In the 1980s, the Tuvalu government had a contract with a philatelic agency called Philatelic Ltd. Between 1984 and 1986 the agency issued a stamp called “Leaders of the World” which featured locomotives and automobiles. In total, for the eight atolls of Tuvalu 123 se-tenants with two stamps each were printed. Only a fraction of them was to be given to Tuvalu for use based on the contract, the remainder to be sold by the agency to the philatelic market. In 1987 Philatelic Ltd. collapsed due to financial difficulties.

The stamps were not readily catalogued by major stamp catalogues due to their “nature”. Nonetheless Tuvalu entered a new contract with the successor of Philatelic Ltd. called Philatelic Distribution Corporation (PDC). Tuvalu terminated the contract in 1988 with alleged breaches from the PDC side and filed for a court case. The proceedings and outcome shows that there was not a one-sided truth to the story but both parties had their “interests”. The court therefore had a minor sentence of £3000 to be paid by the chairman of PDC for reprints done which were not part of the contractual agreement. The proceedings also included deliberate varieties of the stamps produced.

One of the 1984 "Leaders of the World" stamp sets