The Commonwealth's Greediest Stamp Producers 2010

Philatelists still continue to complain about excess issuing of new stamps in general and by some countries in particular. I present here a list of the worst examples of greedy, excessive stamp production by countries in The Commonwealth during 2010. There may be a little disagreement about when stamps are issued in a sheetlet, does that constitute a number of individual stamps or a single miniature sheet? The Gibbons Stamp Catalogue editor allocates only a single number to what may be an issue of several miniature sheets which gives a false impression of conservatism of new issue releases among some producers but at least it saves space in his book which already features many "stamps" which theoretically have postal validity but hardly get sold at all to mail senders in the countries whose names the stamps have inscribed upon them. The list includes stamps issued in ordinary sheets and miniature sheets and booklets (although some countries' booklets are not included such as the ludicrous number of prestige booklets released by Australia which, if they were included, would make the Australian total look even worse. New varieties e.g. change of perforation or type of paper, are included as new stamps and varieties of commemoratives e.g. gummed from ordinary sheets or self-adhesive from booklets etc. are included as different stamps.

  

      country            no. of stamps     no. of min. shts.     no. of booklets       total no. of items

 1. Mozambique            1136                   101                                                                1237

 2. The Gambia               216                     17                                                                  234

 3. Australia                    205                     14                     not included                      229

 4. St. Vincent                 166                       6                                                                  172

 5. Sierra Leone              150                     14                                                                  164

 6. Grenada                     145                      15                                                                  160

 7. G.B. Royal Mail        120                      13*                          15                                  148

 8. Dominica                   135                       9                                                                  144

 9. Antigua                       128                      9                                                                  137

 10. Nevis                         120                     15                                                                  135

 11. Malaysia                    110                       9                              2                                 121

 12. South Africa             116                       2                                                                  118

 13. St. Kitts                     109                      6                                                                  115

 14. New Zealand            100                     11                                                                  111

 15. Guyana                        91                      15                                                                 106

 16. India                            91                      12                                                                 103

 17. Tanzania**                 81                      14                                                                   95

 18. Grenada

          Grenadines             84                        8                                                                   92

 19. Papua New Guinea   61                       25                                                                   86

 20. Cook Islands             76                         4                                                                   80

 21. Jersey                         69                         9                              1                                   79

 22. Canada***                 57                        16                            ***                                 73

 23. Maldives                    64                         9                                                                   73

 24. Singapore                  60                         4                              4                                   68

 25. Isle Of Man***         60                          7                            ***                                 67

  *     G.B. Royal Mail: does not include "Smilers" and "commemorative" sheets.

  **   Tanzania: may increase in number as little information about the locally available  issues of  2010 for use on genuine local mail  is currently available.

  *** Booklets not included but individual stamps from the booklets are included in the first  column.

 In truth, these numbers hold little surprise, the list comprising principally of countries who have postally valid items produced with their name inscribed on them who have allowed a single philatelic agency in The United States to produce such items. Their status as true "postage stamps" i.e. freely available receipts for the pre-payment of postage in the particular countries whose name is printed on them, is questionable. Nor is the outrageous excessive issuing of stamps by Australia Post and Royal Mail anything new - it has been going on, but gradually getting worse, for years. Neither of those postal authorities find anything wrong with it and clearly collectors continue to buy such items as well Gibbons continuing to list them in their catalogue. Stamp new issues continue to be a license to print money. The offshore islands of Britain also continue to cynically overproduce new issues and Jersey and The Isle Of Man find themselves in the top 25 and Guernsey would as well if its stamps were combined with those produced with the inscription "Alderney" (total number of items: 86). But there are some rays of sunshine, the following are the top 10 of lowest numbers of new stamp issues in The Commonwealth during 2010:-

       country                no. of stamps            no. of miniature sheets               total

 1.= Nauru                           0                                        0                                         0

 1.= Rwanda                        0                                        0                                         0

 1.= Turks & Caicos           0                                        0                                          0

 4.   Samoa                          0                                        1                                           1

 5.   Anguilla                        3                                        0                                          3

 6.=Belize                            4                                        0                                          4

 6.=Cocos (Keeling)           4                                        0                                          4

 6.=Jamaica                         4                                        0                                          4

 6.=Penrhyn                        4                                        0                                          4

 6.=Tonga*                          4                                        0                                          4

       * Tonga produced locally surcharged stamps for use on local mail and not available through  philatelic channels.