Security features with Qatar Stamps

There are multiple of security systems used in stamps to prevent forgeries. Some of which I shall elaborate below:

• Types Gum
  Gum Arabic - an all natural gum, commonly used until 1960s. It was mostly sourced from Sudan. However, this supply was constrained in early 1960s and so Harrison’s & Sons developed a new, synthetic gum Polyvinyl Acetate (PVA).
  GA came back into the market later in 1969 and was used through to 1973 when PVA  and later PVA Dextrin came into use.
  The difference in the properties of these gums allows us to determine the authenticity of stamps, as I have described on a previous post.

• Luminescent
  Another development that allowed the postal services to detect forgeries was the development of luminescent materials. These come with two different properties, they can either be phosphorescent or fluorescent.
  Qatar has used at least two different  a blue/white organic resin and a yellow/green Zinc Sulphide Copper complex.
  There probably was a third one made by M/s Johan Enschede - Netherlands (Cartax DPXT) with a bright yellow fluorescence under UV light.
  An interesting example of this is the 2005 Joint issue between Doha and Sarajevo (see image below).

• Watermarks
  As I have also referred to in a previous post, watermarks were too used in British Stamps overprinted Qatar (both the ‘St. Edwards Crown and E2R multiple’ and the ‘St. Edwards Crown multiple’), later a good percentage of the stamps printed by M/s Johan Enschede, known as the JEZ watermark.

Other protections could be the thermochromatic ink, Gold Hotstamping, Gold metallic embossing. A variation (not necessarily a security feature) is Scent Varnish as on the 2008 stamps.

These, just a few of the many other features, also help make the stamps of Qatar highly interesting and collectable.

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If some of this is of interest to you, you could read up more on the below link:

Harrison & Sons Involvement with Stamps Papers: Part 2

 

First Local Motif Issues

Having just posted the history of the first post offices and first local cancellations, it is only logical to show the first stamp issues with local themes.

In the image below I only include the first issues of the major locations as there wouldn't be enough for all. I apologise to the ones I omitted, but to be fair I have included the dates of released for all.

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History of the Regional Post Offices

I have on a previous post talked about 'How it all began'. In that post I was developing the idea on how the  concept of the local designed stamps began.

Eventually the first of Qatar designed stamps were shown on, expanding on the specific artists responsible for their design - Postal Notice for the 1961 Definitive Issue.

Not surprising, the designers of Qatar's first stamps were also involved in the first stamps of the Trucial States.

Clearly, the relationship between all the states in the area were intrensically linked, due to their geopolitical connections. The issue of stamps have always being linked to territorial claims, the states in the Persian Gulf are no different in this aspect. The British, being aware of this, took advantage of this to lay claims and allow the states to claim independence from the Ottoman Empire, and from each other, by the issue of stamps.

This movement towards their own independence can be seen in the timeline below. It begins at the opening of Oman post office back in the 19th century, moving to the first cancellation, issue of the first local stamps all the way to complete postal independence.

Pleas click below to learn more.

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Qatar's First Canceller

My overall aim in these posts is not only to document philatelic history but also to highlight other inconsistencies.

I recently posted about the opening of the Postal Office in Umm Said. Today I would like to refer to the first Postal Cancellation of Qatar which was just prior to opening of the first Post Office in Doha.

Having access to the Qatar Philatelic & Numismatic Club gives me the benefit of seeing extremely rare covers as the ones in the images below.

In the below images, I shall not only show the first know cancellation of Qatar, but also some inconsistencies that are known to exist. Some refer to them as fakes, but I would like to think of them as inconsistencies that in themselves help tell a story.

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Regarding telling a story, the below image describes the inconsistencies in canceller of the Political Officer in Qatar. As described, although there is little doubt of the authenticity (actually forgery) of the cancellation used on one of the covers. This in itself tells of the story of the Opening of the First Postal Office in Qatar, and its relation to Bahrain. As I shall explain on a later post, Bahrain initially was running the shots in relation to the mail system, but this did not last long.

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Fakes - Forgeries - highlights another future topic that I would like to expand on. Clearly stamps are a valuable commodity in both mint and used version. In mint allows mail to be sent at the price of a print or photocopy. In used, allows it to be sold to collectors at a higher value than that it costs to produce a fake. So, how to overcome this? A topic I shall expand on very soon.

Until then, please leave your comments and suggestions below.

 

Qatar Stamps and Health Care in Qatar

Unfortunately, due to recent personal experience, I can vouch for the superb quality of health care in Qatar.

But this, as with most of the successes of today in Qatar, is fruit of many years of hard work and planning. Be it as a leader in gas exploration and export, aviation, sports and so on. Most of this hard work in these fields is well documented in Qatar's stamp issues.

As such, below I document the development of Qatar's Hamad Medical Corporation and the resulting World First Class Medical facilities. It all began in the hands of H. H. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Jassim Al Thani in 1944 with the construction of a twenty bed hospital, mostly with his own money for the main benefit of the Petroleum Company, but opened to the public in general.

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As Qatar gained its independence from Britain, the first duties of Qatar's first Amir, H. H. Sheikh Ahmad Bin Ali Al Thani, were to gain access to a wealth of Intergovernmental Agencies such as ICAO, UN, UPU and so on, most of which are documented in the stamps issued in his period.

The United Nations itself is made up  of a large number of organisations, of which the World Health Organization (WHO) is the one we are concerned with in this post. with the first issue related to this organization in Qatar being that of 1968 as can be seen in the image below. 

Clearly the development of the Rumailah Hospital (as seen in this set) and which became part of the Hamad Hospital was a big concern of the second Amir of Qatar, H. H. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani, with it been featured in 5 different stamp issues during his reign.

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Today the Hamad Corporation, established by Amiri decree in 1979, manages 12 hospitals (including 9 specialist) and is the first corporation of its kind to have all its hospitals accredited by Joint Commission International under the Academic Medical Center accreditation program, as is still growing.

Qatar and the Concorde

There are many possible interests within philately to accommodate just about anyone. Aviation being one of my favourite topics, I decided to expand the theme of this blog to not only include the stamps issued by Qatar, but also to include an occasional interesting cover, as was the case in the previous post relating to the Inauguration of the Umm Said Post Office. Below I shall tell the story of the Concorde as it relates to Qatar and Qatar Philately.

The Concorde, the world's only supersonic passenger aircraft to date, was born out of competitiveness and collaboration between the French and British aviation industries. The project grew from two separate studies, one by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and the second by the French Sud Aviation. The project began in the 1950s. The two teams eventually came together to collaborate and ensure that their design would enter the market before a rival American project came to fruition. The French and British designs had slightly different markets and so initially were different in size, range and power plants requirements, but these variations were slowly ironed out as the confidence in the final design and specifications ensured that the aircraft would be able to satisfy both countries requirements.

The competitive nature of the project remained to the end of the design concept and into the first flight. So much so, that the first commercial flight of the Concorde was a carefully choreograph exercise to ensure neither gained or lost. Thus, although the first actual flight of the Concorde prototype was on the 2nd of March 1969, the first commercial flight was on the 21st of January 1976. With the French, wearing the colours of Air France took of from Paris enroute to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), British Airways took off from London Heathrow to Bahrain. See the slide below to learn more.

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As the project neared completion, the sales pitch began around the world. With the general economic sentiment and fuel costs at the time were in its favour, the concept gained favour with many airlines around the world showing their interests for approximately 100 aircraft (down from the expected 350). Companies as diverse as Panair do Brasil, Branif (USA), Air India, Iran Air & Middle East Airlines and from other well established airlines. However, the financial crisis of 1973.74 and later the restrictions on the sonic boom (the shock wave produced as the aircraft passes the sound barrier) over populated areas resulted in many cancellations.

It is perhaps some of these airlines interest in the project that led the aircraft to fly into the Middle East for part of its testing programme. As part of the testing phase of the project, two prototype airframes (Concorde 1 and Concorde 2) were built to the main purpose of testing the aircraft for safety, performance, range and so on. Concorde 1 French registration F-WTSB and Concorde 2 British registration G-BSST).

Both these prototypes airframes flew in the Middle East as part of their testing programme and today they can be visited by the public:

• Concorde 1 rests today at the Airbus Museum in Toulouse.
• Concorde 2 can be viewed at the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge.

While only Concorde 2 operated from Bahrain to Kuwait via Qatar on the 26th of August 1974 as can be seen in the cover below, it was not the only one to fly through the region (see image below). Surprisingly this flight occurred just four years after the first direct flight from Doha to London by Gulf Air.

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Although the accident of Air France Concorde on the 25th of July 2000 resulted in the types eventual grounding, I remain optimistic that there is a future for the supersonic transport. At present there are a number of airfare designers (both old and new) with bold designs. These designs in general have one key feature in common. The aim to reduce the sonic boom to the point that it would be possible to operate the aircraft at supersonic speeds over populated areas, an issued that plagued the Concorde.

Likewise, I'm hopeful to see one these innovative designs to wear the colours of a regional airline.

Qatar - Umm Said Post Office Inauguration

Neil Donaldson published in 1975 "The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia and the Gulf". In this book, now out of press, he described, amongst other items, the first 17 type of cancellers used in Qatar as well as the history of the post office - in particular the Umm Said (today Mesaieed) Post Office in the Qatar Petroleum facilities.

Note that the stamps on the cover in the slide below are still in the hexadecimal Indian Rupee format issued on the 5th of December 1952. It was not until 1957 that the Indian Rupee changed to the decimal format.

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Another item that Neil Donaldon meticulously described were the design process for the first stamps to be issued in Qatar with the portrait of the then ruler H. H. Sheikh Ali Bin Abdullah Bin Jassim Al Thani (who was also given the Knighthood of Commander of the British Empire) - see slide below:

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The Knighthood ceremony was done aboard HMS Newfoundland - below I described a little of the ship's history.

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But back to philately, H. H. Sheikh Ali Bin Abdullah Bin Jassim Al Thani had an important role in the design of Qatar's First own designed stamps as well as the opening of its own Postal Agency. But that is the topic for a later post.

 

Qatar - Teacher's Day

Today is World's Teacher Day.

Did you know, in Japan Teachers are the only members of society that do not have to bow down to the Emperor !!!

Teachers always deserve our respect !

Many of Qatar's stamp issues are related to education, but the 2017 issue was specially designated to the teachers.

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Driving Safety in Qatar and neighbouring Countries

As I mentioned at the start of my blog, my main interest is to look at the history associated with philatelic items. The inspiration for this research was a set of stamps issued by Qatar in 1967 regarding Qatar Traffic Day. Why 1967, what motivated the issue.

In the 1960s a number of countries, big and small issued stamps regarding Traffic Safety:

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But looking at the issue from Iceland I noticed that it was not only highlighting traffic safety but also a change in the direction of driving, Considering most of the countries in the region had been British Protectorates it was strange that they all now drive on the right (American style), rather than on the left as do most ex-British colonies. On closer look I found that the Trucial countries change from Left Hand Drive (LHD) to Right Hand Drive (RHD) in 1966, Bahrain in 1967 and Yemen followed suit in 1977. The Latter one was complemented with a stamp issue as shown below:

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 Looking through the superb Qatar Digital Library I found the first piece of the puzzle:

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The Qatar Digital Library was contained the traffic regulations as written for Qatar (1954), Kuwait, Bahrain and the Trucial Countries all issued in 1955. In these regulations only Kuwait was a Right hand Drive, all the others, as expected were Left hand Drive. This would go some was in explaining the Qatar 1967 Stamp issue. If only I could find something related to when Qatar changed from LHD to RHD.

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This answer was not what I expected, as can be seen in the image below. Qatar's Sheikh Ali Bin Abdullah Al Thani had requested the Traffic Regulations to be changed from LHD to RHD just prior to the final publication of the Legislation (this was probably the same for Kuwait, although I have not been able to find the appropriate documentation). See the image below.

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So we now have the case that both Qatar and Kuwait were RHD from 1955. The Trucial Countries and Bahrain were LHD. They, eventually changed side in 1966 and 1967 respectively. See the image below.

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Possibly the world emphasis on general traffic safety (accidents number had been growing at an alarming rate) compounded with the change in the Traffic Regulations in the nearby neighbours prompted the issue of these stamps as shown below.

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Please leave your comments below.