On May 10, 1940 Germany invaded France and with such military success that the French Government was forced to sign an armistice with Germany already on June 22nd,…
While many Vietnam collectors are familiar with the extremely rare local Ho Chi Minh stamps issued in South Central Vietnam between 1950-1954, and those stamps (and their forgeries)…
After the author discovered a so far unknown LKV stamp (see ICP Nr. 222), it occurred to him that until now, no global inventory of these stamps exists.…
Democratic Republic of Vietnam; November 1945/1946; Indochinese stamps with an overprint (Michel Nr. 1-12) After the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th…
The exact date when the second series was issued is not featured in the catalogues. All they state is 1945/1946. The second series is philatelically more interesting as…
Sometimes stamps are offered in auctions that purport to have been prepared for the September 2nd, 1945 Independence Day. The stamps started to appear in the mid 1980’s…
in 1946 the Viet Minh began issuing overprints on Indochinese stamps that had little to do with postal necessities but were more focused on revenue generation. So the…
1946; North Vietnam (Viet Minh) Family Assistance $2.00 (Michel Nr. 27) on 15c*60c brown. Overprint on Indochina Nr. 339. Rare complete sheet. The top right value carries a plate…
The fourth series of overprints served a very similar purpose to the third issue. It was basically a method to collect money from the population in general and…
Democratic Republic of of Vietnam; Ho Chi Minh; September 2nd., 1946 (Michel VM Nr.56-60); These were the first stamps entirely designed by the Viet Minh. Prior to 1946…
Once in a while, one will see a set of cinderellas that are made to look like an official stamp set from North Vietnam on offer. The new…
After the “Clash of Hanoi” in December 1946, the Viet Minh were driven out of all major towns as the French took control of them and all important…
North Vietnam; Ho Chi Minh in front of country outline; 1951; (Michel Nr. 4A-6b); Stamps that were a bit more sophisticated than the fairly primitive HCM set from…
North Vietnam; Production and Thrift, 1953/1956 (Michel Nr. 7-8); Inflation was rampant in North Vietnam in the early to mid 1950’s. As a result the standard letter rate…
North Vietnam; Months of friendship between Vietnam, the Soviet Union and China; (NVN Michel Nr. 9-11); the Vietnamese Postage Stamp Catalogue reports that the single colored 100 Dong…
After the New Dong was issued in summer of 1953 replacing old Dongs with ratio of 1:10 due to inflation, the Vietnamese Postal Authorities still had a lot…
After the currency reform which included devaluing it by a factor of 10 the old 100 and 200 Dong Ho Chi Minh values that were still readily available…
The second overprint issue stayed in circulation for over 18 months before the postal authorities issued a third overprint version that was designed to be even more legible…
North Vietnam, Victory at Dien Bien Phu, October 1954 (NVN Michel Nr. 12-14); The victory of the Viet Minh Army at Dien Bien Phu on May 7th, 1954…
North Vietnam, Liberation of the capital of Hanoi, January 1st, 1955 (Michel Nr. 23-25); the Viet Minh did not waste much time after taking over Hanoi in October…
North Vietnam, Scale, Postage Due Stamp, July 1955 (Michel Nr. P14); Prior to the issuance of this first postage due stamp in North Vietnam the country had simply…
Land Reform, February 1955 to June, 1956, (Michel Nr.NVN Nr. 26-30). Between 1954 and 1956 the North Vietnamese Government conducted a land reform that basically consisted of confiscating…
North Vietnam, Opening of the Railway from Hanoi to Muc Nam Quan, March 1, 1956 (Michel Nr. 31-34); After the railroad infrastructure in North Vietnam had been relentlessly…
North Vietnam, Return of the Government, March 1st, 1956 (Michel Nt. 35-38); With international mail becoming a little more common in the second half of the 1950’s, primarily…
North Vietnam, 5th Anniversary of the Guerilla Fighter Mac The Bu o’i (Army Heroine), November 5th, 1956 (Michel Nr. 46-49); Women were an essential part of the war…
North Vietnam, 1st Anniversary of Tran Dang Ninh’s Death, July 1st, 1956 (Michel Nr. 42-45); This set, honoring the recent death of a military commander, was clearly intended…
North Vietnam, Bai Thuong Dam, 15.12.1956 (Michel Nr. 50-52); On occasion of the rebuilding of the Bai Thuong dam in Than Hoa province the postal authorities issued three…
North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, Second Series issued in 1951 with overprint of new values, 1954-December, 1956 (Michel Nr. 53 a&b and D8-9); It appears a large quantities…
North Vietnam, Cu Chinh Lan, Service Stamps, June 1956 (Michel Nr. D10-16); In order to facilitate official mail from one Government office to another the postal authorities issued…
North Vietnam, Nam Ding Textile Mill, March 9th, 1957, (Michel Nr. 54-56); With the re-building, after the war with the French ended, larger industrial complexes, such as the…