Appreciation of Printing: Stamps, an Inherited Love

A Postal Mirage

An entire article could be dedicated to the "sand dune states" in the Arabian Peninsula, seven emirates (which now form the United Arab Emirates) which issued—during a 10-year period in the 1960s and 1970s—a staggering 20,000 different stamps. Most of these stamps were never intended for postal use; they were canceled to order (CTO, lightly canceled by the postal service but unused) and sold to the collector market. Some cancellations were printed right on the stamps. That some of these sheikdoms were considered postally legitimate at all is laughable to veteran collectors, who point out that your local Wal-Mart has more square footage than some of these Arabian outposts.