New Zealand And Canada Diamond Jubilee Issues.

New Zealand has revealed the designs of its six Diamond Jubilee stamps. They are everything one would want in the design of a stamp which is marking a royal occasion, being dignified and linking the subject depicted directly to the country issuing the stamp. The 70c value depicts the official Diamond Jubilee portrait of the Queen:-

A second 70c value suitably depicts The Queen and The Duke Of Edinburgh in the official New Zealand Diamond Jubilee portrait:-

The $1.40 value depicts the royal couple at a Maori reception held at Hastings, on the east coast of the North Island, during a visit in 1986:-

The Royal Visit of 1981 is depicted on the $1.90 when the royal couple were in Wellington after The Queen's attendance at The Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting which had been held in Melbourne, in neighbouring Australia:-

The $2.40 value depicts The Queen and Prince Phillip in Wellington in 1977 during the Silver Jubilee tour of New Zealand:-

The $2.90 value harks back to the year of the coronation, 1953, when The Queen made her first visit to New Zealand and the stamp shows her delivering her Christmas message to The Commonwealth by radio from Government House, Auckland:-

The six stamps are combined in a very attractive miniature sheet:-

Meanwhile I have now obtained the first two of the six miniature sheets which are to be issued by Canada to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee. Again, these are very attractive and interesting items each centring on a different portrait of The Queen used on stamps dating from different stages of her reign:-

Sadly not all new releases have the integrity of these excellent issues from New Zealand and Canada. Another big philatelic "event" of the year has been the attempt by a surprisingly large number of territories, including a number from The Commonwealth, to exploit the loss of RMS Titanic, 100 years ago. Most of the territories which have released such stamps have very little, if any, connection with the events surrounding the loss of the great ship and the hundreds of deaths that resulted. Personally, I think the loss of so many people hardly seems like a subject which should be commemorated. CASCO has managed to convince the postal authorities of Tristan Da Cunha to issue a sheetlet of 10 stamps to mark the disaster and with the Harry Allen stamp dealership has put out an advertisement for the stamps which says "Celebrate the 100th anniversary of RMS Titanic". With so many deaths, it hardly seems an event that should be "celebrated", perhaps they mean that they want to celebrate all the money that they foresee that they will extract from collectors who buy these stamps. There is still much cynicism in the issue of stamps and sometimes tasteless exploitation.