Wednesday 2 May 2012

Nigerian Hologram Stamps.

I have now obtained a set of the Nigerian hologram stamps previously reported in the blog of 5 March 2012 which as I then described is comprised of 9 stamps. Six of them are additionally inscribed "2000 years of Nigerian art" and the other three are rather random subjects (two wildlife - an elephant and a monkey - and the third, a scene from a fishing festival).
These three latter designs are all distinguished by naming the state from which the subjects originate, as though they are part of a series on the states of Nigeria which logically ought to include many more stamps.
I obtained my set from Nigel Haworth, who in his semi-retirement is still obtaining difficult new issues to sell when full-time not-at-all retired dealers rarely obtain such items. He additionally supplied a version of the N50 2000 years of art stamp which depicts a version of the "Landers Brothers anchorage" design which has a "2009" imprint and no hologram (the hologram stamps have a 2010 imprint). The "arts" stamps also mention the name of the state in which the depicted work of art is found so although they have the additional "2000 years of Nigerian art" identification they too seem to be part of the series about the states of Nigeria. I wonder if the "2009" stamp is part of a larger series on the bimillenium of Nigerian art which I have not yet seen described which did not have holograms but then were redrawn to provide the 2010 stamps with holograms applied. It may be that specialists in modern West African stamps know more about these issues but at the moment there must be a number of questions:- 1. Are there more stamps from 2009 in the "2000 years of Nigerian stamps" set, even as many as 6 which were then redrawn to incorporate holograms in 2010? 2. Is there a larger number of stamps in existence to represent all of the Nigerian states? 3. Are there more hologram stamps to add to the nine that we already know about? Obtaining the stamps has caused me to wonder just what else Nigeria has produced in the absence of philatelic publicity.

No comments:

Post a Comment