Ajman? Curious Little Stamp Find.

Ajman is one of the "Sand Dunes" that produced tens of thousands of stamps through the 60s and 70s. There's a specialized Michel Catalog for them (expensive!). Some of the others, frequently encountered in a kiddie collection or approval mix, are Sharjah, Ras al-Khaima, Umm al-Qawain, Fujeira, Manama, Mahra State, Khor Fakkan, and some varieties of South Arabia and Yemen (of the last two, some are legitimate issues).

Not one in 10,000 Sand Dunes ever did "real" postal duty, and expertized covers are quite expensive -- more popular in Europe than the United States.

Fascinating stuff! So real stamp but not legitimate postage for duty's sake? Looks to have been cancelled though but is it a CTO type thing with these?

To put your stamp in perspective, check out this auction link. The price +/- 11 cents (US), but $3.50 to ship it to the United States from Australia:

http://stampwants-stamps.bidstart.c...53565/a.html

Note: You'll find most all of the stamps from Ajman to be CTO's.

The Dunes States became the UAE. This'll get you started:

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

This is what I had found so far, I t may be all of them, I am not completely sure. I have a bunch of these also.

Hi tomd,

Are these all in a single block?

The righthand 25 are inscribed "Ajman" and the lefthand 25 are inscribed "Manama" (a village belonging to Ajman on the Sharjah/Fujairah border).

from the looks of the map...the total square footage of Manama stamps printed is probably larger than the entire country.

The Wikipedia article is good, but some of the spellings are at odds with what actually appears on the stamps. You find "Dunes" both mint and CTO, by far the majority are CTO, in many cases "cancelled" at the time of printing, all on the same plate, rather than applied later.

very nice find my friend, cto's are very attractive, but some collectors hate cto's. They prefer used or cancelled postal stamps rather than cto's.

I am not sure why cto's are produced in huge numbers, there is variety but they are not postal stamps

warm wishes.

The dunes stamps are the only CTO's that I collect. They were one of my first approvals I ever bought.

What I like about this cancelled stamp is that the runner looks like he is wearing a helmet.

Below are the first 2 of 4 covers front and back. Both show Government of Ajman on the return address but only the cover with the mini-sheets has Ajman stamps, the other 3 have Manama stamps. Shows there may have been some cross over between the agencies putting out these stamps.

Second 2 of the 4 covers, again mailed from the Government of Ajman with Manama stamps. all 1968.

Nice contribution, Gibby.

Manama is an exclave of the emirate of Ajman, hence the connection.

Manama is a small township in the United Arab Emirates, an exclave of the emirate of Ajman. Its land area is mainly given over to agricultural usage. It is known to stamp collectors as a number of editions of colourful stamps were issued from there in the late 60's.

3 contracts were issued to commence printing Ajman
Finbar Kenny of J & H Stolow of NY
A firm in Beirut who had them printed in Bulgaria
A 3rd by an unidentified source.

Some can be proven printed by Fournier Stamp Printers.

Quite a tangled web.

I'll get your Michel numbers shortly.

Ajman / Manama
Left hand Cover shows 6 stamps of 15 (All 1 riyal)
1968
Paintings by old masters.
The top left stamp is Michel #445
"The Birth of Venus" (Detail) by Botticelli.

Note: There exist erroneous inscriptions "Mothers Day"

Ajman / Manama
The Right Hand cover does not have enough clarity to determine.

I'd suggest these are from the set suggested in the previous post,
but they have differing mandrels or edges.

The young lass hugging the puppy, seems to say "Portrait of Miss ??"
That is actually "Love me, Love my Dog" By Sir Joshua Reynolds

I will save them as included in Michel #432 to #446

Note : Michel #438 s not Mozart as inscribed, but Count Karl Firmian, a childhood friend of Mozart

The Souvenir Sheet is (SIMILAR TO) Michel #236 Block 25
"The art of Painting" (about 1655
Jan Vermeer van Delft

I cannot find your example listed