Are these the worst stamps of all time?

After writing something last year about the worst ever British stamps, I have been thinking about what the world's worst stamps might be. I've explored the internet and I've managed to find some that are far worse than anything Royal Mail has produced! We'll start with something from the USA.

The Alcoholism Stamp - USA (1981) This stamp was supposed to send out a positive statement but it failed miserably. No-one wanted to use them on a letter as the person receiving it might think someone was suggesting they had a drinking problem! Awfulness Score: 5/10

Joana Call - French Andorra (2022) This very gruesome stamp is in memory of Joana Call, who was executed as a witch in Andorra in 1472. I don't think this is a great subject for a stamp but if you're going to do it perhaps showing a historic drawing of her dismembered body, limbs and head is not the best way. Absolutely horrible. Awfulness Score: 9/10

Atomic Bombs - USA (1995) So, it's fair to say that dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 did at least end the war earlier. But the plan to release a stamp celebrating it 50 years later caused outrage and a diplomatic crisis with Japan. The Japanese government, survivors and quite a few Americans called it called it heartless and insensitive.

The problem was that millions had already been printed. The USPS withdrew them at the last minute and replaced them with a stamp showing President Truman but a few unfinished stamps without the price and "US Postage" managed to leak out. You can sometimes find them on eBay. Awfulness Score: 9/10

Accident Prevention - West Germany / West Berlin (1971) The whole idea of these stamps seems to be accident prevention, but instead of showing you how to avoid accidents it just showed people suffering from them. We have someone on fire, a person falling off a ladder, someone about to cut their hand on a circular saw, the effects of drunk driving (an overturned car), a brick falling on someone's head, an electric shock, someone about to stand on a nail... and so on. I don't know if these stamps actually prevented any accidents, but probably not. Awfulness Score: 5/10

Richard Heydrich Death Mask - Bohemia and Moravia (1943) I can't think of anything more disturbing than the death mask of a leading architect of the Holocaust, who was also known as the "Butcher of Prague" because of the way he suppressed Czech resistance, being celebrated on a stamp of the occupied territory where he carried out such awful crimes against humanity. The macabre design is bad enough, but celebrating such a repulsive person and adding the SS lightning bolt runes is just.... shiver. A very dark piece of history. Awfulness Score: 10/10

Richard Nixon - North Korea (1969) North Korea printed a lot of anti-American and anti-Capitalist stamps and some of them have become classics in their own way. This is not one of them. This stamp shows US President Richard Nixon being violently stabbed by huge fountain pens. The five pens represent five continents and the idea seems to be that socialist writers from around the world should resist American values, but surely there were better ways to say it? Awfulness Score: 6/10

Party Rally of Peace - Germany (1939) Here is another dark piece of history from the Third Reich, although not quite as dark as the Heydrich stamp. This stamp marks the 1939 “Party Rally of Peace” which was meant to portray Nazi Germany as a peace-loving nation, claiming that "Germany does not dream of attacking other nations".

Even as the event was being planned, military preparations were being made to invade Poland. The stamps were issued on 25th August, a week before war broke out. The planned rally, due to start the next day, was cancelled. Awfulness Score: 7/10

Year of the Rabbit - China (2023) This one is included just for the awfulness of the design. Truly terrible but maybe not in the same league as most of the others here. Awfulness Score: 3/10

Maya Angelou - USA (2015) Here's another stamp that's awful not because of its subject but the terrible way it was created. This was supposed to be a tribute to the great American author, Maya Angelou, who wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. But the quotation about the singing bird isn't from any of Maya's works - instead, it is from A Cup of Sun: A Book of Poems by Joan Walsh Anglund. This is why good researchers are necessary! Maya really deserved better than to be remembered for someone else's writing. Awfulness Score: 4/10

Coronavirus - Austria (2020) Here's a stamp that was made out of toilet paper, perhaps as some kind of inappropriate joke at a time when people were panic-buying toilet rolls? The message about social distancing seems fair enough (although I remember the recommendation being two metres, not one) but it feels a bit gimmicky at best. I feel it's a bizarre souvenir of a time of mass suffering and panic. Awfulness Score: 4/10 These are the most awful stamps that I know about. The Joana Call and Atomic Bomb stamps are beyond terrible, although at least the bomb stamp was withdrawn. However, the Heydrich stamp is easily the worst on every level. I am working on another article about the most controversial stamps, which are a bit different. Let me know if you can think of other terrible stamps to join this list.