TANZANIA ILLEGAL STAMPS
2003

Information and Reference of illegal stamps for Tanzania Dating 2003

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.

2003

In 2003 the British counterfeit producer starts up again producing a number of counterfeit sets. The style a mix between the earlier 1998 counterfeit souvenir sheets of 1 and the 1999 Princess Diana sheetlet. Who is selling them? On eBay it appears at present (January 2022) nobody is.

On Delcampe

all_for_collectors located in Lithuania. This corrupt guy needs to go!
phildom_domfil located in Spain

On Delcampe in the past

JandR_Stamps located in the UK
mlmotieven located in the Netherlands

On Hipstamps

rogerpo99 located in the UK. Connected directly to the source.

Again, we see major illegal stamp dealers are involved in moving them.
Some of the following counterfeit illegal stamps are shown in the Colnect Cinderella section for 2003. Here are pretty much all of them. Thanks to the criminal dealer all_for_collectors on Delcampe many not shown can now be shown! I must say, pretty lousy images though. They do show how these inferior counterfeit stamps are holding up with time. They are starting to "curl" badly because of cheap gum and paper.

2003 African Lions Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 African Lions Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



2003 Butterflies Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 Butterflies Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



2003 Cats Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 Cats Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



2003 Dinosaurs Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 Dinosaurs Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



2003 Dogs Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 Dogs Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



2003 Dolphins Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 Dolphins Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



2003 Elephants Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 Elephants Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



2003 Giraffes Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 Giraffes Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



2003 Horses Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 Horses Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



2003 Pandas Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 Pandas Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



2003 Parrots Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 Parrots Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



2003 Penguins Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 9



2003 Penguins Counterfeit Illegal Stamp Souvenir sheet of 1



As suddenly as the criminal started again, he stops. I could find no more illegal stamps in the name of Tanzania until we hit the year 2010. They are the style of counterfeits that are described in circular 219. Sadly, it was and is much worse than the circular describes.

View Next Page here!

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

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