Thailand Alcoholic Beverage Revenue Stamps

The collection of older ( more than 25 years) Thailand alcoholic beverage revenue stamps is very difficult and material is rare to very rare.
By law, alcohol revenues have to be glued to the bottle in such a way that it is difficult to remove the stamps and that they are broken when the cap of the bottle is taken off.
This to prevent re-use and recycling of such stamps.
In addition some 25 years ago, nobody really seriously collected such stamps and most of the stamps on the market are tattered and damaged, making for ugly looking collections.

In the past the Thai government would issue to the tax department of each of the about 50 provinces in Thailand a set of each newly issued stamp, hand-stamped "sample" as a reference. The provincial offices would glue them in a book when they arrived in the office. Most if not all of these sample books are lost and I have never seen any in my 25 years of collecting. Luckily last year on ebay was for sale as single stamps, 93 issues of a December 1973 printing, still pristine, never glued in a book. I think these stamps originated from a government official who had taken a full set home. I never did see any of these 93 stamps before, and I was lucky to be able to win 44 of those stamps.
Each stamp has a handstamp in red, reading Sample in the Thai language.
I show 3 pages of these stamps. The first 2 pictures show yellow and blue large size (21x2,5 cm) stamps. These stamps are I think unique. They were used on bulk containers of imported alcohol.. They had to be affixed to the containers before leaving customs.
After arriving at the destination, these stamps had to be teared and pulled of the bulk containers and be traded in at the tax office for the proper quantity of so called "rebottled" stamps.
That means those large blue and yellow stamps do not exist in used form at all.

Congratulations on securing such a specialised part collection !
Beautifully presented.
I can imagine the bitter sweet, of winning some, and missing others.
An important collection.
...and a plus for ebay!

After reading all the discussions about grading and expertizing stamps I feel so lucky. Collecting Thailand, Laos and Cambodia
revenue stamps, there is no need for grading. Revenue stamp collectors accept a high degree of defects in a stamp and the more old and unique the stamp the more defects are accepted.
Below 2 scans of Alcoholic Beverage stamps from Thailand

The first scan shows the highest value of the first set issued for imported alcohol in 1943. The first 2 pictures are part of the label, a Vietnamese medicinal drink, spiked with alcohol. The 3rd picture is the actual stamp reconstructed in pieces on a backing label.
This stamp is locally printed and is either unique or about a very few copies which escaped total destruction.



The second scan are 6 stamps from the first issue printed overseas (UK). They are for imported beer, issued in 1952. By law these stamps had to be glued to bottles in such a way they would be difficult to remove to prevent recycling. Looking at the stamps this law was followed correctly. Also from these stamps very few have survived.



To keep my sanity with all these defect stamps, sometimes I randomly search ebay for revenue stamps not in my collecting area.
If something does catch my eye and imagination and is below $15 including shipping I will put a bid in.
Below scan shows enregistrement revenue stamps from Madagascar used seemingly from 1937- 1951. The stamps shows an interesting picture with porters carrying stuff I imagine in the jungle and they are protected by a guy who walks in the back carrying a spear.

Very interesting stuff! Thank you for sharing.

Madagascar porters were well known for their high endurance.For lighter loads it was not uncommon to travel up to 100km a day.
The Filanzane was a light weight chair with 4 porters.It was made up of a team of up to 12 porters.they could do up to 60 -90km a day.
It was a system of travel used by Malgache dignitaries,jesuits,and of course French Colonial administrators.

Modern alcoholic beverage stamps issued 2020-2022

Below stamps are the first revenue stamps in Thailand issued showing a QR code.
Each stamp is serialized. Scanning the QR code brings you to a website telling the kind of drink, supplier, alcohol degree, volume and date of issue. Originally the set consisted out of 2 stamps, a perforated and non perforated. In the past Thailand always used a wide range of revenue stamps for all kind of drinks with added an nearly unlimited range of all kind of overprints.

So my fear was that the large variety of stamps would be gone since the QR code will tell all the specifics. However my fear was overblown and now nearly monthly I discover a new variety or color. too bad that the science how to glue those stamps to the cap of the bottle is now nearly perfected and its difficult to get a stamp from a bottle in 1 piece, These stamps look kind of nice

Hi Jos,
not au fait with the Wa yu Phak bird,
Is it that deity human torso, bird rump ?
Sorry, do not know how to properly address it.

Are you able to expand?
(Unable to pick up the image from the scans)

Belay the request... found it

Oops!
Google was my friend.

The statue with bird head with human torso and wings is called Kinnaree. Its statues can be seen in the Grand Palace

That's it, thanks Joss,
(Celestial musician)
seen many times on my visit to the palace.