Motorcycle Topical Stamps That Are A Bit Out Of The Ordinary And There Stories....

I thought I might talk a little about some of the more obscure or just odd motorcycle stamps that I have come across over my 30 plus years of collecting motorcycle postal items. Lets start with this one which is a motorcycle stamp without a motorcycle on it or even a mention of one!!

It was used for Express postage via motorcycle. :)
Here is my catalog entry for this stamp....."Scott E1, Stanley Gibbons E411, 4c, 1940, Motorcycle messenger Del', o/p Expreso"
The stamp paid for a motorcycle messenger between Guatemala City and Coban.

The second in my series on motorcycle stamps with stories.... lol... This issue is from my collecting interest which is Italian motorcycle related postal items. In 1942, during the second World War, Italy designed and printed a set of stamps with propaganda labels attached without perforations between that stamp and label. This one has a Moto Guzzi Italian motorcycle on it. The thing that makes these odd and expensive is that they were never issued. So a used example can not exist! They were sold as collectibles some time after the war.

Part three.... this is a.... "really are you kidding me??!!? Are you REALLY sure THAT'S a motorcycle stamp collectible??" image first so you see what I mean.....

That's a 1995 sheet of stamps from Grenada of Teresa Teng. She was a famous singer in China and Taiwan.
Easy to gloss over that one and not look HARD at the top right stamp.....

and there it is..... a Vespa hanging on a wall with it's headlight on...
I can't take any credit for finding it. The person who did, tracked down an image from one of her CD's with a similar image.....

Do you are any more? I find your stories very interesting.

Thanks, yes I have a few more lined up... I will do one a day until I run out!

Part four of my noteworthy motorcycle stamp collectibles is a really odd one that I expect a LOT of motorcycle stamp collectors are unaware of.... in 1975 Norfolk Islands issued two stamps that were commemorating 150 years of settlement and then in 1978 four stamps for the 50th year of Scouts..... so nothing motorcycle there.

Here is the odd bit... they were "peal and stick" stamps. Every stamp had various messages on the peal off part promoting tourism on the island. Every second (in 1975) and every fourth stamp (in 1978) had this on the back... "Norfolk Island for land sports. Golf, hiking, trails, horse riding, motor cycling, bicycling"

One of the Scout ones...

There are the full 6....

These are another motorcycle stamp that can never be found "used"... as when the peal off backing is discarded you can not tell which one it was....

If you are going to buy a set of these then you will have to either buy a lot of them until you get all the fronts with the motorcycling words on the back, or ask the sellers to check the backs for you.

Part 5.... the missing helmet error!!!! Israel 1965. Road safety set. Scooter with pink helmet. Vespa scooter! Some were printed with the helmet (pink colour) missing. Be careful if you are buying these errors as they have been faked.

Part six.... away from stamps to a cover... this is the oldest motorcycle postal item I have ever seen. Anyone have anything earlier??? It's from Belgium, not Italy so it's outside my core collection but I had to buy it! It also might challenge your personal definition of a "motorcycle".... mine covers "three wheelers steered by handle bars". So here it is.... 120 years old. Letter written and posted in 1899.

Here is the letter that was a surprise inside the envelope when I bought it years ago....