2277. 🇬🇧 Royal Mail Reverses King’s Head Shock.

 

New issues -

🇬🇧 Royal Mail - 

1 April 2023 - New definitive series, King Charles III.

In a shock last minute decision prior to the issue of the first definitive stamps depicting King Charles III in a few days time, Royal Mail has announced that the stamps to be issued will vary from the previously publicised designs by showing the King’s head looking to the right instead of to the left. This last minute change has not been explained so far except that it is “for operational reasons”. An illustration of the 1st Class Domestic rate stamp has been released but it is expected that the remaining four values to be released will be publicised on the actual day of issue itself. Royal Mail is recalling all examples of the stamps showing the king looking to the left distributed pre-release and will replace them with the new versions. One commentator has suggested that the last minute change has been made because officials at Buckingham Palace feel that the new version shows His Majesty’s ‘better side’, something of which they became aware during the King’s recent state visit to Germany when he made his speech to the the German parliament.

Post scriptum -

I have also managed to obtain  an illustration of one of the upcoming Royal Mail Legend of Robin Hood stamps which confirms it will be something of a controversial set in the way it depicts this piece of  classic English folklore and seems to be tied in more with celebrating the Centenary of an American film-making company than English traditional pseudo-history 

2276. 🇮🇪 Irish Country Music.

New issues -

🇮🇪 An Post (postal service of the Irish Republic) -

31 March 2023 - Irish country music singers - 1 self-booklet containing 5 different stamps. Lithographed by Enschedé. Rating:- **.

🇮🇳 India Post -

30 March 2023 - ‘Legends of Odisha’, performing arts celebrities of the state of Odisha - 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps. Rating:- ***.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

10 April 2023 (on sale until 5 May 2023) - Post and Go stamps, dispensed from kiosk A003 situated at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, based at RNAS Yeovilton near Ilchester in Somerset - 2 stamps both with additional inscriptions - ‘Carrier Experience’ (new exhibition at the museum) - one is the Machin Head stamp and the other the Union Flag stamp.

Commonwealth countries and territories whose postal services are not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimacy postage stamps so far in 2023 -

Anguilla

Antigua And Barbuda 

Barbados

Belize

British Indian Ocean Territory

Brunei Darussalam 

Cameroon 

Dominica 

eSwatini

Gabon 

Jamaica

Kenya 

Kiribati 

Lesotho 

Malawi 

Maldives 

Montserrat 

Nauru

Nevis

Nigeria 

Niue 

Papua New Guinea 

Penrhyn Cook Islands 

Rwanda 

St Helena 

St Kitts

Saint Lucia 

St Vincent and The Grenadines 

Samoa

Seychelles 

Solomon Islands 

South Africa 

Togo

Tokelau 

Trinidad and Tobago 

Turks And Caicos Islands 

Uganda 

United Republic of Tanzania 

Vanuatu 

Zambia

By the end of March therefore, 40 out of 88 ( 45.5%) Commonwealth philatelic entities remained on the list. This compares with 56.3% at the end of March last year.

2275. 🇲🇺 Mauritius Commemorates Former President.

 

New issues.

🇲🇺 Mauritius Post -

29 March 2023 - Commemoration of the late Sir Anerood Jugnauth (1939 - 2021), fourth President of Mauritius 2003 - 2012 - 1 stamp. Rating:- ****

🇬🇮 Royal Gibraltar Post office - 

30 March 2023 - Post and Go stamps, Chinese New Year, Year of the Rabbit - strip of 6 machine-dispensed identical self-adhesive stamps in different values. Designed by Stephen Perera and c.Bajena and Stewhoong @ istockphoto.com. Lithographed by Cartor.

🇯🇪 Jersey Post - 

6 April 2023 - Post and Go stamps, ‘Jersey crest’ with Charles III cypher and in new colours - 6 machine-dispensed self-adhesive stamps from machine JE02 at Broad street and JE03 at Postal Headquarters, Rue de Pres and from the back office machine B002 at the Philatelic Bureau.

🇧🇩 Bangladesh Post -

26 March 2023 - 52nd anniversary of Independence and National Day - 1 stamp featuring Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (founding father). Further details awaited. 

2274. 🇧🇼 Important Bird Areas Of Botswana.

 

New issues -

🇧🇼 Botswana Post -

23 March 2023 - Important bird areas of Botswana - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 4 stamps. Designed by Shatgani Basupi from art by Keitshupile Tshiba and lithographed by Southern Colour Print. Rating:- *****.

🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Post Office - 

12 April 2023 - Manx waterfalls - 6 stamps. Designed by Tracey Dean and lithographed by bpost and perforated 11.5. Another reasonably attractive but wholly unnecessary issue released against a background of ridiculously excessive stamp issuing. Programme - *.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post -

4 May 2023 - ‘24 Solar Terms - Summer’ - 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 6 stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- **.

2273. 🇬🇸 New Pitcairn Issue Features Old Postcards.

 

New issues.

🇵🇳 Pitcairn Islands postal service -

27 March 2023 - Old postcards of Pitcairn from the 1920s - 6 stamps issued in se-tenant pairs. Designed by Pixe18 and lithographed by Breber Print. How pleasing to finally have stamps from Pitcairn which feature a local subject rather than endless royal commemorations, the first time since Tower Mint took over control of Pitcairn’s new issues. Rating:- ****.

🇮🇪 An Post (postal service of the Republic of Ireland) -

21 March 2023  - Sean O’Casey’s three Dublin plays (Centenary of the first performance of The Shadow of a Gunman) - 3 self-adhesive stamps issued as se-tenant strips of 3 in sheetlets of nine stamps (3 of each stamp). Designed by Design HQ and lithographed by Enschedé. Rating:- ***.

🇮🇳 India Post  -

2023 - My Stamps, personalised stamps usually issued in sheets of 12 with attached labels and sold at a premium -

2023- Commemoration of DK Jain, founder of the Luxor Group - 1 stamp.

2023 - Aero-India biennial air show and aviation exposition, 13 - 17 February 2023 - 1 stamp.

2023 - New Delhi World Bank Fair - 1 stamp.

2272. 🇨🇰🇹🇴 Cook Islands And Tonga Commemorate Queen Elizabeth II.

 

New issues.

🇨🇰 Cook Islands postal service -

16 January 2023 - Commemoration of the late Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of the Cook Islands - 4 stamps in a se-tenant block. Rating:- ***.

13 February 2023 - 4 stamps in se-tenant blocks of 4. Rating:- ***.

20 February 2023 - Stop plastic ocean pollution - 4 stamps in a se-tenant block of 4. Rating:- ***.

6 March 2023 - Cook Islands national symbols - 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Rating:-  ***.

20 March 2023 - Churches of the Cook Islands - 4 stamps in a se-tenant block. Rating:- ***.

🇨🇰 Issues inscribed Aitutaki Cook Islands -

10 February 2023 - The Giant Clam - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp.Rating:- *.

🇹🇴 Tonga postal service -

26 January 2023 - Commemoration of the late Queen Elizabeth II - 4 stamps in a se-tenant block. Rating:- ***.

23 February 2023 - Birds of the world, the red shining parrot - 4 stamps in a se-tenant block, 1 miniature sheet containing 2 sets of 4 and 4 ‘deluxe’ miniature sheets each containing a single stamp. Rating:- *.

15 March 2023 - The James Webb Telescope - 4 stamps in a se-tenant block. Rating:- *.

🇹🇴 Issues inscribed Niuafo’ou -

23 February 2023 - Birds of the world, the collared kingfisher - 4 stamps in a se-tenant block, 1 miniature sheet containing 2 sets of 4 and 4 ‘deluxe’ miniature sheets each containing a single stamp. Rating:- *.

🇮🇳 India Post -

16 March 2023 - International Year of Millets  - 1 stamp. Rating:- ***.

19 March 2023 - Commemoration of Pashuram (‘warrior sage’ of Jaipur) - 1 stamp. Rating:- ***.

🇳🇦 Namibia Post -

2022 - 75th anniversary of the Independence of India - 1 miniature sheet containing 5 different imperforate personalised stamps sold by Namibia Post. This is in addition to a similar perforated miniature sheet reported in Blog 2130. Rating:- ****.

🇸🇱 Sierra Leone postal service -

2022 - Masonic District Grand Lodge of Sierra Leone and The Gambia - 1 miniature sheet containing 4 identical stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- ***. It seems possible that this item is not a product emanating from the philatelic agency’ Stamperija.

🇧🇲 Bermuda Post Office -

16 March 2023 - Express Post, King Charles III - 1 stamp issued in sheetlets of 8. This issue has been reported here previously but better illustrations are now shown here. 

🇴🇲 Oman Post -

March 2023 - The ancient Omani alphabet - 1 miniature sheet containing 11 different stamps. Rating:- ****.