Recent and Upcoming issues of Commonwealth stamps:-
India -
5 November 2013 - Allahabad Boys'School (1 value) -
7 November 2013 - 75th anniversary of Bharatiya Vidya Bhaven (cultural and educational institution) (1 value)-
8 November 2013 - 50th anniversary of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (1 value) -
11 November 2013 - The Central Bureau of Investigation (1 value) -
Pakistan -
8 November 2013 - Men of Letters - Jon Elia (1 value) -
Singapore -
10 September 2013 - Globalisation of Singapore - 4 stamps. Printed in lithography by Lowe Martin -
12 September 2013 - Joint Issue with Vietnam - 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet -
16 October 2013 - New definitive series, "Vanishing Trades" - 8 gummed stamps from ordinary sheets and 2 booklets (10 x 50c and 10 x 1st Local rate) containing self-adhesive stamps -
8 November 2013 - Joint Issue with France - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Designed by Petrossian (France) and lithographed by Lowe Martin. Perf 13. -
22 November 2013 - 50th anniversary of television broadcasting in Singapore- 5 stamps. Designed by Eric Kong and lithographed by Enschede -
South Georgia And The South Sandwich Islands - Land restoration and rat eradication - 6 stamps. designed by Bee Design and lithographed by BDT. Perf. 14 -
Footnote Issues -
Solomon Islands -
30 September 2013 - "Celebrities, Transport and Fauna". 9 sub-issues each consisting of a sheetlet each of 4 different "stamps" and 1 accompanying miniature sheet on the following subjects - Mahatma Gandhi, Dugongs, Rennell Island World Heritage Site, Enzo Ferrari, Fruits and Nuts of The Solomon Islands, Accession of King Willem Alexander of The Netherlands, the London Underground Railway, Elvis Presley and Trains of Australia -
This means that during 2013, and only to the end of September, 370 "stamps" and 94 miniature sheets had been produced on behalf of The Solomon Islands Post Office. Has anyone ever seen any of these items actually genuinely used on commercial mail rather than as philatelic productions?
Have you ever noticed that from this issues, the Solomon Is. stamps bear no more logo of ERII; I wonder what it should means.
ReplyDeleteIn theory, I believe, the inclusion of the Queen's head or Royal Cypher in a stamp design implies that the design has received royal approval ( or perhaps in the case of Solomon Islands, approval from the Governor General. I suppose the absence of these devices on the items produced by Stamperija means that the agency never bothers to have royal approval for its products or if it sought by them then the items fail to receive such approval. This again raises the question of just how acceptable these items really are.
DeleteYes, I think, the issue of Accession of King Willem Alexander of The Netherlands is also out of the way.
ReplyDeletei notice the queen's insignia has disappeared from the stamps of the solomon islands. is this perhaps because she refused to give her approval to the ludicrous amount of issues created by stamperija, i wonder? i also just noticed that this has already been commented upon. it really is rather sad, the solomon islands used to be one of my favourite commonwealth dominions to collect. sadly i shall no longer be collecting unless there is a radical change in new issue policy. let's hope stamperija does not claim any more victims.
ReplyDeleteThe problem about all this is that while most collectors see the, shall we say, problems with items produced by Stamperija, some of these items do appeal to some collectors and they are prepared to pay what amounts to a lot of money for such items. That is their choice. Furthermore, the postal administrations which have signed contracts with the company find that such arrangements have advantages for them and as such they are quite happy to receive a supply of these stamps which apparently have full postal validity (even if some of them do not put them on general sale at ordinary post offices) as well as a payment for allowing the agency to work as their agent. So it is quite valid to collect such items. However, and this applies to country collectors mainly, but surely thematic collectors must also be a little discerning, these often quite poorly designed and often very expensive items, appear to me to do very little to enhance a stamp collection but do represent a large drain on a collector's finances. Personally, I wouldn't dream of spending my money on any of them and, like you, for the foreseeable future I will not be adding any Stamperija items to my Mozambique, Uganda, Maldives and Solomons collections. But that's my choice although if I ever come across any genuinely commercial covers with these items stuck on them then I feel such an item would add some interest to my collection.
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