NEWS

Canada's Karsh sheet to include Walt Disney
entered 2 May 2008 Canada Post had announced a souvenir sheet to commemorate the internationally renowned photographer Yousuf Karsh.  The stamps are not Disney related, they feature Karsh, Winston Churchill and Audrey Hepburn.  Of interest to Disney collectors is that the border of the souvenir sheet contains 24 photographs of people taken by Karsh.  The third picture from the right is of Walt Disney.  The souvenir sheet will be issued 21 May 2008. 

Albania has recently released another unauthorized set of Disney lookalike stamps.  The first four stamps were issued in 1999 (see below) and featured Mickey Mouse in four different poses.  It was available in a strip of four or a sheetlet of sixteen with additional artwork on the bottom border.  The most recent addition is of the same format, a strip of four or a sixteen stamp sheelet. The designs feature Donald Duck in a cowboy outfit, Uncle Scrooge, Daisy Duck and Donald in a top hat.  There is a rendering of Uncle Scrooge in the bottom border.  These are very poor quality artwork and are only included in my checklist as they are obvious attempts to copy Disney artwork.  These are not authorized by Disney and therefore do not have the Disney copyright.  To the best of my knowledge Disney has made no efforts to stop the printing and/or distribution of these issues.

    Portugal became the latest country to have a Disney character on its stamps when, on 18 February 2000 a set of stamps was issued to celebrate the 20th Century.  The entire set includes a single stamp, a souvenir sheet of 7, a souvenir sheet of 11 and a souvenir sheet of 12, Scott #2342-2345.  Only one of these stamps is of interest to Disney collectors, however.  In the souvenir sheet of 11 is a stamp showing various film stars in character.  One of those shown is Snow White, kneeling to pet a bunny.  Also shown are Motion Picture  greats such as Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Al Jolsen and Cary Grant to name a few.  I do not yet know whether or not this issue has the blessing of the Walt Disney Company.  Scott has assigned it #2344g.  Check out the Portugal Philatelic Bureau website at www.ctt.pt  for more details.

    Anyone who has perused my checklist is aware that Guyana and St. Vincent have issued special printings of some of their issues. These I have given an 'A' suffix is the checklist to differentiate them from the regular issues.  Scott gives them a footnote after the St. Vincent set to the effect that these were limited issues but does not mention the Guyana stamps.  It has recently come to my attention that these limited printing were produced for the Chinese government and various Asian dealers and were never offered for sale in North America.  The denominations are different, generally much lower, and a label appears in place of one of the stamps.  With the Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation losing its Disney contract it appears that all the surplus of these issues were dumped on the market.  They first came to my attention as I was searching Ebay and Yahoo Auctions for Disney stamps.  I found that the majority of the stamps listed as the stamps in question were the special printings rather than the original issues.  If you are seeking these issues check out Ebay and Yahoo Auctions first.  They are plentiful and average $3 each sheetlet.  Not a bad price for a limited issue.  The issues are: Guyana (Donald Duck Movies) #2769A-75A (different denomination and label);  (Characters at Work) #2918A-2922A (different denomination and label); St. Vincent  (Characters at Work) #2248A-2260A (different denomination and label).
 

        An ad in a recent well known stamp newspaper sent me checking my collection to see if I had the stamps in question.  Apparently, the 70th Anniversary of Mickey Mouse set from Maldives (6 sheetlets and 6 s/s), the last stamps issued under the auspices of Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation, has two printings.  The ad refers to these as an error but is it an error or simply a limited edition printing?
       The  Maldives stamps (Scott #2351-2356) were released on 27 May 1999.  The souvenir sheets are only printed one way but the six sheetlets come in two varieties.  The sheetlets depict Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto in various poses.  These were issued with a denomination of 5 Rafiyaa for #2351-52 and 7 Rafiyaa for #2353-56. Rafiyaa is abbreviated Rf as is usual throughout the previous Maldives issues with the denomination placed after the letters (i.e. Rf5).

When the Walt Disney Company did not renew the license it had granted the Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation in 1979 to produce Disney stamps it was assumed by many that there would be no more Disney stamps. A valid assumption considering Disney's well known penchant for zealously protecting its copyright. When the license was revoked in 1997, IGPC was apparently given until June 30, 1998, to dispose of its Disney stamps. According to Scott's 2000 Catalogue, the last Disney stamps were issued on 27 May 1999, a large set of sheetlets and souvenir sheets from the Maldives. And that, as far as many Disney philatelists were concerned, was that. However, this does not appear to be the case. A spate of apparently unauthorized Disney material has been released since the demise of the legitimate stamps. Not since the Sharjah and Fujeira stamps of 1972 has anyone dared to ignore Disney's copyright. At that time, Walt Disney Productions had taken the issuing countries to court and won a judgment. It was not until 1979 that any more Disney stamps appeared and these were produced with Disney's blessing by IGPC. (Excepting an issue by Equatorial Guinea released that year which was unauthorized.) Bulgaria was the first to test the waters of unauthorized use of Disney characters when they issued a set commemorating 100 Years of the Cinema in 1995 and included a stamp featuring Mickey Mouse. (Scott #3890). As far as has been determined, Disney did nothing. Next to try was Albania in April of 1999 with a strip of four (Scott #2590) showing Mickey Mouse in various poses. Again, Disney does not appear to have responded.
This opened the proverbial flood gates and Angola, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar, Niger,Somalia, and Turkmenistan stepped into the void left by the withdrawal of IGPC from the Disneyuniverse. Most of these nations restrained themselves and issued stamps depicting Walt Disneyhimself rather than the copyrighted characters.Angola's first issues depicted Walt Disney on sheetlets of nine stamps with other Great People of the 20th Century with a souvenir sheet to match. Next they released a set of eight souvenir sheets using the same picture of Walt in different positions around the souvenir sheet and a sheetlet of four to go with it. There are two different photographs of Walt used for the Angola tribute. Guinea used one of the same photographs (a publicity shot from the early 30's) in its sheetlet of nine (only one of which is Walt) and matching souvenir sheet. This sheetlet also depicts classic Winnie the Pooh and Popeye.