For
Comparison 1984<—>1988
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The History:
As a reaction of the western boycott of the
Olympic Games in Moscow 1980, the Eastern block countries boycotted the Olympic
Games in Los Angeles in 1984.
Three of a total of six stamps and
one miniature sheet, which the post administration of East Germany had planned
for this occasion had already been printed (the miniature sheet had not been
completely printed) when the boycott was declared in Moscow. Now
these stamps could not be issued!
The whole matter would probably have remained unknown to the public, if it hadn’t been for a West German at the Leipzig Autumn Exhibition (East Germany) 1988, who bought a set of the sheets (50 values each) along with other stamps at a post counter.
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For
Comparison 1984<—>1988
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As the 1984 boycott stamps looked exactly the same as the 1988 stamps of the Seoul Olympic edition (they only had a different year and a different Roman Numeral of the Olympic Games), they evidently hadn’t been recognised by Post Office officials.
It is remarkable that the Olympic Stamps of 1984 were only destroyed in 1988 rather than right after the boycott had been declared.
In 1991 the German Federal Post (Deutsche Bundespost) claimed ownership of the stamps as legal successor of the German Post of the GDR and tried to get all the stamps confiscated.
The collector who had bought the largest part of the sheet of stamps, sued against the Federal Post and won his case in both courts of justice. The Post waived an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court, making the verdict legally binding. This therefore made the GDR Olympic Stamps, which the collector had bought finally legal.
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At the beginning of 1996, they were put into the MICHEL Catalogue.
Only 50 complete mint sets of the GDR Olympic Stamps 1984 and two damaged sets from the archives with two miniature sheets are known.
Presentation of the set in the treasury ("Schatzkammer") of the SÜDWEST 2001 Stamp Exhibition in Heidelberg (Germany) from 13th to 15th of July 2001 (> www.SUEDWEST-2001.de <).
Any questions? E-Mail: Olympia1984@Intergrid.de