Pakistan Post issued 4 stamps (printed as 4 se-tenant blocks of 4 in a sheetlet of 16) and 1 miniature sheet containing 2 stamps on 24 December 2015 to commemorate the Pakistan National Stamp Exhibition held in Islamabad from 24 to 27 December 2015. All the stamps depict birds of Pakistan. Rating:- ****.
Kenya Post issued a single stamp on, I think, 2 October 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of The United Nations. It's not exactly a very exciting design. Rating:- **.
In Blog 669 I mentioned an issue of 1 sheetlet of 6 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet from Bhutan Post on the subject of Atsaras. It appears that the issue also included 4 individual stamps as depicted below:-
India Post released a single stamp on 23 December 2015 to commemorate Sumitranandan Pant, a Hindi poet. Rating:- ***.
A further single stamp issue from India Post was released on 26 December 2015 to commemorate Veeran Azhagu Muthu Kone, also known as Alagumuthu Kone, who is described as a Tamil Konar warrior and "early freedom fighter". Rating:- ***.
In Blog 682 I mentioned 2 new definitive stamps which had been issued by India Post in the "Makers of India" series and a further 4 values have been released. The designs depict Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Moulana Abul Kalam Azad, Bhagat Singh and Ram Manohar Lohia. These men represented a wide range of political views which played a role in the eventual achievement of Indian independence - Bhagat Singh for instance is described as a "revolutionary socialist" who assassinated a British police officer for which he was hanged at the age of 23. An interesting issue. Rating :- **.
Stamperija has produced more philatelic items with the name of Maldives printed on them - the stated date of issue is 16 December 2015. The items are on various subjects, mostly of no obvious relevance to Maldives, and take the form of 10 "sheetlets" each of 4 different "stamps" and 10 "miniature sheets". The featured subjects are:- 175th anniversary of Niccolo Paganini, 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln, 15th anniversary of the crash of the Air France Concorde (!) - the "miniature sheet" in particular is a tasteless item depicting Concorde in flames!, Commemoration of the Late Diana, Princess of Wales (an appalling portrait of her is featured on the "miniature sheet"), World Athletics Championships in Beijing in 2015, 70th anniversary of the bombing of Dresden, European Football Championships in 2016, 65th Birthday of Narendra Modi, Rotary in Sri Lanka and Maldives, 50th Anniversary of the first space walk. Rating:- 0.
I illustrate the Diana and Concorde "miniature sheets" to demonstrate just how awful some of these products are:-
A stamp dealer in Pakistan has informed me that this issue has been cancelled due to some problems between officials of Pakistan Post and organisers of the Exhibition. (10 Feb 2016)
ReplyDeleteThank you for your information about this issue. It is very helpful to know that this issue will not be making an appearance after all. I'm sorry I have taken a long time to reply but I did not notice your comment because of problems with receiving information from blogger. Best wishes.
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