There are currently 337 examples of withdrawn / controversial / exceptional postal issues from 142 countries / territories on this website

The subject of this webpage relates to withdrawn stamps and postal items such as stamps, postmarks, postal stationaries etc. In the narrow sense of the definition withdrawn postal issues can be unambiguously distinguished from so called unissued postal issues. The latter are withdrawn before their planned issue date, thus they are never being used or sold at post offices.

In contrast are the withdrawn issues only retracted on or after the day of issue and thus they are officially used in postal traffic. The withdrawal however must occur before either the end of the validity or before stocks run out.

Controversial stamps and postal items are those which stir protest, discussion or debate before or upon their release.

Exceptional stamps and postal items are those whose usage goes beyond "normal" or there is other circumstances which make them stand out. This can be very short franking validity, only sold in a certain context (ie stamp exhibition), additional function beyond franking and many more reasons.

November 2024

There are many reasons for the withdrawal of postally issued items like stamps, stationaries, postmarks and so on. They can be classified as follows

1. Political reasons
2. Legal reasons
3. Religious reasons
4. Design errors
5. Economic reasons
6. Damage
7. Cultural or social reasons
8. Unknown

As mentioned in the above definition, the definition of withdrawn stamps (postal items) is clear. However, the collector's freedom allows me to "cheat" a bit. Therefore also issues are presented here, which do not satisfy the definition in its entirety. In the categorization below, these are marked with *. 

The following scenarios for withdrawing postal issues can be found here:

1. Issues that were withdrawn without replacement
2. Issues that were withdrawn and replaced and "corrected" by another issue
3. Issues that were withdrawn and reissued unchanged at a later date
4. Issues that have not been withdrawn but have been corrected by another issue *
5. Issues that "intentionally" did not reach the counters on the intended date of issue and were issued at a later date *
6. Issues that, due to external circumstances, could be purchased or used either in reduced circulation or delayed after issue *
7. Issues that were actually unissued but came to be sold illegally or inadvertently *
8. Issues that were normally issued but were a candidate for withdrawal or non-issuance in advance *