More Ajman/Manama Stamps...just Trying To Understand

Found these in Stamp World around 1972 but just wondered what was going on for so many to be issued at the same time in the same denomination. Thanks, Jim

These are stamps from the so called "Dune States". It is hard to tell, but these are all CTO - never seen a mailman in their lives. The stamps are what some folks call "wallpaper" - pretty but no value other than what the folks that sold them charged.
If you can not find these in a regular catalog there is a reason. Some of these stamps have never seen the country in which they were supposed to have been issued. They were printed with the express goal of selling them to collectors, not to be put on mail. I am not saying that is the case with these stamps, but back in the sixties and seventies this was a big thing! Hope this helps a bit?

Peter

Some added info to the above explanation may be found in this old (1988) NY Times article that offers a brief history and explanation for such stamps:

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/28/s...-states.html

Thank you Wt1, that is a good article. And it refreshes my memory a bit!

Peter

Aside from the fact that many of these Arabian stamps were issued in excess of need and probably never entered the individual countries or territories, there is an additional complication in that, in some cases, more than one organisation at a time issued them. My view is that, in fact, Gibbons is over-generous in listing probably the great majority of stamps from the 1970s onwards. It is very difficult to believe that most issues from across much of the world were genuinely available in their nominal country of origin or did postal service there. Whilst current commemorative issues in GB, the US, Canada etc are plainly available to purchasers, it's hard to make much of a case for postal use or need - I don't think I've ever received a letter that was stamped with one of GB's voluminous 2012 Olympic issues, for example.

The soldier stamps ("military uniforms" set) were printed in repeating sheets/panes of 56 different. You can find the complete panes separated in different places, implying they were manufactured like a roll of wallpaper, and just split into sections! Not only are there 56 green ones, there are also 56 otherwise identical yellow ones (I can just see two of those sticking out at the top of your scans.) Date is sometime in 1972.

The more colourful ones were issued in Ajman and a corresponding set in the small Ajman-dependency of Manama, really just a small town with no need to issue its own stamps (let alone thousands of them!). Both Ajman and Manama issued them in sets of 5 in the colours you see - one each of pink, orange, blue, green, purple. Sets of five such stamps were issued depicting sport, birds, spacecraft, olympics and animals - so that's 25 for Ajman and a different 25 from Manama, making 50 in total. Unlike the military uniforms, they were not issued together in panes, although you can very easily find whole sheets of any particular design for next to nothing.

So to answer your other question, the reason these 162 different stamps all have the same face value, is simply because, as stated above, they were never intended to go anywhere near an envelope! They're just gimmick items produced for collectors. I don't care, mind - I collect them and have them all!

This is taken from Wiki and may help to briefly explain the prolific issues of Ajman, Manama and other Trucial States (a/k/a "Dunes"):

Most worldwide stamp collectors will not buy them separately but they show up in the large lots, bulk lots and end of the auction type lots . Many collectors or dealers just add them to any bulk lot that they sell. So a more accurate name would be "filler", it is safe to say that they are hard to sell but they get listed on ebay and other on line auctions and do attract theme or topical collectors.
I regularly find album pages with them at auctions so there is many collectors who add them to their collections . I do have a separate album of a few hundred pages with many complete sets but I look at it that I paided nothing for them and value the whole album as zero ,just time spend time mounting them and enjoyed it .

Many of these countries (Ajman, Dubai, Fujeira, Sharjah)issued postage stamps in the 1960s before they joined the United Arab Emirates around 1972. These countries continued to issued stamps afterwards for revenue. Scott does not recognize these revenue stamps. I have heard that Minkus has a special listing and numbering system for them.
I was given some of these stamps like the ones you have listed during my stay in the Middle East. I store my revenue stamps on separate pages from the listed stamps. For description, I leave the identification number blank.

...not to be confused with actual revenue stamps of course. These could be termed revenue-generating stamps, maybe.

My impression is that after UAE was formed, these states (actually only six real offenders from nine issuing entities) did stop issuing their own stamps, but as I understand it, production was continued unofficially by non-governmental sources, into at least 1973. (UAE formed at the end of 1971.) Catalogues generally ignore the very late ones, and only give the "legitimate" ones the bare minimum of coverage.

If anyone has any of these on an actual mailed item, or on a revenue document, please post images!
Don

Can't you see the postmarks on them? All postally used, it seems :)

Hi,

A postally used postcard from Ras al Khaimah:



The definitives used on the postcard were not issued by any agency, apparently. The card was posted on 16.5.72.

The card seems have been joined from two other cards?

Best wishes,
AndrewG

Ringo. Not postally used. CTO Cancelled to Order. Never saw an envelope.

yellow cad: Do the stamps pictured have gum?

If you would like to Plate your Ajman stamps............



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