Dubai - Page 3

UNISSUED KENNEDY OVERPRINT

UNISSUED DUBAI KENNEDY OVERPRINT

During the late 1970’s when I was publishing my now defunct journal, THE ARAB WORLD PHILATELIST, I became intrigued with the Arab sheikdom of Dubai and it’s postal emissions. By that time, it had merged with six other sheikdoms into the United Arab Emirates, and was no longer issuing it’s own stamps.

Unfortunately, most collectors only know Dubai as one of the notorious “Sand Dunes” that flooded the market with multitudes of questionable postal issues. There is no question that Dubai contributed to the problem, but within a couple of years the practice ended and Dubai basically solved it’s problem. It is rather ironic that during the period when there were excessive issues, CTO (Cancelled To Order) stamps were not produced. But when tighter security was introduced, CTO’s were produced. For those who are not familiar with this term, it refers to stamps that generally have cancelations printed on them and are produced for the stamp trade. These were not for sale at the post office and were not valid for postage. Unfortunately, many dealers list these as “used stamps”. They were not “used” and basically are of little value. This practice did not help its image and the Scott catalog does not list all of the Dubai issues. Stanley Gibbons does, and lists 404 stamps and miniature sheets (Also known as souvenir sheets). That is not bad for nearly a ten-year period. That is about 45 stamps per year – excluding the early perf. and imperf. varieties.

There is virtually nothing written about these issues and no one knows much about those “odd” items that occasionally appear in dealer’s stocks or auction catalogs. Consequently, undocumented stories and rumors abound. Since the late 1970’s I have kept notes, clippings and my correspondence regarding this material and the natural result has been a catalog in the making.

Dubai was one of the first, if not the first country, to issue stamps honoring John F. Kennedy. On January 15, 1964 it released a set of three stamps and a souvenir sheet (Fig. 1).

• Fig. 1 The first set of three values. The set was also issued imperforate.

• Fig. 2 The first Kennedy set with the "MAY 29" overprint.

The same set was re-released in May of 1964 with a “MAY 29” overprint. The Gibbons catalog incorrectly lists the date of the “MAY 29” issue as September 15, 1964. (Fig. 2)

• Fig. 3 Single issue in different color with "NOVEMBER 22" in red.

On November 22, of the same year, a single stamp was issued with the same design, but in a differing color and with a red overprint, reading “22 NOVEMBER” (Fig. 3). Gibbons gives a release date of December 15, 1964. While the German Michel catalog lists the date as November 22, 1964, the Scott catalog does not bother to list the stamp at all. The story behind this issue is long and complex and will not be dealt with here. Many varieties exist.

• Fig. 4 The 10np value of the unapproved overprint that was purchased from the late Ezzet Mosden.

In 1995 I purchased a single stamp from Dubai’s N.Y. World’s Fair set (April 22, 1964) from the late Ezzet Mosden, who had been the American agent for the Dubai Philatelic Agency (Fig. 4).

What caught my eye was that it had a Kennedy overprint that I had not previously seen. He indicated he did not remember anything about it. I therefore assumed it was a stamp that someone had “played with” and considered it another of the Dubai unsolved mysteries.

About a year or so later in my correspondence with Michel Stephan of the Barody Stamp Company, who had the original contract to print and distribute the earlier Dubai stamps, I mentioned the item and asked if he knew anything about it. Much to my surprise, he knew all about the stamp and later backed up his story with a copy of a letter from the Postmaster, ordering the overprint, samples of the stamps and the remaining stamps of the set of the one I had purchased.

The story is as follows:

In a letter dated May 1, 1964, the Postmaster of Dubai, Mr. Edmund Lorenzo, authorized the overprinting of three postage and three airmail values of the New York World’s Fair stamps (The original set consisted of 9 stamps) plus the three values of the 15 January, 1964 Kennedy stamps (Fig. 1). The overprints were a way of disposing of their surplus unsold stock of these issues.

• Fig. 5 The six values from the original set of 9 stamps, and the souvenir sheet, overprinted in dark blue "In Memory of J.F Kennedy".

The 4np value and the 2R value exist imperforate with a double overprint. The double overprint was created by applying a second overprint, starting at the top, above the first stamp, and between each stamp.

Mr. Lorenzo himself eventually came to Beirut and controlled the overprinting of 5,000 perf. of each value of the six stamps, 1,000 imperf. and 1,000 copies of the World’s Fair souvenir sheet.

The three Kennedy stamps and SS were also overprinted. The 10,000 copies of each of the three Kennedy stamps and 2,000 SS’s were simply overprinted “MAY/29”, in green on the 1R and 1 1/4R values and red on the 75np value (Fig. 2), but the World’s Fair stamps and SS had been overprinted “In Memory of J.F. Kennedy”, in dark blue (Fig 5).

The overprinting was done at the Saikali Press in Beirut, Lebanon, as were all other Dubai overprints.

In a second letter, dated 20 May 1964, he set the date of May 29th to be the release date for the overprinted Kennedy stamps, but made no provisions for the overprinted N.Y. World’s Fair stamps and SS. Shortly thereafter, he became seriously ill and was hospitalized in Beirut.

At the time, Mr. Stephan, the head of the Agency, was attempting to sell the three additional contracts he had for printing and distributing the stamps of the sheikdoms of Ajman, Fujeira and Umm al-Qiwain, and came to the U.S. to do so. The contracts required large amounts of cash to fulfill and he wanted to be rid of them (See my page “Arab World” on this website for examples of his proposed designs for these sheikdoms).

Upon his return, he was in such a rush to get out the remaining stamps that fell under their contract; he had no time to deal with this overprinted issue.

• Fig. 6 "J.F.Kennedy Birth Anniversary/MAY 29" black overprint on all nine values of the New York World's Fair stamps and souvenir sheet.

The single stamp I had purchased in Las Vegas from Mr. Mosden (Fig. 4) was an essay from a complete set of the 9 values that had not been approved. The overprint reads “J.F. Kennedy Birth Anniversary/MAY 29” and is in black (Fig. 6).

Mr. Stephan additionally gave me a 10np value with a partial past-up on the stamp in yet a different script (Fig. 7).

• Fig. 7 This paste-up has pencil markings, white-out and printing on it. It was to read "J.F. Kennedy Birth Anniversary". The script is different from that of the later set that was overprinted but not approved.

• These illusrations are close-ups of the various overprints for comparison.

The unissued New York World’s Fair set of six stamps and SS had been in storage in Tangier, Morocco, where Mr. Stephan had moved his family and business during the war in Lebanon, and more recently Beirut, where Mr. Stephan is again residing.

In a recent correspondence (September 1999) Mr. Stephan stated that due to the poor condition of a packing crate that contained his store of philatelic items, water got into the container and destroyed many publications and stamps. Of the original quantity, only 1,000 perf., 100 imperf, and 500 souvenir sheets were saved. They have only recently begun to appear on the market as Mr. Stephan sold a few copies to several Arab dealers in the Middle East.

• In May of 2003 I learned from Mr. Antoine Helou, who was a friend of the late Mr. Stephan, that two imperforate sheets of each value of the set of nine stamps, exist with a gold overprint. I do not believe the SS exists with the gold overprint.
  
  Hopefully, collectors and dealers will now know the story behind them. It should be emphasized that they were never put on sale in the Dubai Post Office, but are interesting items from that basically unknown period of Dubai’s postal history.
  
  
  
  
  

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