Stamp_amp_amp_Coin_Mart_-_February_2016__

http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk FEBRUARY 2016 51

Y

ou just need one

word to sum up the

stamps of Monaco

• class! Right from
  the outset of my
  collecting as a
  schoolboy these line-engraved stamps
  mesmerised me as they were so
  different and provided such fine detail.
  Additionally they offered attractively
  different shapes to what I was
  accustomed as a few examples (reduced
  in size) from the 1950s illustrate.
  Whether it was because of the
  monarch of Monaco, Prince Ranier III
  (frequently shown on their stamps with
  his wife the former American film star
  Grace Kelly) being himself such a keen
  philatelist or the kudos and glamour of
  being involved with film star royalty,
  the cream of French designers seemed
  to flock to Monaco’s stamp issuing

The sovereign city-state of Monaco has long attracted the rich and famous, but as Jeff Dugdale reveals in

his ongoing guide to country collecting, the stamp collector is well served in the region too

Collect by country

Why Collect... Monaco?

authorities to take their contracts.

Thereafter across the decades Monaco

has been a go-to territory for stamps

celebrating any cultural or scientific

achievement with often extended sets

permitting stories to be told across the

designs. Notable in particular are the

well known Red Cross issues showing

the Twelve Labours of Hercules from

classical mythology, issued in pairs from

1981 onwards.

Monaco has proved to be

particularly strong in celebrating

artistic themes so if your interests lie in

legend, literature, art, music or ballet

you will certainly already be a convert.

If not again just regard the astonishing

fine detail of these engraved stamps...

But these stamps do not just simply

illustrate a golden period in Monaco

stamp design for the quality is there

today both in line and steel engraved

stamps and in offset as two examples

from the world of ballet illustrate.

Wherever you look across a century

of issuing, Monaco stamps consistently

have the ‘wow factor’ in spades.

Above, from left:

Prince Ranier on 1950

Accession set (designed

by Serres) and with

Princess Grace in a

stamp from the Royal

Wedding set (designed

Piel); a 1951 triangular

for Pope Pius XII,

designed Serres; a 1955

rhomboid shaped issue

within a Jules Verne set

and a 1956 diamond

shape stamp showing

FDR with famous

American buildings

Right: one value from

a 1975 set of four

celebrating Bizet’s opera

Carmen, designed by

Albert Decaris

Fact  le

Background: Sovereignty recognised

by France over 400 years ago but after

1815 placed under Sardinian protection

First issue:

1855 – Sardinian stamps

1860 – French stamps both with Monaco cancellations

1885 – fi rst stamps from ‘Principavte de Monaco’

1938 – fi rst stamps of ‘Monaco’

Currency: Centimes and Francs

Typical current annual output:

Prolifi c, sixteen to twenty sets per year, of one to four stamps

Website: http://www.oetp-monaco.com

E-mail: [email protected]

Notes: The Offi ce des Timbres Principauté de Monaco

produces a regular full colour glossy Philatelic Programme

free on request, but curiously requires subscribers to buy

pre-determined thematic groupings of issues such as sport,

art or opera, whether or not all items in their groupings are

wanted; unsatisfactory for some?

Right, from top: one of nine 1969 stamps for

Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust; 1983 stamp

honouring Puccini opera; 1984 stamp celebrating

Rabelais’s Gargantua; 1986 issue for dramatist

Corneille, Design Lambert; the Ninth Labour,

stealing Hippolyta’s girdle from 1985, again

showing fi ne detail; a 2013 engraved issued for

Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring

p51 Why collect.indd 51 21/12/2015 09:50