Angola (5th Post), Mozambique (2nd Post), Timor (1st Post)

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A Great number of my last posts are dedicated to a single country, with stamps of one or more periods of a country's Philately...today , I have a post with stamps from 3 countries and I decided to present them together because the stamps are from the Colonial Period of these countries, all under Portuguese Authority and influence...

It will be a brief and small post , where i will present 3 complete series, one for each country...none of these 3 series are rare but at the same time they are not easy to get in their complete form...many of the stamps from these countries are very common, specially those from the 50's and 60's but the pictorial stamps from the 30's and 40's are not so easy... I am still trying to get the Cape Verde and Macau's "Views" series , both from 1948...

Let us start with the "Sights and views" from Angola...

All these "Sights and views" series from 1948 are work of one of the Greatest Portuguese stamp designers... I'm talking about Alberto de Souza, that has many, many stamps for Portugal and many of them also for the Ex-colonies... the stamps are also engraved by several Artists , and are [Litho] printed ...

Lately I have made some remarks about the scans and the resolution we should use for each kind of printing.. with these Angola stamps, I've used the wrong resolution, with to much detail.. I should have used the 400ppp , that it is the adequate for these stamps ...there is the possibility of the existence of some slight differences in the colors, so if you could arrange some spare stamps , better (collecting different shades is always FUN..!)

All the information about these stamps and all the others from Angola, and all the Portuguese colonies are present in the "AFINSA Colónias" Catalog.. I am a avid user of stamp catalogs and I must say that both the Catalogs ("AFINSA PORTUGAL" and "AFINSA Colonias") are very good , with all the technical details, printings , designers , engravers, etc and even some historical remarks about the early classic emissions...Both are very detailed and are good and necessary acquisitions for the collector...

1948 "Sights and Views of Angola" (7) [Des (M. Jorge 20c,40c)(Alberto de Souza others)][Engr (José Rosa 20c)(Arnaldo Fragoso others except 40c/Mint)] [Litho] Sc(319,...,324)

The series has 20 stamps, with 10 different designs... there is not much to say about this series.. some of the stamps are really beautiful and they don't have the usual overall aspect of the Portuguese colonial stamps...Engraved stamps are not a common fact among the stamps made for the colonies and this is what make this group of series so special....

1948 "Sights and Views from Mozambique" (20) [Des (M. Jorge 2$50,10$,15$,20$) (Alberto de Souza  / others)][Engr (José Rosa 5c,30c)(Marcelino Norte 20c,40c)(Gustavo Araujo 60c, 1$75,3$,3$50)(Guilherme Santos 10c,1$20)(Americo Carvalho 1.50,2$,15$,20$)(Arnaldo Fragoso / others)][Litho (Casa Da Moeda)] Sc(305,...,324)

These are good examples of stamps that could not have been made in our days, in 2016... first , because the idea of a country having colonies is outrageous...in second , because stamps degrading the native woman in such a way are not possible and our Moral standards cannot comply to this view of things...however , I think that , as a collector, I should describe this series , only as "Indigenous People" and restrain myself of doing any other type of considerations...other day, I saw an article  about the Portuguese colonial stamps, and all the talking was about slavery and condemnation of  the traffic of slaves between continents... it is true that , with our eyes, "the eyes of the future" all of that was highly irregular, but I think that we should not , in any case, give our personal opinion about the History related in a stamp.. that is not the role of the collector.. We should not use stamps to give our personal opinion, and we should not mix things...A stamp is something made in a particular time frame , and we should use the ideas accepted in those days to understand the stamp and what it represents....nothing more!!! Don't forget that I am talking as a world Stamp Collector.. I cannot have barriers to my ultimate desire, that is to collect...what to say about Hitler's and the III Reich stamps?? should they be forgotten ?? why,?  the ideas behind them are the worst, but the stamps themselves, could be like many others ,beautiful and work of great Artists...should they be forgotten??? should We , World collectors, comply with these ideological barriers..?. NO, is my answer.. if we do not mix our opinion about the idea behind the stamp with the stamp itself, we are "immune" to this "Time Barrier"....for me, collecting Hitler's stamps or "Butterflies" stamps is just the same thing... only nice designs, possible good engravings, different papers and perforations, some nice colors...... stamps! 

Now , some considerations about these particular stamps are in order... I cannot keep from seeing that the printing is not the best... some stamps present a displacement of the colors or lack of detail, and that is something we are not costumed with Portuguese stamps... the usual [Litho] printing is in general a good one , and this is a bad example of those printings... 

1948 "Indigenous People" (8) [Des (Alberto de Souza)][Litho] Sc(246,...,253)

Next time i will have some Guatemala stamps..

Seeyou