Postal history and postage stamps of the United Arab Emirates

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The postal history of the United Arab Emirates has three phases. From 1909 to 1963 the entire postal service was handled by a single British-Indian, later British, post office in Dubai , from 1964 to 1972 the seven emirates exercised their own postal sovereignty and from 1973 there was a uniform postal service for the entire country. Until 1959 the value of stamps was the Indian rupee used in the Gulf region , from 1959 to 1966 the Gulf rupee , which was issued by the Reserve Bank of India , was valid , from 1966 the value of the stamps was given in Qatari riyals , with the exception of Abu Dhabi, which used the Bahraini dinar , and since January 1973 the stamps have been denoted in UAE dirhams .

International Post Office in Dubai

Postage stamps for the British Post Office in Dubai, value in Naye Paise, the subunit of the Gulf rupee

On August 19, 1909, a British-Indian post office abroad was opened in Dubai, which was responsible for the entire postal service in the Emirates, which were then under the British protectorate . Postage stamps from British India were used without further identification. After India's independence in 1947, the postal service was reorganized, the post office in Dubai was subordinated to the British Post Office in Muscat ( Oman ), British stamps with value imprinted in rupees were used, which were also in use in Muscat.

On January 7, 1961, a series of 11 values ​​of stamps with the country name Trucial States went up for sale in Dubai. At that time, the post office in Dubai was still the only post office on what is now the territory of the United Arab Emirates, the entire mail volume of the other emirates was collected and forwarded here. The stamps printed by Harrison & Sons in High Wycombe remained in use until June 14, 1963, after which the seven emirates received their postal sovereignty with the right to issue their own stamps, but they remained contractually connected with the Royal Mail until 1966 .

Issues of the individual emirates

As the second postal service in the United Arab Emirates, a post office was opened in Abu Dhabi on March 30, 1963 , using the Muscat stamps for a year. On March 30, 1964, the first stamps with the country name Abu Dhabi reached the post office counters. Abu Dhabi pursued an economical policy of issuing its stamps, 95 different stamps had been issued by August 1972; the last series was overprinted with the abbreviation UAE (for United Arab Emirates ) and some values ​​were also used by other emirates.

In contrast to Abu Dhabi, the other emirates maintained an excessive issuing policy for their postage stamp issues, which earned them the title of "predatory states" in philatelic circles. These stamps were produced by European and US agencies and were sold in large quantities without going through the country of issue. Some emirates had concluded supply contracts with several agencies at the same time, and there were also expenses for the small exclaves Manama and Khor Fakkan , the latter issues were discontinued as early as 1969. Especially in the months between the independence of the United Arab Emirates (December 2, 1971) and the termination of all agency contracts on July 31, 1972, the flood of expenditure swelled to record levels that have not been reached by any postal administration since then. For many editions, it is controversial whether they came onto the market before July 31st, and in some cases their recognition was refused by the postal administrations of the Emirates.

The following table gives an overview of the number of stamps of the individual emirates cataloged so far (status: Michel catalog 2006):

Postal area First edition Number of stamps cataloged Stamp pads Postage and official stamps image
Abu Dhabi 30th Mar 1964 95 - - Stamp Abu 1967 40f-170px.jpg
Ajman June 20, 1964 2995 531 18th Stamp of Ajman State 04.jpg
Manama 05th July 1966 1255 240 - Manama.jpg
Dubai June 15, 1963 416 50 14th Dubai No1.jpg
Fujairah 22 Sep 1964 1545 207 18th Fujeira1971Kepler.jpg
Ras al-Khaimah Dec 21, 1964 905 148 - Ras al Khaima Sapporo Olympic 20 stamp.JPG
Sharjah July 10, 1963 1400 157 9 Sharjah-expo70 stamp.jpg
Khor Fakkan 20 Mar 1965 226 21st - Khor-Fakkan 2R.jpg
Umm al-Qaiwain June 29, 1964 1704 95 18th Ummalqiwain10dirham1971.jpg

United Arab Emirates

UAE postage stamp from 1986

In the United Arab Emirates, which had been independent of Great Britain since December 2, 1972 , the individual emirates initially retained their postal sovereignty. It was not until January 1, 1973 that a joint postal service was created for the entire state with uniform stamp issues and on March 30, 1973 the new state became a member of the Universal Postal Union . Since then, the Post's expenditure program has been economical with predominantly country-specific depictions of flora, fauna, culture and politics in the Emirates. The Emirates Post Group , which emerged in 2013 from the merger of Emirates Post with other service providers, operates 115 post offices across the country (as of January 2014).

literature

  • Ullrich Häger: Large encyclopedia of philately . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh, 1973. ISBN 3-570-03229-9
  • Michel catalog volume 10: Middle East , Schwaneberger-Verlag, Munich, 1999. ISBN 3-87858-752-X

Web links

Commons : United Arab Emirates postage stamps  - collection of images, videos and audio files