Our April Valkenburg auction is nearly completely cataloged and soon will be posted to StacksBowers.com for viewing and bidding. We are excited to finally host a show and auction in Europe! One interesting lot that we will be offering are these TDLR-produced overprints for the planned 1991 invasion of Iraq during the Gulf War - a neat piece of history created for that conflict.

The Gulf War began in 1990 when Iraq annexed Kuwait. The annexation was internationally condemned, and a coalition of 35 countries was formed to liberate Kuwait. The liberation of Kuwait began on February 24, 1991 and the country was fully liberated by the 28th of that month. Coalition forces began to advance past the Kuwaiti border into Iraq, resulting in these items. TDLR created this specimen and overprints in 1991 for the planned invasion of Iraq and the expected overthrow of Saddam Hussein, which never happened as a cease-fire was issued. We believe the specimen note was originally produced with Saddam's portrait by TDLR, before the invasion of Kuwait. Specimens were produced and approved for eventual production, but after 1990 it was decided to cover up Saddam given the conflict. The overprints were created to replace his portrait with a design. Two renditions of the overprints are included on paper, with printer's annotations noticed on both; one has a glue stain. The specimen note is housed in a booklet from TDLR which shows where the overprint would have been placed. The note is encased in plastic, while a cutout of the overprint has been pasted on top of the plastic. Neat and presumably unique.

To read the complete article, see:
Unique 1991 Gulf War TDLR Overprints to be Offered at Valkenburg Auction(https://www.stacksbowers.com/News/Pages/Blogs.aspx?ArticleID=gulf-war-overprints-in-april-valkenburg-auction)