Stamps And Items From "Dead" Countries And Entities

I've been stamp collecting my entire life and I don't think I've ever encountered a stamp from South Kasai. Fascinating stuff.

Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe and Central Europe for most of the 20th century. It came into existence after World War I in 1918 under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (which was formed from territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire) with the Kingdom of Serbia, and constituted the first union of the South Slavic people as a sovereign state, following centuries in which the region had been part of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary.

The official name of the state was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946, when a communist government was established. In 1963, the country was renamed again, as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).

After the crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, from 1991 until 2006, Yugoslavia broke up into six countries: Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Yugoslavia stamps issued in 1967-1971.

British North Borneo was a British protectorate located in the northern part of the island of Borneo, established in the late 19th century. It was administered by the British North Borneo Chartered Company from 1881 until 1946, when it became a British Crown Colony. The territory included what is now the Malaysian state of Sabah. The region gained independence by joining the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

North Borneo stamps of 1899.

1939.

1961.

Yemen has a very complicated postal history since there were many different short-lived entities on today Yemen. I created this scheme shows the main entities issued stamps.

The different Yemenite entities issued stamps are:
- Aden, British colony
- Katiri state of Seiyun
- Qu'aiti state of Shir and Mukhala (Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut)
- Federation of South Arabia
- Mahra state
- State of Upper Yafa
- Mutawakelite Kingdom of Yemen (North Yemen)
- People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen)
- Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen)

I have stamps from the entities marked by bold letters. Let's start with Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut.

The Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut or the Qu'aiti Sultanate of Shihr and Mukalla was a sultanate in the Hadhramaut region of the southern Arabian Peninsula, in what is now Yemen. Stamps were issued between 1955-1967.

Has anyone ever seen these Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut stamps actually used on cover? I've been looking for a long time and have not...

As with other entities existed in the area of today Yemen, most of the stamps, especially from 1960-1970's, were issued for the collector market and were rarely used for postage. Most of the used covers are philatelic prepared by collectors and stamp sellers.

Although issued mainly for the collector market, they are all listed by Michel catalogue and have some value.

I know that they had to open physical post offices in order for the stamps to be considered valid by the UPU. I once saw a photo someone took of the "Fujeira" post office... literally a tiny adobe-type cube out in the desert (it wasn't even in a town or village). It was abandoned at the time, with sand accumulated halfway up the walls, but there was a colorful painting of the word FUJEIRA on the side (starting to weather off, of course).

Nils, fortunately, I have a cover sent registered from this Fujeira post office to Germany. I will post it here when I finish with the sequence of Yemenite "dead" entities I started.

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The Mahra Sultanate, known in its later years as the Mahra State of Qishn and Socotra was a sultanate that included the historical region of Mahra and the Guardafui Channel island of Socotra in what is now eastern Yemen. The sultanate was abolished in 1967 and was annexed by Soviet supported South Yemen, which itself later united with North Yemen to become unified Yemen in 1990.

Stamps were issued during 1967-1968. This set shows Islamic paintings which fit the local culture.

To fill your gaps.

Before the Aden-specific issues, Indian stamps were used there:




Then Aden acquired its own issues:



The two Sultanates the had their own issues:





(The later stamps of dinosaurs etc that you show are not, I think, listed by Gibbons).

Towards the conclusion of British involvement, the Federation of South Arabia was created:

The reason I had asked about Hadhramaut was because I'm always looking for information on 'prehistorics' on cover. Many years ago, I set myself the goal of collecting at least one first-day-cover (or, failing that, an "earliest known usage" commercial cover) for every single stamp that depicted prehistoric life up through the year 1990.

Subsequently I've either collected or at least seen nearly everything, but never for that Hadhramaut set. Some covers of this sort can be quite rare indeed, so I haven't dismissed the possibility that they exist, and I'm always asking around about them.

On the subject of Fujeira, here's a cover for (half of) the 1968 dinosaur issue. LaoPhil, I'll be very interested to see what you have!

Covers for these illegitimate "issues" pretty much confirm their illegitimacy! Listing by Michel doesn't confer legitimacy - it just means that Michel has identifed a market for such a catalogue.

GeoffHa,

As I mentioned above in my reply to Nils, I'm aware that most of the stamps from the Yemenite entities and the Trucial States issued during the 1960s–1970s were produced mainly for the collector market and were rarely, if ever, used postally. I still show stamps, such as the dinosaur set from the Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut, even if they are not listed in several catalogues, because I'm sharing what I have in my albums. In general, I try to avoid such stamps when I have others that are legitimate and listed in all major catalogues. Hence, I encourage other members to share their stamps from "dead" countries and entities as you did. Thank you very much for doing so and for enriching the thread. The stamps are beautiful and I like your pages.

Nils, I have a cover from Fujeira with monkeys and will post it when I write about the Seven Emirates, later became UAE.

I should note that my collection includes cinderellas, poster stamps and illegal issues if I can find them on cover, even if those covers are themselves bogus!

The Mutawakelite Kingdom of Yemen, also known simply as the Kingdom of Yemen or as North Yemen, was a state that existed between 1918 and 1962 in the northwestern part of what is now Yemen. Its capital was Sana'a until 1948, then Taiz.

Stamps from the 1960's.


A republican coup was launched against the Kingdom in 1962, leading to the North Yemen Civil War and the establishment of Yemen Arab Republic (which issued its stamps). The royalist government only controlled the northern portions of the country from 1962 to 1970, until a peace deal in 1970 saw it largely dissolved.

During this period, 1962-1970, the Kingdom continued to issue stamps, most of them pre-1962 stamps overprinted "FREE YEMEN FIGHTS FOR GOD, IMAM & COUNTRY" and later, many sets for the collector market with popular themes. Here is a set from this period features Moorish Islamic art

The last stamp of the Kingdom with photo of the last Imam, Muhammad al-Badr.