What You See Is What You Get - But What You Got Is Not What You Wanted

As pointed out in my last blog, it appears that some of the mail covers that are in the possession of collectors around the world – do not quite tell the real deal. Something is amiss. Like I said in my last post, the following cover is simply impossible. It is affixed with a revenue stamp issued 19 years back. Once our postage stamps were released in 1962, revenue stamps would have been disallowed, to be used as postage. However, a senior philatelic historian contends that the fiscals (revenue stamps) continued to be used sparingly way past 1962. I will confirm this from three oldest postmasters who are still living. Thus  it is unlikely that the originating Post Office would have allowed this Post Card to be dispatched to the intended destination. Further, revenue stamps were only used for internal mail.

In addition to the above, take a look at the following cover. It is clear that the mail was sent by the Home Minister to the Ramjam of Trashiyangte. This also does not make sense. Why I say this is because the cover carries a revenue stamp of 1954. This means the mail would have had to have been issued by the late Kidu Lyonpo Tamzhing Jagar – first Home Minister of Bhutan.

Upon the establishment of the Ministry of Home Affairs by the Council of Ministers during the 28th Session of the National Assembly, the Third King appointed Tamzhing Jagar as the first Home Minister – in 1968 which post he held until 1985. This means this cover would have to have been issued after 1968. By then postage stamps were already in use for the past 8 years. This is another anomaly that does not fit.

All these point to the possibility that there may have been serious mischief in the philately world – surrounding Bhutanese stamps and covers.

To give you a hint of what happened, consider the following:

An experimental Post Office was started in Bhutan House, Kalimpong in the early 1960s. At some point during the period, a person named Kesang Dorji served as the Post Master in Bhutan House. Like me, the Finnish philatelist Iiro Kakko also did not believe that the covers were the real deal. During an interview he conducted, Kesang Dorji admitted to him that he produced the covers – for sale to the world stamp collectors.

This means whole lot of covers – and perhaps even postage stamps - currently held by the world collectors are – fakes.

Bhutan's first Post Card, issued in 1966