Tourism DULICH 90

Unified Vietnam, Tourism DULICH 90, June 22nd, 1990, Michel Nr. 2220-2227; 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 Mushroom stamps issued in 1983 (Michel Nr, 1371-1378) with the Tourism logo and the circular words “Dulich 90” in order to repurpose the stamps for collector purposes. The imperforate Mushroom stamps must have already been used up as no imperforate overprints are known to exist. It is unclear what “Dulich 90” represented but it is presumed to be a Tourism Fair. 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 Mushroom set were not changed (50 xu, 1D, 2D, 5D and 10D) which made postal use rather unlikely.

Here is the mint overprinted set

Below is a mint 5D pair that demonstrates that the overprints were done in stages for each sheet. Note the much higher position of the black overprint on the right stamp. Had the entire sheet been overprinted at once then the lateral position of both overprints would be identical.

Below are two blocks of four. One of the brown 50xu value and the other of the 5D value. Both blocks show a slight lateral variation of the overprint position in the two rows.

Detailed scan of the different positions

Stamps with overprint errors that show the Dulich 90 overprint but are missing the red emblem do exist. Here are five stamps which show this error. The 50xu stamp also shows the red emblem printed on the gum side.

Here is a mint 50xu stamp that features the regular overprint in front but also shows a wet ink off-set of the red emblem.

Double overprints exist. Here are the mint 2D and 10D stamps that show a double overprint of the red emblem.

Prior to the issuance of the above overprinted stamps the Vietnamese Postal Administration experimented with a much smaller overprint that was apparently applied by hand. Here is a cancelled to order block of six 50xu stamps that shows a double overprint of the small logo. The width of the Dulich 90 is only 4.5mm instead of 7mm on the large overprint. Note that the block was cancelled on February 10th, 1989 so more than a year before the stamps with the larger overprints were issued. There is no indication that the stamps with the small overprint were ever officially released so they should be viewed as trial proofs. So far, the editor has only seen the small overprint on cancelled to order stamps suggesting they were used as inexpensive testing material.

Detailed scan of the small hand overprint.

Here is the cancelled to order 10D value with the small overprint. Dulich 90 and the red emblem are slightly shifted.

Detailed scan of the small overprint. The smudged nature of the overprint suggests that it was applied by hand and not machine.

Cancelled to order 50xu and 10D stamps showing only the black Dulich 90 overprint but missing the red logo.

Two cancelled to order 10D stamps showing the small overprint with two additional black Dulich 90 overprints.

Detailed scan of the affected area.

Two cancelled to order 10D stamps with the small overprint but showing a double and triple impression of the red logo.

Detailed scan of the triple red logo overprint.

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, Asia Games and Ministry for Post and Telecommunications its for an overall postage of 9,256.5D (including the red free frank for 5,250D).

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, Ceramics (imperforate), Asia Games and Ministry for Post and Telecommunications its for an overall postage of 10,013.5D (including the red free frank for 5,550D).

Registered air mail letter sent in June of 1991 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz. The letter carries perforated Steam Locomotive stamps plus stamps from the Sharks, Cats, World Cup Italy and overprinted Tourism sets for an overall postage of 12,304D (including the red free frank for 3,200D). Due to the very low nominal values as compared to the tariff in force at the time the overprinted Tourism stamps are very hard to find on postally used cover. Green Fulda custom cachet on front.

Registered air mail letter sent in June of 1991 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz. The letter carries perforated Steam Locomotive stamps plus stamps from the Air Ship, Olympic Summer Games Barcelona and overprinted Tourism sets for an overall postage of 12,303D (including the red free frank for 2,000D). Due to the very low nominal values as compared to the tariff in force at the time the overprinted Tourism stamps are very hard to find on postally used cover. Green Fulda custom cachet on front.

Registered air mail letter sent in June of 1991 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz. The letter carries imperforate Steam Locomotive stamps plus stamps from the Air Ships, Olympic Summer Games Barcelona and overprinted Tourism sets for an overall postage of 12,304D (including the red free frank for 3,200D). Due to the very low nominal values as compared to the tariff in force at the time the overprinted Tourism stamps are very hard to find on postally used cover. Also imperforate stamps on postally used cover are very rare.

Registered air mail letter sent in June of 1991 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz. The letter carries imperforate Steam Locomotive stamps plus stamps from the Air Ships, Olympic Summer Games Barcelona and overprinted Tourism sets for an overall postage of 12,200.5D . Due to the very low nominal values as compared to the tariff in force at the time the overprinted Tourism stamps are very hard to find on postally used cover. Also imperforate stamps on postally used cover are very rare.

Registered air mail letter sent in July of 1991 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz. The letter carries the perforated and imperforate Steam Locomotive souvenir-sheets plus stamps from the Air Ships, Communist Party and overprinted Tourism sets for an overall postage of 13,164.5D . Due to the very low nominal values as compared to the tariff in force at the time the overprinted Tourism stamps are very hard to find on postally used cover. Also souvenir-sheets on postally used cover are very rare. Green Fulda custom cachet on front.

Registered air mail letter sent in June of 1991 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz. The letter carries the perforated Pioneer and Children Rights stamps in pairs plus stamps from the Olympic Summer Games Barcelona, World Cup Italy and overprinted Tourism sets for an overall postage of 12,311D (including the red free frank for 4,600D). Due to the very low nominal values as compared to the tariff in force at the time the overprinted Tourism stamps are very hard to find on postally used cover. Green Fulda custom cachet on front.

Registered air mail letter sent in July of 1996 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz. The letter carries the perforated Freight Airliners stamp set plus stamps from the overprinted Mushroom and Horse sets for an overall postage of 23,220D. The overprinted Mushroom stamps on postally used cover are very rare as their low nominal value made them redundant for most mailings.