Iran ID :

Good to hear from you Nigel! Thanks for the link!

What does your SG catalog give for the description of the plant?

k

Regarding the US trade restrictions on those countries -- it is not illegal to possess stamps from those countries, even those stamps issued after the embargoes were put in place. It is illegal to import or bring them into the US. There is a subtle difference.

Thanks k!

My SG Part 16 catalogue says "Viburnum berries" as Rod mentioned at the start of the thread.

How about happy strawberries instead?

I love strawberries, but unfortunately I can only eat them sparingly now.

I thought at first that what the stamp was depicting was the early stage, where the round thingies are whitish. But after reading your post about the leaves, I believe I was mistaken. Being allergic to most flowers, I should have known better than to tackle this issue.

This was what I was originally thinking of in terms of the "whitish stage"

Scotts policy use to be to omit the embargo countries from the catalogue, at least from the starting date of the embargo.

Mike is correct. Scott has dumped that policy, and in the past decade or so has started to update the listings to those embargoed countries one by one. The pricing information, however, in some of the listings is incomplete.

I try to collect only Post-ally usable stamps. My US collection is so sparse on the low end that I have a lot of empty slots.
at this point I am buying a few stamps and some supplies..to house what I already have.

Ryan, may I ask where you acquired the Farahbakhsh Iran catalogue?

What a fascinating group of posts, from such a simple query.
Thanks to all members.
Am I a cynic?, or are the boundaries between
"embargo" and "political" remote?

With all the marvelous discussions on catalogues,
I find myself suffering from "bibliophile envy"
I have a feeling deep down, I like the catalogues,
or ownership of them, in preference to the stamps themselves.

Several varieties related to the viburnum,
"snowberries" from a Canadian blogger.

http://garden-delights.blogspot.com...gements.html

No worries Rod, I'm sure there are libraries near you so that you can have some ownership in catalogues. I myself am finding I need a large variety of them to organize my stamps just because Scott is extremely inadequate to list recent (from 2008-present for me, maybe different for others) stamps from various countries. This money could be used for stamps, but ala, my central library is no use and thus have to pay.

Edit:

BTW, I have found I think your stamps. You have an overprint of a Farahbakhsh #2688 which is normally 60 value and appearently also appear as an error which is given in this example of an ebay ad:

http://cgi.ebay.com/IRAN-2-BLKS-4-F...em4aa2f92072

As you can see their value is $20 US so how much I wonder your's is? Also note, they are described as simply "flowers"

Thanks Katchem_ash
I am not sure how realistic that price is.

Mine was in a plastic "chinese takeaway" box
of mixed at my clubs auction, reserve $1, I won it at $3.20
I already have found a Nepal swastika stamp, someone once paid $55
for.
What a hobby we have. I love lucky dips.

I got it from ebay seller persianstamp, it came direct to me from Iran. They haven't had any sales in the past 12 months, and their website looks mostly incomplete.

http://www.persianstamp.com

Vera Trinder in the UK lists it, I'm sure there are other sources as well.

http://veratrinder.org/iran-farahba...8111520.html

Ryan

Any information please on this fellow?

My Persian only extends to telling you that it's a 10 Shahi. Beyond that ...