FDCs of the South Vietnam .5, 1, 2, & 6 Dong Issues For The World United Against Malaria Campaign

Synopsis

Historical Background:

On October 21st, 1960, at the 26th Session of the World Health Organization, it was discussed that the underfunded “Malaria Eradication Special Account” needed another way to finance the program. The proposal was made for the issuing of postage stamps world-wide in order to help fund the “global program for the eradication of malaria” and increase world-wide publicity and education about the fight against malaria. The hope was that the participating governments would contribute stamps or a percentage of the proceeds of the sales of the stamps to the program. The campaign ultimately failed due to the impossibility of eradicating the insect and disease. Today, 1-2 million people still die a year from malaria.

Scope:

This exhibit will start with the production of the issues, and then focus on the FDCs (including maximum cards cancelled on the first day), and then end with commercial covers. These commemorative issues were designed by Nguyen Minh Hoang and engraved by J. Piel and printed at the State Printing Office in Paris. 1,000,000 of the .5 and 6 dong issues were produced and 2,000,000 of the 1 dong and 3,000,000 of the 2 dong issue were produced.

Material Availability:

I have been able to find these FDCs over the last 13 years through diligent searching the world including hundreds of websites and buying large malaria stamp collections and finding great finds within them. Trying to find the identity of a cachet publisher/designer has yielded no information as of yet. I have recently changed tactics and have been contacting French area FDC collectors but once again, no information as of yet.

The Sepia Proof is not one of the abundant French Area deluxe proofs that are produced in great numbers. There are only 3-5 of these produced and one copy goes to the Official Archives, Postmaster, and Printing Office, thus leaving only up to two that can eventually makes it into the public sector. If a defect is found, the die is corrected and another set of 3-5 are created for review.

Original Research:

I discovered the fake first day cancellation on a FDC and also determined that there are two different first day cancellation varieties - this is described on the title page. Other ‘research’ thus far has been able to discover new cachets that are not included in the “Commemorative Postal Markings of French Indo-China, Viet-Nam, Cambodia, Laos through 1975/76” catalog. I have found a few newly discovered cachets and they were recognized in the catalog (wrong spelling of my name) in the 2002 edition. Since then, I have sent a few more including the set of 4 Maximum cards (only recorded set). My new findings are denoted in the exhibit as “discovery copy”.



 

 

References

http://www.malariastamps.com/VietnamSouth.asp
(Larry Fillion, 1998-2008) - Most of my South Vietnam malaria items including proofs, issued stamps, and FDCs.

http://www.malariastamps.com/VietnamSouthCommercials.asp
(Larry Fillion, 1998-2008) – Most of my South Vietnam malaria commercial covers

http://www.garuda.com/CatalogInfo.htm
Catalog of FDCs from South Vietnam. This is the equivalent of Mellone’s FDC catalog for U.S. FDCs

http://www.malariastamps.com/
(Larry Fillion, 1998-2008) - My full collection of 5000+ malaria items.