I have expanded my UN stamp collection to include the Kosovo issues of which I have very little knowledge. What I would like to know is if these stamps were issued without cancelations. I can't find much information on these stamps other than that a (very) few places are selling them and they state they are MNH but when there are pictures, they almost always have cancelations. The 2013 Brookman catalog I have lists them as F-VF NH but no notation as to whether they are canceled. I do have the 2000 set of 5 stamps both ways and each were sold as MNH and both sets have glue, but this is the only set I have actually seen without cancelations. Thank you for any info.
Scott 2011 lists both mint and used prices for all the Kosovo stamps from 2000 to 2008. With rare exception the prices are the same used or mint. Even regular UN stamps from 2005 are priced the same, used or mint. Scott makes no mention of CTO's. I know the used stamps and especially the covers from the UNTEA in 1962 are very hard to find; much more so than the mint stamps but the prices are the same for them as well. I don't have any UN stamps that are cancelled to order except First Day cancels so I would be surprised if the UN cancelled them before sale but the local Kosovo administration was involved in the sale and distribution after the first 5 stamps of 2000 so who knows what they may have done.
I was wondering about the ones I have being CTO's or maybe they were part of a CTO block that was split up. The reason I mention this is because none of the stamps I have show the complete cancel - just 1/4 of a cancel similar to the '51-'58 International Court of Justice series (These have Nederland printed on them but were in some way related to the UN - I don't know the whole story but they were only sold pre-canceled). I can read at least a partial date on some of them and in all cases the date is the same month of first issue. And as I mentioned before, all the stamps I have are also with full glue and never hinged. As for the UNTEA, what I found really difficult was finding a true second issue set. I probably bought maybe 9-10 sets before I got a complete set of each issue. I still need the corners of 7c, 15c, 45c, 80c and 5G of the first printing, otherwise I have them as single sets and as corner sets. From what I understand, used UNTEA stamps are many times not genuine - or at least not genuinely used - because very few were used in the mail. Also, there are many stories about the legitimacy of the 3rd and 4th printings. I spoke to a dealer from Holland who had in depth knowledge of the UNTEA stamps and said flat out that there were no true 3rd or 4th printings. These were typically just reruns made without authorization for some special interest collectors and in his opinion, they don't count as real stamps. But they sure sell at a high price! I personally never bothered with the 3rd or 4th issues or any of the inverted overprints.
I found a little more information on the UNTEA series via stampboards.com ... The 2nd set actually does not have a true overprint. They are 2nd printing with an extra layer of shiny black ink reading UNTEA printed at the same time on slightly whiter paper. The third set were leftovers after the Dutch officials moved out and evidently not reruns. The Indonesians put them out but by most accounts are "fake" stamps and not additional printings.
I have no info on this but will have a look for you and see if I can come up with anything worthwhile.
Hello, I have been collecting the Kosovo stamps under UN administration, all of mine are MNH. Some of them are very expensive. My searches have found most of them on eBay and some on Decampe and other search sites.
