North Vietnam, Successful Winter and Spring Offensive 1966-1967 of the NLF, March 5th, 1967, Michel Nr. 513-520; Eight stamps al with a 12 xu nominal were issue perforated 11.0. The four stamps of each color were printed together in a single sheet so that always four different stamps make up a block of four.

Here is the mint perforated set that shows how the stamps were arranged in a sheet:

Postally used stamps. Postally used stamps are at least ten times rarer than cancelled to order stamps.

These stamps were not officially released im-perforated however a handful of imperforate trial proofs have come to market:

Rare single franking of one of the 12xu values on a local letter (full contents preserved) sent to from a member of the North Vietnamese Armed Forces to Hanoi. Most local letters were destroyed due to the multi-decadal war, the tropical climate or recycling due to raw material shortages.

Rare registered express mail letter sent to Klewitz in October of 1968 featuring the entire set. The overall franking amounted to 1.46 Dong which appears about 12 xu short of the required tariff of 1.60 Dong for a registered express mail letter to West Germany, however the letter passed without any assessment of postage due. This is another example of a case where the postal worker apparently was not sufficiently familiar with the postal tariff to “exotic” foreign destinations. 

Rare registered express mail letter sent to Klewitz in November of 1971. It features six of the 12 xu stamps. The overall postage amounted to 1.72 Dong which is in excess of the required tariff for a standard 20 gram registered express mail letter to West Germany, so the letter may have been heavier than the standard.

Mixed franking of the 1d value of the Nguyen Du set together with the 50xu Bamboo stamp and 12xu National Liberation Front stamp for an overall postage of 1.62D.

Registration Nr. 101530

Comments are closed.