Protected Birds

Unified Vietnam, Protected Birds, April 15th, 1977, Michel Nr. 898-905; Eight stamps with nominals of 12 xu (two stamps), 20 xu, 30 xu, 40 xu, 50 xu, 60 xu and 1 Dong were issued with perforation 12 and imperforate.

Here is the mint imperforate set:

Rare single franking using one of the 12xu values on a local letter sent from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City in May of 1977. HCM City machine arrival cancel on the reverse.

Rare single franking of the 1D value on a post card from Hanoi to Bern, Switzerland sent in June of 1977.

Rare single franking of the 30xu value used on a local letter from Phu Xa (small post office) to Ho Chi Minh City in March of 1983. Tan Binh transit and machine HCM City arrival cancel on the reverse.

Rare single franking of the 40xu value paying the adequate tariff for a letter to Laos in June of 1977. Arrival cancel fragment on the reverse.

Mixed franking of the 1D Protected Birds value together with the 20xu Communist Party stamp paying a 1.20 postage on an air-mail letter sent to Czechoslovakia in October of 1978.

Mixed franking of two of the 40xu Sea Creature stamps together with the 1D Protected Birds stamp for an overall postage of 1.80D on an air-mail letter sent to Sweden in July of 1977.

Very rare late usage of the imperforate 50xu Protected Bird stamp together with the 100D Communist Party stamp paying an overall postage of 100.5D on a local letter sent from Hoa Hung (small post office) to Mytho in August of 1990. Imperforate stamps on postally used cover are very rare.

Mixed franking of stamps from the Protected Bird sets on an international air mail letter sent from Hanoi in January of 1978 to Germany paying an overall postage of 2.24D.

Mixed franking of two Protected Bird stamps together with stamps from the Dragonfly set paying an overall postage of 2.12D on an international air mail letter sent from Hanoi to Germany in January of 1978.

Rare express mail letter sent to Klewitz in June of 1977 featuring the entire perforated set. The overall postage amounted to 3.58 Dong. Fulda arrival cancel on the reverse.

Mixed franking featuring the entire Protected Bird set together with a 6xu Orchid and 1Dong Air Defense stamp paying an overall postage of 4.30D on an air-mail letters sent from Ho Chi Minh City to Paris, France in 1977.

Very rare express mail letter sent to Klewitz in June of 1977 featuring the entire im-perforated set. Imperforate stamps on postally used covers are very rare. The overall postage amounted to 3.82 Dong. Fulda arrival cancel on the reverse.

Another rare registered express mail letter sent to Klewitz in December of 1977. It also carries three values of the protected bird set. The overall postage amounted to 4.12 Dong. Fulda arrival cancel and green custom cachet in the reverse.

Rare registered express mail letter sent from Hanoi to Klewitz in December of 1977. It carries most of the perforated set plus some stamps from the protected bird set for an overall postage of 4.86 Dong. Fulda arrival cancel and Fulda customs cachet on the reverse.

Very rare registered express mail letter mailed in February of 1978 to Klewitz. It carries half of the imperforate gold fish and imperforate versions of the protected bird and goat beetle set. Imperforate stamps on postally used letter are very rare. The overall postage amounted to 4.26 Dong. Fulda arrival cancel on the reverse.

Another very rare registered express mail letter mailed in February of 1978 to Klewitz. It carries the other half of the imperforate gold fish and imperforate versions of the protected bird. Imperforate stamps on postally used letter are very rare. The overall postage amounted to 3.48 Dong. Fulda arrival cancel on the reverse.

Rare registered express mail letter sent to Klewitz in July of 1978. It carries a block of four of the Children stamps plus 20 xu Protected Birds stamp. The letter was sent from Bac Ninh but interestingly enough the R-Label was only attached in Bac-Giang. The letter was opened un-professionally during transit (as pointed out by Klewitz in his notes) which may have been a censorship move but no censor marking were indicated. Most likely the letter was simply opened by customs to identify potential duty on its contents. The overall postage amounted to 5.08 Dong. Fulda arrival cancel on the reverse. Green Fulda custom cachet on front.

Air mail letter sent in July of 1978 to Hong Kong using a mixed franking of the Gold Fish, October Revolution, Protected Birds, Orchid etc. sets for an overall postage of 4.85D.

Registered air mail letter featuring the entire perforated Protected Birds stamp set that was re-issued along with the souvenir sheet for the international stamp exhibition in Rio de Janeiro in 1983. Klewitz reports slightly different colors of the stamp frames on the re-issued set but the editor has not been able to confirm that. The frame colors look the same as on the original set. The letter also carries the imperforate 1D of the End of WW2 set. Imperforated stamps on postally used cover are very rare. The overall postage of the letter amounted to 41.47D (including the red free frank for 23xu). Green Fulda custom cachet on front.