图1
当今中国集邮界，凡是集邮报刊的读者都知道，《上海集邮》拥有强大的“海外作者军团”，戴定国既是最早的“元老”，且是“战绩”最大的一位。最近，他为了给《上海集邮》写稿，发现了一种欧洲邮票的“中止发行票”。
什么是“中止发行票”？这又是我新创的一个名词，中国的《全国山河一片红》，原称“未发行票”，我曾在《上海集邮》建议改称“撤消发行票”，发行当局原来准备发行，且已下达文件，后来发现邮票有误，又撤消原来的发行决定，但其下属部门确已将少量邮票发售出去，流传到社会上，故称“撤消发行票”；而“中止发行票”是先已发行，后又急令停止发行的邮票。
戴先生在为《上海集邮》第11期撰写《2017外邮上的中国题材一瞥》时，关注到了卢森堡发行的欧罗巴邮票，这套邮票分别以中国驻卢大使馆和俄罗斯驻卢大使馆为图，他在察看邮票画面时，惊愕地发现，全套2枚竟然都没有国铭（图1）！为了求证其原因，他立即写信给卢森堡邮政当局，对方的集邮业务部门负责人埃米尔·埃斯彭很快就给他回复，承认这是他们的失误，产生了漏印国铭的变体邮票，然而，当他们发现邮票有错时，这些变体邮票已大部分出售给公众了。卢森堡邮政立即停售这种变体邮票，但并不打算重新印制改正错误的邮票。
图2
图3
图4
因为《上海集邮》的发行周期不能满足“快捷新闻”的要求，戴先生将此发现写成英文稿《邮票遗漏国铭：卢森堡停售欧罗巴邮票》，向美国《林氏邮票新闻》的读者报道，受到《林氏邮票新闻》的高度重视，他们将戴先生的邮文先是在9月14日发表在他们的网页上，接着在9月16日通过电子版发布了将在10月2日出版的《林氏邮票新闻》（图2，《林氏》封面），那期《林氏邮票新闻》在头版发表戴先生的这篇文章（图3，《林氏》第1页）（图4，《林氏》第13页）。
图5
《林氏邮票新闻》在9月16日这天寄给订户的电子版封面和要闻（图5），将这篇文章作为头条新闻，并在提要中说明：“在写作不同国家2017年发行的中国题材邮票的综述文章时，戴定国发现这2枚邮票上未印国家的名字……”。
戴定国的这一发现，源于他为《上海集邮》写作专栏文章。我很高兴在这里发表这些图片和他的英文报道，有英文基础的读者可以一读。《林氏邮票新闻》在文末对作者的介绍说，“戴定国是一名集邮专栏作家和退休化学家，居住在亚利桑那州。他为中国的《集邮》、《上海集邮》、《中国集邮报》和《生肖集邮》写作专栏。”
Stamps without a name: Luxembourg Europa issue removed from sale
邮票没有国铭：卢森堡停售欧罗巴邮票
September 14, 2017 05:00 PM
By Dingguo Dai
Luxembourg’s two Europa stamps issued May 9 are missing the country’s name and were removed from sale July 1.
Part of this year’s multination Europa series with the theme of castles, the 70¢ stamp pictures Beggen Castle, and the 95¢ stamp shows Dommeldange Castle. Beggen houses the Russian embassy in Luxembourg, and the Chinese embassy is in Dommeldange.
While writing a review about China-related stamps issued in 2017 by different countries, I noticed that these two stamps had no country name on them.
I sent an email to Post Luxembourg asking why. I also asked: How can foreign stamp collectors recognize that these stamps are from Luxembourg?
I quickly received a reply from Emile Espen, the head of the philatelic department, Post Philately.
Espen confirmed that the name “Luxembourg” is missing on both of these stamps.
He also said: “This is due to a mistake that happened during the printing file exchange between the graphic designer and the printer. The mistake was only noticed when a big part of the stamp issue had already been sold to the public.“
Espen reported that there will be no second printing of the stamps with the “Luxembourg” name, adding that the postal service had stopped selling the stamps as of July 1.
Dommeldange, located in the northern end of Luxembourg City, is the older of the two castles. It is believed to have been built in the 17th century by Thomas Marchant, a forge operator, as a private residence.
The castle and Dommeldinger Huttenwerk, or smelting works, were purchased in 1777 by Charles Joseph Collart, according to information from Post Philately.
The city purchased the castle in the 1970s, and China set up an embassy there in June 1978.
Beggen Castle dates from the late 19th century. After a villa on the site of a former paper mill burned in 1894, it was replaced with a new structure built by Belgian architect W. Janssens.
Before housing the embassy beginning in 1956, the castle served various purposes. During World War II, it was first occupied by the officers of the German Wehrmacht and then used by the United States military, according to Post Philately. In the early 1950s, it was a hotel.
Although the stamps are missing the country name, they have several inscriptions on them, including the name of the designer, B. Carter, in the lower right. The Bpost inscription in the lower left refers to the security printer of Belgium’s post office, which printed the two stamps.
Dingguo Dai is a philatelic columnist and retired chemist living in Arizona. He writes columns for the Chinese monthly Philately, Shanghai Philately, China Philately News, and Shengxiao (Chinese Lunar Zodiac) Philately.
