1896. 🇬🇧 Troubled Child And Dangerous Dog Celebrated On New Royal Mail Issue.

 

  🇬🇧 An internet auction site dealer has the Royal Mail Dennis and Gnasher 70th anniversary retail booklet of 6 stamps (4 x Machin Head 1st Class rate definitives and 2 x 1st Class values from the new set) on sale ahead of the date of issue (1 July 2021). The 2 revealed stamp designs from a miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps are certainly bold and colourful.

  The 6 basic stamps and 4 stamp miniature sheet are also now publicised by Buckingham Covers in on line advertisements for its first day covers of the issue. The designs trace the cartoon characters through their 70 year history. They depict the adventures or misadventures of an appalling child who in real life would probably have an antisocial behaviour order issued against him and his dog which would probably appear on the Dangerous Dogs list. Whither British stamps? Rating:- *.

  Better quality illustrations and more information will be added when it becomes available.

🇸🇬 Singapore Post will issue what it terms a sheet of 5 My Stamps on the subject of Herbs and Spices on 21 June 2021. The stamps are small and to the left hand side of the sheet with larger, more colourful labels attached to!the stamps at the right. Why not just issue a set of 5 ordinary stamps? Rating:- **.

🇮🇲 The set of stamps to be issued by Isle Of Man Post Office to commemorate the Centenary of the Royal British Legion which I mentioned in Blog 1892 is to be released on 26 June 2021. The stamps were designed by Glazier Design and were lithographed by Lowe Martin and are perforated 13.

1895. 🇦🇺 Australia Post. Say No More!

 

🇦🇺 My bad mood induced by writing the previous Blog in which I reported the latest activities of the notorious Philatelic Collector Inc. was further inflamed by reading immediately afterwards the news contained in the latest Australian Philatelic Bulletin of another vast number of unnecessary new issues aimed at bankrupting the new issue collector..

  New Australian stamps are now so numerous and of so little intrinsic interest that I shall no longer waste much time in illustrating most of them in this Blog, as I now do with the products emitted by such entities as Philatelic Collector Inc, IGPC and the infernal Stamperija. I will therefore continue to illustrate the stamps with the name of the dependent territories printed on them and will continue to list those simply inscribed ‘Australia’ though mostly unillustrated.

6 July 2021 - ‘Ticket to Tokyo’ (Olympic Games) - 1 gummed stamp issued in a sheetlet of 10.

6 July 2021 - Contemporary Australian sculpture - 4 gummed stamps, 4 self-adhesive stamps from a booklet of 10 and 1 gummed miniature sheet.

13 July 2021 - Australia’s volcanic past - 4 gummed stamps, 4 self-adhesive stamps from booklets of 20 and 4 self-adhesive stamps from coils. 

13 July 2021 - issue inscribed Norfolk Island Australia - Model ships - 2 gummed stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing the 2 stamps.

27 July 2021 - Australian bonsai trees - 3 gummed stamps, 1 gummed miniature sheet and 1 self-adhesive stamp from a ‘sheetlet’ of 5 identical stamps.

3 August 2021 - Stamp Collecting Month, “Full steam ahead” - 5 gummed stamps and 1 gummed miniature sheet containing all 5 stamps and 5 self-adhesive stamps from booklets of 10 (2 x 5 sets) and 1 ‘stamp pack’ costing $15.50c containing a sheet of 12 different ‘My Stamp’-style stamps.

10 August 2021 - issue inscribed Christmas Island Australia - Turtles - 4 gummed stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 4 stamps.

2021 - Stamp packs containing sheets of 12 different self-adhesive ‘My Stamp’-style stamps each sold for $15.50c -

‘101 Dalmations’

Where’s Wally?

Welcome To Extraordinary

The Mandalorian

Minecraft 

Disney Princess

July to August 2021 - Australian Olympic gold medalists - 1 stamp for each champion issued in sheetlets of 10 within 72 hours of the medal awarding ceremony. Each stamp will have a face value of $1.10c with the cost of a sheet being $11.

  This seems to add 130 new items (stamps and miniature sheets), not including the Olympic medalist issue to the total number of stamps issued during 2021, all issued in a two month period. Say no more!

1894. 🇻🇺 Vanuatu Falls To Philatelic Collector Inc.

 

🇻🇺 The postal service of Vanuatu which over the years has issued many fine stamps and followed a pleasing generally conservative new issue policy, now seems to have sunk below the waves of philatelic respectability and allowed the US-based manufacturers and purveyors of philatelic items, Philatelic Collector Inc., to take on responsibility for philatelic products released with its name on them. So falls another one of the Pacific area Commonwealth philatelic entities.

  Announcing a flood of items produced in the name of its three ‘client’ postal administrations - Tonga, Cook Islands and now Vanuatu - Philatelic Collector Inc has unveiled several items with the name of Vanuatu printed on them, all of which are on subjects with no relevance to Vanuatu itself including ‘Space’ and a depiction of the red panda which is certainly not a native of the Pacific republic.

  I will illustrate the various new ‘Vanuatu’ products in this Blog to give collectors the impression of what the postal service has allowed PCI to perpetrate on its behalf. All items are rated 0. I will not illustrate future PCI products released with the name of Vanuatu on them.As far as I can see while all these products are stated to have been ‘issued’ during 2021, no specific date of issue has been provided:- 

2021 - Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (in the United States) - 2 miniature sheets each containing 6 different stamps.

2021 - ‘Best of Smithsonian’ - 2 miniature sheets each containing 6 different stamps.

2021 - The Smithsonian Zoo - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp (illustrated above).

  🇨🇰🇹🇴 Here is a list of the newly announced numerous new philatelic products from Philatelic Collector Inc produced with the names of Tonga and Cook Islands and various islands printed on the, I have not wasted time by including illustrations of most of them.

Cook Islands - 

2021 - Smithsonian Zoo, American bison - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp.

2021 - ‘Best of Smithsonian’, Space - 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps and 2 single stamp miniature sheets.

2021 - Easter - 1 miniature sheet containing 6 different stamps.

2021 - Chinese New Year, Year of the Ox - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp.

Cook Islands Aitutaki -

2021 - ‘Best of Smithsonian’ - 6 miniature sheets each containing a single stamp.

2021 - ‘Smithsonian’, Space - 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps.

2021 - Smithsonian Zoo, Elephant - 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp.

2021 - Chinese New Year, Year of The Ox - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp.

Cook Islands Penrhyn -

2021 - Chinese New Year, Year of the Ox - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp.

2021 - Smithsonian, Space - 3 miniature sheets, two containing a single stamp and the other 4 stamps (2 2 different)

2021 - ‘Best of Smithsonian’ - 2 miniature sheets each containing 6 different stamps.

Tonga - 

2021 - ‘Smithsonian’, Space - 5 miniature sheets, 1 containing 4 different stamps, 1 containing 6 different stamps and 3 single stamp miniature sheets.

2021 - ‘Best of Smithsonian’ - 2 miniature sheets each containing 6 different stamps.

2021 - Smithsonian Zoo, Giant panda - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp..

2021 - Surcharges on 3 previously issued WWF stamps (Banded iguana).

2021 - Chinese New Year, Year of the Ox - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp.

2021 - International Year of Fruit and Vegetables - 1 miniature sheet containing 6 free-form self-adhesive stamps.

2021 - International Year of Plant Health - 2 self-adhesive stamps.

Tonga Niuafo’ou -

2021 - Chinese New Year, Year of the Ox - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp.

2021 - Smithsonian Zoo, Clouded leopard - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp..

2021 - Smithsonian, Space - 1 miniature sheet containing 4 stamps (2 x 2 different) and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp..

2021 - ‘Best of Smithsonian’ - 5 miniature sheets each containing a single stamp.

   As a new issue stamp collector I have the opinion that when a country loses pride in its postage stamps then it has lost pride in itself. Vanuatu has joined Cook Islands and Tonga in doing just that.

1893. 🇧🇩 Bangladesh’s 100 Stamp 2020 Tribute To Sheikh Mujib.

 

Sheikh Mujib meeting international figures including Queen Elizabeth II

🇧🇩 Bangladesh Post  issued 100 stamps contained in 17 miniature sheets ( 6 different stamps per sheet except one containing four) contained inside a commemorative book with a limited edition of just 600 to commemorate the life of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s founding father on the occasion of his birth centenary. These sheets have appeared on on an internet site and were issued apparently at some time during 2020.

  Clearly with such a limited number being offered for sale one would not expect reliable catalogue editors to list these items but it is useful to know that these products exist. It seems a pity that they were not made more generally available as they are clearly interesting and important in telling the story of Bangladesh in the early years of its existence before Sheikh Mujib’s murder.

  In previous Blogs (see 229, 451, 792, 820) I have featured stamps depicting British prime ministers and the third sheet of this issue includes a stamp featuring Edward Heath who as far as I am aware has not been portrayed on a postage stamp before. He was an interesting character who was a talented musician and prize-winning yacht race sailor and was in power from 1970 to 1974 during which period he negotiated the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Economic Community (which later evolved into the European Union and we all know how that story ended) and had to deal with conflict with the then powerful trade unions. He was defeated in the 1974 general election by winning fewer seats than his rival, Harold Wilson, although his party received more votes.