Fairy-Tale Stamps

The most beautiful postal stamps issued for the Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra were the stamps devoted to Arab culture and folklore.

However, this 1967 stamp series appeared at the time when the anticolonial revolutionary-emancipatory movement was initiated in South Arabia. As a result there were abolished not only the British protectorates over local sovereign states but the states themselves. At that time the postal stamps were the least thing people were concerned about.

In the middle of October, 1967 the same happened to the ancient Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra. Therefore, according to the rules adopted by the stamp-collector community these fairy-tale stamps can hardly be considered as that having 100% collector value since they were not used as postage stamps.

But they look attractive and original and have a rather high price.