Colonel Gaafar Nimeiri came to power in a military coup in 1969. This so called “May Revolution” was commemorated a year later (May 25, 1970) with three image identical stamps. These stamps were withdrawn on the day of issue. About 1800 stamp sets got sold through the philatelic service and postal counters. The withdrawal was justified with the stamps being “unsatisfactory”. A comparison between the withdrawn stamps and their replacements, issued October 21, 1970, suggests two possible explanations. The “demonstrating” crowd in the background is missing in the replacements. This could be due to political reasons.

Another possibility is the fact that both the crowd and the line of buildings behind them are not well contoured in the first issue. The same buildings are much sharper on the new stamps. The Arabic inscription at the top of the stamps is better readable on the new stamps. In that sense would the withdrawal be due to stamp image quality. Additional differences between the two issues are the difference in the colouring of the stamps. The country name changed from “The Democratic Republic of Sudan” to “Democratic Republic of Sudan” and the respective positioning of the names is slightly different.

Top: Withdrawn stamps

Bottom: Replacement stamps