Maluku Selatan Stamps-Have A Question

I just picked up new box of 10 cent loaner pages from my stamp store. I found a page of Maluku Setalan stamps. Of course I've never heard of Maluku before, so I looked them over. I checked Wiki for Maluku(bobgggg, I will leave it to you to post the info on this,please, since you will do a better job). I am confused. On the stamps are overprints that look like Bulgarian(Luchtpost) and Indonesian(Pos Udara) and also Resmi, which is on stamps from Turkey. Wiki mentions Indonesia of course, and also the Dutch in Maluku. So how does "Luchtpost" and "Resmi" get on these stamps?


Thanks
rockin

Robin....

These stamps were created by a wanna-be government that tried to rebel against the government of Malaysia and failed. They were never legitimately issued and really have no value.

As a specialist collector of the Netherlands Indies and Indonesia, I must correct you. These were break-a-way countries from the Netherlands Indies/Indonesia. They failed and re-joined Indonesia.

They are currently listed in Scott's and a few were properly used for postage. I have an album for these issues and I do collect them. I also have a specialised catalogue from Indonesia showing them postally used.

Cheers!

David

the Republik Maluku Selatan, is the Republic of the South Moluccas, a group of islands in the eastern part of Indonesia, between Sulawesi and New Guinea. The inhabitants were promised independence by the Dutch, but when Indonesia became independent that promise proved to be worthless. The South Moluccans then established the RMS with a government in exile. The stamps were created by clever stamp dealers and have never been used on the islands.

Luchtpost is Dutch for Airmail. Bulgarian???

David...

...And Jan....

Obviously we have a difference of opinion here. In my 08 Scott it states...

"It appears that the stamps of South Moluccas were privately issued and had no postal value. Accordingly they are not recognised as postage stamps."

Scott 08 book 6, page 80.

As far as I can see, we agree 100% on this, Tom.

For lovers of trivia: the stamps were printed in Vienna, ordered by New York stamp dealer Henry Stolow in 1955.

I agree Jan.....and our info would seem to be from different sources.

Davids info is from another source.

Anyone have any other source that would help ?

It appears that both stories are right:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postag...uth_Moluccas

Now this is where philatelic study comes in! Great work folks... I find this very interesting, and fun. I'm open to all suggestions!

Cheers!

David

They may be worthless as stamps, but they are not worthless as Cinderellas.

http://completed.shop.ebay.com/item...Q2ec0Q2em283

WpgLwr....

Great info.....the more sources the better.


David.......

I agree completely........info + discussion = better philatelic education.

You know, I don't really even think of them like Cinderellas in the traditional sense, because in this case, the intention was to issue them as stamps if the revolt had been successful. Kind of like the Azad Hind stamps of India.

To me, Cinderellas are such things as poster stamps, various kinds of seals, or imitation stamps. In all cases, the intent is there to possibly make the item look like a stamp, while knowing full well it is not. In the case of the South Moluccas (half of them, anyway) and the Azad Hind stamps, the intention was to make them stamps from the outset.

Just my viewpoint, and I respect the fact that others may differ.


*

OK, but Cinderellas also include such things as local posts, which in the case
of places such as Rattlesnake Island and those that were produced by Herman
Herst Jr., actually saw service as stamps if only on a local level.

Interesting....

consider this....

It was Herman Herst's intention to create a type of postal item....he was successful to a point with the Rattlesnake Island stamps.

Christmas seals imatate stamps with no postal value.

The South Moluccas stamps were unsucessful but released by dealers.

To me these are three distinctly different items, and as with all aspects of the hobby, we must decide for ourselves what is to be included in our collections.

Its true, given the various information presented we can all draw our own conclusions..i notice more and more that Scott is recognizing or giving credence to stamps that they did not recognize before such as the Tannu Tuva airmails and what I call the Indonesian embargo stamps..the very colorful ones printed in Austria ..one of my brother in laws was an engineer on the Dutch KPM lines at time..they got tired of having people taking pot shots at them and pulled out...but they did sell some of their rusting older tubs to Indonesia....

Here's Alfie, Herman Herst's German Shepherd and mail carrier
for his Shrub Oak (NY) local post... resurrected here from a
prior thread about Herst.