100th Birthday of Lenin

National Liberation Front, 100th Birthday of Lenin, April 22nd, 1970, Michel Nr. NLF 23-26; Four stamps in the nominals of 20xu, 30xu, 50xu and 2 Dong were issued in perforation 11.0. The stamps were produced by the Tien Bo Printing House in sheets of 50 stamps each. Ta Phi Long writes in his book “Some Features of postal History in the period of revolutionary South Vietnam” that the NLF leadership changed the name of the movement to the “Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam” and hence the stamps issued from that time on were inscribed “Republic of South Vietnam” (= Cong Hoa Mien Nam Viet Nam).

Mint blocks of four.

Here is the cancelled to order set.

A printing error is known on the 30xu stamp on which all of the light brown background color is missing.

There are also perforation errors. Here is the 30 xu value imperforate at the bottom.

Another perforation error. This time a cancelled to order block of four which is imperforate at the bottom.

Since these stamps were never used prior to unification there is no genuine postal history. Sometimes one can see letters that were favor cancelled after the end of the war or NLF stamps mixed in with North Vietnamese stamps also used after the war but they are basically philatelic documents that were simply made up to please collectors. Here is such a specimen. Express mail letter sent in October, 1980 from Ho Chi Minh City to Klewitz. The letter carries one of the 1 Dong Lenin stamps plus a 2 Dong Lenin stamp issued by the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) in South Vietnam. The NLF stamps were denominated in South Vietnamese Dong and so the two currencies were not compatible. The 2D Lenin stamp was devalued by 500:1 in 1976 which only was worth 0.004 xu in North Vietnamese currency. So the overall paid tariff on the letter was only 1.004 North Vietnamese Dong which certainly was too little for an express mail letter in 1980. Also the letter is missing the arrival cancel that was customary for express mail letters at that time.