Bangladesh 1971 Scott 17-31

I was wondering if anyone might happen to know why the some of the first year Bangladesh stamp issues in 1971 which are Scott numbers 17-31 are not shown in the 2009 Scott catalog?

Cheers..

Marc

It is not an editorial error. That gap has been there quite a while, not just the 2009 edition. Unfortunately, I don't remember if it is because of renumbering, moved to another section, or numbers originally reserved for some of the local overprints that were never cataloged... Almost all my pre-2000 catalogs are in storage right now. I will check next time I visit my archival storage. If you don't see a reply within 2 weeks, feel free to PM a reminder.

My belief on the Scott's missing numbers is that Scott was leaving room for know overprints of Pakistani stamps. Once is was determined that the overprints were local in nature, IE local post master, and not authorized by the new government, by Scott's own catalogue guidelines, they were omitted. By the time a decision was made on the true status of overprints new issues were released and started at #32 and Scott's never adjusted.

Mike is likely correct. That's just too far back for me to remember.

Scott gives the following clue -

"A set of 15 stamps of types A1 and A2 in new paisa-taka values and colors was rejected by Bangladesh officials and not issued. Bangladesh representatives in England released these stamps, which were not valid, on Feb. 1, 1972."

The missing numbers were probably once given listed status in the Scott catalogue (15 values would take up the missing numbers 17-31), but were already removed by the 1975 edition at least (I don't have a 1974 or 1973 Scott catalogue to check those years). British MP John Stonehouse was in the middle of the problems involved with these stamps - he had been the lead British contact for printing of both the original stamps (Scott 1-8, which were printed and released prior to Bangladeshi independence) and the liberation overprints (Scott 9-16). This original printing used "BanglaDesh" as the country name.

Here's a lengthy post dealing with the first (Scott listed) issue and their overprints, as well as the huge numbers of differing hand-overprinted Pakistani stamps.

http://bd-stamps.blogspot.com/2009/...gladesh.html

I wasn't able to find as much detail on the issues not listed by Scott - this was the best I could do. The unlisted issues use "Bangladesh" as the country name, losing the capitalization on the letter "D".

http://www.banglarglimpse.com/wol.htm

John Stonehouse, the last Postmaster General of the UK, was a rather colourful figure, involved in faking his own death, laundering money under false identities, etc. The Wikipedia article gives a somewhat more sober account than this first article, which follows more of the style of tabloid journalism.

http://everything2.com/title/John+Stonehouse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stonehouse

Ryan

Thanks, Ryan! One less thing for me to do when I visit my storage!

Thank you so much everyone. I am new here and I am truly amazed at how helpful and informative everyone here is. I have never seen a forum like this anywhere else on the net.

Anyway, basically I am trying to value them. I have 2 sets of all the first issue Bangladesh stamps from #1 through #32. And then I have one set from #42-55. I got the Scott values for everything but that gap set of #17-#31 of which I also have 2 sets. Cheers.

Can you post a simple pic of the "gap set" that you have? Thank you!

k

Thank you khj. I will do that. Give me a bit of time. The two sets are in pairs as well so to scan them all in one image will be tricky. Since they have a 100K upload limit here I will probably upload it to my own server and then link it in to a post.

Thanks in advance, Marc!

Hi khj. I have now scanned the 17-31 gap set. Sorry, but I did not put them in order and I was not able to lay them out on the scanner so straight, but you can see what is there at least in case that helps to find them.

Thank you very much!

k

The 2002 Gibbons Commonwealth Catalogue (the last year that it covered this period) carries the following note:
On 1 February 1972 the Agency placed on sale a further issue in the flag, map and Shaikh Mujibur designs in new colours and new currency (100 paisas = 1 taka). This issue proved to be unacceptable to the Bangladesh authorities who declared them to be invalid for postal purposes, no supplies being sold within Bangladesh. The values comprise 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 25, 40, 50, 75 p., and 1, 2 and 5 t. (Price for set of 15 un., £1.)

Interesting Tony, thanks. So it sounds like they basically have no value as a result. You would think that since the government found them unacceptable that it might make them more rare and possibly more valuable as many were probably simply discarded at the time.

Oddly enough, the first issue Bangladesh stamps in general, Scott numbers 1-16, have very little value at all. I guess the printing was so large they are still heaps available in the market.

And that probably simply has to do with the fact that there were so many stamp collectors already back in 1971 that everyone grabbed a set since they were the first official stamps of Bangladesh.

As opposed to say the first stamps of Canada, Italy, Australia, etc where back in the mid to late 1800's and very early 1900's stamp collecting had not really come of age yet and thus making those earlier first issue stamps much rarer to find.

Time of course too plays a role I am sure.

Thanks again Tony.

I'm old enough to remember the founding of Bangladesh well (it's just more recent events, like 5 minutes ago, I have trouble with). There was enormous interest in Bangladesh, and an awful lot of goodwill slopping around. I suspect a lot of collectors, and maybe others as well, bought the sets as souvenirs. This tends to happen with big events like that.

Thanks makes good sense. Thanks.