World Wildlife Fund - Bhutan Environmental Protection Fund Establishment, 1992 - 1993
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This set was intended to be a World Wildlife Fund (now: Worldwide Fund for Nature) issue. The printer omitted the WWF logo, and the Bhutan postal officials attempted to get the logo overprinted. That plan did not work because the WWF refused to license the use of the logo on the stamps. The license was denied because the face value was too high under program rules and the WWF had an exclusive contract with a Swiss stamp dealer who wasn't involved in the creation.
The post office intended to release the sheetlet in 1992, but all of the issues surrounding it caused the post office to put off the issue date until it learned what it would or would not be able to do.
This set is actually a semipostal. All of the receipts from the sales were made over to the Fund that the issue commemorates. Mail matter with the stamps affixed was essentially carried at financial loss to the post office.
Scotts catalog listing notations indicate that some copies of the sheetlet were made available to the trade earlier than the issue date. Mailed copies affixed to covers, when they were spotted by the postal officials prior to issue, were sequestered in the office of the Deputy Director for Posts until the stamps were issued. Thus, covers like the one pictured here from 16 Mar 1993 (four months before the 1 July 1993 official issue date) are few and far between. Note the cancellation shows "16 Feb", while the manuscript repeating of the R-letter number, day and month shows "16/3". This letter actually travelled from Bhutan to New York, USA and then to Frankfurt, Germany (where the U. S. military post office 09090 was located).
