Tajikistan

Dinosaurs on stamps of Tajikistan

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Contents:

• Country overview
• Philately of Tajikistan
• Official stamps of Tajikistan to related to Paleontology
• References
• Acknowledgements

Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan is a mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia with an estimated population of 9.5 million and an area of 143,100 km2.
Its capital and largest city is Dushanbe. Tajikistan bordered by Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north and China to the east.
Mountains cover more than 90% of the country. It has a transition economy that is highly dependent on remittances, Aluminum and Cotton production.
The territory that now constitutes Tajikistan was previously home to several ancient cultures, including the city of Sarazm of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, and was later home to kingdoms ruled by people of different faiths and cultures, including the Oxus civilisation, Andronovo culture, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Islam.
The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including Russian Empire and Soviet Union. As a result of the break-up of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan became an independent nation in 1991. A civil war was fought almost immediately after independence, lasting from 1992 to 1997. ^[R1]

The first stamps of Tajikistan were issued on 20 May 1992. Before then, Tajikistan used stamps of the Soviet Union. In 1992 and 1993 the Tajikistan Post Office resorted to overprinting stamps of the Soviet Union as supplies of the new Tajik stamps ran low. ^[R2]
In 2020, Tajikistan started to produce stamps with the assistance of Stamperija.
Unlike other clients of Stamperija, Tajikistan’s stamps show domestic flora, fauna, and cultural features related to the country.

Official stamps of Tajikistan related to Paleontology: dinosaurs

08.09.1994 "Prehistoric animals" [1]	20.12.2020 "Paleontology of Tajikistan" [2]

Notes:

[1] These stamps were issued in a common sheet of all 8 stamps and 1 label of Pinacosaurus (genus of medium-sized ankylosaur dinosaurs) in the middle, as well as in separate Mini-Sheets of 9 stamps each.

Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals on one mini sheet of Tajikistan 1994. Catalog numbers of the stamps: MiNr.: 50-57, Scott: 53-60	Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals on single mini sheets of Tajikistan 1994

The proof of unadopted dinosaur stamps of Turkmenistan.

Initially these stamps were designed by a German company for Turkmenistan, but the order was cancelled on the last minute.
See some proofs on the right side. Türkmenistan (German name of the country) is on the bottom-left side of the proof.
After these stamps were approved by Tajikistan, the country name and all text on the stamps was revised by the design company.
The design of at least one stamp was slightly changed:
Anatosaurus (the third stamp on the first row) is rotated.

Three stamps of the set have design errors ^[R3] :

• Tyrannosaurus (first stamp on the first row) has four fingers, instead of two.
• The second "Tyrannosaurus" (the second stamp on the last row) is actually Polacanthus: plant-eating ankylosaurian dinosaur from the early Cretaceous period of England.
• The Triceratops is actually Anchiceratops.

[2] These stamps were issued in 4 Mini-Sheets. Every Mini-Sheet contain 4 pairs of the stamps. Left stamp of a pair shows fossil, prehistoric animal or a its footprint, when the right stamp shows the location where it was found.



References:

•   [R1] Tajikistan: Wikipedia FlagCounter
•   [R2] Postal History and Philately of Tajikistan: Wikipedia
            Links to official website of the Post Authority, stamp catalog and a list of new stamps of Tajikistan are here
•   [R3] Design errors on stamps of Tajikistan 1994: StampedOut,

Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for reviewing the draft page and his valuable comments.

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