Sand Dunes

Sand dunes refers to stamp issues by several of the Trucial States on the Arabian Peninsula: Ajman, Fujeira, Ras al Khaima, Sharjah and Umm al Qiwain, plus their dependencies. Ajman sold their stamp production franchise to Finbar Kenny in 1964, and the others soon did the same. What followed was a flood of stamp issues on all kinds of topics, generally offered to the philatelic trade as cheap CTOs. Bogus and unnecessary varieties like imperfs were created. Although a fair number of issues were used postally, many more were released as CTOs only.

With the formation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December 1971, the stamps of its members were not immediately made obsolete. Formal notice that UAE would be the sole postal authority was announced in August 1972. That did not prevent printing more new stamps in the emirates' names until at least the end of 1972.

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