To be or not to be : CTO - The difficult ones 04 a

So far I only posted CTO cancels that are easy to recognise. At least if you have more copies of one stamp, or a couple of stamps from the same series.
Other cancels are so clearly fake, that there's no doubt that they are CTO.
Sometimes, the cancel is even printed along with the printing process of the stamp itself.

Therefore, all titles so far were : the very obvious ones....
Time to expand that group of post, with the 'difficult' ones.

CTO as in really "cancelled to order" or "cancelled on demand".
In many exhibitions or stamp fairs, there's a local postoffice canceling new stamps with a special cancel.
This can be a first day of issue or an exhibition cancel for example.
Those cancels are 'real' but the problem is of course, the stamps aren't always put on a cover.
In that case it would have been an FDC (sent or not).
Many stamps remain unused for postal trafic, but they are cancelled with a special exhibition cancel.
Sometimes, catalogues mention those kind of cancels in their catalogue.

For me, a stamp that hasn't been used for sending something, but cancelled anyhow, is a CTO.
And I try to avoid them in my collection.
Problem with those cancels is that they are very nice.
Mainly cancelled in the capital city of the issuing country. A very clear cancel and a very clear date of cancellation... First when you see a couple of similar stamps, or even a complete set with the same cancel, you'll notice that this can't be a 'normal' postal cancellation. In almost all cases, the stamp has still the original gum too.

Ok, the cancels are nice and clear, and the countries are generally speaking more 'thrustworthy', still it's not my piece of cake.

Let's have a look at some 'fine' examples:

Swiss cancel 1st day of issue - unused stamps

Swiss 1st day of issue cancel - unused stamps

Swiss 1st day of issue cancel - unused stamps

Swiss 1st day of issue cancel - unused stamps

Swiss 1st day cancel - block of 4 - unused stamps

Swiss souvenir sheet - 1st day cancel - unused stamps

Finally the small neighbour, Liechtenstein, affected by the same cancels ...

Liechtenstein 1st day of issue cancel  - unused stamp

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 09

One of the most beautiful sets of minisheets i have on the topic of Volkswagen Beetle, is again from Liberia.
A set of 8 blocks were issued, each with a picture of a Volkswagen Beelte, a year and a small story.
Although the story has little to tell about the history of the Volkswagen Beetle, it makes the entire sheetlet worth looking at. The pictures show various types, with a particular design on the car.
The series start in 1950 and the last picture shows a New Beetle.

It's really worth looking more closely to each design in particular :

1951

1955

1960

1966

1970

1979

1986

1998

On the first sheet, I noticed an error in the caption beneath the car :
I think they were too enthousiastic writing about the Beetle, that they added an extra T :-)

To be or not to be : CTO - The very obvious ones 03 b

The African continent is as much affected by CTO cancels as any other part of the world.
African countries are not commonly collected countrywise, but thematic, it's a beloved source for animals, landscapes, artefacts or local culture.
However, also here, most mint stamps are unfindable and most used stamps are CTO cancelled.

Some extra african issues :

Burundi

Upper Volta - now Burkina Faso

Upper-Volta - now Burkina Faso

Dahomey - now Benin

Niger

Tchad

Mali

Mauretania

Mauretania

Senegal

Microstates : 12 Land van Ooit (Everland) - bogus

In fact, this issue is completely bogus.
But the 'notes' were in a way legal tender in this particular part of the Netherlands. (Drunen)
Let me explain.

In the '90 of last century, there was a childrens' theme park, called 'Land van Ooit' (Everland).
The park can be seen as a 'do it yourself - attraction park'. The main idea was a park without much "modern" attractions as rollercoasters or highspeed watersplashes.
All staff were actually actors who played within a setting of medieval castles, knights, trolls, whiches and princes.
In Everland, children were the knights, their parents were their servants.
Many acttractions were to be played with human power (unmotorised cars).

At the entrance of the park, an exchange office was build, and dutch guilders could be exchanged for 'ooit-cents' (ever-cents), at a rate of 1 = 1.
1 dutch guilder (=100 cents) was exchanged for 100 'ever-cents'.
All prices in the park were therefore in ever-cents currency.
There were no coins in use, only 6 banknotes.
The banknotes are not etirely fake, since they represent a certain value, and they were exchangable (at the park) for dutch guilders again.
All notes are numbered too.

The highest value, was a 1000 Ooit sent (similar to 1000 Dutch cents), or 10 Dutch Guilders.

1000 Ooit sent

 

1000 Ooit sent - reverse

On the note there's a remark :  all counterfeitors shall be quartered and banned form Everland, for ever!

The idea was great, but due to the fact that almost all attractions were outside, and the weather in this part of Europe isn't really the best place to have only outdoor activities, made that the theme park got bankrupt in 2007.
A smaller park in the belgian city Tongeren (in a Roman empire setting) failed that same year.

To be or not to be : CTO - The very obvious ones 03 a

The african continent has it share of CTO as well, unfortunatly.

Some countries have issued stamps that hardly are collected mint. In order sell the rather useless stamps, and to avoid they are re-used for postal usage. They are cancelled CTO.
Most of them are easily recognised, as the title says : the obvious ones.

The list of CTO cancels is nearly endless...
luckily the 'obvious' ones are easy to regognise. At least if you have a couple of the same country or set, to compare.
A good way to recognise is that the CTO cancels mainly refer to the capital city.
Liberia -> Monrovia
or the name of the country is on the cancel (you won't see that on most postally used cancels)
Togo, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, ...
or 4 stamps can easily be put together, forming the complete cancel.
Almost all of those cancels are printed, and not 'stamped' as they usually do in postoffices.

To be or not to be : CTO - The very obvious ones 02 c

For those who still like CTO,
one quick post to help you to get rid of your fetish :

I just grabbed some Ajman and Mamama 'stamps' (forgive me the word)...

Odd stamps : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 04 b

Within the same family of the trapezoid stamps, we'll have parallelograms.
A parallelogram is a quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides:
Oh yes, this blog might be interesting after all :-)

For stamps, the shape is rather unusual, but that of course is a huge benefit, to make it to my blog.

Two sets of Mongolia, perfectly stamped CTO, but because of the parallel shape, I have put them in this topic.

A way better example is this set from Viet-Nam:

Odd stamps : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 04 a

In a way, except for round stamps, most other stamps are not 'that' odd, as long as they fit into a sheet, when placed in multiple numbers on a sheet.
Triangular stamps with the longest side towards eachother, appear like square stamps.
Also diamond shaped stamps (parallellograms) fit to eachother quite nicely too.

But there are stamps that trapezoid for example, aren't that easy to combine on a sheet.
And jet ... they exist as well.

The list of examples however is not as long as with the other shapes. For obvious reasons of course.

Here some examples :
Monaco was the first to issue a trapezoid stamp

Also Malaysia got a trapezoid stamp in 1967

Malta used a trapezoid set of stamps for Christmas in that same year.

Is it a coincidence or not, but the countries that have issued trapezoid stamps, all start with an M...

Theme : Zodiac signs 06

Zodiac signs does 't have to be the western zodiac signs alone. At least not for this topic.
In order to please the coin-collectors once more, I 'm posting a very fine set of Somali coins, on the theme of chinese zodiac signs.

Somalia has been in the news lately for unpleasant reasons. The location of the country in the east of Africa, almost on the equator, and the extreme weather conditions and lack of rain, has turned this part of the ebony continent into deep misery.

Somalia is located on the east coast of Africa and north of the Equator and, with Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Kenya, is often referred to as the Horn of Africa. It comprises Italy's former Trust Territory of Somalia and the former British Protectorate of Somaliland (now seeking recognition as an independent state). The coastline extends 2,720 kilometer.

The set of 12 coins were issued in 2000 (year of the Dragon).
Each coin shows one of the animals of the chinese horoscope, and the years (between 1900 and 2011) when they were applicable.
The back side of the coin is similar on all coins and shows us the coat of arms of Somalia.

Face value on each coin is 10 Shilling (or Scellini - refering to the Italian influence on the country).

Catalogue numbers are KM#90 to KM#101
Uncirculated coins (as they are all uncirculated) are valued at 1,25 UD each.
Although i've seen them for 8 USD each (!) on a popular auction website.

All coins are made in Nickel Clad Steel,
Ø 24.9 mm
The right order is : Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.