These are the pictures of the Iraq stamp catalogue project which I was working on. I only have one copy at the moment and due to costs I will make copies when i recieve the orders.
Please note:
1) The catalogue contains 66 pages, all the stamps are to scale and in full colour.
2) The catalogue is printed on high quality card paper and is bound professionally.
3) The catalogue does not contain any stamp errors, i.e. only officially recognised stamps listed in the major catalogues are displayed, stamp errors is a whole new world.
4) I will close down the stamp gallery section for the years 1990-2003 for users who have not purchased an item from this site (or ebay), more on this at a later date.
Price:
The album will be sold as part of a package costing £25, as part of this package you will get:
1)Â one stamp catalogue (1990-2003)
2) A set of the 2003/2004 Transportation set (Mint Never Hinged, price alone is £4.50) (see here)
3) Free postage and packing
4) One year free access to iraq-stamps.com galleries (more on this later)
5) 25% off the price of items sold in the iraq-stamps.com shop (including any new catalogues)
How to buy:
I will be adding a link later for buy online, to pre-order let me know by filling the contact form
I have been working on a this project with the aim to release a catalogue of all the Iraqi stamps with full colour images and I decided to start on the period between 1990 and 2003, mostly because I have a full collection of those stamps and because its probably one of the most confusing periods for a collector with so many overprinted/surcharged stamps.
I see the catalogue being used in a number of ways:
1) As a catalogue, i.e. a reference to the issues of this period with full colour images of the stamps rather than a list. The stamps will be to scale (100% scale). Ofcourse this includes miniture sheets.
2) As an album, I want to print this on card paper which means they can hold stamps if needs be.
3) As a value guide, I have used stamps values from Stanley Gibbons latest catalgue, this just give an indication of how much the stamp is worth, it certainly would be easier to look through a small catalogue rather than the normal stanley gibbons big one.
4) As a collection guide, well this is the second most useful feature from my point of view after including all the stamp images, and the way this works is that each stamp has tick boxes next to it for the collector to indicate whether they have this stamp in their collection or not, and in what condition. This way when you find a set you don't know if you have in your collection, it won't be necessary to open up big albums and try to find the set, you just look at this catalogue and you will know.
I'm hoping within the next two weeks this will be ready, I just need to go over the content and re-check it.
If you are interested in pre-ordering this let me know by using the contact form, you don't need to pay now, it just gives me an idea of how many I should print for the first print run.
Well this brought a smile to my face. This is a postcard sent from Switzerland to Saddam Hussain (the now hanged dictator), supposidly from agent 'Bill'. I can't see the date on the post mark, I don't have a doubt its genuine but I'm sure it never made it past the borders.
I think it is really funny and worth collecting, certainly not at the price its being offered for, 30 British pounds, I wouldn't mind paying a few pounds for it, its a funny idea.
I have been busy designing Iraq artistamps sets to commemorate various subjects like the Iraq participation in the last Olympic games etc.
If you have any subject you think deserves to be on artistamps or if you have designs yourself please let me know via the contact form.
From today, user will not be able to access the stamps gallery and the FDC gallery without registering first.
On a recent visit to Oman and Bahrain I managed to get hold of many lots of stamps from these two countries.
 For Oman things are a little difficult, the post office prints low amounts of stamps and gives priority to philatelic club members then releases the rest for public consumption. By about 3 months the whole issue amount has been sold and the stamps can only be bought from dealers or swapped with collectors.
I managed to get almost all the Oman collection through a dealer in Oman but I had to pay a lot of money, mostly catalogue value or maybe even more, if anyone would like to buy lots of Omani stamps, use the contact form.
Bahrain's stamps are a little more easily found, the post office provides stamps from the last 10 or so years with FDCs, mini sheets etc. Bahraini stamps are actually really nice and a lot of effort has gone into producing them, I got hold of a big lot of Bahraini stamps, if you are interested then let me know by using the contact form.
Collecting from these two countries is an expensive hobby, their currencies are strong and the amount of stamps they produce makes them harder to get therefore inflating their price. There is also not much web presence for the post office of these countries and you certainly can't join the philatelic club or buy stamps online, you really need to be there physically or risk sending money over the post.