895. New Definitive Series For Samoa.

   🇼🇸 Philatelic Collector Inc. has issued a number of stamps over the past few months in the name of the Samoa postal service.

  10 August 2016 - Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rooster (issued about 5 months before the event) - 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Rating:- 0.

  14 December 2016 - Definitive series - Tourism in Samoa - 16 stamps. Rating:- ****.

  21 December 2016 - Christmas - 4 stamps. Rating:- **.

  27 December 2016 - World Wide Fund For Nature, the Hawksbill turtle - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing 2 sets of 4 stamps (without white borders). Rating:- **** 

  🇬🇧  Intelligent AR has announced that 3 Post and Go kiosks will be situated at Spring Stampex 2017 in London from 15 to 18 February 2017 and all three will dispense the new "Mail By Rail" labels which are depicted in Blog 877 (of course without the additional Postal Museum inscription shown in the illustration).

  Kiosk A012 will dispense additionally the "Machin Head" labels with added inscription, "Machin Anniversary 1967 - 2017", A013 will dispense the "Heritage Transport" locomotive labels with no added inscription and A014 will dispense the "Machin Head" design with the additional inscription "65th Anniversary of The Queen's Accession".

  Hence Spring Stampex will bring us 18 new "Post and Go" labels and we await news of further items coming from Jersey, Guernsey, Gibraltar and Isle Of Man.

  Three Commonwealth countries have their (probably irretrievable by now) philatelic reputations besmirched this week by allowing the notorious Stamperija to produce paraphilatelic items with their names printed on them:-

  🇸🇱 Sierra Leone - 10 "sheetlets" each containing 4 different stamps and 10 accompanying miniature sheets- 500th anniversary of Royal Mail, The 14th Dalai Lama, Chinese New Year (Year of the Monkey which is almost over!), 125th birth anniversary of Max Ernst, 90th death anniversary of Antoni Gaudi, 90th death anniversary of Rudolph Valentino, 550th birth anniversary of Erasmus, Global warming, Volcanid eruptions and Butterfly migrations. Rating:- 0. The stated "date of issue" was 28 October 2016.

  🇲🇿 Mozambique - 13 "sheetlets" each containing 4 different "stamps" and 13 accompanying miniature sheets - Critically endangered animals, Birds of prey, German and Austrian music composers, 250th death anniversary of Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni, European high speed trains, The Fijian rugby team, Commemoration of Bud Spencer, Christmas, Chinese lunar rover Yunu, Chess, Lions, Butterfies and Horses. Rating:- 0. The stated "date of issue" was 10 August 2016.

  🇸🇧 Solomon Islands - 13 "sheetlets" containing 4 different "stamps" each and 13 accompanying miniature sheets - 90th birth anniversary of Marilyn Monroe, German and Austrian music composers, 510th anniversary of the death of Christopher Columbus, Canonisation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, fire engines, Steam trains, Sledge dogs, Turtles, Orchids, Minerals, 75th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow, 50th anniversary of the Toyota Corola and Christmas. Rating:- 0. The stated "date of issue" was 1 December 2016.