🇮🇲 The postal service of Isle Of Man will issue a set of 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 6 February 2016 to commemorate the 65th (sapphire) anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II. The stamps which are quite interesting depict The Queen on various overseas trips she has carried out including her visit to The Isle Of Man in 1979. The miniature sheet is on the subject of gifts made to The Queen and the single stamp contained in the sheet depicts the presentation to The Queen of a horse called Burmese by the Royal Mounted Canadian Police. The entire issue was designed by True North and lithographed by Lowe-Martin and perforated 14. Rating:- ***.
The next issue from the Isle Of Man postal service will be released on 13 February 2017 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first Manx general election to choose members of The House Of Keys, the Manx parliament. This seems like an interesting issue commemorating a worthwhile anniversary. The issue is made up of 4 stamps and was designed by EJC Design and lithographed by Lowe-Martin and perforated 14. Rating:- ****.
🇬🇬 While the Isle Of Man postal service has got off to an excellent start in 2017 with its interesting and locally relevant new issues, the same can not be said for Guernsey Post which has released 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on the subject of the Chinese New Year, which really has no relevance to Guernsey, and additionally a gold foil miniature sheet reproducing the ordinary miniature sheet has also been released in a limited edition of 200 which Guernsey Post seems to think to be a reason for pricing the item at £95. Rating:- 0.
🇬🇾 IGPC released an issue on 17 November 2016 in the name of Guyana which was on the subject of the World Wildlife Fund and depicting the Giant armadillo. The issue was made up of 4 different stamps printed in se-tenant strips as part of a sheetlet of 16 and there was also a miniature sheet containing 8 stamps (2 x 4 different values). The issue was designed by IGPC stamp department. Rating:- ***.
🇬🇮 Royal Gibraltar Post Office/Gibraltar Stamps will issue 2 x £2 stamps in a se-tenant pair to commemorate the lunar new year, "Year of the Rooster" on 30 January 2017. The stamps were designed by Stephen Perera with credits for the illustration being given to cbsjena and siewhoong at I.stockphoto.com. The issue was lithographed by Cartor.
There will be some lunar new year celebrations in Gibraltar this year but the issue is still pretty irrelevant to the territory. Rating:- 0.
Nice frog stamps. Tempted but I don't think these are 'postage stamps'. According to a couple of sources it seems Guyana hasn't issued any stamps since 2012.
ReplyDeleteHello John, Yes, as I wrote above, the Guyana frog stamps are very appealing.
DeleteGuyana Post has issued some stamps in recent years - they are usually mentioned and illustrated on the Guyana Post Facebook page which is interesting and reports and illustrates what the Post Office there is up to. Recent issues to be mentioned there usually have a strictly local relevance and face values relevant to current postal rates there - in 2016 these issues were the 15 stamps released to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Independence, the Centenary of the local bauxite industry and the 2 stamps issued to commemorate the Day of Villages.
The Frogs set has not been mentioned on the Guyana Post Facebook page and each stamp has a higher face value than would be needed for use on ordinary mail. Despite its local relevance, the issue looks like a straightforward IGPC issue which is not very likely to turn up having been used on non-philatelic mail. I think you are right that this issue is a "Philatelic collectible with postal validity" rather than a full-blown "postage stamp" but the sheetlet and miniature sheet are appealing and locally relevant so, even though they probably aren't what I normally add to my collection I might just bend my own rules and obtain this set.
I defend this by pointing out that 14 sets were issued by Guyana Post and/or IGPC in the name of Guyana during 2016 (10 of which had no real direct relevance to Guyana) - this is a poor record but pales into insignificance when compared with the Stamperija products - Sierra Leone had its name on 240 sets in 2016, Solomon Islands was named on more than 100 sets and so on. I allow myself no flexibility with Stamperija's products but might occasionally give IGPC issues which have a relevance to the named country a little more leeway. Our collections are for own pleasure so providing we're not allowing ourselves to be ripped off or exploited then we can choose to add items to our collections sometimes which strictly speaking should probably not be there.
Happy collecting!