A study of the stamps of Qatar and the history surrounding the time of their issue.
My apologies for the long absence of posts.
Been really busy preparing my first book which I hope will be published very soon.
In the mean time, here are some images of actual Qatar Post Office equipment which I believe will be a very unique look at the past.
As always, feel free to share any additional related items you may have in your collection.
As the Gulf States grew in wealth and power, Britain saw fit in placing a British Political Officer in each state. However, officially these were there only to control external politics.
So, the next step was to convince the rulers to accept an Advisor.
Below are covers for the Political Officer in Bahrain, Kuwait and Advisor in Qatar.
Should you have additional covers from other Gulf States Political Officers or Advisors, please feel free to share.
A Qatar stamp issue from 1973, come to my mind today.
I saw a post regarding Malaria Awareness in postage stamps
Surprisingly, Malaria (from the Italian for 'Bad Air') has been around for centuries - but it may just about be coming to end, with the introduction of the first vaccines in 2019.
US President John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech (1961), in which he stated that the common enemies of man are tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.
Is perhaps appropriate even today, issues of humanity remain the top priority of world leaders.
A new set of stamps got issued today here in Qatar - celebrating the 30 years of diplomatic relation between Qatar and Georgia.
Try the challenge - see how many iconic you can name without going to the next images where I name them all.
The second slide (I keep the answers for later) shows that Georgia enjoys issuing these types of stamps.
The Georgia version of the stamps were issued in June with the souvenir sheet being different to the Qatar's version, the latter, in my opinion, being much more elegant design (shown in the next slide).
Finally on slide 5 I name all the buildings in the stamp design (please fell free to correct any mistakes).
The last slide has Qatar's FDC cover design.
One of the major reference regarding Arabian Gulf Philately began his writings under the Pen Name 'The Nomad'.
Read the article below to know a little more.
If you have any of his covers please feel free to share below.
As Qatar's economy began to grow, the banks began to get interested in relocating to Doha.
The first of these banks was the now extinct Eastern Bank.
Have a look at the below picture to learn more (there will be much more information in my upcoming first book.
Sometimes there is no real conclusive information why one stamp becomes rare while another very similar does not.
This may be the case for the below stamp.
Do share your examples of this stamp, or even better send me an example for my own collection.
Have a good weekend.
I share a couple of unusual covers, in that both have errors in the date format.
The one on the left is from Qatar, while the one on the right is from Bahrain.
This error is easily explained, in that the hammer used had 'slugs' for the date, which would have to be changed in a daily basis to make up the correct date (today its a simple tumbler). so the order of the numbers and letters could easily be altered or even inserted inverted as seen on the below covers.
There are many more examples of date error, but mostly of having the wrong date on First Day Covers.
Please feel free to share your examples.
Most Postal History exhibitions require the covers to be with appropriate postal rates. Yet, finding the postal rate table seems to be harder than the covers themselves.
So I have opted to include the standard airmail postal rate below, and a few covers to highlight the same.
During this period, to send the cover via Registered Mail, there would be a 40 naye paise surcharge - independent of the destination.
Qatar's First Postmaster moved from Bahrain to Qatar in 1953, just three years the first Post Office opened its doors (1950).
See the below image for a little more information on him.
If you are a serious collector of Qatar philately it is likely that you would have a 'Cross-Over' cover.
This is more common than most collectors would know, and a number of articles explaining this have been written.
Below is one such article by A. N. Donaldson to leading reference for collectors in the region.
Slightly behind schedule but holidays do come first.
The mark the 10th Anniversary of the Accession of H.H. the Amir a set of 6 regular stamps and in limited quantities one gold foil and a gold stamp were issued.
The stamps were issued in souvenir sheets as shown below.
Still very much enjoying the holidays.
But since I received a query today, I though of replying to it by adding a quick post.
The first issues around the region, many known errors keeping repeating themselves. One example is shown below, where the paper of the plate for the blue colour must get slightly misplaced, resulting in a minor shift.
Please feel free to share other examples you may have of similar colour shifts.
This morning I posted a few items linked to a Stamp dealer based in Doha, Qatar in the 1960's. He not only sold stamps from the region but created some iconic First Day Covers.
Well, that is not all. It appears he should also be credited for creating Qatar's First Stamp Album. See the slide below for more information.
In 1966 a new player enter the Philatelic Market of the Arabia Gulf Countries. A Mr. A. Wink and his PSA stamps company.
He offered subscribers the chance to buy the stamps with no upfront payment at a set commission depending on quantity bought. Even better, he offered the chance to buy limited quantity issues at an unlimited quantity.
The second slide seems to be a reply from a buyer for a more defined price based on catalogue value - but seems that then as now, catalogue prices and reality don't have much in common.
Finally the third slide is a set to 6 First Day covers with an iconic Doha Clock Tower cachet created by his company PSA (logo below cachet) which seems to have first appeared in 1967 and continued through to the end of 1968.
Portuguese Indian Community were active not only in Qatar Petroleum but also in philately !!!!
The second image shows a variety of FDCs for Qatar’s First Definitive Issued set, with a variety of cancellations.
Today a look back at Traditional Medicine.
Surprisingly, most of these plants are today being further studied for additional medicinal purposes.
As is the case of the Milkweed, which has recently been proved, by researcher of the College of Health Sciences of the Qatar University to have excellent properties in the treatment of High Blood Pressure in patients with and without Diabetes.
Qatar's rulers commitment to education from very early on is well documented. This can be seen from the below cover - the earliest known cover with 'Qatar Government' (in Arabic) letterhead from the Department of Education.
Understanding the role of the University of Illinois Navy Pier at the time, it is hard to imagine that a local student had been sent there at the time (see image below).
More likely, a former student from the University of Illinois Navy Pier was applying for a position in Qatar and the Department of Education was requesting confirmation of his attendance and records prior to providing him with a job offer.
Either way, an interesting glimpse at the past.
Should you have any other 'Qatar Government' cover from that era, please share them with me, thank you.
The complete set of the Jubilee Jamboree stamps overprints and official numbers sold.
The 'KUWAIT' of course was never sold, nevertheless a few stamps reached the hand of some philatelists allowing me to include pictures of these stamps.
If interested, I have posted a more detailed story behind these stamps in an earlier posts.
