South African series that can be easily confused

Here is a well-known series that might just catch you out.

The South African 2000 Flora & Fauna set, issued in November of that year is large – twenty seven issues, but only five of which are birds. The bulk of the stamps are fish and flowers. To add to the mix, many of the flowers were also repeated as self-adhesive stamps with standardised values, but smaller in size (20x25mm). There were ten for this special rate format, so a complete set is 37 stamps.

The whole set, including fish and flowers are pretty colourful, but I am tempted to say, almost garish. If you find one of the flowers or fishes on cover, you’ll know what I mean. The bird element seems relatively sober in design and takes up most of the higher values.