South Arabian Stamps

Hi Everyone.

Can any of our members tell me where I can find the stamps of South Arabia? My Scott's catalogue says that the country became known as the People's Republic of Yemen, but, I can't find any of the stamps I have. I have the stamps of Aden overprinted "SOUTH ARABIA" and with surcharges as well and the design types are A2&3 of the state of Seiyun and design type A10 & 11 of the state of Hadramaut.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Chimo

Bujutsu

I think the common name for the peoples republic of yemen is "South Yemen". Have you tried that?

Peter

Gibbons lists the overprinted stamps under the two Aden states, immediately following Aden - I don't know how Sott treats them. The South Arabian Federation issues are listed separately under that heading. Issues following independence in November 1967 are listed under the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

My 2010 Scott catalog lists them as South Arabia.

Bujutsu,
this is how I organise my collection.
Take from it, what you will.

Thanks all for your help. However, I am still in the lurch regarding these issues. It might sound stupid, but, there is not a South Yemen in my editions of Scott's?? I looked several times too lol. South Arabia in my Scott's only list stamps for 1965 and 1966 and does not have any of the Aden stamps I mentioned in my first posting here. Oh well, at any rate, I will hold on to them in the hope I can find some information on them. I am also wondering if they might be 'bogus' issues?

Happy collecting.

Chimo

Bujutsu

You may be on the right track with this question. I don't understand the whole history of these issues, but Ken Lawrence's article in the Jan. 15, 2018, issue of Linn's Stamp News may be of interest.

Robert

These 1966 issues and many others are listed in SG under "South Arabia".

The political situation was rather complicated. Both Kathiri [Seiyun] and Qu'aiti ["Hadhramaut"] had refused to join the independent Federation of South Arabia and formed part of the (British) Protectorate of South Arabia.

They were no longer part of the Aden Protectorate which is why "Aden" was blocked out and "South Arabia" was added.

I don't see them listed in my old 2009 Scott but redwoodrandy has said they are in the 2010 edition under "South Arabia".

For some of the reasons you see here, Scott lists only some of the stamps of this area and era in their catalogs, and I would presume the same would be true for their albums.

I've found that Michel has tried to catalog the stamps far more completely, and their "Naher Osten" catalog in German or their "Gulf States" catalog in English is very helpful. (I've tried to brush up my philatelic German because, it seems to me, that the German volume is slightly more complete. They've also updated it more recently.) And, although they don't value everything, they often value at least the complete sets of a series, if not the individual stamps, and so one can at least get a sense of the relative values of some stamps versus others.

Apologies Bujutsu,
I mis-read your original post. I see "overprinted" South Arabia

South Arabia is in Scott with Catalogue numbers #1 through #29
No mention of opts.

Scott directs South Yemen is to "People's Democratic Republic of Yemen"

PS: If possible, would like to see your images of the Opt stamps.

The stamps themselves aren't bogus (at least any more bogus than most stamp emissions nowadays), but they were promoted by crooks as part of "stamp investment portfolios" (a bit of an oxymoron), sort of like the "face on Mars" stamps of Sierra Leone, or the Europa/WWF sets flogged by Afinsa, etc.

The South Arabian Seiyun/Hadhramaut emirates issues post-1966 are listed in Michel, but not in Scott or Stanley Gibbons IIRC. The rationale Scott used for not listing these issues is that the postal agency used by these states was run by a stamp dealer who held back stocks of these issues to sell, and of course most of the issues were philatelically-minded (a similar situation occurred with the UAE predecessors, and with Format International in the 1980s, and the Seebecks of the late 1800s, though Scott lists the Format/Seebeck issues). The dealer in question is long dead by now.

SG gives full listing to the following issues from the sultanates in the Protectorate of South Arabia:

- 9 sets from Kathiri (including 2 sets of surcharges on Aden period stamps) with the last issue date of 1 March 1967.

- 6 sets from Qu'aiti (including 1 set of surcharges on Aden period stamps) with the last issue date of 1 December 1966.

- 1 set from Mahra issued on 12 March 1967.

- 1 set from Upper Yafa issued on 30 September 1967.

The Protectorate was dissolved on 30 November 1967 when the last of these sultanates was overrun.

SG provides brief notes on many additional sets for each of these sultanates in appendix lists.

As Philatarium has noted, Michel provides much more detail on these additional sets.

Thanks again to all of you for your help. The mystery still continues <G>. The good news is that I didn't spend big $$ to get them because they were part of a collection I got a little while go.

Happy collecting

Chimo

Bujutsu

A scan / image would have assisted us a lot earlier.

They belong in
British Protectorates in Aden.
Kathiri State of Seiyun.

Source: Michel Gulf States Catalogue 2006 (1st edition in colour)

Thank you Rod, and, much appreciated

Chimo

Bujutsu