect them.

Not picking on Lesotho, as the same pattern has been followed by many of the Postal Administrations in the world. G.B. is as guilty as anywhere else and looking at the catalogue of Australian stamps, we have not actually seen about 90 percent of the issues on mail.

We are still stamp/postal history fanatics, despite the impression that may have been given by the above.
Regards to all.

Ron.

You two are always new magic in a dusty world.

Ron, what wonderful paintings. Didn't Zimbabwe issue a design similar to the top painting? Maybe it was very late Rhodesia?

I have masks on my wall as well: three I brought home from from Papua New Guinea and two brought home from Gabon. It was real fun getting the PNG masks through Aussie customs!

Ron, Eunice,
lovely post, something we don't often see.
Didn't masks inspire Picasso ?

Lesotho with an Aussie connection, (design by Hungarian Vasarhelyi) and some ornithology.
(The coach seems out of place)