15. Anniversary of Nguyen Van Troi

National Liberation Front, 15. Anniversary of Nguyen Van Troi, October 15th, 1965, Michel Nr. NLF 9-10; Two stamps with nominals of “10” and “20” (but no currency unit) were produced in the Soviet Union and in sheets of 100 stamps and in perforations 11.0 and 12.5. The 12.5 perforation represents a later printing.

Here is the mint set in perforation 11.0

Here is the cancelled to order set in perforation 11.0.

an here the later printing in mint perforation 12.5

Mint blocks of four of the perforation 12.5.

Smaller and larger errors are known on the “20” stamp. Here is a mint block of four with a passer-shift of the grey color downwards. Also the grey color is much darker than in the block above.

Here is the same error cancelled to order.

A much rarer error is the “20” stamp with all grey color missing (Perf. 11.0).

Hers is a mint pair of the “20” value (Perf. 11.0) which is imperforate on the left but has two perforation strikes in-between the two stamps.

Exceedingly rare phase print sheetlets acquired from the stamp designer. Grey print phase.

Black print phase

Grey and red print phase.

Grey, red and black print phase (finished stamp).

Unique hand drawn essay produced by the stamp designer (Dang Quang Lac) that was used to present his proposal to postal authorities

Exceedingly rare phase print sheetlets acquired from the stamp designer. Black print phase.

Red print phase.

Grey print phase

Purple print phase.

Purple and red print phase.

Purple, red and grey print phase.

Purple, red, grey and black print phase (complete stamp).

Unique hand drawn essay produced by the stamp designer (Dang Quang Lac) that was used to present his proposal to postal authorities

Since these stamps were never used 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. NLF stamps were not permitted to be used in the North (mostly because the currency units were simply not compatible) so the mixed frankings one sees once in a while simply slipped through unrecognized or were obtained by bring the postal clerk.

The National Liberation Front was an unground army of people that often posed as ordinary citizens and farmers during daytime but became soldiers at night. This made it so hard for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and the Americans to defeat them. In order to scare this underground army and erode support among the population, ARVN distributed propaganda leaflets intended as psychological warfare like this original one below (ex Munshower).