Oman Gandhi "Stamps"

Good Evening Gandhi collectors,

My first blog-post on this site. Thanks to Mr.Maulik for inviting me to join in this endeavour, and also to Mr.Patel for encouraging me to blog.

I decided to start off with a small post about the elusive Oman Gandhi “Stamps”. My interest in this issue was re-triggered by an email from Mr.Mahendra Sagar in the USA, a specialized collector of inverted issues.

The Oman Gandhi “stamps” are a set issued under the name “State of Oman”, sometime in the 1970s. These issues are by a rebel group from a period when Oman was facing a lot of internal strife. More info about this is given on the below link:

http://www.oman.org/phil8.htm

Thus, the set of stamps is bogus/fake/Cinderella, etc., but nevertheless a collector’s item, and a very rare one at that. The set of is probably 10 in number, as that is the maximum I have come across in a single place. The scans of the 10 stamps are given on the below link:

http://www.gandhiserve.org/sale/stamps_oman/stamps_oman.html

These Gandhi Oman stamps are overprinted on metal foil and are about 2.5 cms in diameter. The stamps originally feature Charles de Gaulle, the French Army General and later President. The Gandhi image has been superimposed on the de Gaulle image, and this is what has given rise to certain variations.

I have 9 of these stamps, as per below scan (2 each of 1B,2B,3B,5B and 1 of 4B):

As you can see, “Charles de Gaulle” appears on Gandhi’s shoulder.

Mr.Mahendra Sagar had emailed the below scans of 2 stamps with the Gandhi image 180 degrees inverted:

Here, the “Charles de Gaulle” inscription appears on Gandhi’s head. Though this is definitely a variety, a point to be noted is that since the image has been superimposed and the circular shape makes it difficult to “fix” the position of the stamp, such varieties are bound to occur. In fact, in one of my stamps, the Gandhi image appears to be 90 degrees tilted.

Though the set of “stamps” is extremely rare, I again wish to stress that it is not a genuine set, and is thus strictly for Gandhi-lovers !

Nikhil Mundra

www.gandhistamps.com

24th January 2010

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