Going Ape

Thanks for the mandrill, nethryk - I think they are magnificent animals, as are the closely related and very much endangered drills.

Here si my offering, a 2015 one from Togo (a country that has issued quite a few fauna issues lately, I showed the companion issue of the one here in a recent post, a 6 stamp minisheet.




And adding to the Year of the Monkey issues, here is what I think is a rather attractive one from Niger, with Chinese golden monkeys; very appropriate since it is the Year of the fire monkey:

Oops, that should be an issue from Niger for the first one above, of course (there is a Togo issue as well) so just to show my mistake:




and some more year of the Monkey ones, from the Central African Republic. One, a realistic representation of the golden snub-nosed monkey; the accompanying issue, a more playful one printed in gold on lucky red paper:

cobie - Nice ones!

Olive baboon (Papio anubis), an airmail stamp designed by French artist Odette Baillais, printed by photogravure, and issued for use in Afars and Issas on December 12, 1973, Scott No. C94.

- nethryk

Thanks nethryk - I really like that issue, I also have a rather nice FDC and a MC of it.
There is another animal issue from this French overseas territory:

Sorry, should have mentioned it was issued in 1975, and by the smae designer.

In the meantime, of all countries, Sierra Leone has provided competition for my vote for most attractive Year of the Monkey issues, mixing naturalisitic designs with the lucky colours of yellow and red:







Unfortunately for someone who likes their monkeys to look like monkeys, many countries have issued stamps featuring Chines paer cut-out designs, or cartoon monkeys of such tackiness I cannot imagine anyone would like to buy the latter.

I mentioned that there are quite a few Year of the Monkey 2016 issues which, frankly, I find tacky, and I can't imagine anyone buying them to send good wishes for the New Year. Thailand's was one of these, but I just had to buy this FDC which at least has a nice cachet but also in addtion to the official cancellation another eleven local ones, some of them quite appealing:

Udzungwa red colobus (Procolobus gordonorum), printed by lithography (Joh. Enschedé), and issued by Tanzania on October 28, 2010 as one of six stamps in a "Wild Animals of Tanzania" souvenir sheet, plus a photo.

- nethryk

Thanks for that addition, Nethryk - I know the stamp but cannnot quite work out what species it is meant to be. As your photograph shows, there is an Udzungwa red colobus but I have not been able to find what is meant by Udzungwa monkey - the picture shows a green monkey, a species common in Tanzaniabut a species which does not have a form specific to the Udzungwa mountain forests. Moreover, it is more of a savannah species.

The glut of Year of the Monkey issues has now passed and other issues are now appearing - mostly from the African countries, the variety a friend of mine calls "wallpaper issues". However, the majority of these now seem to be a a limited run of 1000 to 2000, and numbered, and official; some have attractive FDCs too.

Here is a new issue from Togo, a SS MS, and a MS of 4 with endangered primates:






While the stamps are attractive, the lion tamarin and mandrill in the surrounds really jump at you from the page! This is also the case with the orangutan is another Togo new issue, of endangered animals:

A boy reading with his monkey pal, and a spider in its web, a semi-postal (charity) stamp printed by lithography, and issued by Surinam on November 26, 1965 as one of a set of four stamps benefiting child welfare, Scott No. B117.

- nethryk

Hello Nethryk: Thanks, as usual, for the addition to the topic. This et is one of the once a year issues "For the children". When I was at primary school in Holland (Surinam used to be one of Holland's "Colonies" then) this issue came out at the start of the school year and children would sell sets to family and fiends, a regular competition. The addition charge went to charitable funds doing work with or for children, and we are talking a lot of money here (as you may guess from the 50% surcharge on the above)!Almost 90% of funds raised is spent thus, with about half, these days, going to non-Dutch organizations. These days, there are other products associated with these stamps such as band-aids with illustrations printed on them, and you can also buy them directly - one's employer might do so.

Back to the primates - here is the Year of the Monkey issue from Guinee-Bissau. It is alittle different from others in that it shows not just some primates (a chimpanzee on the stamp, and a mandrill in the surround) but also refers to the classic tale known best in the West as "Monkey", but which is really called "The Journey to the West", and realtes how Buddhist monk from China went to India to collect and bring home original Buddhist scriptures - his journey is shown on the map in the bottom left corner. This is an actual event although in the tale, the monkey Tripitaka (on the top left) acquired several helpers, among whom "monkey" features most prominently.

Iforgot the other half:




This MS shows from left to right a mandrill, a squirrel monkey, a chimpanzee and a blue monkey, and figures from the journey to the West such as the magic horse and Pigsy, the servant.

cobie - Wonderful personal story about the Surinam charity stamps! Thanks for sharing. - nethryk

Norway 2016 Celebrating Kristiansand Zoo

Thanks nethryk but I would argue with a zoo that gave icecream to its chimpanzees ... In the world of stamps with apes or monkeys, in the meantime, the African issues keep coming but thye are more interesting than the older "beast only" on a stamp. Here are the new issues from Sierra Leone, combining national park and animal lovers stamps, and those of odd-shaped min-sheets. Win-win, I suppose.







The first shows the West African red colobus as well as a large antelope, the bongo; the same monkey species, and a chimpanzee, feature on the next issue; while the third shows the endangered diana monkey.

I'll start with a new post for the other three issue to make it easier to see them.

Here are the other three:









The first here shows the sooty mangabey monkey, the second, chimpanzees, and the third, Western red colobus. The other animals depicted also occur in the area and one can only hope the forest areas will be able to allow these animals to flourish, since some of them are very rare and endangered since they occur only in West Africa, such as the small forest antelope show on the first issue, Jentinck's duiker (and some other duiker species). To my disgust, though, it is still easy to find recent pictures of trophy hunters with "record" specimens of thes animals. I do not object to hunting, but I do in this case where we are not talking of removing old animals.