Chinese Philately .. The “Whole Country is Red” small stamp, Scott no. 999A and large stamp, Yang no. W83.
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THE NEW CARTOPHILATELIST, NUMBER 28, JANUARY 2010 PAGE 3
In 1999 Jean-Pierre Mangin, President
of the European Academy of Philatelia
published the first of two volumes of his
Guide Mondial des Timbres Erronés.
He identified his subject as “...errors of
conception and creation that affect en-
tire issues and convey a different mes-
sage from that intended.” It is to such
errors that this article is directed with
one more limitation. The stamp issues
under consideraton all have maps as
their subject. There are over 250 map
stamps with design errors. In a series of
articles in The New CartoPhilatelist I
have examined about fifty of them. In
this article I will focus on four more.
First, a bit of introduction. The errors
in question are not the notorious pro-
duction errors which effect one or two
stamps, but design errors, which effect
the whole issue. For example, Germany
2019 issued in 1998. This is a very nice
stamp which includes in its design a
ship and a portion of a map. All is well
until we remember some physics. No-
tice the flags that fly from the mast
heads of the ship. They all fly toward
the rear of the ship. The wind which
blows the flags must also power the
ship which is moving forward. So, if the
wind is filling the sails from behind
then it must also be blowing the flags
from behind! On this stamp and several
others the error is that the flags are
blowing in the wrong direction.
The Dominican Republic issued 351-
355 in 1940 to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the founding of the Pan-
American Union in 1840. They feature
a map of the western hemisphere encir-
cled by the flags of the countries of the
Union. Here the problem is bad draw-
ing. North America from the Mexican
border with the United States to the
coast of South America looks like a
There are a number of drawing errors
on the map. Africa is separated from
Eurasia and the Strait of Gibraltar does
not exist. North America is unrecogniz-
able. Neither the Aleutian Islands, nor
Japan appear on the map. Madagascar,
Greenland and Ceylon are missing, and
India is only a bump on the southern
coast of Asia. Cape Horn, which
emerges from behind the sculptor‟s
head, has a strange shape. The Cape of
Good Hope is misshaped. Many islands
are omitted or misplaced.
At first glance, Guatemala C141 issued
in 1946 it is a beautiful stamp. But that
is an illusion which disappears upon
examination. The frame and the bird are
fine, but the map is a mess. On the
western hemisphere there is a large is-
land in the Gulf of Mexico and a strange
island in the south Pacific, the shape of
North America is distorted and Hud-
son's Bay is missing. On the eastern
hemisphere Europe appears as an island
separated from Asia, the Mediterranean
Sea is missing, Africa is disconnected
from Asia Minor and Australia is almost
as large as Asia. And finally, although
the dates on the stamp might indicate
that the stamp was issued in 1940, it
was in fact issued in 1946.
Errors on Map Stamps, by Diedrik Nelson.
Germany, Sc 2019
string bean. The Equator bisects Cen-
tral America. It should pass through
the northern part of South America.
Vancouver Island seems to be attached
to the mainland. Baja California is too
small. Cuba should be due south of
Florida (Where is Florida?). The island
of Hispaniola, which is the location of
the Dominican Republic should be due
west of Cuba. The shape and location
of the land masses in the Arctic are
wrong. Hudson Bay and Newfoundland
are missing.
Nicaragua issued a stamp in 1954 to
honor the United Nations as indicated
by the legend at the bottom of the
stamp. The design has the emblem of
the United Nations being engraved by a
sculptor.
Dominican Republic Sc 351-355
These stamps illustrate the errors made
and passed over by those who create
our stamps. Such errors are made by
every postal service, and mostly with-
out correction. For the most part the
only ones corrected are those that have
an incorrect value for the stamp.
Guatemala Sc C141. Nicaragua SC 750.
(continued on page 4.)
THE NEW CARTOPHILATELIST, NUMBER 28, JANUARY 2010 PAGE 4
Clearly the interest is lost revenue, not a
correct design. According to Phyllis
Theroux, “Mistakes are the usual bridge
between inexperience and wisdom.”
You may draw your own conclusions.
The Dominican Republic, Scott 118
reads "Cinco" (five) while these are 50c
stamps (Cincuenta). The errors of these
stamps are said to be fabricated, even if
you have real stamps (check the perf).
(Errors on stamps, continued from page 3.)
Dominican Republic SC 118.
There is another kind of error on this
stamp with the map image reversed.
Jean-Pierre Mangin, Timbres des Error-
nes. I:189.
Image Reversed.
The true error on these stamps is the
border between the Dominican Republic
and Haiti which juts into Haitian territory
some 50 miles in the area of Lake Eri-
quillo and in the vicinity of La Citadelle,
claiming possession of the Hatian town
of Hincha. The border was finally agreed
on in 1929.■
Miniature Messages; The Semiotics and Politics of Latin American Postage Stamps, reviewed by Miklos Pinther.
Looking at the subtitle one might ap-
proach this book with caution:
“Semiotics and Politics?” Is this an ab-
stract, academic study? Perhaps it has
value for a political scientist, but would
it be useful for a philatelist? A perusal
of the preface and introduction, however,
quickly allays such concerns. The reader
will be attracted by the direct, personal
style and the considered manner in
which the author explains the connection
between semiotics and stamps. The
“power” of stamps… Child never uses
the word “power,” yet as a cartographer
this work reminds me of the opening line
in Denis Wood‟s book, The Power of
Maps, “Power is the ability to do work.
Which is what maps do: they work.”
Jack Child explains to us how stamps
work.
Let‟s clear the air; this book is not a
treatise on postal rates or postal history.
It is not a minute inspection of physical
or technical attributes. Rather, it is an
exploration of the thematic aspects of
Latin American stamps. For inspiration,
Child credits the work of David Scott in
his European Stamp Design: A Semiotic
Approach to Designing Messages. For
methodology, he adopts the semiotic
analysis work of Charles Sanders Peirce,
a 19th century American philosopher.
The author emphatically reminds us that
postage stamps are one of the “smallest,
densest, universal symbols” and that our
repetitive contact with them “reinforces
the impact of the semiotic messages”
they carry. He puts forth the notion that
stamps can indeed make valuable contri-
butions to academic studies, which he is
in a unique position to defend. A popu-
lar professor of cultural studies and con-
flict resolution in Latin America at the
American University in Washington,
DC, he was born and raised in Buenos
Aires, traveled extensively throughout
South America, and is a lifelong stamp
collector. He is also known to have
nudged his students, from time to time,
to include philately in their class papers.
Professor Child uses over 600 stamps
from all of Latin America as well as
Belize and Guyana (154 are reproduced
in a color insert) to dissect a broad range
of topics on stamps, from advertisement
to wars. The narrative is enlivened by
anecdotes of profiteering, errors, censor-
ship, and internal politics, among others.
Some will be familiar, such as the con-
troversial episode of the “Seebecks” or
the stamps of the Chaco War period. In
others, like the Falkland conflict or the
Antarctic claims, the reader will find
fresh, personal insight. And cartophi-
latelists will encounter plenty of exam-
ples of maps as national “iconographic
signs.” To accomplish all this, the au-
thor successfully weaves together a vast
array of publications, all carefully refer-
enced in over 400 endnotes. Philatelists
will find the index to the stamps men-
tioned a particularly helpful tool.
Originally, I came across this book
while searching for ideas on writing up
rejected stamp designs for a possible
future exhibit. The new way of looking
at stamp designs and the body of litera-
ture reviewed by Professor Child was an
eye-opener for me. It is hard to imagine
anyone undertaking a serious Latin
American philatelic study without con-
sulting this groundbreaking work.■
1David Scott, European Stamp Design: A Semi-
otic Approach To Designing Messages. Lon-
don: Academic Editions, 1995, 144 pp. Large
10x12 inch format; over 1300 illustrations,
most in color; bibliography and index to stamp
designers.
2For further research see also: Jack Child,
"Researching the Politics and History of Latin
American Postage Stamps at the APRL" in The
Philatelic Literature Review, Volume 52, 1st
Quarter / 2003, pp. 50-63.
Jack Child is a CPS member.
By Jack Child
Duke University Press, 247 pp, paper $23.95.
Articles Wanted.
The hardest part about being an
editor is having enough good arti-
cles of varying length to fill the
pages. Please write about your fa-
vorite map stamps and tell us why
they are important to you.
Martin Oakes
THE NEW CARTOPHILATELIST, NUMBER 28, JANUARY 2010 PAGE 5
The back page of TNCP No. 27
(October 2009) features a sheetlet of 10
map stamps of the Malibamatso Valley,
Lesotho, as mapped in 1911 [See note.]
This sheetlet is part of a stamp issue that
deserves a comment for its special car-
tographic and geographic interests.
In 1996 Lesotho issued three sheetlets
of 10 (2 x 5) stamps (SG 1238-1267),
each forming a composite design and
covering 16 x 36 km of the Mali-
bamatso Valley. The three sheetlets are
portions of the national map coverages
at 1:250,000 scale as mapped in 1911,
1978 and 1994. While examples exist
from other countries of map stamps
reproducing parts of national map series
at so-called topographic scales, and
even sets for different dates, for exam-
ple UK 1991 Ordnance Survey map
series (SG 1578-1581), three blocks of
10 stamps of the same area for different
dates is novel. But there are special fac-
tors about the Malibamatso Valley re-
sponsible for this.
The Malibamatso Valley is in the ex-
treme north of Lesotho in the upper part
of the Orange River basin. Lesotho it-
self has two remarkable geographical
facts: it is an enclave, completely sur-
rounded by South Africa; and the entire
country is very high above sea level, the
lowest point of the country being at
1,400 metres (4,593 ft.).
Water is always scarce. The Lesotho
Highlands Water Project was created in
the 1980s for twin purposes: to allow
water to be stored and diverted into the
Vaal River in South Africa to supply
the major cities of Johannesburg and
Soweto; and to generate electricity
within the country rather than importing
from South Africa.
Already, by 1990, South Africa was
celebrating the Highlands Water Project
by a map stamp (SG 702) in a stamp
issue on various co-operative projects
in Southern Africa. On the map of Le-
sotho and its surrounds are shown the
water delivery tunnel running north-
wards to the Vaal River and the Orange
-Vaal water transfer scheme around the
west of Lesotho running southwards to
the Orange River.
The Lesotho Highlands Water
Project, by Roger Kirby.
The three blocks of Lesotho map
stamps show stages in the Malibamatso
Valley‟s development. The 1911 map
was produced by rough ground survey-
ing methods involving plane table and
theodolite traverses, resulting in very
inaccurate maps compared with the
later products. The 1911 map shows
some paths and only a few settlement
names which are mostly not present on
the later maps.
By comparison, the 1978 and 1994
maps were produced from aerial photo-
graphs by photogrammetric plotting so
the topography and rivers are much
more accurately portrayed. The first
stage of the Lesotho Highlands Water
Project installed the Katse Dam across
the Malibamatso River and a 45 km
tunnel to Muela, where hydro-
electricity would be generated. By
1994, the date of the completion of the
New Standard Map of Lesotho, the Ka-
tse Dam was nearly finished and the
stamps for this date show the Katse
Reservoir at the expected 1997 full sup-
ply level. By 1994, this part of the Le-
sotho Highlands Water Project had led
to new settlements at each end of the
reservoir as well as construction of new
roads, airfields and other infrastructure.
When the dam was completed in 1997,
at 185 metres tall it was the largest in
Africa.
The SG catalogues state that the
sheetlets were issued in conjunction
with a schools campaign to promote the
use and understanding of maps. But
without the Lesotho Highlands Water
Project this memorable 1996 set of
three blocks of map stamps would
probably never have been produced.■
South Africa, SG 702.
SG 1238-47 SG 1248-57 SG 1258-67
Note: To aid in collation this page was
added to the printed TNCP only.
THE NEW CARTOPHILATELIST, NUMBER 28, JANUARY 2010 PAGE 6
On November 1, 2009, a brief story
circled the globe: China stamp fetches
record price. Carried by dozens of
online news outlets, this was stunning
information because new copies of two
of China‟s rarest stamps resurfaced and
were sold the day before for unprece-
dented high prices by John Bull Stamp
Auctions Ltd of Hong Kong.
THE AUCTION – There were three lots
of the China map stamps known as the
“Whole Country is Red,” Scott no.
999A (Yang W63): lot 751, single used
copy, final bid HK$276,000; lot 752,
s ing le mint co p y, f i na l b id
HK$356,500; and lot 753, upper left
block of four mint stamps, final bid
HK$2,300,000. A fourth lot, no. 754,
was a similar, larger size map error
stamp, which was never officially is-
sued (Yang W83). This was hammered
down at HK$3,680,000!!1 As noted by
the auctioneer, these stamps were the
stars of the sale. “No auction house in
China,” claimed John Bull, “has offered
7 copies in one auction.” No doubt
about it, it was a remarkable event.
A BIT OF HISTORY – So, how scarce
are these stamps? We do not know the
exact number in private collections, but
they are very rare indeed. Yet, some
time ago, there were other historic sales
of these stamps which are interesting to
note because it gives us a glimpse of the
strength of the Chinese philatelic mar-
ket. In the late 1980s, Unitric Philatelic
Company in Hong Kong conducted a
series of sales that was equally signifi-
cant. In April 1987 Unitric sold a large
used (?) copy of the “Whole Country is
Red” to a Hong Kong collector for
HK$73,000, and noted that only three
copies were recorded. In December
1988, it sold a large mint copy to a
Swiss collector for HK$205,000. In
this same auction there was also a top
margin block of four of the small stamp
which realized HK$155,000. And the
following year, in August 1989, Unitric
sold a lower left corner block of 8 small
stamps, with imprint, for HK$200,000
to an Indonesian collector.2 (The rela-
tively low price was possibly the result
of some marginal soiling.) At the time
this was believed to be the largest block
recorded. In October 1997, however, a
full sheet of 50 stamps was placed on
display at the China Philatelic Expo in
Guangzhou. The sheet is considered to
be a “national treasure” and valued at
over RMB10,000,000 or about
US$1,500,000.3 To round out the his-
toric valuation of these stamps we
should note that the 1998 Yang catalog
(12th edition) lists the small stamp
(W63) at US$18,000, and the large one
(W83) at US$90,000.4
THE STAMPS – Now let us return to
the stamps. The original report of the
John Bull sale by AFP (American Free
Press) was a little unclear because there
are two different stamps which are fre-
quently referred to as “The Whole
Country is Red.”5 As indicated above,
they are also commonly labeled as the
“small” and the “large” stamps. The
small one is a vertical stamp measuring
30x40 mm (Fig. 1). The large stamp is
horizontal with 60x40 mm dimensions
(Fig. 2). The small stamp was issued
on November 25, 1968; the large stamp
was completed but never released.
1968 was a tumultuous year in China.
It followed the Socialist Educational
Movement of 1962-1966 and the major
Cultural Revolution struggles of 1966-
1967. This year marked the beginning
of the movement of urban youth to the
countryside and the establishment of
Revolutionary Committees throughout
the country. The Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications wanted to com-
memorate these achievements with this
issue. Graphic artist, Wang Weisheng,
was tasked to create the stamp. After
an initial design was rejected, he was
under some pressure to come up with an
alternative, which is the so-called
“small” version. The slogan written
across the map, “Whole Country is
red,” signifies the victory of the prole-
tarian Cultural Revolution and gives the
name to the stamp. There seems to be
29 red flags for the Revolutionary Com-
mittees, red balloons fly in the sky, and
the little red book of Mao‟s quotations
are waved by the joyful masses. Above
them, almost like an ethereal glow,
floats the map all in red, clearly the
focus of the design.
At the Auctions… by Miklos Pinther
1Prices realized do not include the 18% buyer‟s commission. The Hong Kong dollar exchange rate
has been quite stable, approximately 7.8 to 1 US$. For further information see the web site of John
Bull Stamp Auctions Ltd at http://www.jbull.com/default.aspx. 2Prices realized do not include a 10% buyer‟s commission. Information was kindly provided by
John Tsang of Unitric Philatelic Company, Hong Kong. 3For further information visit the web site of China National Philatelic Corporation at http://
www.cpi.com.cn/cpi-eng/index.asp. 4For further information on the status of philately in China see, Michael J. Leyden II, “Chinese
Philately is „Red‟ Hot!” in American Philatelist, October 1997, pages 946-950. 5For a more accurate report see Rick Miller, “Record realization for unissued Chinese stamp” in
Linn’s Stamp News, December 14, 2009, pages 1 and 13. 6Carla Michel has done extensive research on this stamp, particularly on how to identify forgeries.
For example see, “Ganz China ist Rot – Marken- und Brieffälschungen” in Die China-Philatelie,
no. 124, October 2002.
Fig. 1. The “Whole Country is Red” small stamp, Scott no. 999A.
THE NEW CARTOPHILATELIST, NUMBER 28, JANUARY 2010 PAGE 7
It was only recently, that a man said:
”Something is rotten in the state of Den-
mark.” That person was the Danish
Prince Hamlet and Shakespeare the re-
porter. Beyond this I do not know much
about Denmark (Fig.1) except it is one of
the oldest monarchies in the world dating
from the 9th century.
It is situated in Northern Europe with
the capital Copenhagen and is a member
of the European Union. Denmark has
just one land border with Germany
(Fig.2.)
Denmark and its Map Stamps, by Volker Woesner.
All other borders are sea boundaries,
e.g. with Sweden and Norway. In medie-
val times until 1814 Denmark was one
of the largest Empires in Northern
Europe with Norway, southern parts of
Sweden and two German duchies,
Schleswig and Holstein (Fig.3) that were
also part of Denmark until 1864.
Today Denmark consists of the
mainland, numerous islands (Fig.4) and
two dependencies, Faeroe Islands
(Fig.5) and Greenland (Fig. 6.) Neither
are members of the European Union.
Fig. 1
Sc 937
Fig. 2
Sc 770
Fig. 3
Sc 1713
Well known to everybody is the Viking
king of Denmark, Harold Bluetooth
(around 970.) His name is used as a sym-
bol for short wireless connection of elec-
tronic devices.
Fig. 4
Sc 1023
Fig. 5
Sc 35
On July 12 to 17, 2009 a Conference on
the History of Cartography took place in
the Capital of Denmark, Copenhagen.
Fig. 6
Sc 70
To mark this event, four stamps with
historical maps of Denmark were issued
on July 15.
Fig. 7
Sc 1441
The first map (Fig.7) was a drawing by
Abraham Ortelius from 1570 and is the
oldest printed map of Denmark.
Fig. 8
Sc 1440
The oldest map of Denmark is depicted
on fig.8. It was sketched in 1552 by Mar-
cus Jordan and copied many times . This
map is a copy from 1585.
There is no scale but the relative posi-
tion of features is correct. The map
shows that Denmark possessed southern
parts of Sweden.
Fig.9 features a map of 1650 by Johan-
nes Mejer. Mejer was a mathematician
and an astronomer. The measurements
for the map were done by using geodetic
principles. The latitudes of places like
towns and villages were calculated by
measuring the elevation of the pole. The
longitudes were relatively correct. As the
map was very detailed, the Danish au-
thorities were afraid, the map would fall
into enemies‟ hands. So it was not pub-
lished until 1947.
Fig. 9
Sc 1439
The fourth and last stamp of this issue
(Fig.10) is a map from 1841 by the Royal
Danish Academy of Science and Letters
in Copenhagen. It depicts the mainland of
Denmark and the German duchy of
Schleswig.
This map is a correct cartographic map.
Trained land surveyors did all surveying
by means of triangulation networks. The
scale was 1:480.000. The latitudes and
longitudes are correct. The Prime longi-
tude in the map runs through Copenha-
gen.■
Fig. 10
Sc 1438
References:
URL: www. postdanmark.de
Catalogue on historical geodetic survey-
ing in Denmark.
THE NEW CARTOPHILATELIST, NUMBER 28, JANUARY 2010 PAGE 8
GREETINGS!
By the time you receive this the holi-
days will be over and new year begin-
ning. All of the officers of the CartoPhi-
latelic Society hope you had enjoyable
times and we wish you best wishes for a
happy and successful 2010!
ELECTIONS!
As announced in the last issue of The
New CartoPhilatelist, it is now time for
elections. All officers are to be elected
for three year terms beginning April 1,
2010.
The nominees are:
President – David Wolfersberger (US)
Vice President – Mark Honig (NL)
Secretary/Treasurer – Alf Jordan (US)
European Representative –
Volker Woesner (DE)
Representative at Large –
Ed Vallery (US)
Al Underberg, who has served many
years as Vice President, has decided not
to seek re-election. Thanks Al for your
efforts on behalf of the Society.
2010 MEETING
As mentioned previously, the Society
will meet at the American Philatelic So-
ciety‟s StampShow 2010 in Richmond,
VA, August 12-15. No additional infor-
mation is available from the APS at this
time. As you look forward to 2010, plan
to attend this event. Our meeting will
take place on the morning of Saturday
August 14. Please let me know if you
are planning to attend so I can be sure to
keep you updated as more information
becomes available.
Some other thoughts Susan Featherstone found a site -
www.charlesclosesociety.org - for those
interested in studying the Ordnance
Maps of Britain and Ireland. It provides
information on these maps as well as
links to other sites that are of interest to
those who are interested in the “OS”
maps.
Susan also brought to my attention a
book, The Fourth Part of the World, The
Epic Story of History’s Greatest Map,
by Toby Lester. This is another book
about the Waldseemüller map, but after
reading the first few chapters it seems to
place this map in a larger context of
world history. I hope to have a review
in the next issue but meantime I would
recommend this book to you.
I just received a letter notifying us that
America on the Map received a Silver
medal at Chicagopex 2009. Congratu-
lations again to Miklos for the great job
he put in on this excellent volume, and
to all of the contributors. It is not easy
for a thematic publication to compete in
a show that is aimed more at traditional
philately, so a Silver medal is nice rec-
ognition for the book.
A few issues ago I commented about
being a “map person” like many of us
are. Here is another indication that I
enjoy maps. My wife and I travel by
train from our home in St. Louis to visit
our two daughters in Chicago. A regu-
lar road map does a pretty good of plot-
ting the tracks but I knew there had to
be a real “railroad atlas.” Sure enough,
a quick search on the „net found a series
of atlases called SPV Railroad Atlases
of North America. This is a series of 17
atlases covering all railroads in the US
and Canada. The maps are very de-
tailed, especially in terminals, and show
some major industrial sidings. In addi-
tion the owner and users of the various
tracks are noted. I will have this with
me on our next trip to Chicago (just to
be sure the engineer doesn‟t get lost!).■
Society News, by David Wolfersberger THE ERROR – The new issue was dis-
tributed early to some post offices, and
advanced copies were also given out to
officials. Within a few hours, however,
an editor of the Map Publishing House in
Beijing reported a problem with the map:
it did not include certain island groups in
the South China Sea, and most regretta-
bly, Taiwan was not shown in red. Au-
thorities of the People‟s Army immedi-
ately stopped the issue, and were able to
destroy all but a few copies. Thus origi-
nated China‟s most well known map
stamp error. The initial rejected design
was probably the large version. This was
actually a two-stamp set. One stamp
shows Chairman Mao and Lin Piao
greeting the masses. The other stamp is
very similar to the issued small version
with the map and the slogan. Written on
the bottom of both stamps is “Great Vic-
tory of Cultural Revolution,” which is
how this set is called more formally.
THE SURPRISE – It was a pleasant sur-
prise to learn that Wang Weisheng is still
around and apparently attended the auc-
tion. Afterwards he told AFP that for a
long time he was afraid that he would be
jailed for the error. The precise circum-
stances surrounding these two stamps are
still not well known. Hopefully, in the
not too distant future, Mr. Wang will
give an in-depth interview about his
work, perhaps to German philatelist
Carla Michel who is a foremost expert
on this topic and well respected in
China.6 ■
(At the Auctions, Continued from page 6.)
Bronze award for German map stamp unit in Berlin.
On October 10, 2009 a big stamp fair
took place in Berlin, Germany. Beside
the stamp dealers a one-frame exhibition
took place. 17 stamp units participated
with 5 frames each plus their publica-
tions. The map stamp unit won the
bronze award. Other competitors were
stamp units with ships, standardization,
trains, music, castles, history etc. The
gold and silver medal won –I hardly
dare to say it - the ornithologists and
zoologists, as always.
Volker Woesner, Cartophilatelist
Steam Powered Video is a British com-pany in its 26th year. In that time it has been responsible for popularizing the North American railroad scene in Europe and Australasia. The maps, authored by Mike Walker, have a lot of historical detail and are generally quite accurate. The railroad atlases of North America are di-vided by region. They may be found on line used or purchased new from the UK. Price about $30. Printed on quality art