South Vietnam, 5 Years Agrarian Reform Law, March 26th, 1975, Michel Nr SVN 590-591; Two stamps in nominals of 10D and 50D were issued in perforation 12.5:12. These stamps were released a little over a month before the Republic of South Vietnam collapsed and was subsequently taken over by the National Liberation Front. This means that the set was on sale for a rather short time and in a very small geographic area that was still controlled by the South. Mint sets are surprisingly hard to find and rarer than what the Michel price indicates and this despite the official stamp bulletin issued at the time indicating that 2,000,000 and 1,000,000 of the stamps had been issued. May be some of the already printed stamps were destroyed? Used stamps or postal history hardly exists due to the very short time it was possible to use these stamps in a shrinking geographic territory. The editor is aware of a registered letter sent by a member of KBC 4742 on April 24th, 1975 to a civilian in Saigon that was franked with the 50D Agrarian Reform stamp together with the 20D Orchid stamp paying the correct rate of 70D.

Original stamp bulletin

Here is the set in mint blocks of four.

Postally used 10D stamp.

Enpreuves de Luxe; printed on cardboard paper.

Here are three versions of the official First Day Cover

Very rare letter featuring the 10D stamp as part of a mixed franking with the 300D Fisheries and the 50D (2) Calligraphy sets paying an overall postage of 410D on an international letter sent on March 31st, 1975 from Saigon Tan Binh to Martinique (rare destination). This is the only postally used letter the editor has ever seen from this set as there was just a small window of over a month time in which there stamp could actually be used.

Registration Nr. 201520

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