Postal history and postage stamps from Maluku Selatan

The postal history of the Republic of the South Moluccas spans the period from the unilateral declaration of independence on April 25, 1950 to the Indonesian conquest of the last city of Saparua held by the government of the South Moluccas on March 14, 1951. During this period, the rebels operated up to eleven post offices the territory they control.

Postage stamp issues

There are numerous stamps with the imprint or the inscription Maluku Selatan . While the authenticity of the overprint stamps is controversial, other stamps were neither produced in the country nor ever sold at the post office. The latter are donation vignettes or so-called fraudulent issues, i.e. postage stamps (forgeries) that were privately produced for fraudulent purposes without authorization.

There are three different editions that are assigned to the Republic of Maluku Selatan:

• Imprint marks
• Vignettes of the government in exile in the Netherlands
• Postage stamps from the Austrian State Printing Office , which were commissioned and sold by the New York stamp dealer Henry Stolow .

Imprint marks

In 1950, 22 stamps from the Dutch East Indies and Indonesia were imprinted with the Republic of Maluku Selatan , of which about 150 are known to be used. The first known stamp date is August 1, 1950, the last date September 28, 1950. Many used copies are stuck to postal order forms or fragments thereof, there are no used stamps on letters or postcards. After the conquest by Indonesian troops, all documents and stamps related to the secession of the Maluku Selatan Republic were destroyed, but postal order forms remained, which, according to the Dutch colonial practice, were kept by the post office for five years. The forms were then supposed to be destroyed, but some copies were withheld and sold to collectors. These stamps are not listed in postage stamp catalogs and the Indonesian government has repeatedly denied their authenticity.

Government-in-exile expenditure in the Netherlands

Several one- to three-color postage stamp-like vignettes without an issue date by Maluku Selatan are known, which were sold by the government in exile in the Netherlands . These editions were intended to make the archipelago and the flag of the Republic of Maluku Selatan known, to draw attention to the concerns of the government in exile and to vote for target groups such as the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the United Nations (UNO) and General Douglas MacArthur in favor of their own goals. These brands differ from the fraudulent editions mentioned below in that the currency is given in Indonesian rupiah or sen.

Henry Stolow's hoax editions

Around 150 colorful triangular or square "stamps" were illegally brought onto the market by the New York and Munich stamp dealer Henry Stolow (1901–1971) from 1955 without a date of issue. These editions were printed in the Austrian State Printing House without checking their legality. They have never been used for franking , which is why there are only mint copies. These brands are characterized by the value k , the meaning of which is unknown.

Peter Doerling wrote in 1991: In 1954, a few gentlemen turned up at the Wiener Staatsdruckerei, including a German stamp dealer who wanted stamps printed for the new REPUBLIK MALUKU SELATAN. This republic had actually been proclaimed on the Indonesian Moluccas islands of Ambon and Ceram, whose Christian residents no longer wanted to belong to the Islamic Republic of Indonesia. The republic only existed for a short time, warships fired at Amboina, and many residents fled to the Netherlands. For the speculators, of course, this was only a pretext, because they had around 150 stamp issues printed, including beautiful animal and plant motifs and even a UN series, all of them pure fantasy products with no philatelic value.

Evaluation of these stamp issues

Renowned stamp catalogs and stamp dealers do not sell stamps from the Republic of Maluku Selatan . The MICHEL editorial team is not aware of any valid postage stamps from this region (information from MICHEL editor Erich H. Slaby on February 2, 2005).

With regard to the colorful stamp issues with a sales date from 1955 onwards, the MICHEL editorial team reports: They are pure bogus issues that cannot be found in any serious catalog and should not be offered by any dealer who wants to be considered serious - unless under the express term "vertigo". (Information from MICHEL editor Erich H. Slaby on February 1, 2005).

Norbert Breunig also writes in the collectors 'service from 1960, citing reports in the collectors' service in issues 3/54 and 7/54 and his own investigations: "In reality there is no Republic of Maluku Selatan at all".

Ullrich Häger writes in the "Große Lexikon der Philatelie" under the heading Maluku Selatan : In 1955 approx. 150 different picture brands with the country name MALUKU SELATAN, which should come from a newly created independent state formed from the Moluccas Islands. Although there were efforts in the Moluccas to break away from Indonesia, the formation of the state did not materialize. A well-known New York brand retailer was not challenged; Through an intermediary from the State Printing House in Vienna, he gave the order for the production of the stamp series, which was promptly carried out without anyone in Vienna being convinced of the existence of Maluku Selatan. These brands that begin with ignorance of the facts. bought by many collectors are at best of little curiosity value.

The Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalog writes under South Moluccas : It appears that the stamps of the so-called republic of South Moluccas were privately issued and had no postal use. Accordingly, they are not recognized as postage stamps.

Web links

• Article from English-language websites about the overprint stamps that come from locally used stamps:
  • Article South Moluccas (1950) at linns.com
  • Article South Moluccas (Republic of Maluku Selatan) at Sandafayre Online
• Article from English-language websites about the stamp issues of the government-in-exile in the Netherlands:
  • World History at KMLA
  • Overview of stamp issues of the government in exile

• Image examples:
  • Examples of postage stamp issues by the government in exile in the Netherlands:
    • Archipelago and flag , Universal Postal Union , United Nations , General Douglas Mc Arthur ( Memento from August 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), overprint mark - 1 , overprint mark - 2
  • Sample images of the stamps commissioned and sold by Henry Stolow:
    • Blume ( Memento from March 22, 2006 on the Internet Archive ), Rhoeo discolor ( Memento from October 25, 2009 on WebCite )

literature

• Wolfgang Baldus: Philatelic Witnesses - Stamps of Revolutions . Pp. 232-235, Album Publishing Company, Raleigh NC, 2002. ISBN 1-885184-09-3
• Norbert Breunig: The brands of the Republic of Maluku Selatan in: The collector service (issue 15) 1960, p. 711 f.
• Ullrich Häger: Großes Lexikon der Philatelie , Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag, Gütersloh-Berlin-Munich-Vienna 1973 (p. 275 Maluku Selatan , p. 449 Henry Stolow ).
• Michel Rundschau 5/1988 (p. 362 Maluku Selatan ), 7/1988 (p. 534-536 Maluku Selatan ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Der Spiegel, No. 6, 1955 , accessed on October 2, 2012
2. ↑ http://www.peter-doerling.de/Latein/Phantasiemarken.htm ( Memento from February 18, 2006 in the Internet Archive )

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