Ajman Obliterated Stamp

Hi everyone. Something in the back of my mind suggests this has been asked before, but I can't find it - so here goes:

In 1972 Ajman issued wallpaper sheets of military uniforms stamps. In some (not all) sheets, one particular stamp has been obliterated with a black box. I think I read it was the Argentinian uniform stamp?

I was wondering why this would be done? A mistake in the design? Political matters maybe? Is there any logical reason?

Thanks in advance...



*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

I can not give you an answer as to why the military uniform of Argentina is "censored", but I do know that sheets with the stamp not obliterated exist.

Peter

Thanks Peter. I have the yellow and green sheets without the black box - just obtained this today, tucked in an old stockbook, which is what prompted the question. Seems like a strange thing to do!

The missing uniform is not Argentinian, but Vietnamese.The confusion results from Michel listing the small format uniform series in the same order as the large format, which was not the case.

I believe what happened was that they intended to put in a picture of the SOUTH Vietnamese uniform but actually used a picture of a NORTH Vietnamese uniform. Given that in 1972 the Vietnamese War was still going on, when they were told what they had done, they realised they were not going to sell too many of these sheets to Mr Yankee, if they had an enemy soldier on, and they obliterated the Viet Cong uniform on all the remaining sheets.

Most interesting. After much research this is the first I have heard of the Vietnamese angle. Excellent information.

Thanks Bamra1 - great info, and mystery solved!

Very interesting Bamra1, thank you. Does anyone have a scan of the stamp WITHOUT the "overprint"?

BeeSee, if you google this stamp you will get a whole slew of pictures of these. Most of them do not have the stamp in question obliterated.

Peter

Here you go, BeeSee. (The whole set exists yellow or green - this is of course the green one):




And from the larger-format set which Bamra mentioned, the illustration in clearer view:





I hadn't thought of comparing the two sets to identify the missing one! It's clearly marked Vietnam. When I did compare the sets, I noticed the soldier to the left of the obliterated one is missing from the large format set. Instead, there is a stamp showing a soldier from the American Civil War. Another curiosity...

This is the change - the small series has the soldier on the left, the large series has the soldier on the right...

Thanks Ringo.

Scott does not list these Ajman stamps in their albums; check with Michel for more information.

Ringo is quite correct - the real mystery is not the identity of the obliterated (North Vietnamese) figure, but the one to the left of him who should be, but clearly isn't, an American Confederate.

Now in fact a small version of the Confederate soldier exists. In fact I have 16 of them! (And I've seen, but do not have, an identical set in green - though without an obliteration of the North Vietnamese; I don't believe the greens were EVER obliterated, but I'm open to correction.)


So where in the pane of 56 do these appear? The answer is they do not. But there exists another setting.

The usual sheet has 3 panes across and two panes down. In terms of stamps 24x14 all of them 'standard'.

In the alternative setting, at the bottom of the sheet, there are 3 rows of 24 stamps. You have already seen the leftmost third: a row which corresponds to the seventh row of the normal pane plus the two rows of Confederates.

This is the middle section (I have to do it this way because the whole thing is too long to fit my scanner!)


As you can see, this represents rows 4, 5 and 6 of the normal pane.

Finally rows 1, 2 and 3 of the original pane appear as the right hand section of the new setting.



What this amounts to is that this new pane consists of one each of all seven rows of the original pane, plus the 16 Confederate stamps. So is this an entire pane? If so, how many of them constituted the entire sheet? If this were the case it would mean that over the whole sheet there would be 15 times more Confederates than normal; and I can't believe that! So what was the makeup of the rest of the sheet? Anyone seen a full copy?

I don't know if it helps anyone, but I have compiled a comparative list of the Michel numbers for the large, small yellow and small green versions of each uniform.

Large Yell Grn Description
1793 2257 2313 England C17
1794 2258 2314 France 1750
1795 2259 2315 England 1815
1796 2260 2316 England 1742
1797 2261 2317 England 1939
1798 2262 2318 England Royal Fusiliers
1799 2263 2319 England 1917
1800 2264 2320 France 1815
1801 2265 2321 France C18
1802 2266 2322 France C17
1803 2267 2323 France 1913
1804 2268 2324 France 1st Empire
1805 2269 2325 France 1799
1806 2270 2326 France 1960
1807 2271 2327 Byzantine C7-8
1809 2272 2328 France 482-511
1810 2273 2329 Carolingian C9
1811 2274 2330 Gaul C1
1812 2275 2331 Turkey C17
1774 2276 2332 Italy 1915-8
1775 2277 2333 Spain 1807
1776 2278 2334 Russia 1906
1777 2279 2335 Germany 1942
1778 2280 2336 Prussia 1785
1779 2281 2337 Russia 1902
1780 2282 2338 Austria 1750
1781 2283 2339 Rome C1 BC
1782 2284 2340 Macedonia C4 BC
1783 2285 2341 Italy 1936
1784 2286 2342 Holland 1823
1785 2287 2343 Saxony 1745
1786 2288 2344 Russia 1900
1787 2289 2345 Romania 1849
1788 2290 2346 Germany 1880
1789 2291 2347 Russia 1920
1790 2292 2348 Prussia 1813
1791 2293 2349 Russia 1917
1792 2294 2350 Prussia 1775
2537 2295 2351 Japan C17
2538 2296 2352 Spain C16
2539 2297 2353 Italy C17 Cuirassier
2540 2298 2354 Italy C17 Man at Arms
2541 2299 2355 Mesopotamia 1000 BC
2542 2300 2356 Sacred Band (Thebes)
2543 2301 2357 Persia C6 BC
2544 2302 2358 USA 1825
2545 [2303] [2359] USA 1863
2546 2304 2360 USA 1876
2547 2305 2361 USA 1904
2548 2306 2362 Peru
2549 2307 2363 Argentina
2550 2308 2364 North Vietnam
2551 2309 2365 Nepal
x x x Blank
2522 2310 2366 Saudi Arabia
2553 2311 2367 Sudan 1880
2554 2312 2368 Senegal

And also the Michel numbers for the position of each (yellow) stamp in the usual pane.

2276 2277 2278 2279 2295 2296 2297 2298
2281 2282 2283 2284 2299 2300 2301 2302
2268 2269 2270 2290 2291 2292 2293 2294
2259 2260 2271 2272 2273 2274 2275 2266
2311 2312 2261 2262 2263 2264 2265 2257
2286 2287 2288 2289 2304 2305 2306 2307
2309 [2303] 2308 2267 2280 2258 2310 2285

I'm afraid that to understand the brackets you will need to read my post immediately above this one

Michel erroneously describes 2542, the Sacred Band, as Roman; they were actually Theban.

Excellent, Bamra1!!

Thank you!

k

Bamra1, that block of 24 with the confederate soldiers is most interesting. Does it actually have a margin at the bottom or left side? Have you actually seen a complete sheet with margins of the normal 24 x 14 layout? Also, can you check the perforations, they look different.

SCB earlier reported a block of 18 from the left side of a pane.
https://goscf.com/t/8164#69922