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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Qatar 1965 Fish Stamps

If you have been following my posts, you know by now, that I like solving mysteries hidden in the stamps. The 1965 issue is one such mystery. If you have ever dived or snorkelled around the Arabian Gulf and around the world, you would quickly realise that the fish portraid in the issue are not endemic in the region.

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So if the fish are not from the region (see below slide for further information on the fish), why issue a full definitive set with them?

The puzzle becomes even bigger when you realise that aquarium fish exports from the Middle East did not begin for, approximately, another 20 years.

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But for a long time this was a stumbling block for me. Until I came upon a letter from the Political Agency in the Trucial States (Dubai) which contained a description of the Sharjah 1966 Fish stamps, which also included the basis for the fish images. A series of 4 books by some of the well know marine photographers of the time (see slide below).

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So, all I had to do is somehow connect the Sharjah 1966 Fish stamps to the Qatar 1965 Fish stamps. The same document describing the Sharjah issue had another letter from the Political Officer in Dubai to the British Foreign Office (London) - Arabic Section describing how the Ruler of Ras al Khaimah was frustrated with a Lebanese Philatelic Dealer by the name of Fuad Antoun (probably the same person that in 1961 was arrested in connection to stamp fraud related to 'Middle East Stamps' (more on this on a later post). This letter (18th of September 1965) stated that on forcing Mr. Fuad Antoun out a Qatari - Sheikh Mohamed Bin Jabber Al Thani was appointed the Stamp Concession (see slide below).

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Qatar was at the time just about to issue its fish stamps, so it is possible that the concept used for the Qatar stamps was extended to the Sharjah by the hands of the new concessionary. This is more evident when one realises the similarities in the issues of Qatar and Sharjah Fish stamps. Both issues are compressed of 17 stamps in the same format. Both only have 9 different fish repeated throughout the issue. See below slide for the Sharjah & Dependencies Fish issue.

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By the way, I'm still searching for the FDC of the Qatar 1965 Fish issue - should you happen to have an extra one, for my own collection !!!

Qatar National Day

Today Qatar Celebrates its National Day. A day full of Family Events, Military Parades, Fireworks and much more.

The date has been celebrated since 2007 when it was opted to set the date by an Amiri Decree.

The date has not been commemorated every year by a stamp set, but there have been a number that have:

In 2007 a set celebrating all the Rulers of Qatar was issued (see image below).

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After this set, there were three stamp issues on the 18th of December, but none celebrating the National Day per se.:

• 2008 - Souq Wakif
• 2009 - Qatar Birds
• 2010 - 35th Anniversary of Qatar News Agency

See image below:

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Then from 2013 there have been 3 issues released on the 17th of December:

• 2013 - New Definitive Series
• 2015 - National Day
• 2017 - National Day

See the slide below:

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The last of these is shown below:

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In 2018 although no stamps were issued, a set of 2 commemorative FDC's was issued.

I Love Qatar - a website devoted to all things in Qatar posted a live video of the Parade on the Cornish, you can see it on (Click here to go to the website).

Qatar - FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Issue

Leading to next years' (2022) World Cup, Qatar has been issuing a series of beautiful football themes stamps, which I have posted as they entered service:

1 - World Cup 2022 Stadiums

2 - FIFA Arab Cup Qatar

But the tradition of football in the stamps of Qatar goes way back to 1966 when it issued a set of commemorative stamps for the England World Cup.

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Later in 1976 issue celebrating the 4th Arabian Gulf Cup which was held in Qatar. The tournament was held at the purpose built Khalifa Stadium. This stadium has gone a massive renovation allowing it to be one of the 8 stadiums that will host the Qatar World Cup 2022.

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Along the next years a nothing much come out, until when in 2002 a full sheet of stamps was produced containing all the World Cup series posters (from 1930 up to 2002).  This was followed up with another stamp in 2006 for the Germany World Cup. That left three world cup posters for which Qatar had no stamps issued: South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018. This omission has now been corrected with todays stamp issue.

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The reason behind the Concorde's Flight into Qatar in 1974.

Qatar has been at the forefront of aviation in the Middle East from very early on.

As I have previously posted, Qatar began initially subsidising other airlines that flew into Qatar, such as MEA  (click to open a previous post). Then entering in partnership with the other three Gulf States (Bahrain, Oman and UAE) in the launch of Gulf Air. So much so, that Gulf Air’s first flight to London was from Doha (on the 2^nd of  April 1970) not Bahrain (on the 5^th of April 1970) (click to open a previous post).

But it is not until the reading of the letter from the British Embassy and the press release (see image below) that one can realise how much Qatar was helping in the growth of aviation in the region.

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Perhaps, it is this perception of excess fluidity in the Qatar coffers, that led the British authorities to think that Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani would be in the market to buy the Concorde to expand Gulf Air's fleet (See image below).

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So, when the time came to test the aircraft in hot weather and high altitude conditions (a normal part of the test regime in all aircraft even nowadays) the proposal was to try not only to test the aircraft but take advantage and use if for promotional purposes (See image below).

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The planned route was clearly design to increase sales of the aircraft. The aircraft flew from London to Tehran which had in October 1972 places an order for 2 Concordes. Iran did operate one Concorde on a charter basis and eventually in 1980, during the Iranian revolution, cancelled the order. It is worth noting, that in the late 1970’s Iran Air was the fastest growing airline in the world as well as one of the most profitable and only second to Qantas in safety.

However, as can be see on the route chart for the flight from London to Bahrain and back see slide below), from the very beginning of the operation, the Concorde had a big drawback. Its inability to fly supersonic over large populated areas due to the fear of the damage caused by the sonic boom.

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This clearly would reduce the interest for the aircraft as a private jet for someone, as the head of state, whose main destinations would be major cities around the world. Hence, the order for the aircraft never came from Qatar.

Both the British and French preproduction aircraft flew through the region during the flight test phase and taking advantage for a promotional campaign (see slide below). So much so, that eventually, the first commercial flight of the British Airways Concorde was to Bahrain (click to open a previous post).

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As I said on a previous post, nowadays technology has advanced to the point that the sonic boom maybe eliminated altogether or at least reduced to the point that authorities may finally permit the new designs to safely operate supersonically over densely populated areas changing the complete economics of the aircraft. I look forward to seeing these operate from Doha, Qatar.

Qatar - Universal Postal Union Centenary stamp issue

As you probably know by now. My interest is in the history portrait on the stamps of Qatar. Occasionally this will take on an adventure of its own as is the case of the features on the stamps celebrating the Centenary of the UPU displayed below.

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At a first glance, it all makes sense. but a closer inspection not all is correct.

2 Dirham stamp - Camel riders delivering mail moving to today's trucks. But in Qatar the main form of desert transport has been the horse.

3 Dirham stamp - this is clearly not correct, until now, no train service includes Qatar. I would still appreciate if someone could let me know what are the trains on this stamp.

10 Dirham stamp - P & O ships. These did not have a regular service to Qatar and so were a little hard to track, the lower ship thanks to the American Philatelist and an Indian Post postcard I was able to identify, while the upper ship appears to be the P&O Iberia but probably did not sail through Qatar.

75 Dirham stamp - clearly identifies the old manual mail sorting to todays automated version.

1 Riyal 25 Dirham stamp - from the old scribe involved in reading and writing letters for others to todays standard postal service centres.

Read more on the three main discrepancies on the image below.

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First recorded mail to Qatar

I have been for sometime looking for covers sent to Qatar prior to the establishment of the Political Officer office in May 1950. Clearly no city or country lives in isolation and so there must have been all types of correspondence.

In the 19th century, most of it would have taken the form of scrolls sent by messenger as can be seen on the 1968 Qatar Stamps celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Qatar Postal Service:

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In fact, from the scribe reading the letters, to the pigeon mail, camel / horse rider, boat, all these elements must have been part of the mail system. Notice that the 1.25 Riyal stamp not only has the camel rider mailman on the forefront, but in the sky above a jet aircraft can be seen, already the main method for mail worldwide.

Back to the first recorded cover to/from Qatar. Below is one such example. I would like for my readers to send images of any other covers from prior to 1950 to/from Qatar.

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Qatar 2021 - FIFA Arab Cup Issue

The fourth stamp issue for 2021 by Qatar Post is related to the FIFA Arab Cup tournament scheduled to begin on the 30th of November 2021.

This may be the last major football tournament being held in Qatar prior to next years World Cup competition, and no doubt the world media will be observing closely the events in Qatar.

I wish Qatar, and Qatar National Team great success, with in this and next years tournaments. In the mean time, the stamps are available directly from Qatar Post Offices.

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Qatar - International Cooperation Year

In response to a speech made by the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on 10 November 1961, the General Assembly designated 1965, the twentieth year of the United Nations, as International Co-operation Year.

Click to read the full speech that launched the International Co-operation Year

One reason was the conviction that increased public awareness of the extent and significance of existing everyday co-operation would lead to a better appreciation of the true nature of the world community and of the common interests of mankind.

Also the thought was that devoting a year to international co-operation would help to bring about increased world understanding and co-operation, and thereby facilitate the settlement of major international problems.

Countries around the world celebrated the occasion issuing stamps, as was the case of the below stamps by Kuwait. As can be seen, the handshake was a common theme in most version of the stamps.

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The faces on the Qatar stamps are of John F. Kennedy (President of United States of America), Dag Hammarskjold (the Second Secretary General of the United Nations) and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Interesting to point out that none of the three prominent politicians on the stamps were alive at the time of the stamp issuance:

• Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold death (in an airplane crash) on the 18^th September 1961, is still to this date under investigation;
• President J.F. Kennedy was assassinated on the 22^nd November 1963; while
• Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru died of a possible heart Attack on the 27^th May 1964.

Qatar issued the below stamps on the occasion. The same sheets were later in the year re-value to the new Qatar Dubai Riyal. They were also used with an overprint to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the United Nations.

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Later in 1966 Dubai also released a set of stamps to commemorate the International Cooperation Year. Like the Qatar stamps, they too were issued in the old and overprinted in the new Qatar Dubai Riyal. To simplify the image, I have used the old currency version on the left column and the new currency on the column on the right.

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Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Oman did not issue stamps for the occasion.

Overall a beautiful set of stamps.

Below find a few more examples from other regional powers. Please feel free to post any additional related stamps.

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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.