I recall when my brother and I went to our local stamp dealer, which was just a glass display case within an Optimo Store on the corner of 18th Avenue & McDonald Avenue in Brooklyn NY.  This is where we bought Packets of 50 to 100 colorful stamps for just a dollar each.  Many of these stamps would have been coveted by Topical Collectors due to the images presented upon each, from butterflies, trains, cats, insects, etc.

Since my father had inspired us to collect, he had also stressed the importance of properly organizing our collection.  He recommended we go to the library to look up our stamps in the Reference Section therein.  This is when we first came to be introduced to the Scott Catalogues.

We were able to find some of our stamps, but quite few we couldn’t even find whatsoever.  Therefore, we kept these unidentified stamps in the back of our stock books.

As time went on, I learned of CTOs (Canceled-to-Order) stamps, which many Communist Countries produced copious quantities of.  These I was able to find within the Scott Catalogues but was not as fortunate for stamps from countries known to be of the Trucial States where CTOs are in abundance.

The Trucial States were a group of seven Arabian sheikdoms – Abu Dhabi, Ajman (Manama), Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm Al Quwain – which formed a British protected confederation from 1820 to 1971, when they united to become the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Many collectors at the time frowned upon collecting CTOs, especially those from Trucial States.  This is a main reason Scott Catalogues does not list these stamps, since they are not considered Postally viable for use.

However, many of us have these in our collections, and still desire to Catalogues them for posterity.  I myself fall into this category.

At about the Millenium I was introduced to Michel Catalogues (from Germany), of which are printed in German.  Fortunately, I am able to read quite bit of German but still struggled through with some issues with translation.  Back in 2014, I discovered some Michel Catalogues (very few) are also printed in English, so I ventured to acquire some copies of these.

With this stated, I was delighted to discover the below Catalogue, and with the aid of this book I was able to chronologically & numerically catalog the CTOs from the Trucial States.

Here’s a sampling of what you can find within this Catalogue…

If you are a collector of such as I, and wish to categorize such CTOs within your collection, you will find this book to be a boon.

It will take some effort to find a copy, but with determination you may be able to find it.  Be advised. it will not be cheap.  You must be ready to pay anywhere from $50 to $100 for such a copy.

Good luck on your sojourn to find this Catalogue.