AIDS on Stamps

Stamp Booklets

Many postal services that offer stamps in the form of booklets have taken advantage of the opportunity to promote AIDS awareness on the outside or inside covers. Sometimes the stamps are about AIDS, sometimes they are not. Either way, the larger surface provides an opportunity for greater detail and artistic expression than can be found on a single stamp.

I am sure there are other booklets featuring AIDS awareness information that I have not as of yet identified. Please e-mail me (with scans if possible) if you know of any others.

The AIDS stamp in the booklet is Scott 2176. In primary focus of the book is Charlton Heston. As with Elizabeth Taylor, precisely why India has Charleton Heston on a stamp booklet evades me. Can anyone enlighten me? One website I found stated only 500 copies of this booklet were printed to be distributed to participants at the Outram Club Stamp Show. A fair number of these are floating around the web, so either they were printed in excess of that number or someone commandeered them to sell over the Internet

There is also an identical version of the Charleton Heston booklet with a stamp of a leopard cat inside featuring the same denomination. Since Indian stamp booklets do sometimes have more than one set of stamps inside, it is possible that this is the same booklet as the one above and both stamps can be found inside.

India

September 3, 2008

Scott number unknown

The AIDS stamp in the booklet is Scott 2176. In primary focus of the booklet is the Indian film Saptapadi. Allegedly only 500 copies of this stamp booklet were printed.

India

December 1, 2008

Scott number unknown

There are two different stamps inside this booklet, an AIDS stamp (Scott 2176) and a stamp on breastfeeding. Supposedly only 250 copies of this booklet were printed, but an awful lot of these are selling all over the Internet.

Update: There are many of these selling on the Internet, many of which don't have the correct value of stamps enclosed. I have become convinced that the vast (!) majority of these Internet sales are forgeries. I am currently investigating this more closely, but until I learn more I recommend that collectors do not buy this stamp booklet because of the extremely high chance of buying a forgery.

The stamps inside this booklet have nothing to do with AIDS. Around the same time several booklets were released with an identical outside cover but no AIDS information inside. So if you are purchasing this booklet make sure you are buying the correct one.

South Africa

August 7, 1998

Scott number unknown

The stamps inside this booklet feature various plains animals (blue wildebeast, eland, impala, kudu, and waterbuck). Again, at the same time several booklets were released with an identical front covers but no AIDS information. So if you are purchasing this booklet make sure you are buying the correct one.

South Africa

April 1, 1999

Scott number unknown

The stamps inside this booklet are of the final picture. They are of Scott 1107-8.

South Africa

November 29, 2002

1302

The stamps inside this booklet are Scott 1302a-j.

The AIDS stamp is Scott 4233. I am unsure of the booklet number. The fellow on the cover is Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross.