# Question for Stamp Collectors

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-stamp-collectors/301699>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 29, 2005, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-stamp-collectors/301699 "2005-04-29T12:09:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-stamp-collectors/301699/1 "2005-04-29T12:09:09Z")

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My uncle used to be a big stamp collector (as was I, briefly). Besides showing me the interesting “legitimate” stamps in his collection, he showed me what he (and other philatelists) called “black blots” – stamps that were not really intended to be put on letters, but which were made specifically to be sold to stamp collectors, to generate income for the country. Bhutan used to be (still is?) big on this, with stamps printed on steel foil, or lenticular 3-D stamps of current events, or stamps printed with cartoon characters, or the like. The kind of thing that a 13 year old kid would go far, and which looked far more interesting than trying to obtain a complete set of all 50 facial expressions of Adolph Hitler from watrtime German stamps.

I’ve got three questions about this:

1.) Did any of these oddball stamps actually get _used_ on letters mailed from Bhutan (or wherever)?

2.) If not, then what did the stamps they actually used look like?

3.) Over time, even kitschy, made-for collecting things eventually develop a perverse folllowing of their own. It seems to me likely that, after enough timer passes, people will begin collecting these things and valuing them precisely _because_ they were intentionally made as “collector’s items” . Has this, in fact, happened?

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**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-stamp-collectors/301699/2 "2005-04-29T12:29:07Z")

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I have a handful of these Bhutan 3-d stamps - mostly space related and a couple of wild animals.

If you go to your public library they most likely have a set of Scotts stamp catalogs. I did this recently since I had the same curiousity about Bhutanese stamps.

They’re listed alright and I believe they even had separate listings for new and used - my inference is that they were used by somebody, although they may have been CTO (cancelled-to-order).

They haven’t appreciated much over the years; I suspect you are correct in that there must be a bunch of niche-collectors who prize these stamps.

A letter to Linn’s Stamp News ([www.linns.com](http://www.linns.com)) may get you further in your quest.

Good luck.