258. New Zambian Stamps.

  Currently on sale on E Bay are three sets of stamps which have been issued by Zambia in 2012 and 2013. I have not seen any news of these items before and of course Zambia has not released any new stamps since the last SAPOA issue in 2010 although there have been several stamps with surcharges applied due to a shortage of certain values.

  The new items appear to be a definitive set which depicts Zambian wildlife and which consists of 18 different stamps which, if I can focus clearly on the illustration which accompanies the sale on E Bay, seem to include 4 x K1000 values, 2 x K1500, 4 x 2500, 4 x K3500 and 4 x K4950. It is not clear why it is necessary to produce multiple versions of each value but I presume that all the values have been chosen to address specific postal rates. An imprint in the lower margin gives the date "Oct. 2012", although whether this signifies the date of printing or the date of issue I do not yet know:-

  

This issue seems to have been superseded in 2013 by the whole set being revalued by surcharging to address what appears to have been a revaluation of the national currency so that the K1000 values are revalued to K1.00, the K1500 to K1.50, K2500 to K2.50, K3500 to K3.50 and K 4950 to K4.95:-

  An article in The Galloway News (dated 21 March 2013) describes the evolution of the design of the second Zambian stamp issue of 2013 where a man from Castle Douglas, Mr Peter Westwood, is reported as having convinced the Zambian Post Office that it should produce a stamp to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of the explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone, having failed to persuade Royal Mail of the appropriateness of commemorating him philatelically with a dedicated stamp issue (as discussed in a previous blog). The commemorative issue, a miniature sheet of 4 different stamps, is currently offered for sale on E Bay at an alarming price of £30 (total face value is K145 but whether that is from the old currency or the old currency I'm not sure - the values seem to sit half way between the two). The miniature sheet is depicted at the head of this blog.