Falconry in Qatar - A new issue

Falconry, an ancient means of hunting is today a UNESCO Living Human Heritage. It was brought into Qatar by the Bedouins and is much loved by the Qatari's, so much so that the Falcon is the National Bird of Qatar.

The Falcon has been featured in numerous Qatar stamps from the very first issue as shown below.

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On the 29th of January, the latest addition to this tradition was released celebrating the end of the 13th Qatar International Falcon and Hunting Festival. The latest stamps are shown below. 

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Qatar Stamps - Queen Elizabeth II Overprints

Since both Bahrain and Kuwait had a substantial population and aviation base, the British Authorities early on deemed it appropriate to have Indian stamps overprinted "BAHRAIN" / "KUWAIT". Qatar, on the other hand had a relative small population in the 1940s and so it was deemed, by the British authorities not to require its own Indian Stamps overprinted "QATAR".

So it was that until 1948 Qatar used Indian Stamps overprinted BAHRAIN, however, the lack of a post office meant that generally the mail would be transferred by 'hand of shipment' to Bahrain or through the Gulf Petroleum Company aircraft onto another location for subsequent mailing.

On the appointment of a Political Resident in Qatar changed all that, with it came a means of mailing directly from Qatar. Initially the stamps sold were the BAHRAIN overprinted ones, however this was quickly frowned upon by the locals, and so value only surcharged stamps were quickly brought in.

By 1957 with the change of the Indian Rupee to a decimal format, required a further change to the overprint, giving rise to the stamps shown below.

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Perhaps, less known is the variations in these stamps. As shown on the image above, both the 15 NP and the 40 NP have know variations. The latter a subtle colour change, while the former has a number of known differences, two of which are highlighted in the image below.

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One of the best sources of information regarding the British Stamps overprint is the GB Overprints Society, which runs a web site detailing all sorts of information. However, possibly not complete as I shall describe.

Around 1960-61 the QE II Wilding series of stamps were re-issued with the Multiple Crown watermark. However, the GB Overprints Society website omits the 9 NP stamps (shown with a red border in the image below) from the list of re-issued stamps, while it is clearly available with the multiple crown watermark, and even with the multiple crown water mark and QATAR overprint. The same being true for the variants of the 15 NP and the 40NP, both of which do exits as for the 9 NP.

The stamps with a black diagonal line through them were not issued with the QATAR overprint.

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Below are the stamps overprinted QATAR of this particular set with known variations.

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What's in a name - Arabian or Persian Gulf

I'm sure most of the collectors from the region would have noticed that the covers were initially addressed as:

Qatar, Persian Gulf

Qatar, Arabian Gulf.

Qatar

In my own collection I even have one addressed to Qatar, South East Arabia.

In general, you should find that most of the covers prior to 1956 would be addressed as Qatar, Persian Gulf and after until approximately 1960's as Qatar, Arabian Gulf. A cover from the Department of Post Qatar shows the correct address, by having simply 'Doha, Qatar'. Yet even as late as 1982, there were people addressing their cover with Qatar, Persian Gulf (see image below).

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Yet, having the wrong name could have serious implications as demonstrated in the air letter below.

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Unfortunately the matter is still not exactly clear. While, logically all the GCC countries (and other Arabian countries too) refer to the body of water as the Arabian Gulf, the matter is more complex.

The US Board on Geographical Names through the United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency list some 16 names for the same body of water. But the US Military, in particular the Navy has been referring to yet, since 1991, as the Arabian Gulf.

The United Nations remains committed to the 'Persian Gulf'.

National Geographic at one time used 'Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf)' but this eventually was changed to 'Persian Gulf - which some nations refer to the Arabian Gulf'.

The changes occurred as mentioned above, in the 1950's when the then President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser changed from referring to it as the Persian Gulf (most importantly during the signing of Egypt's new Constitution when he stated "from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf") to, as he gained influence in the Arab Nationalism, the 'Arabian Gulf'.

So look through your collections and share some of your covers with variations on the format of the address, be them from Qatar, Bahrain, or the UAE, noting the date on them.

Cutting the last chains to the colonial past - the rise of the local currency.

Possibly the last remaining vestige of the British control over the region was in the form of the currency used throughout the Arabian Coast countries. These are (in alphabetical order) Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and UAE. The latter (United Arab Emirates) being comprised of seven Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Ajman,  Dubai, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah).

Philatelically Ajman's exclave of Manama also issued stamps as did the exclave of Sharjah - Khor Fakkan.

Perhaps the fact that all these tiny little towns and Emirates produced numerous stamp issues and in particular for events not related to them, created the perception that these stamps were simply being produced to gain income for the local rulers from their philatelic sales. However, the discerning collector can always find the little gem in the rough. I hope to show some of them in this post.

As I mentioned on a previous post (click here to read it again), the approaching departure of the British Power from the region, the financial impacts of the Indo-Pakistan war resulted in the regional powers becoming more fearful of their dependency on the Indian Gulf Rupee (see the slide below)

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The first to move in this was Kuwait, which introduced its own currency in 1960 with coins entering circulation in 1961. With this the definitive stamp issue of 1959 was re-issued with a few stamps re-designed and of course the new denominations being shown on the stamps (see image below). The 1959 issue can be seen on a previous blog (click here to read it).

 

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Although Bahrain initially was a signatory to the Arabian Gulf Currency Agreement on the 7th of July 1965 as well as part of the discussions for the creation of a United Arab Emirates, this did not last long and by the 16th of October 1965 Bahrain launched its own currency. The first stamps with the new currency were issued on the 21st January 1966 (see image below).

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With the departure of Bahrain from the Arabian Gulf Currency Agreement, Qatar and Dubai decided to form their own currency union, signing the Qatar & Dubai Currency Agreement on the 21st of March 1966. The agreement provided for the introduction of a common currency for the two states and the establishment of a Currency Board.

Perhaps the fact that the smaller Emirates of the United Arab Emirates required fewer stamps, or that their sales were not as large as expected and therefore had large stocks. Whatever the reason, it is these smaller Emirates that first marked the change over to the new currency by overprinting previous stamp issues with the new currency (see next few images).

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The stamps from these smaller Emirates, as I mentioned above, been seem as mostly issued for revenue rather than need and as such been Blacked Blotted by the American Philatelic Society and others. The original version of the above stamps can be easily found from the typical online shops, but the re-valued versions as shown above perhaps not so easily.

Next came the issues from Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Qatar on the same day - 1st of October 1966.

However, each state had a particular variation in this:

• Abu Dhabi opted to overprint a previous (1964) definitive stamp issue with the new currency as well as horizontal bars over the picture of the previous ruler. This is was a common practice at the time.
• However, Abu Dhabi opted to use the Bahrain currency rather than the Qatar & Dubai Riyal, and so the currency overprint reflects this - Dinars and Fils.

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• Dubai issued a complete new set to celebrate the World Cup being held in England at the time to issue the stamps with the Qatar & Dubai Riyal.

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• Qatar also opted to overprint the previous definitive issue with the new currency. This set was probably issued in very small quantities making it very sought after by collectors, and therefore very expensive set of stamps when they do come in the market.

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The last two Emirates to issue stamps were Umm Al-Quwain (Umm Al-Qiwain) and Ras Al Khaimah, both of which also opted to overprint a previous set of stamps (see the images below).

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Oman moved next, with the issue of its own currency on the 7th of May 1970 (The Saidi Rial), and the mark the occasion a previous definitive stamp issue was re-printed with the new denominations as shown below.

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By 1972 the experiment of the Qatar & Dubai Riyal had come to an end. The unification of the United Arab Emirates, also created a new Postal System leading to the issue of a first definitive stamps of the UAE, which also mark the entrance into use of the UAE Dirham (see image below).

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Qatar too created its own currency board which issued the first Qatar Riyal on the 19th of May 1973. The first stamps to be issued after this was the two stamps to complement the definitive issue as shown below.

Qatar - Registered Letters

Registered letters have a long history, which is generally not well known. As mail from Qatar began a long time back, and under the auspices of the English administration, it would make sense that it would follow the standards and procedures of the Royal Mail.

Back in the 1800's, mail would be collected by the postman, and any item that needed that extra bit of attention/guarantees of delivery - Registered - would not only have an extra charge, but the postman would enclose it in a green wrapping see image below. These 'wrappers' are still available to buy on sites such a eBay at a premium price.

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The wrappers did allow for a tracking system from handover to reception as required for registered mail. However, while this worked for a while, clearly it was an extra burden on the postman. Having to carry these wrappers on the off chance someone would require one, the practise was discontinued in the second half of the 1800's. This lead to many items going missing. So a second procedure was developed - tying the registered mail with a green ribbon (see image below). A little less cumbersome for the postman, but still not ideal.

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A further improvement to the postman's burden was to simply directly apply a crayon blue cross onto the covers. While within Great Britain the blue cross soon became a standard way to mark and identify registered mail, throughout the British controlled territories some opted to use the blue cross while others used a red cross (there are a few examples of some covers having both red and a blue cross). The cross became so successful that many other countries in Europe adopted in in one fashion or another. The countries around the Arabian Gulf were no different in this aspect, with examples of these shown in the image below.

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As can be seen from the above image, some covers were officially available from the post office with the cross already on them, while others the cross was added after the fact. In Qatar there never have been official post covers with the cross on them, but nevertheless, there are examples of covers onto which the blue cross was added. Most likely customers aware of the Royal Mail use of the cross to identify Registered Mail through it. The image below is an example of one such cover sent to Switzerland.

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