Baghdad's philatelists

Reuters reports that "Baghdad's only organized group of stamp collectors has stubbornly continued to meet in spite of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to remove Saddam Hussein, a raging insurgency and a low-grade civil war gripping the capital."

In a feature article, Violence fails to stamp out Baghdad's philatelists, Reuters correspondent Hiba Moussa writes, "[The Iraqi Philatelic and Coins Society] meet every Saturday in a small, sparsely furnished room above a telephone exchange in one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq's lawless capital."

"It has been forced to move its office twice and its numbers dwindled to about 30 after some members fled Iraq or were too afraid to attend meetings, a fact highlighted by the group's accountant who bemoans the drop in subscription fees."

According to Reuters, there have been only two new issues of Iraqi stamps since the war, one in 2003 and another in 2006. The last Saddam-era issue was a Saddam University stamp on Feb. 5, 2003 (shown above).

The stamp printing works were destroyed in the looting that followed the U.S. invasion.

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