This is the first major specimen archive to have been ‘liberated’ in more than thirty years.
During 2011 specimens of stamps from most member countries of the UPU became available but were confined to those distributed by the International Bureau between early-1917 and late-1923. They had been extracted from the second of probably ten volumes in the Mauritania UPU Specimen Archive. I was able to acquire a substantial number of these, many of which are now in the collections of my clients.
Early in 2012, in exchange for an astronomical number of Ouguiya, I acquired an intact volume. This is endorsed “Volume 8” and contained around 10,500 stamps, almost all in strips of three as distributed, and more than one hundred miniature sheets.
Every stamp of the world distributed by the UPU between October 1939 and June 1942 is included. It is fascinating to see how the issue of stamps was affected by the opening years of the Second World War with a wealth of occupation and propaganda issues. It is of note that no other receiving authority specimens from any other archive cover this time period.
Stamps were affixed to the album pages (Volume 2 each 26 × 41 cm, Volume 8 each 28 × 43 cm) more or less in the order of receipt from the UPU. As a result, sets of stamps distributed together remain together but any sets distributed piecemeal were interspersed with stamps from other countries and are now on several separate pieces.
In 1951 an audit was carried out. The number of stamps on each page was recorded and certified by a postal official at St. Louis, Senegal, the de facto administrative capital of the two colonies separated by the Senegal River.
For the collector,
these cancelled stamps, all of which are unique, are of the same importance
as those handstamped ULTRAMAR by the Portuguese Post Office, those handstamped
SPECIMEN from the Bechuanaland and Natal archives described by Bendon1
and the cancelled
stamps in the Madagascar archive described by Alevizos2.
An important difference is that the first three of these archives contained
only single stamps and in the Madagascar archive many of the strips of stamps
were separated into singles. Over the years many stamps
from Volume 2 suffered surface damage evidenced by examples showing the Mauritania
handstamp on unprinted parts of the stamp. Whilst the stamps were initially
affixed using the original gum, some show signs of additional adhesive, possibly
derived from a camel. Many of the small pieces cut from the album show incomplete
impressions of the handstamp. The condition of the stamps
from Volume 8 is quite different: no surface damage, very little gum staining
(except for some of the miniature sheets), the stamps generally more widely
spaced and on clean white album pages. Stamps from Volume 2 are
all described and illustrated on this web site. It will, however, take time
to describe and scan everything from Volume 8. To see what has already been added click here. In the interim
I welcome enquiries for items from any country that issued stamps during the
time period covered. 1 Bendon,
James. UPU Specimen Stamps, the Author, Limassol, 1988. Latest
additions List of
countries 
2 Alevizos, George. Madagascar UPU Specimens,
the Author, Santa Monica, ca. 1980.