iraq-stamps.com

To coincide with the release of the artistamp sets mentioned in earlier posts, I have released 3 FDCs to complement the stamp releases. These are seen below.

As far as I know the Iraq post office has never released any Christmas stamps since its existence. I took the opportunity of this occasion to commemorate a very significant award on the 25th of November 2007, when Pope Benedict XVI ordained Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly as the head of the Chaldean Church in Iraq and the world and reiterated his support for the Iraqi people.

Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly was one of 23 new cardinals elevated by the pontiff in a ceremony held at St. Peter’s Church and attended by delegates from a wide range of countries.

Emmanuel III was born in 1927 in a tiny village near Mosul in Northern Iraq, where Christians have been practicing their religion for around 2,000 years and some still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

The number of Iraq’s Christian Community was a million and a half before the regime change in April 2003, but has decreased in the recent years because of the deteriorating security condition in the country and they now number around 750,000.

The top religious title granted by the Vatican to Patriarch Emmanuel is the first awarded to an Iraqi Christian in Iraq’s contemporary history.

On the 16th of December 2006, British troops transferred control of Basra province to the Iraqi authorities, four-and-a-half years after the invasion. The handover marked a significant milestone towards Britain’s final withdrawal from southern Iraq.

In a ceremony at Basra airport, British and Iraqi representatives signed a memorandum of understanding to formalise the handover.  The 4,500 British troops still in Iraq will now take a backseat role, focusing on training Iraqi forces.

There are 4 stamps in this set and its the first time I use a diamond shape stamp shape.

Click on the image to see a bigger version

On the 6th of January 2008, Iraq will celebrate the anniversary of the Iraqi Army. This event used to be celebrated each year with a new set of stamps. I wonder if the Iraqi Post Office will release any stamps about this topic, anyhow I decided to create such a set.

The Iraqi Army is strengthening all the time as it gets new training and weapons and it is thought that they will be able to take control of all Iraqi cities by the end of 2008. The Iraqi Army used to be the 5th biggest army in the world during the Iraq-Iran war but during the sanction years it became very weak and its equipment became old. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi Army was disbanded in a move which was thought to be the cause of much of Iraq’s troubles which occured after the war ended.

The set has 3 stamps and highlights the Air Force, the Infantry and Tank regiments.

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I have created this set especially at a request from a friend of the site who suggested the topic. It is not the anniversary of the Iraqi uprising but I will release the set now.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The 1991 uprisings in Iraq were a series of intifada rebellions in Southern and Northern Iraq in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War.

The revolts in the Shia-dominated cities of Basra and Nasiriyah broke out in March 1991, sparked by demoralized Iraqi Army troops returning from Iraq’s defeat in the Persian Gulf War. Another uprising in the Kurdish areas of Northern Iraq broke out shortly thereafter. Unlike the spontaneous rebellion in the South, the uprising in the North was organized by two rival Kurdish militias, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Although they presented a serious threat to his regime, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was able to suppress the rebellions with massive force and maintain power, as the expected intervention by the United States never materialized. The uprisings were eventually crushed by the Iraqi Republican Guard, followed by mass reprisals and intensified forced relocation of Marsh Arabs, including draining of the marshlands. In few weeks tens of thousands of civilians were killed.

In my hurry to release the Ashura set I made a couple of spelling errors which I have now corrected and re-released the set. The original stamps had the Arabic spelling for Ashura wrong. Also the word Dinar in Arabic was grammatically wrong. The picture below shows the correct stamps. If you would like the new corrected set I am able to offer it free with any future purchase of any item from the shop, just remind me if I forget to send it.

Click on the image for a bigger version

I have seen this stamp before on eBay, it is obvious it will never sell because there is no certificate with it, no one has seen it or heard about it before, and it has a ridiculous price, but anyway I have a larger scan of this stamp which is on sale at the moment in eBay.

 >>Bigger version of the stamp with the error

>>Bigger version of the stamp along with the normal stamp without error

There is a lot of things which make me think this is a fake, I will just mention one which I noticed. Notice how the big post mark on the right which is so clear and looks exactly like the ink used for the rest of the writing on the stamp, but also notice on the bottom left corner of the stamp, there is a big mark which you can hardly even though the other post mark is so clear. So what is this ink on the bottom left of the stamp? If its a post mark why is it not the same clear ink of the other post mark? Could this be a used Turkey stamp which has been faked to be a never heard off error of a Baghdad under British Occupation stamp? You decide.

Ok these are no mine so please don’t ask if I have them for sale.

 I found these on eBay, they are nice and interesting, the original stamps had Military occupation of San Dinero, now San Dinero is just a non existent country in South America. In the ones below, the words San dinero are overprinted with the word IRAQ.

Unfortunately I missed out on buying these, I would have liked to have them. 

I noticed an increase in the scams that are the colour variation “errors” and the missing parts of stamps “errors” on Iraqi stamps being sold on eBay for a lot of money. In case you  have not read past posts that I wrote about these, these are not errors.

These imperfections are added or created by dealers who want to steal your money and sell you something which is not genuine. There is a lot of money to be made from these tricks and that’s why they continue doing it.

Colour variations can be achieved by light exposure of the stamp and deletions could be done with an eraser. All of these items below and many more are Fake errors or what I like to call deliberate errors.

I covered these stamps before here, they are on sale again on eBay but interestingly this time the advert mentions that they are local stamps, meaning people in Basra use or used this before, THIS IS NOT TRUE, these are just artistamps and not postage or local stamps.