1151. 🇬🇧 Royal Mail To Issue Game Of Thrones Stamps In 2018.

  🇬🇧 Royal Mail will issue a large number of items on 23 January 2018 on the subject of the television programme Game Of Thrones which is largely filmed in Northern Ireland. The issue will include a set of stamps, a miniature sheet, a retail booklet, a Prestige booklet, a Collectors Sheet and some Post and Go items.

  In Blog 796 I described the 10 'Smilers' stamps produced by a collaboration between Royal Mail and Tourism Ireland which were produced in a 10 stamp Collectors sheet. The stamps were the 1st Class Northern Ireland regional definitive with labels attached which depicted motifs from the television programme.

  I am at a disadvantage here as I still have never seen this programme but I realise that it is immensely popular and suppose, therefore, that Royal Mail has a winner on their hands with this issue with potentially very large sales of these items.

  I'm sure that details of this mega-issue will emerge over the next few days.

  🇧🇹 Bhutan Post issued a sheetlet of 8 different stamps and 1 accompanying miniature sheet on 30 November 2017 on the subject of 'Peaks of Bhutan'. This is another attractive issue which gives the collector a view of the country as all recent issues have done. Rating:- ****.

  The 'Bhutan pheasants' issue featured in Blog 1146 was also issued on 30 November 2017. 

1150. 🇮🇳 India Post's End Of Year New Issue Frenzy.

  🇮🇳 India Post has moved from issuing new stamps in order to have a source of income from stamp collecting to the full scale exploitation of stamp collectors, particularly those who feel they must have 'one of everything'.

  Witness this enormous deluge of new issues as India Post attempts to get out every stamp it possibly can before the end of the year. What a pity that in its new issue programming India Post has turned to the dark side and could soon be as infamous as Stamperija, IGPC or Australia Post for its monumental overissuing policies.

  So, in these final days of 2017, we have:-

28 December - Commemoration of Dr. Shivajirao Ganesh Patwardhan (1892 - 1986) who devoted his working life to the care of people with leprosy. This single stamp issue clearly features a worthy subject for a stamp issue and I have no problems with this issue. Illustrated at the head of this piece. Rating:- ****.

29 December - Centenary of the death of Dadabhai Naoroji. Now this is definitely an interesting issue. Naoroji was a Parsi intellectual, educator, trader and an early Indian politician and social reformer. Here's a fact for those who like participating in quizzes - Naoroji was a Liberal Member of Parliament at Westminster from 1892 - 95 and was the first Asian to be a member of the House Of Commons. He was elected MP for Finsbury Central with a majority of just 5 votes.

  After his return to India he played a role in the formation of the Indian National Congress and drew attention to the draining away of India's wealth to its imperial master, Great Britain. This is an important and very interesting stamp and a notable commemoration and there is no problem with this issue.  Rating:- *****.

  This would have been an excellent subject for a joint issue between India Post and Royal Mail.

  Now we go downhill:-

  29 December - Stepwells (stairwells) of India - 16 stamps issued in 4 x 4 sheetlets with the 4 different stamps in each sheet forming 4 se-tenant horizontal strips of 4 giving a total of 4 horizontal se-tenant strips to be collected. There is an additional sheetlet which contains all 16 stamps. Interesting but excessive. Rating:- **.

  30 December - Joint issue with PNG Post (Papua New Guinea postal service), National birds. 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet. It is expected that the PNG issue will appear on its own website in the very near future. Rating:- ***.

  30 December- Hand fans of India - 16 stamps and 2 single stamp miniature sheets. Issued in 4 sheetlets each containing 4 x 4 stamps resulting in horizontally se-tenant strips each of 4 different stamps. In all there are 4 horizontal strips of 4 to collect as well as a sheetlet of 16 different stamps (one of each design) and 2 single stamp miniature sheets. Rating:- *.

31 December - Fiftieth anniversary of the death of Justice Mehr Chand Mahayana 1889 - 1967) - 1 stamp. This was the third Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. Rating:- ***. Design to be added.

  The issue of 37 stamps and 3 miniature sheets in 4 days is pretty aggressive by anyone's standards and one fears that matters will only get worse still in 2018.

1149. 🇨🇦 Canada Post Chinese New Year And Scenery Issues.

  🇨🇦 Canada Post will release its Chinese New Year issue on 15 January 2018 for the Year of The Dog. The issue was designed by Subplot Design Inc. with illustrations by Meimei Mao and photography by Raeff Miles with calligraphy by Albert Ng and printed in lithography by Lowe-Martin.

  The issue appears to be made up of a 'P' rate gummed stamp produced in sheets of 25 stamps, the same stamp in self-adhesive form sold in booklets of 10, a $2.50c self-adhesive stamp sold in booklets of 6, a $2.50c gummed miniature sheet and a gummed Dog and Rooster miniature sheet. A very attractive issue. Rating:- *****.

  Canada Post will also release an issue on 15 January 2018 which is titled, 'From Far and Wide'. In all stamps using 9 different designs are included in the set in differing formats. The issue was designed by Stéphane Huot and lithographed by Lowe-Martin.

  Five different stamps have been produced in a booklet of 10 self-adhesives (2 of each design), the same stamps are also sold in self-adhesive coils of all 5 designs, 3 more designs ($1.20, $1.80 and $1.50) are sold in self-adhesive booklets each containing 6 stamps and self-adhesive coils, there is a gummed miniature sheet which contains 9 stamps (all of the above stamps plus a $1 value). There is also a further 30 stamp booklet which contains 6 x the 5 'P' value stamps. From what I can see the $1 value seems only to be available from the gummed miniature sheet. Rating:-.****.

  🇸🇸 In Blogs 1134 and 1135 I mentioned a number of new surcharges from the postal service of South Sudan which were on sale on internet auction sites. There has been a further stamp recently offered for sale which is the 2011 3.5SSP definitive stamp with a 1000 SSP surcharge as depicted below:-

  I had also overlooked that there are different surcharges of 75SSP on the 2011 Bearded Vulture stamp as depicted below. I have previously included an illustration of the upper stamp but I now notice that there is a second stamp which has a longer lower line of the 4 lines which obliterate the original value and the 'SSP' part of the overprint is also in finer lettering and more highly placed in its position relative to the '75'. I look forward to seeing what else turns up.

  🇵🇬 PNG Post, the postal service of Papua New Guinea, has released another excellent set - this time there are 4 stamps and 2 miniature sheets which serve as its 2017 Christmas stamps. This is yet another highly locally relevant issue showing, as it does, PNG-style Christmas themes and scenes, including a PNG Father Christmas on one of the miniature sheets and relating the subjects to the various dialects spoken in Papua New Guinea. 

  The set was issued on 11 November 2017 and designed by Kim Kaupa of PNG Post and lithographed by Southern Colour Print. Rating:- *****.