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.

Click to enlarge

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. 

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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

Click to enlarge

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).

Click to enlarge

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

Click to enlarge

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)

Click to enlarge

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).

 

Click to enlarge

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).

Click to enlarge

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).

Click to enlarge

 

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

• 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.

Click to enlarge

• 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.

Click to enlarge

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).

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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).

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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).

Click to enlarge

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).

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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).

Click to enlarge

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:

Click to enlarge

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:

Click to enlarge

The last of these is shown below:

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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).

Click to enlarge

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).

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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).

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

 

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:

Click to enlarge

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.

Click to enlarge

 

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.

Click to enlarge

.