1554. 🇳🇿 Chinese New Year Stamps From New Zealand.

🇳🇿 New Zealand Post has a busy day on 4 December 2019 releasing as it will its Year Of The Rat stamps as well as seeing the issue of Christmas stamps which it has produced for the postal services of Niue and Tokelau.

  Its Chinese new year issue is made up of 4 stamps and 2 miniature sheets, one containing all 4 stamps and the other containing 12 circular stamps depicting the animals of the Chinese zodiac. The issue was designed by Asiaworks and lithographed by New Zealand Post and perforated 13.5 x 13. Rating:- ***.

  For those with rather more money than sense there are also various miniature sheets sold in different types of frame - a gold foil sheet with gold foil stamps (NZ$560 framed or NZ$188 in a perspex stand), a gold foil sheet with coloured stamps (NZ$288), a silver foil sheet with silver stamps (NZ$188) and a silver foil stamp with coloured stamps NZ$288). Rating:- 0.

🇳🇺 Niue - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 4 stamps. Designed by Hannah Fortune and lithographed by Collectables and Solutions Centre, Whanganui and perforated 13.5. Rating:- **.

🇹🇰 Tokelau - Christmas - 4 stamps and I miniature sheet containing all 4 stamps. Designed by Saint Andrew Matautia and lithographed by Collectables and Solutions Centre, Whanganui and perforated 13.5. Rating:- **.

1553. 🇸🇭 Tristan Da Cunha Features Whaling Ships.

🇦🇺 Australia Post includes in its Christmas issue (the ‘secular’ designs are utterly banal) self-adhesive versions with attached labels for personalisation. The stamps are sold in sheets of 20, the 65c versions being sold for $26 (a remarkable $13 above face value though prices fall as the size of the order increases) and the $2.20c versions being sold for $57 (again, $13 above total face value). Rating:- 0.

🇮🇳 India Post issued a single stamp on 26 November 2019 to commemorate the 250th session of the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of the Indian Parliament). Sadly, a rather dull design. Rating:- *.

  India Post also issued a se-tenant block of 4 stamps on 29 November 2019 on the subject of Char Dham, 4 pilgrimage sites in India. Vaishnavite Hindus believe that visiting these sites helps them to achieve Moksha (Salvation). A colourful and interesting set. Rating:- ****.

🇸🇭 The postal service of Tristan Da Cunha will Issue a set of 4 stamps depicting whaling and sealing ships of the nineteenth century on 2 December 2019. The excellent issue was designed by Andrew Robinson and lithographed by Cartor and perforated  13.5 x 13. Rating:- *****.

  Thanks to Juliet Warner of Pobjoy Stamps for information about this issue.

🇿🇦 The South African Post Office has issued a set of 5 self-adhesive stamps issued in a sheetlet Of 10 (5 x 2) to commemorate the 

1552. 🇸🇿 Small Mammals Feature On 2018 Eswatini Set.

🇸🇿 Depicted below are 2 sets of stamps with accompanying miniature sheets issued by the postal service of Eswatini during 2018. As yet, there does not appear to have been any new stamps issued by the Eswatini postal service during 2019. 

  The first set is a delightful issue of 4 stamps with an accompanying miniature sheet which includes the 4 stamps on the subject of Small Mammals of Eswatini. The date of issue was 31 August 2018. Rating:- *****.

30 April 2019 - 50th anniversary of Independence and 50th Birthday of King Mswati III. I first mentioned this issue in Blog 1292 and assumed that it was issued in August 2018 but a first day cover is dated 30 April 2018. Additionally I was not aware previously that the set of 4 stamps had been accompanied by a single-stamp miniature sheet. Rating:- *****.

🇫🇯 Fiji Post has released 2 further sets of 4 stamps during 2019. While illustrations of the stamps are shown below I do not yet have many detail# of these issues:- 

20 May 2019 - Centenary of the International Labour Organisation - 4 stamps. Rating:- ***.

2019 (date of issue not yet known) - Grouper fish - 4 stamps  (please note that the garbled inscription on the illustration of the 40c is a problem with the illustration and is not how it appears on the real stamp). Rating:- ****.

🇲🇲 The postal service of Myanmar will issue the final part of its Months of the Myanmar Calendar series on 27 November 2019, this time depicting the Myanmar Literature Festival and the Bulbophyllum auricomum flower. Another excellent stamp. Rating:- *****.

1551. 🇳🇿 New Zealand Post Commemorates Royal Visit.

🇮🇳 India Post issued a single stamp on 22 November 2019 to commemorate Mathew M Kuzhiveli, an educator and publisher of children’s books. Rating:- **.

🇳🇿 New Zealand Post issued a large miniature sheet containing 6 different stamps on 22 November 2019 to commemorate the royal visit of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall to New Zealand. It’s good to see the Prince’s visits getting some philatelic recognition and to see The Duchess being featured on stamps after so many stamps issued over the last few years which depict the younger members of the royal family. The item was designed by Hannah Fortune and lithographed by the Collectables and Solutions Centre in Whanganui and perforated 14.5.

  I just wish that these sheets were slightly smaller so that they could be fitted on to an ordinary album page. Rating:- ***.

  The quality of the illustrations below is rather poor but it’s the best I can do at the moment.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post will issue 8 gummed stamps and 8 self-adhesive stamps with the same designs from coils and 1 miniature sheet on 5 December 2019 featuring the locally popular cartoon character known as Old Master Q. The characters are drawn very much in the style of the old Beano and Dandy British comics. They offer an interesting insight into a part of Hong Kong culture not usually considered worth depicting on stamps. The comic which was created by Alfonso Wong first appeared in Hong Kong newspapers in 1962. Rating:- ***.