TANZANIA ILLEGAL STAMPS
1999 Through 2002

Information and Reference of illegal stamps for Tanzania Dating Between 1999 Through 2002

On November 21, 2011 the postal administration for Tanzania by request to K.J.S. McKeown (Director of Markets Development) posted to the Universal Postal Union a circular warning of the discovery of a number of illegal stamps created with their country name that are on the market. The circular is number 219. You can view it in the linked file below:

UPU Circular Number 219

The circular describes a couple of counterfeit sets that were made in 2011. It was a far cry from what was actually produced in 2011 by the criminals and is still being disbursed on the stamp market to this day. Tanzania was shall we say "late in the game" in reporting the illegal stamps made in their name. I have completed research into the problem and found that there were numerous counterfeits produced in the name of Tanzania starting in 1998 and carrying all the way through to present times.

Another circular was published by the UPU in 2013 in which Tanzania reports on counterfeit stamps in the name of Zanzibar being placed on the market. That will be covered in another section of the study.

To find out somewhat what stamps are real and legitimate for Tanzania you can visit the online catalogs linked below. One should not buy most issues later than the year 1985 unless only paying pennies for them. Issues between 1985 and 2017 should be purchased only after a thorough amount of research is done on the issue(s) of interest. The majority of stamps produced between those years are not anything but made to profit from collectors and are 99% excessive of postal needs.

First, here is a link to the Tanzania Posts Corporation "Posta Let's Go!" website where you can see the year sets they offer. You will see that the stamps offered are generally the non-abusive issues and it is a useful guide to go by in regards to weeding out all the abusive issues made by IGPC.

The Tanzania Posts Catalog of Year Sets

Although extremely incomplete and in my opinion for the Tanzania issues, "corrupted", here is the link to the WNS System search page.

The Universal Postal Union WNS website

I have found the Colnect online catalog to be very helpful.

The Colnect Online Catalog for Tanzania

Some of the illegal stamps are shown in their Cinderella section and noted as such. Still nothing close to what is out there as you will see. The 1976 Railway imperforate souvenir sheet is not a Cinderella as it is simply a "proof" of the issued souvenir sheet Scott Number 65a.

The Colnect Online Catalog Illegal Stamp Section for Tanzania

I have found the Stampworld.com Catalog to be very helpful as well.

The Stampworld Online Catalog for Tanzania

Here we go!

Many of the following illegal stamps can be found as imperforates and as color proof sets as well. Some exist on fake First Day Covers too.
Most times now (2022) the souvenir sheet sets and sheetlet sets are sold individually. Many times the stamps have been removed from the sheetlets and souvenir sheets. All of these "tactics" are used to avoid detection by experts and savvy collectors.

Sellers that call these "private", "locals", "Cinderella's", "unauthorized" are deceiving you. They are illegal stamps produced by a stamp dealer that is bent on ripping you off! Some sellers state "we offer them because they are on the market". Well how about you use a different dealer because that seller is "on the market"? If the stamp societies, auction sites and all other venues kicked these sellers off of their sites then they would have to comply or lose their ability to sell anything.

The following images are free for the use of all to use to alert the public to them. If anyone wants to make a public list of users on eBay, Delcampe and elsewhere who are selling these issues....fine by me since the UPU, PWMO and others appear to have given up or have not been updated in years.

If you have purchased any of these stamps from a dealer or if that dealer offers them, you should avoid that dealer! You will only be supporting illegal stamp makers who are only ripping you off.

1999

After the huge production of counterfeits were made in 1998 by the British producer, it appears the criminal stopped production for the most part in 1999. Possible reasons could be the 1998 counterfeits were being noticed to much by the collecting community or they were not selling as well as had been hoped for or the criminals turning their focus on many other countries left Tanzania on the "side lines". I could only find two "sets" made for the year 1999. Both being shown in the Colnect Cinderella section. What is odd is that I could not find either being offered online!

First, is the Princess Diana Sheetlet of 9. We can see it is the same style as many other sheetlets made by either Impressor S.A. or the notorious illegal stamp producing printer Mayfair International Security Printers. I could only find this sheetlet on the Colnect site. It is not being offered anywhere on the internet. There is no other reference to it except on Colnect in searches by Google or within the main stamp selling venues. It is as if it does not exist!

IGPC had several sets made on the topic of Princess Diana for Tanzania in 1998. Nothing for 1999. Yet Colnect shows this sheetlet exists. The person that posted it has stated the emission to be a "Cinderella". Once again I repeat, "stamps" that are inscribed with a country name that has a valid postal system and that are inscribed with denominations used by that country representing the currency used for postage, yet were never produced and issued by the country, are not Cinderella stamps! They are
Counterfeit Illegal Stamps!

Getting that across to dealers and collectors seems to be a monumental task either because they do not want to accept it because of personal profits as in it hinders their ability to buy and sell them or they simply do not have the knowledge to understand the difference. Illegal stamps are counterfeit stamps and it is therefore illegal to sell them because they are counterfeit goods. That is why sales of them (when found) can be shut down at will on auction venues and persistent sellers can have their accounts shut down permanently. It is against the law in any country to sell counterfeit goods and illegal stamps are just that.

Noting another interesting point. This counterfeit sheetlet has no inscriptions for what it is about. Most are inscribed with her name, "in Memorium", Life and times or something in regards to the theme of the sheetlet. This sheetlet is just a bunch of pictures of her stolen from the internet. Also noting the fake cancels. Same as the fake cancels used on the 1998 counterfeits. thus showing the same producers.

1999 Princess Diana Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



This next set is also in the same status as the Diana sheetlet. I could not find it anywhere on the internet. Again only referenced in the Colnect Cinderella section. At least this time getting it right with the emission stating they are illegal stamps. The criminal producer cunning in his productions using the same currency denominations (370/-) as the value used on many issued stamps in 1999. It appears these may have been in a sheetlet of 9 form at one time as well due to use of the same value on all of them. Again, noting the fake cancels.

1999 Bears Counterfeit Illegal Stamps



That is all I could find for counterfeits in the name of Tanzania dating 1999.

1999

It appears the British producer stopped production of illegal stamps in the name of Tanzania in 2000. I could find nothing dating in this year.

I did find the following set of deluxe souvenir sheets made for the EUROPA 2000 issue though! The problem being....Tanzania never made any!

This is a common design stamp that was counterfeited and reproduced as an illegal stamp to include the name of Tanzania. There are at least 16 African countries altogether with similar counterfeit stamps in sheets. There were 55 countries that were involved in the EUROPA 2000 theme that year. Tanzania was not one of them.

These appear to be (once again) exclusively sold by the criminal no good counterfeit illegal stamp peddling dealer Newshop2012 on Hipstamps located in Spain.

2000 EUROPA Illegal Stamp Deluxe Sheets



I could not find anything for the year 2001.

2002

In 2002 the Queen Mother 95th Birthday issues made in 1995 (Scott No. 1348 and 1349) were overprinted without authorization from the Tanzania Post with black borders and inscribed "In Memoriam 1900-2002". This is described in Stanley Gibbons catalogs and noted in Scott catalogs. This smells of the same people who made all the unauthorized "CAPEX" overprints in the mid 1980's. Of course, coming out of the UK. According to the notes in the Colnect catalog even Michel does not list them.

Sellers of it at present time.

On eBay

preciouspossessionsgb located in UK
musicfan.1 located in the UK

Both selling the bogus First Day Cover with coin and not stating anything about its true status. Asking $27.00 for the junk!

On Delcampe

outletstamps located in Spain
busch_collectibles located in France
bunnyturtle located in Singapore
phildom_domfil located in Spain

None say anything about the true status.

Sold in the past on Delcampe

lochinvar located in Australia
yeled134 located in Canada
larrdunh located in Canada
garysstamps located in the UK

Again, none said anything about the status. We can see that several are yet again illegal stamp dealers who made it on the illegal stamp sellers list.

2002 Unauthorized "In Memoriam 1900-2002" Overprint on 1995 Queen Mother 95th Birthday Souvenir Sheet of 8



2002 Unauthorized "In Memoriam 1900-2002" Overprint on 1995 Queen Mother 95th Birthday Souvenir Sheet of 1



2002 Unauthorized "In Memoriam 1900-2002" Overprint on 1995 Queen Mother 95th Birthday Souvenir Sheet of 1 on Fake First Day Cover

The question with this cover is....if the overprint was unauthorized, why does it exist? Was the cancel "borrowed" without authorization? Was the cancel stolen? Was it used by a "corrupt" postal employee? Did IGPC make it and then disburse it without being authorized? The answer is out there somewhere.



In 2003 the British counterfeit producer attacks again producing a number of large counterfeit souvenir sheets in the name of Tanzania.

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References taken from:
UPU Circular Number 219
Major Stamp Catalogs
Internet Research

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