UNTEA (UNITED NATIONS TEMPORARY EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY)

An agreement was signed between Indonesia government and Dutch government for the West Irian case on August 15th, 1962 at United Nation headquarter in New York.

The point of the agreement was the Dutch government should handover the authority of the West Irian to United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) latest October 1st, 1962. Afterword, it will handover to Indonesian government on May 1st, 1963.

On the handover date (October 1st 1962), 11 stamps of Netherlands Nieuw Guinea overprinted with UNTEA were issued. The remaining 8 stamps to complete the first series of UNTEA were issued on November 1st, 1962.

The stamps shown at the right column is one of many variation overprint.

Some other variations are :

  • UNTEA inverted overprint on :
    • cent : 1, 5, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 45, 55, 80, 85
    • gulden : 2
  • UNTEA twice overprint on :
    • cent : 17
    • gulden : 1, 5
  • etc.

The second overprint of the UNTEA was issued on January 28th, 1963 by Enschede in Haarlem. The printing are better than the first print.

There are also many variaton of overprint, i.e. :

  • UNTEA overprint with big letters (19mm)
  • UNTEA inverted overprint with big letters
  • UNTEA big letters, N omitted
  • UNTEA overprint with small letters (14mm)
  • etc.

Other philatelic item related with the UNTEA :

  • UNTEA postal stationery
  • UNTEA lettersheet
  • UNTEA Aerogram