Top left: 2001 Turkish Stamp Illustrating a Traditional Women’s Headcover from Mersin-Silifke

Top right: 1979 German Stamp Marking the 50th Anniversary of Anne Frank’s Birth

Center: 1960 Haitian Stamp Celebrating Claudinette Fouchard, Miss Haiti

Bottom left: 1963 Republic of Dahomey (now Benin) Dakar Sports Games Stamp

Bottom right: 1983 Zimbabwean Commonwealth Day Stamp with Henry Mudzengerere’s Wing Woman

Stamps

Valeria Barragán

Foreign Languages

When is a postage stamp not a postage stamp? 

When it’s from the Republic of South Maluku (RMS). 

With perforated edges and delicate images of local fish, RMS stamps look the part, but reputable dealers avoid them. The problem is this: the territory claimed as the RMS is officially part of Indonesia. Thus, all its stamps are “bogus,” made either by a rebel government in exile, or by Henry Stolow, a New York stamp dealer who often boosted his stock by ordering stamps for unwitting postal jurisdictions. 

For collector Valeria Barragán, it is the “cultural and historical elements” that make stamps desirable. “I started when I was about 10 years old living in Brazil and collected them for the next 30 years.” “I have stamps that commemorate independence, religious and folkloric celebrations, artists, historical figures, events and anniversaries... Several stamps are from countries that have changed their names…Other places such as the former Soviet Union, Antarctica, and the unrecognized secessionist Republic of South Maluku are still under geopolitical transformation.”

Ms. Barragán’s stamps are tiny, jeweled windows to other times and places: To Uruguay, 1971, where 100-years of drinking water was celebrated by a drawing of an ox-pulled water cart; to 1974 and the Cold War, when Cuba hailed a visit by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. To Germany, 1979, when a generation born after World War Two issued a stamp to mark what would have been Ann Frank’s 50th birthday. And to Zimbabwe, 1983, where a Commonwealth Day stamp depicts Wing Woman, a stone-carving by renowned Zimbabwean sculptor Henry Mudzengerere.

“I do not know exactly how many stamps I have, but there might be a few thousand, distributed by geographical regions in eight albums. There are stamps from almost 160 locations, mostly countries, but also city-states…and autonomous territories (such as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which was formerly the Spanish Sahara, and Azad Hind, which only existed during WWII).”

Valeria’s collection starts “from a time when encyclopedias were still printed, and the Internet did not exist.” “Nowadays,” she says, “there is less mail correspondence due to electronic communication, so I have not been actively collecting…It would be a great pleasure to share the collection with your viewers. Most people from this generation have not seen one. 
I also have plenty of doubles (repeated stamps), and I would be happy to give them to anyone who is interested.” 

A “Bogus” Stamp from the Republic of South Maluku

Valeria Barragán With Part of her Stamp Collection

1991 Israeli Stamp Celebrating Poet Rahel Bluwstien, Write and Scholar Lea Goldberg, and World War One Allied Spy Sarah Aaronsohn

Left: 1969 St. Vincent Carnival Stamp Featuring A Male Masquerader

Right: 1984 Mongolian Stamp Celebrating Traditional Masks

Stamps Marking Historical Anniversaries

1971, Khmer Republic (now Cambodia) Stamp Marking the International Year to Fight Against Racism and Racial Discrimination

Left: 1972 German Stamp Marking Sailing Events at the Munich Olympics

Right: 2010 U.S. Stamp Marking the Vancouver Winter Olympics, designed by Howard E. Paine