Page 242 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

Type 2
cachet “Introduction of Postal Services/Abu Dhabi, Trucial Coast/
March 30th, 1963”; and the number of items from Das Island was
only about 200.
The stamps used in Abu Dhabi and Das Island included the
“NP” surcharges on both Edward Crown and Multicrown paper and
all the printings of the Rs2 and Rs5 (S.G.56 I/II/III, 57 I/II
and 92-93). Of the latter, the two Waterlow printings of the Rs2
(S.G.56 I/II) and the De La Rue printing of the Rs5 on Edward
Crown paper (S.G.57 II) are exceedingly rare used in either Abu
Dhabi or Das Island. Despite the issue of the Dc La Rue Rs5
(S.G.57 II in 1960 and S.G.93 in 1961) far and away the majority of
this value used right up to 1964 was the Waterlow S.G.57 I. This,
perhaps, shows how little use there had been for a Rs5 value in
Muscat and in Dubai since it was introduced in March 1957; also,
perhaps, how little need there was for its subsequent appearance on
the De La Rue printings of the basic stamp (S.G.57 II and 93). The
major Waterlow re-entry (Row 8/1) is known used from Das Island,
but the other rare “wide surcharge” (Row 8/4) has not been seen
used from either Abu Dhabi or Das Island.
The first Abu Dhabi definitives were issued on March 30th,
1964 and the designs included the gazelle, from which the State
acquired its name, “The Father of Gazelles”, and a portrait of the
then Ruler Shaikh Shakhbut bin Sultan.

The R1 and Rs2 featured the old Palace on the outskirts of the
town of Abu Dhabi; and in the archives at the National Postal
Museum is a coloured half-tone essay on card for the Rl, marked
“Rejected” but which is a much better balanced design than the
issued stamp. No doubt, however, when Shaikh Shakhbut saw the

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