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I cannot find them, can anyone tell me the values?

Thanks

_________________
http://www.aleppo.tk http://www.halab.tk

Upper Yafa; a briefly independent stamp issuing area; see Aden / South Arabia / Yemen. The whole area is a mess politically and historically and so I am not going to attempt to explain. They issued real stamps once in 1967 worth some pence to a few pounds for the better values; the rest of the stamps are basically a worthless money spinning exercise worthy of the excesses of the 'sand-dune' rubbish.

The FDC for 1967 has some merit. I have once seen the FDC with proof of actual mail though the system; it was sold for about £40. The normal FDC would be worth but a couple of pounds at best.

Now, an actual cover postally used from Upper Yafa with Upper Yafa stamps in 1967 would be a very nice item to have...

Here are a few postally used covers from Upper Yafa. Most, if not all, Upper Yafa stamps were used for postage. But they are decidedly rare on postally used covers.











Paleograph

Magnificent items, seriously.

I'm not sure there are many people who collect them but they are great to see.

The so-called "State of Upper Yafa" was affiliated with South Arabia*, as was its cousin, Mahra State. I would agree that bona-fide covers are highly collectible and destined to increase in value.

*Further sub-divided into "Kathiri State of Seiyun" and "Qu'aiti State in Hadhramaut." Even Michel does not explain all these interlocking territories very well.

Michel's comprehensive "Trucial States" is the only worthwhile catalog I know of.

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edit: I meant to add, I have a 1987 Aden Catalog from "Philatelics Unlimited" (no other data available) which covers the stamps issued for Aden and Aden States as a British Crown Colony and as a British Protectorate until March 1968; on April 1, 1968, the People's Republic of Southern Yemen issued new stamps for this territory.

This catalog includes Kathiri, Qu'aiti, and Mahra, but not Upper Yafa.

The Aden States catalogues that I know of, apart from Michel Gulf States Catalogue 2006 (in English & full colour) are:

Minkus 1989 Aden and Protectorate States Stamp Catalog, with ridiculously high catalogue values; lists only Kathiri, Qu'aiti and Mahra, does not list Upper Yafa.

Aden Specialized Catalog 1987, published by Philatelics Unlimited Publications; again lists only Kathiri, Qu'aiti and Mahra, does not list Upper Yafa.

Böhringer & Schmuck 1971 Kathiri Quaiti & Mahra (does not list Upper Yafa !).

All 3 catalogues were put out, I suspect, by someone who had an interest in the Philatelic Agency that had produced these stamps, maybe Martin Sellinger.

Paleograph

BTW, Audhali was almost a contender in the South Arabia stamp world. Stamps were prepared but never reached the final issue stage. Some on the last Aden definitives exist with an "Audhali" overprint, and a separate issue was prepared. To my knowledge, they are not listed anywhere, but mentioned here and there in the philatelic literature.








Paleograph

I immediately trekked over to Wikipedia to read up on Audhali, and found the names of about two dozen more pieces of Aden and/or Yemen I'd never heard of before.

This area would be great to collect, especially postal history, except I don't read Arabic, and 99% of the stamps are suspicious Cinderellas.

It must not catch the fancy of wealthy Arabs, or prices would be much higher.

doug2222usa, there is another thread that was started as "Order of Malta", which was turned into "obscure places issuing stamps", that you may want so see. None of the stamps posted there is listed in Scott, yet they all did postal duty !

Paleograph

I think I read that, thanks; I have exactly one SOOM item, the scarce early souvenir sheet. I have a Sassone specialized, so can follow them easily.

It took me a long time to realize that the United Nations falls into the same category.

A piece of postal history that served postal duty not to a collector would be a true find. Note the addresses "Collectors Corner", "Universal Stamp & Coin". If you could find commercial mail from a bank or trading house, that would be perfect. These covers show bona fide acceptance of the mail in the international mail stream, but are apparently just the country's stamp agent promoting sales of its own material. Just as most of the covers you see from the Trucial States have the Post & Telegraph Dept as the return address.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

You are absolutely right about this, but I have yet to see such a cover. Even the ones shown above are very hard to come by. At least, they did perform postal duty and the letters were delivered to their countries of destination. In a similar fashion, I saw one non-philatelic cover from the State of Oman that I missed at auction (sorry for the poor picture below):



And here is another one, front and back, from my collection:

I had the writing translated for me by two of my arab clients and they gave me the exact same translation :

front (reading from right to left !): Kingdom of Jordan Al Hachimiya (Hachemite Kingdom of Jordan)
Jordan Street, Al Salt
Post Office 22
To our loved son Abdel Mejid Abou Chakil




Back:

Sender: Ahmad Ben Chakil Al Jabal
Country Imamat Ouman
Interior Ouman




These two covers are decidedly uncommon. All we normally see are the ones on printed envelopes from the stamp agency. Very few of the State of Oman stamps must have been used for non-philatelic mail. A lot has been written on the State of Oman stamps, and it is believed that they were never used or sold within Oman. So the second cover may be contrived -who knows ? - but there would be such little market for such a contrivance... Knowing Feigenbaum and Tadros, why would they have lost their time creating such a cover ?

Paleograph

Would like to read your comments, if any, about RASD (Spanish Sahara).

When they first appeared on the market, I had a trendency to see them as political propaganda labels issued by a legitimate government-in-exile fighting for its recognition, with a possibility that they might be used in the areas under its control.

It now seems that they are mostly the product of a philatelic agency under contract with the Polisario, but some of them are probably illegals, being printed and put on the market by someone who does not have a contract with the Polisario.

The same happens with Puntland, Somaliland, Cabinda and other areas where there is a local government providing local services (including postal service) to its population, but illegal stamps supposedly issued by these territories are shoved on the market by unscrupulous dealers.

In the case of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, I have never seen or heard of a stamp postally used on cover. Still, I would love to see a listing or catalogue of these stamps.

The question is: should the Polisario gain effective control of the area, would it recognise these stamps as having postal validity ? It happened in Erythrea.

To sum it up: I see them as cinderellas, I don't collect them but I would understand that someone collects them.

I bought a large bulging stockbook that was a thematic mish-mash--Europe, Asia and all parts in between, and covering a range of popular themes--animals, Olympics. There were a few sets of SADR, all of a thematic nature and they looked pretty much geared to collectors. Whether they were "official" issues or illegals (the fact that the territory is disputed makes even the authorized issues of wobbly status) I don't know, but if real then just a money-maker (as so many other places do so no serious criticism there).

When a territory doesn't really have any legal standing, its a pretty easy target for the jam-jar illegals producers. Hence former Soviet Union regions being favoured "targets". Even legitimate countries have a hard enough time keeping up with all the illegals issued in their name.

There was a brief burst of activity a few months ago here on SB with regards to Cabinda; someone purporting to be from their government, offering their stamps for sale.

As to Eritrea, a member here, Mauriziolaos, has a fair collection of covers showing usages of the provisional/early issues. There is a thread showing that material.

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Howard Courtney's page at Audhali includes some background about the essays.

The Aden overprint was something that he has not seen before.

Articles about Upper Yafa include:

Lewy, E.: "London Thoughts on Stamp World" in Linn's Weekly Stamp News, 25 December 1967, p. 16. Includes discussion about Upper Yafa

"Legal Status of Stamp Issues" in Gibbons - Whitman Stamp Monthly, no. 5, January 1968, p. 173. About the issues of Upper Yafa

bin Hamza, A.: "Upper Yafa" in Stamp Magazine, May 1968, p. 455

Condé, B.: "Upper Yafá: Two months of South Arabian Postal History" in Stamp Collecting, 16 May 1968, pp 677, 679

"The Stamp Trade Standing Committee Reports on Staffa, Oman and Upper Yafa etc." in Philatelic Magazine, December 1970, p. 202. The ruler of Upper Yafa had a legitimate right to issue stamps. The committee decided that the issues of the State of Oman were labels. (Note: The committee may not have been aware of covers such as the one above that was addressed to Jordan.)

"British 'Traders' Look At Staffa, Yafa, Oman" in Linn's Stamp News, vol. 44, no. 7, 2 February 1971, p. 25. Author concludes that Upper Yafa had a right to issue stamps as the sultan did not wish to join the People's Republic of Southern Yemen.

"Upper Yafa Inquiry" in Journal of Arabian Philately, no. 2, 1972, p. 22

Brown, G.: "State of Upper Yafá" in The Dhow, Volume 3, no. 4, December 2002, pp 27 - 29. The article includes images of two postal announcements and two covers.

Best wishes,
AndrewG

Can anyone provide copies of these articles ? The only ones that I have are :

"The Stamp Trade Standing Committee Reports on Staffa, Oman and Upper Yafa etc." in Philatelic Magazine, December 1970, p. 202

and

"Upper Yafa Inquiry" in Journal of Arabian Philately, no. 2, 1972, p. 22

I would love to read the others.

I have a fairly complete (?) collection of the Audhali essays, but none of the overprints.

Paleograph

Hi beshergh,

The top two Yemen souvenir sheets from picture 0002.jpg have some value - especially the Red Crescent overprint. Note the mispelling: "Red Grescent". The sheet was not officially issued.

Chambliss values the Red Grescent sheet at $40.00 USD and the Armed Struggle sheet at $8.00.

The Mexico Olympics overprinted sheet is valued at $3.00, the Racial Equality sheet at $7.50, and the Apollo 8 sheet at $3.00.

The full name of the Chambliss catalogue is Standard Catalog of the Postage Stamps of Yemen and South Arabia.

Best wishes,
AndrewG

Paleograph:

I will hunt through my notes. I will email you a list of the articles that I have this weekend. (Two moves in five years have taken their toll.)

The American Philatelic Research Library at http://www.stamplibrary.org will also have these articles.

Best wishes,
AndrewG

Thank you Andrew, I love to learn !

Paleograph

Two more postally used covers from Upper Yafa, unfortunately they are not in my collection:






And then there is, of course, Dhufar. Only the first issue did postal duty. This cover (front and back) is obviously, unmistakably philatelic, sent by Tadros to the philatelic press and to collectors on his mailing list on the first and last day of postal validity. But even though it is purely philatelic, it is a scarce item. A souvenir sheet was also issued with this set and I have never seen it on a postally used cover.





Finally, another one of Tadros' creations: The Green Mountain Principality. Here is a cover with a State of Oman stamp overprinted in Arabic and English: Green Mountain Principality of Oman. A two-page leaflet in the envelope calls the area "The Green Mountain Province", Jebel al Akhdar. The 4b value is no. 95 in Greyphil's catalogue.



Paleograph

The Upper Yafa covers have a certain appeal to them -- love the address "labels", where obviously has taken a typewritten sheet of paper and cut it up with scissors--not very carefully. Contrast that DIY rough-and-ready attitude with the high-quality stamps, those were obviously not locally-printed "primitives".

_________________
Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Here is a picture of the 3 Abd-al-Kuri stamps that appeared on the market late 1969. They normally come with a red "SPECIMEN" overprint and they are very rare without the overprint. I know that a First Day Cover was also released at the same time, I saw a photocopy of part of such a F.D.C. I am interested to buy one F.D.C. if you have any for sale. Or I could trade for something else.



paleograph

Hi paleograph,

If convenient for you, I would appreciate a scan of the photocopy of the partial FDC of the Abd al Kuri issues. The series may be the only philatelic evidence of the proposed Boeing SST.

There was a short article about this set in the Journal of Arabian Philately - this one I have and will scan it tomorrow. The journal which was published by Merv Chaplin lasted for two issues, a pity considering how many questions about stamps and postal history of this area remained unanswered then and still remain unanswered now.

I still think that I have one or more Upper Yafa articles, but my search through my photocopies has not turned up any of them as yet.

How do you like the Greyphil catalogue?

Best wishes,
AndrewG

As I wrote, it was the photocopy of PART of a FDC, not much to see actually, but it simply proves that FDC's were made. I'd love to find one ! I do have Merv's article, actually I was a subscriber to the J.O.A.P. , and I actually bought his whole collection of South Arabia, including his Abd-al-Kuri stamps and his Audhali stamps.

Merv is a great guy. When he decided to stop publishing the Journal of Arabian Philately, he sent a full refund to all his subscribers, even though he had printed and distributed 2 issues. Then in 1978, R. Howard Courtney started The Arab World Philatelist, in the exact same format and layout as the Journal of Arabian Philately.

In his first issue, Howard wrote"... ....."

Here is the photocopy that I have. Not much, but it confirms the existence of FDC's.



paleograph

I forgot to comment of the Greyphil catalogues. I have a lot of admiration for collectors like Greyfield & Duester who will spend years seriously documenting and cataloguing a field that is scorned by most "serious" philatelist.

The likes of Erler, who has single-handedly published 17 volumes of a Catalogue of German Revenues (Volume XVIII alone is composed of... 18 volumes !); Bernhard Luerssen who has made a fantastic catalogue of Elleore stamps, another one for the Principality of Seborga, and who is currently working on Ile Barbe and Ile Roy...

Wolfgang Baltus with his series (now 7 volumes) on classic phantoms; Jon Aitchison with his Lundy and Smaller Channel Islands catalogues. Fritz Billigs with his 44 volumes of Philatelic Handbooks; Forbin, Bourdi, Abrams, to name but a few.

It is a pity that the Greyphil catalogues are not readily available, because they document an area that is both intriguing and interesting, and the State of Oman stamps are now found in most collections, being typical "packet material".

I got mine directly from the author, and I don't remember seeing it advertised anywhere. Mine id a PDF file that I computer-printed and got hardbound to fit in my philatelic library. I would love to find an original copy.

paleograph

In case anyone reads French, here is a link to an article that I wrote about Upper Yafa for the October issue of the French language magazine Philatélie-Québec :

http://www.philateliequebec.com/Numeros ... vue299.pdf

Here is the cover page:



The article runs from page 21 to page 29.

paleograph

Here are scans of all the Upper Yafa stamps I have; maybe you will see something new:

Hello paleograph,

Thank you for the article. Did you find any connection between Upper Yafa and Bruce Conde?

Best wishes,
Andrew

None yet. Bruce Condé was involved in Yemen & elsewhere in the Trucial States, but not, as far as I know, in Upper Yafa. And the philatelic agency for Upper Yafa was apparently not the same as the one for Qu'aiti, Kathiri and Mahra.

My understanding is that when Condé was a philatelic advisor to a country or to an Emirate, he was actually present in the country or Emirate, whereas most philatelic agencies involved in the area operated from Beyrouth.

I have not really made any "find" when researching information for my article on Upper Yafa. I relied mostly on what was printed in the past, and my article was aimed at the general collector, not the specialist.

As to Bruce Condé, he would deserve a whole book to himself !

Oops ! Correction: a few posts back, I mentioned Wolfgang Baltus' series of 7 booklets on phantoms. He just emailed me that he has 8 published already and the 9th will be in print in January or February.

Paleograph

Joachim Duester's 'The Official Envelopes of State of Oman and Dhufar from 1967 to 1986 can be found at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/AlastairJ (page 2, navigate at the bottom of the page) as can other Arabian Gulf material.

Thank you Jack, I have this one already, it is the stamp catalogue that I would like to buy, although I do have a PDF copy. When Joachim sent me the PDF file, it was not clear (at least to me) whether he was considering a reprint or not.
Paleograph

Joachim is very busy these days in London; he is aware of the need for the State of Oman catalogue, and I keep prodding him when I see him, but his real work leaves little time...

Good work ! I think I'll drop him a line, too. He really did a splendid job with the State of Oman stamps. I wish he would do the same with Dhufar even though, apart from the first set, they were not valid for postage...

Paleograph

Hi Paleograph,

I have scans of most of the articles that I listed last year. The Bruce Conde and Dennis Way comments seems to be the most interesting.

Please email me from this board and let me know the email address that you would like me to send these to you.

Yves Kohen may still be in business. Perhaps he has a copy of the entire Abd al Kuri announcement.

Best wishes and Happy New Year,
AndrewG

Hi Andrew, Kohen is still in business but I don't see any reference to the Abd-al-Kuri stamps on his web site. I will send him an email and will let you know what he has to say.

André

I just got an email from Martins Philatélie, who have taken over from Kohen and they simply write that "we don't have what you are looking for"...

Paleograph

I have over the years found it very difficult to find the stamps of the Federation of South Arabia in catalogues, especially those of Upper Yafa. So I have recently take it upon myself to produce a CD catalogue of these stamps. I have included also the stamps of those territories which do appear in the catalogues, as in my opinion most of the stamps issued in the latter half of 1967 were issued after the fall of the central government.
I have also included the Audhali overprint and the "stamps" of Abd al Khali.
Also in this catalogue are the stamps of Imamite State of Oman and Dhufar.

Ralph (member389845)

I have just finished reading the excellent article on Upper Yafa in Philatelie Quebec.
I seems to be missing for my catalogue "stamps" issued in 2005. The article states that 10 stamps were issued in 3 sets, and I only have the 3 stamps issued for Hans Christian Andersen, plus the scan of the 1R Malaria stamps.
Can anyone help?
Ralph
(member389845)

With regard to Paleograph's postings of 7 and 8 November last year:

Congrats on your Upper Yafa article, Andre, and thank you for your kind words on my own modest efforts. Please keep in touch!

The State of Oman cover to Salt in Jordan, once offered in Sept 2008 on eBay by Triple S Postal History at US$249 (and unsold at the time), is one of the rare covers which was not sent with the agency's mailings. I would still consider it a philatelic cover, as well as the Klewitz cover shown (which is actually in my own collection). Klewitz and a few others managed to have some covers mailed individually, with Tadros' help and alongside the usual agency mailings, and indeed with a collectors's interest in mind. The Cover to Salt looks a bit amateurish: the handwriting does not seem to be an Arab's handwriting, it looks very much like my own early efforts at Arabic writing. The sender and the recipient don't look "Omani" to me at all, and no Omani would have written the sender's address the way it is written. This is clearly an attempt to create a philatelic item. But as said before, such attempts were very few indeed, and it is a beautiful and rare item, especially with both the Amman and Salt cancels.

As for Dhufar, the FDCs mailed by Tadros from Damascus on 9 June 1972 are the only postally used covers to my knowledge. And they are all with the ordinary stamps, none with the souvenir sheet which may actually never have been delivered to Tadros' office in Beirut.

Joachim

To Joachim: Hi Joachim, I am glad to see you on this Forum. Indeed, you were very generous to share a PDF version of your State of Oman catalogues with me, I do hope you eventually reprint the State of Oman stamp catalogue and that you complete your Dhufar catalogue, what little merit Dhufari stamps may have. I agree with you that the cover from the State of Oman to Salt, Jordan, looks contrived...

To Ralph: How can I get a copy of your catalogue Ralph ? I will email you separately a copy of Bruce Henderson's online catalogue, which (to the best of my knowledge) is now offline. Do you have a copy of the Michel Gulf States Catalogue 2006, in English & in colour ? It lists all of Upper Yafa's stamps. They are also listed and priced in Carlson R. Chambliss's "Standard Catalog of the Postage Stamps of Yemen and South Arabia", together with Qu'aiti, Kathiri & Mahra. The Audhali essays are not listed anywhere, although many are shown online on Howard Courtney's website.

André

Andre,
Anyone who wants a copy of any of my catalogues can contact me directly by email, or approach me through this site.
I look forward to receiving Bruce's catalogue from you. When I have it, I'll send you the pages I have prepared for your comments.
The only catalogue which I have used so far is a Michel - Naher Osten 2004 (in German). That is probably why a lot of information on what appears on the stamps is missing, as my German is nowhere near as good as my English (or French).
Ralph

That is truly remarkable. I must admit, my knowledge of the geography and political entities of that area is woeful (along with a lot of other people I suspect). This has intrigued me enough to stimulate some reading on the subject.

_________________
With kind regards, Jim

It was because I spent my long ago uni days studying modern history and geography that I became interested in all these small states. I am looking for a scan of any of the Audhali overprints on the Aden set. Unfortunately, the 70c is the only one which appears anywhere there is a mention of Audhali stamps.

And welcome to Joachim from me as well.

For those who don't know, what Joachim says on State of Oman and Dhufar is it. Simple.

Just a note to let you know that Ralph Phillips (Ralph member389845 on this forum) has just released his new CD catalogues. Vol. XVI covers the stamps of Asian origin: Occussi-Ambeno, Free Tibet and Nagaland. Vol. XVII covers the break-away states of Africa. It includes the only listing (to my knowledge) of the Sahraoui Republic stamps, and also the various Somalian stamp-issuing entities, Cabinda, South Kasaï, and Katanga Railway issues, etc. Ralph's particulars are posted somewhere above. These being his latest productions, you may guess that there are 15 more CD's listing thousands of unofficial stamps, labels, locals, etc.

One of those stamps is very recent, published by the great printers in Occusi Ambeno

_________________
I collect Malta, Ireland, Malta, Tristan da Cunha, Malta, various Pacific Islands, Malta, New Zealand, Malta, Australia and Malta.

You are right, if you read the article, you will see that Mr. Henderson is mentioned as the producer of this and similar "stamps". The purpose of philatelic literature is to inform, so that the reader will know exactly what he is buying, and can decide whether he wants to buy or not...

As "State of Oman" issues have been discussed previously in this thread, I would like to let you know that Delcampe has apparently banned all State of Oman items, including postally used covers, from their auction website.

Since 8 November, Delcampe seems to have taken off all existing auctions and sales of postally used State of Oman covers from their website. Such covers were sent by the postal agency of the exiled Imam of Oman's organisation (or "government in exile") to dealers and journalists world-wide. Covers with State of Oman stamps were accepted by post offices in Baghdad (1968), Amman (1968-1971) and Damascus (1972) and mailed from there to destinations all over the world. The covers have thus seen genuine postal use, no matter what one thinks about the political and commercial motives behind these issues.

Anyone who wants to know more about this will find some information in my study on the official enveloped used for these mailings:

http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/joachim- ... 35362.html

I find it most disturbing that Delcampe is starting to censor what people are allowed to collect and bans genuine philatelic material. I would understand if they ask sellers to mark State of Oman or Dhufar stamps as "bogus", but I cannot accept that postally used covers are banned. I can only hope Delcampe will reconsider their decision.

If anyone has contact details for Sebastien or Philippe Delcampe, please let me know.

Meanwhile, I am still in the market for buying more covers as research material for an updated edition of the above study!