This is the start of a new topic describing the regions which I have divided my stamp collection and what they have in store for the Stamp Collector. We'll start off with one of my favourite areas, the Middle East. My collection features both new, existing and non-existing countries. Lets start off with the region description and the countries involved.
First off as you can see from the picture, this includes Turkey, because lets face it, Turkey isn't European by a long shot. It also features Afghanistan in it because historically it has been equally involved with both India and Persia. I have added it because in my view its culture resembles more of a Persian background than an Indian one. These are mine-fields to those who don't wish these countries to be included in this region, but tough luck, its my region settings.
Anyway, it includes: Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Qatar, Bahrain, U.A.E, Jordan, Israel (haha, not a black spot), Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Kuwait. As well as these former countries: Aden, United Arab Republic and Yemen Arab Republic.
There are some countries which do not count because they have issued stamps only for collectors. I call poppy cock on that, because they clearly exist and while finding them used is hard as finding a needle in a haystack, they have been used for postal mail so therefore they do exist. Don't expect to find these in a Scott's stamp catalogue though, they have decided not to list them, which I declare is their own foolishness. These countries are: Ajman, Dubai, Fujeira, Manama, Ras Al Khaima, Sharjah, Umm Al Qiwan, Quaiti State of Shihr and Mukalla and Kathiri State of Seiyun. The total number of countries in this region is about 27. If I am missing any, please kindly comment below and let me know.
The number of stamps in my collection for this region is 1036, with Turkey leading the way at 405. Then comes Afghanistan with 151 and then Saudi Arabia with a measly 64. I'd personally like to get higher numbers of countries in this region, but sadly kiloware isn't geared up to this, which is another topic I will get to in the future.
This area is highly collectible, with some notable stamps which I will showcase below. It is also highly collection because of the political reasons and thus many stamps are geared towards this event. It is sad that Scott's Stamp Catalogue has not accepted the stamps of these "sand dune" countries as they like to call them, I say a pox on them if they can sideline still existing countries even though they are in the UAE.
Next time, I'll focus on Central Asia and we'll go through each region as we continue this journey in blog form. Till then, happy stamp collecting!
This one is from Saudi Arabia:
Iraq:
Iran:
Aden:
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