Unified Vietnam, Soccer World Cup Italy III, June 22nd, 1990, Michel Nr. 2212-2219; The Vietnamese Postal Administration still had plenty of low nominal stamps on hand that were basically unusable since the standard domestic letter rate already amounted to 200D. So it decided to overprint the perforated Soccer stamps issued in 1982 (Michel Nr, 1214-1221) with the World Cup logo and the words “ITALIA 90” in order to repurpose the stamps for collector purposes. The imperforate Soccer stamps must have already been used up as no imperforate overprints are known to exist. Since the overprinted stamps were sold after the last currency devaluation on September 14th, 1985 they were denominated in new Dong. The nominals of the Soccer set were not changed (30 xu, 40 xu, 50 xu, 60xu and 1D) which made postal use rather unlikely.
Here is the mint perforated set with the overprints in matching top right sheet corner pieces. Based on the passer crosses that can be seen on the selvage the overprint was conducted in three separate colors and printing stages.
Postally used letters with these stamps are very rare as the low nominal made postal use rather difficult. Unless one was using a free frank to add additional postage the low nominals would essentially demand too much space on a standard envelope. Here is a letter mailed in August of 1990 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz with half of the overprinted series plus stamps from the Old Sail Ships, Horses and Asia Games sets its for an overall postage of 8,801.8D (including the red free frank for 2,700D).
Postally used letters with these stamps are very rare as the low nominal made postal use rather difficult. Unless one was using a free frank to add additional postage the low nominals would essentially demand too much space on a standard envelope. Here is a letter mailed in August of 1990 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz with the other half of the overprinted series plus stamps from the Old Sail Ships, Horses and Asia Games sets its for an overall postage of 9,252.2D (including the red free franks for 3,450D).
Registered air mail letter sent in October, 1990 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz. The letter carries stamps from the overprinted World Cup and Soccer sets plus stamps from the Old Sail Boats (imperforate), Women Union and Postal Education Center sets for an overall postage of 16,450.17D (including the red free frank for 8,150D). The overprinted Soccer stamps that were originally issued in 1982 had a very low nominal value which made them basically useless for postal usage. Therefore these stamps on postally used cover are very rare. Green Fulda custom cachet on front.
Registered air mail letter sent in October, 1990 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz. The letter carries stamps from the overprinted World Cup and Soccer sets plus stamps from the Capital Hue, Socialist Republic and Ministry for Post and Telecommunication sets for an overall postage of 11,750.17D (including the red free frank for 5,350D). The overprinted Soccer stamps that were originally issued in 1982 had a very low nominal value which made them basically useless for postal usage. Therefore these stamps on postally used cover are very rare. Fragment of the green Fulda custom cachet on front.
Registration Nr. 105090
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