The Stamps Of Sealand (!??)

Hello Everybody...please bear with me here!

My 12 year old son has been fixated on this 'country' for a few months. For those not aware, it is an abandoned oil platform, somewhere off the UK coast, and some genius declared it a 'sovereign nation' at some point???

ANYWAY...

We determined...through careful dinnertime discussion...that daddy does not have any Sealand stamps!

(Of course, I do not believe 'Sealand' has the authority - or has, in fact, issued any stamps!)

My Scott Volume #5 is from 2007, and of course, does not list any Sealand.

But naturally, my tech-savvy 12 yr old 'searches up' Sealand stamps on his phone, and in like 3 seconds, comes up with Sealand stamps!

(And I later find a bunch on ebay!)

Can someone out there give the 50 cent primer on Sealand??

I assume these 'stamps' are some fantasy/cinderella creation of some enterprising folks??

HELP!

Every IT professional is familiar with Sealand. Sealand was infamous as a part of the 'dark web' (kiddie porn, porn, copyrighted content like music, stolen credit cards etc.) for many years. It established itself as a stand-alone off-shore legal entity which did not honor international laws. They built a huge data center and went to town hosting all kind of ugly and notorious (read illegal) websites. But I think in recent years they finally managed to stop a lot of this and have been trying to change their reputation. (Ask yourself, what is the value of being a off-shore data center with little threat of international laws?)

I am not familiar with their 'stamps'.
Don

Some history of the World War Two sea forts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maunsell_Forts

Robert

Sealand, like a number of other self-proclaimed micronations, has indeed issued stamps, though they would of course be recognized by the philatelic world at large as nothing more than fantasies or cinderellas.

That doesn't necessarily make them less collectible. As an Esperanto topical collector, I'm trying to get my hands on stamps issued by the Republic of Rose Island (Respubliko de la Insulo de la Rozoj), a micronation established on a platform in the Adriatic Sea in 1968:

http://alphabetilately.org/Esperanto/RoseI.html

Cinderellas of this sort can be rather amusing, especially those from micronations that take themselves less seriously. At WESTPEX a few years ago, I bought this stamp from the Archipelago of Tui-Tui, which is located on a houseboat on Seattle's Lake Union. I couldn't resist the gibberish in the overprint.

I have in the past studied the legal validity of some of the so-called micronations, most are philosophical in nature, expressing ones right to self determination of a group of peoples, while on the other hand some have accomplished amazing feats of international law principles and have even gained recognition from accepted (i.e. U.N. member) nation states.

Whatever your perspective on these matters may be, I guess many nation states had relatively small beginnings i.e. the united states began with a declaration of independence (essentially a tort claim) signed by 55 men and the eventual constitution I believe was signed by 39 men if im not mistaken so thats for perspective.

Check out the hutt river province official website, they have viewable the actual legal documents throughout their almost 45 or 50 years existwnce after seceding from Australia, quite an interesting examination of the law and legal principles in my humble opinion. They have issued many stamps and coins. Maybe future generations will not afford them cinderella status but I guess only time will tell.

Best Regards

That old thread was fun to revisit. I haven't seen my Sealand stamps and covers in years. I wonder where I put them?

mdroth, I'll take a look this weekend and see if I can find something to send to your son. Would there be a preference for fish or ships?

Thanks everybody...I figured I'd hear rapidly & you guys never disappoint! It has been lots of fun over the last few days...he was thrilled when he heard what all of you said - (he gave me the 'ha' - I knew it was a real country speech!) & then startled when I admitted I didn't have any stamps from 'zululand' and I had to have made that country up - they don't have a national football (soccer!) team in the world cup! (I bet you don't have any stamps from La-La Land either Dad!)

Then this afternoon, in the midst of a rambling conversation, he asks 'what are stamps for?'

As far as I'm concerned, technology peaked at frozen pizza. This internet thing has destroyed an entire generation!

Cjd - thanks very much - a very generous & gracious offer! But please keep your Sealand stamps...I'm sure (!) they'll be highly collectible some day! I'm very far away - and my son does not want any stamps. But I will make sure to get some on ebay - there's a bunch (apparently - who knew?!) so I can show him at some point!