Nigeria Stamp Releases

Personally, I always like it when Nigeria issues a new Definitive set. Supposedly this occurs every 10 years, but there is no strict adherence to this guideline. During the lifespan of a Definitive issue, typically there are unannounced additional values or printings which make collecting almost like a sport.

The official release of the new set was 17th October 2024. 8 stamps were issued, to highlight 2 distinct UNESCO Heritage Sites within Nigeria, the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove site, and the Sukur Cultural Landscape site.

Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove is situated on the outskirts of Osogbo, the capital of Osun State.

It is a sacred grove and one of the last remnants of primary high forest in southern Nigeria. It is regarded as the abode of the goddess Osun, one of the pantheons of Yoruba gods.

The grove is dotted with sanctuaries, shrines, sculptures, and artworks dedicated to Osun and other deities.

It also includes two palaces, five sacred places, and nine worship points along the riverbanks.

The grove is a symbol of identity for the Yoruba people and is a testament to the once widespread practice of establishing sacred groves outside settlements.

The Osun-Osogbo Festival, celebrated annually in August, attracts thousands of worshippers, spectators, and tourists from around the world.

The festival has a history of over 700 years and includes traditional cleansing of the city and cultural reunion with ancestors.

The Sukur Cultural Landscape is another UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Adamawa State.

It is situated on a hill above the village of Sukur in the Mandara Mountains, near the border with Cameroon.

It was inscribed in 1999 based on its cultural heritage, material culture, and naturally terraced fields.

It is Africa’s first cultural landscape to receive World Heritage List inscription.

It features a Hilltop Settlement, which includes the palace of the Hidi (chief), which is a circular structure built from local granite.

The landscape features naturally-terraced fields used for agriculture.

The site has relics of iron smelting technology, including furnaces, ore, and grindstones.

The lower ground has villages with mud-walled houses, wells, and terraced agricultural fields with ritual significance.

The site has a recorded history of iron smelting technology, flourishing trade, and strong political institutions dating back to the 16th century.

The stamps are produced by the Nigerian Security Minting and Printing Company, in sheets of 50.

Unlike the previous Definitive set, there are no visible security features to the stamps. Strangely, all stamps have the same value, N250 which in my mind defeats the purpose of issuing definitives, especially as that is the rate for internal mail. With the rising costs in Nigeria, you would need one and half sets to cover the postage of a standard letter to Europe, so not very practical.

I’m hoping this is just the initial release with hopefully more UNESCO sites to be featured on higher denominations in the near future.

A joint African stamp release to commemorate the commissioning of the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU) Tower, Arusha, Tanzania was released 3^rd September.

For Nigeria, it was the first stamp release of 2023, and consists of a single value of N250, but with N5 surcharge. This surcharge is to be used for projects initiated by PAPU.

The stamp design features a picture of the newly constructed Tower, with Zuma Rock, Abuja in the background.

The stamps are printed in sheets of 50 by the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Plc.

In addition to the stamp there is a Miniature Sheet (with traditional format of a block of perforated stamps, unlike many of their recent sheets), and a First Day Cover.

Unlike many of the recent stamp releases, this one appeared to go ahead as planned, and was supported by a presentation in the capital, Abuja.

As an innovative step, the ceremony was conducted online too, via Zoom, to allow people from around the globe take part.

So, all in all a seamless and well organised launch, NIPOST seemed to have learnt lessons from previous new releases and made a success of this.

However, there was one small hiccup, a typo on the released Miniature Sheet, but that’s the type of thing that makes collecting modern Nigerian stamps more interesting than other countries!

On 27th August 2020, Nigeria, in conjunction with Bangladesh issued a stamp to commemorate the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheik Mujibar Rahman, known as the father of Bangladesh.

The Nigerian stamps were printed in sheets of 50 by Tacoms International, and features a security silver foil square though not actually a hologram!

The also featured a phosphor overprint, depicting the NIPOST Dove. Though the intensity of the birds makes it look like it was from a Hitchcock film.

The Philatelic Bureau issued a First Day Cover as well

However, as with the commemoration of Mahatma Gandhi the year before, not everything went to plan.

The launch event, in conjunction with the Bangladesh High Commission, was held on the 27th August. This was based in Abuja, and due to the ongoing Covid situation was also shared on line.

There had been quite a lot of publicity, and mention made of Miniature sheets to accompany the release too. However, as the official Gandhi launch, the actual stamps were not ready for the official launch.

To service the First Day Covers, a small supply of stamps that had not yet gone through the final process (where the silver foil is added) were provided.

There were also miniature sheets mentioned in the pre-event press release. These were of a very similar design to the previous year’s Gandhi sheets.

Unfortunately very few if any of these items were then subsequently supplied to the Philatelic bureau. None of the unused stamps, and only a handful of the miniature sheets.

The Philatelic Bureau have been able to provide copies of the FDC with the original stamp, but it still seems to be difficult to acquire a mint version of the stamp.

There have been examples showing up on the auction sites, from a few countries outside of Nigeria, how rare or common these will prove to be, is a question of time. It is quite possible there are stocks left in Nigeria waiting to be released.

But the mystery of what happened to the miniature sheets has yet to be resolved. It was suggested that the Bangladesh High commission commandeered the remaining copies. However it might also be possible that only a minimal amount were produced.

Once again, a modern issue gives rise to another exceptionally scarce item.

UPDATE – FEBRUARY 2023

Since I wrote the original article there have been some developments.

The version of the stamp without the silver foil were made available in a limited number of outlets within Nigeria.

The Miniature sheets, both imperforate and perforate were also later made available by the Philatelic Bureau. However the imperforate version was different from the original one, as it had the wavy flag design as per the perforate version.

Another version of the First Day Cover became available, however this did not have a stamp on it, instead the postmark was applied to the cover which had the stamp design printed on it.

Even more intrigue followed, when another First Day Cover came into circulation. At first I assumed it was a forged cover, because on examination the stamp seemed to be a cutout from a poster or similar. There were non of the phosphor markings previously described. Also the stamp seemed to have perforations printed on a yellow surround.

However the actual perforations seemed to be good quality. Then I noticed the more obvious difference, the date of the First Day cover was 17th August, not the 27th.

This was the original date planned for the release of the stamp. However the release had apparently been delayed due an embarrassing spelling mistake. If you look at the print of the stamp in the bottom left of the cover, the name is spelt BANGADANDHU rather than BANGABANDHU.

There was a publicity leaflet printed for the 17th.

This clearly shows the misspelling. To make matters worse the contents includes 3 spellings of Bangabandhu. See if you can spot all 3 in the image below!

By the time of the formal launch on the 27th August, a new publicity leaflet had been printed, with all the spelling mistakes corrected.

So, what of the stamp itself, which I had originally thought a forgery. My theory is, at short notice the printers must have spotted the spelling mistake on the original stamps, and tried to meet the deadline by printing these versions to affix to the First Day Cover. However, as can be seen the other materials all had the wrong spellings, and so the launch was postponed.

Therefore I think these are official items, not a forgery, printed at short notice, as had been done for the earlier Gandhi issue.

It does make you wonder if ever some of the original stamps, with the spelling mistake will ever come to light, or have they all been destroyed

In 2010, a new definitive set was released, and as is standard with all Nigerian definitive series things are never straightforward.

The initial range, as included on the official First Day Cover, issued 9^th October 2010, featured stamps printed by 2 different printers.

All stamps include a new security feature, a hologram.

The stamps with circular holograms were produced by Kalamazoo Security Print, and those with square holograms were produced by Superflux International (SIL).

In addition, the Kalamazoo printings used fluorescent ink for “NIGERIA” inscription,

and the SIL stamps had a phosphor overprint.

However, around this time there was another version of the Landers Brothers Anchorage (included in the Kalamazoo issue) in circulation. This did not have any of the security features, and was produced by NSPM Ltd. This was relatively short lived.

Subsequent to the official release, there were 3 more stamps issued by SIL. These duplicated the subjects covered by the Kalamazoo stamps, including a 3^rd version of the Landers Brothers Anchorage.

If 3 versions of the Landers Brothers Anchorage were not enough, a fourth version appeared in 2017.

Although it had no printer markings it appears to be another version by Kalamazoo, as it has a circular hologram, is printed on their slightly thicker paper and has 12 x 12.5 perforations.

However the ink for yellow in ‘NIGERIA’ is not fluorescent ink and the value is black, unlike the other Kalamazoo issues.  The font for the value does however match the Kalamazoo issues.

Then in 2020, 2 more definitives appeared, again duplicate designs of previous issues. These too had a circular hologram, and would also appear to be issued by Kalamazoo, but once again did not feature the fluorescent ink.

With all the complicated printing process involved, it is surprising that there do not appear to be any varieties or errors. The only example I have is the SIL N50, where the process of adding the hologram failed, and there is just the smallest or remnants attached to the stamp.

In 2019 Nigeria, along with many nations, issued a Stamp to commemorate the 150th Birth Anniversary of the great Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi.

The official date of release was 2nd October 2019. A single stamp of N100 was issued, printed by TACOMS Intl, it featured a silver square for security purposes. Unlike previous releases, this was actually plain foil rather than a hologram.

It also had an “all over” phosphor coating applied to the stamp.

In addition to the stamp a miniature sheet was issued, this was available in 2 versions, a perforated version (rare) and an imperforate one (more common).

• 

Well, the above was the plan, however when it came to the actual launch of the stamps, the production had been delayed, so they were not available.

Rather than postpone the launch (which is a fairly common event) TACOMS were charged with the objective of producing some emergency stamps that could be used on First Day Covers so there was something to launch.

So, an emergency printing was done, and the stamps were produced on ungummed paper, in sheets of 36 (9 rows by 4 columns). They did not have the silver foil attached, and for some reason they were larger than the standard stamp size.

Unofficial sources say there was approximately 200 stamps produced (so presumably 5 or 6 sheets printed), and these were for use purely for the First Day Covers.

There were 2 types of First Day Covers, one I believe to be used purely for the launch, the other produced by the Philatelic Bureau to use up the remaining emergency print.

It should be noted, that after the official launch, there were First Day Covers issued with the production stamp too.

None of the emergency printing was meant to be released as unused stamps, however one of the sheets of 36 was not used for First Day Covers, and was made available.

With only 36 copies released, this means that this stamp goes down as one of Nigeria’s greatest rarities! Possible second only to the classic Northern Nigeria £25. Obviously with its links to one of the world’s greatest icons – it makes it extremely sought after.

It has been listed in Scotts catalogue (#895), and pending the next issue of a Stanley Gibbons Catalogue it should be assigned an SG number too.

On the 13^th December 2018, at the Banquet Hall of Rivers State Government House, in front of many dignitaries from Local Government and Nipost, there was a ceremony to launch the issue of stamps commemorating the Golden Anniversary of the creation of the Rivers State.

This area is of significance to collectors of Nigerian stamps, as it covers much of the area represented by the stamps issued by the Oil Rivers Protectorate and the Niger Coast Protectorate prior to 1900.

The modern day state was created in 1967. Which begs the question, why was the commemoration taking part 51 years later, and not in 2017?

It is fair to state that there has been a long saga to get these stamps released. The original date planned was indeed 2017, but internal politics and stamp design issues appeared to get in the way.

Part of the story can be told by the First Day covers issued as part of the release. The formal launch of the stamps was in fact planned for 29^th May 2018. The venue had been selected, and guests invited. However for reasons not entirely clear, the launch was called off with 48 hours to go. However a small number of First Day Covers were released dated 29^th May 2018.

Eventually a second launch date was set for December 6^th 2018. Fresh First Day covers were prepared, with the envelopes reprinted, and 6^th December postmark applied. Once again the launch was postponed, this time scheduled for the week after.

There was no time to reprint the envelopes for this date, although the postmark of 13^th December was applied. Some covers had the date on the envelope changed by pen, others didn’t.

As for the stamps themselves, when they first appeared in May, the quality was terrible, both in printing and perforations. They had the appearance of rough proofs. In the past Nigeria has had “pre-release” stamps for launches, and for use on First Day covers (Eg the non-Hologram versions of the 50^th Anniversary of University of Nigeriain 2015), and it could be assumed that these had been rushed for the launch.

However when they reappeared for the December releases, they were the same poor examples.

After a few months, the initial stock was exhausted, and later printings had proper perforations.

The stamps are printed by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Co. Ltd, for the first time for several years, and it appears they have forgotten how to print stamps.  This includes their approach to the miniature sheet.

The miniature sheet is anything but miniature. It is A4 size, and includes supersized stamp designs within the overall design. However the first attempt, which was rejected by Nipost, was even stranger. The first design for the miniature sheet consisted of individual postcard size version of each stamp (example blow).