Are These Even Considered "Stamps"?

They are certainly cool looking at any rate. These are peel off back stamps? I don't want to pick at them to find out. They are each in a plastic window and not used. Information please and thank you

If you go to www.stampworld.com you can find these

Peter

Yes, these are postage stamps of Bhutan.
They are referred to as "Lenticular" stamps.
Bhutan is noted for out of the ordinary (some say "gimmicky") stamp emissions, Postage stamp as a vinyl record etc.

I have one supposedly cancelled from Bhutan, however the stamp itself will not hold cancelling ink, so it is debatable.

"Lenticular" action stamps have been issued by..........

United States, Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Thailand.

Bhutan Lenticular (lower = Vinyl stamps) stamps on Cover.



From my collection, plastic "blow molded" stamp, Bhutan

Lenticular stamps were also issued by some of the Trucial States, although some don't count them as stamps. Umm Al Qiwain (or people purporting to be Umm Al Qiwain) issued several.

Bhutan wasn't part of Trucial States but had a simliar issuing policy.

They are stamps but I regard them as no more than overpriced stickers.

Jack Kelley

Thank you all for the response. And you jkelley01938 shoot straight from the hip lol I like that.

It may be wise to consider, all folks read these posts.
Negativity with regard to what people collect, is a disease that affects all our hobby.

Lets hope someone doesn't one day dump on what you collect.

Possibly a more polite way to say it is these stamps were issued by legitimate postal entities but intended for sale to collectors and saw limited, if any, postal use within the country.

There is a uneasy balance between stating an opinion vs criticizing others.

Oh wow, I feel I may have committed an error with my post. I do apologize for dragging up bad feelings, if in fact I have. I simply wanted to post what has fallen into my lap. I'm clueless about your hobby.

Morning all,

It all comes down to how we define a postage stamp. Generically, a postage stamp is an item sold by a postal authority valid to cover the cost of mailing an item. Within that definition we find items widely made available for everyone to use and items still valid for the purpose of mailing stuff but not widely sold to the public for that purpose. Under that last cavoite you find valid postage items sold to generate revenue for the post office but never intended for wide public postal use.

Folks are free to collect whatever they wish; however, we wind up supporting this "if you print it they will buy it" scheme.

Welcome to the forum, Commander. You've just encountered one of the unwritten rules around here. You get taken to task for simply liking someone else's comment, while the original comment, which was the actual criticism of the items in question, and its poster skates by untouched. Please feel free to post whatever opinion you wish, as long as it is polite. Just know, however, that you will not be spared the sniping of the curmudgeons here until you're a "pillar" or "bedrock" of the community. If any of you curmudgeons object to this viewpoint, then please explain what happened above. Cheers.

Bhutan has some of the quirkiest stamps in the world.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pos...ry_of_Bhutan

That's hardly fair to Bhutan. The number of stamp issues per year for Bhutan during the 1960s/1970s was much closer to the USA or Canada than it was to Sharjah or Fujeira, each of which "issued" over a thousand stamps during 1971-1972 -- outnumbering Bhutan's entire output to date in those two years!

Bhutan was also cleverer with the "gimmicks"; while Umm al Qiwain issued some lenticular stamps, and Sharjah issued foil "coin" stamps, etc., Bhutan had textured "oil painting" stamps, scratch-and-sniff stamps, stamps made out of steel, phonograph stamps, and even an liquid crystal display stamp set (technically never issued, but some copies are on the market). Their Apollo topicals (especially the souvenir sheets) are some of the most striking space stamps issued anywhere.

Obviously nearly all Bhutan's stamps are far more philatelic than postal in nature, but nearly every stamp issuer from the late 19th century on is guilty of issuing stamps more for collector money than to meet any postal need.