The date of issue of this set was difficult to ascertain as there was no publicity announcement for the issue and the various catalogs give different dates.
The situation was made more unclear as Mr. Stephan stated some of the FDCs were cancelled by mistake with the wrong date, but would never state what that date was, nor the correct date. It took years to locate all the varieties and purchase the covers before the correct date was determined. It was 19 February, 1964.
The set consists of the five airmail values of the Boy Scout set which received the black Olympic rings and red shield overprint. Virtually every catalog refers to this as the legitemate issue, as opposed to a larger set composed of all of the Scout stamps with the red Olympic rings and black shield overprint, which is not considered genuine.
Mr. Stephan, no matter how many times he was asked, would say no more than that the black shield issue was not genuine and was made in the United States. When asked if Mr. Mosden had done them he would state that he didn't know.
As with most issues, the Dubai Philatelic Agency sold "errors" they had created.
The black shield was applied to all of the stamps in the Boy Scout set, not just the airmails. Mr. Mosden was certinly involved in their creation as he insisted they were genuine and commented that since I had lived in the Middle East, I knew how things are done there. He referred to them as "a special printing" due to a request. He would never admit that he was involved in their creation but would always add that they were legitemate and had been approved by the Agency.
The second printing of both the red shield and black shield exists with a multitude of "errors". Mr. Mosden had a large variety of them and stated he had to purchase them from Mr. Jim Davis, the well-known British stamp dealer. I wrote to Mr. Davis and asked what he could tell me about them. He would only state they were purchased from "a well known person". A second letter asking who that person might be was answered with the statement that it was a long time ago, the stamps had all be sold, and he did not remember anything about them.
It is known that after Mr. Lorenzo's death, his son sold many such items to Mr. Davis and other dealers. It was obvious that the second printing was what the son was selling and that is what Mr. Mosden had to purchase from Mr. Davis. There is no information at this point as to who created them, but it would seem that Mr. Stephan was the culprit. Mr. Mosden stated that he was "double-crossed" by Mr. Stephan as he sold Olympic stamps to Mr. Davis in England.
The second printing is much heavier in appearance and the date, the writing, and rings are thicker than the first printing. It is very easy to tell the two printings form each other.
The second printing of the overprints was done to create errors. Of all of the varieties that I have none are printed on the stamp in the normal position. All I have seen are inverted, double, shifted, or missing one of the elements. The shields appear to be the same as the first printing of each color, but the rings, date and writing are much heavier.
The only values I have seen to date with the second overprint are the 1np, 2np, 3np, and 5np.
