1354. 🇯🇪 Jersey Post Goes Back To The 1970s.

  🇯🇪 Jersey Post will release the next instalment of its ongoing nostalgic popular culture series on 18 January 2019. The theme for 2019 will be 1970s culture and the issue is made up of 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet. It's eye-catching but wholly unnecessary and continues Jersey Post's overinflated new issue policy. Rating:- 0

  🇮🇳 India Post issued a single stamp on 18 December 2018 to commemorate Rajkumar Shukla (1875 - 1929) who was a farmer who persuaded Mahatma Gandhi to witness the plight of farmers, a significant incident in the developing struggle for Indian independence. Rating:-  **.

  🇬🇧 In Blog 1327 I mentioned the Royal Mail miniature sheet which is to be issued on 15 January 2019 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Royal Philatelic Society of London. Illustrations of the item which contains 6 different stamps each from a different reign are not shown on the internet. The issue was designed by hat-trick design and lithographed by International Security Printers. Rating:- *****.

  🇬🇧🇧🇭 In November 2018 Royal Mail and HM Armed Forces announced that they had inaugurated 'the newest and hottest postbox' in Royal Mail's service in Bahrain to 'ensure that British troops' stationed in the former protectorate 'can post Christmas messages back home to loved ones as well as having a small reminder of home'. The title of 'Royal Mail's hottest postbox' derives from the fact that temperatures can reach more than 50 degrees Celsius in Bahrain in summer.

  The British first established a base in Bahrain on 13 April 1935 as part of the port of Mina Salman. The base was named HMS Jufair and then part of the base was leased to the US Navy in 1950. The Americans took over the base completely when Bahrain achieved independence from Britain but in 2014 it was announced that HMS Jufair would be reestablished by the British and the base was officially opened on 5 April 2018 in the presence of The Duke Of York and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al Khalifa of Bahrain. The new facility can accommodate up to about 500 personnel.

  The postcode for HMS Jufair is BFP1 6BR and the BFPO number is UKMCC BFPO632.

  🇲🇻 Maldives applied officially to rejoin The Commonwealth on 7 December 2018 after the former leader, Abdulla Yameen, had been defeated in elections in the country in September 2018 and replaced by Ibrahim Mohamed Solih who was described as sharing the values and principles enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter. Since President Solih came to power, political prisoners of Yameen have been freed and exiled opposition leaders have returned home and the new leader has asked the regional power, India, for help while the former leader had drawn the Islands closer to China.

  Perhaps President Solih's new government could persuade the Maldives postal service to end its contract with its current much despised postal agency and start to issue stamps worth collecting again. In fact during the Stamperija hegemony Maldives Post has continued to issue stamps infrequently for use on mail in Maldives itself and it is worth keeping an eye on such emissions as Maldives may be a year or two away from being of interest to the Commonwealth collector again. These issues have often been related to the China-Maldives courtship and commemorated various anniversaries of China-Maldives diplomatic relations and have probably been gifts from China to the small Indian Ocean republic. Another such issue was released on 13 September 2018 to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the 2 countries and it is made up of 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet which contains one of each stamp. The stamps are issued in 3 sheetlets each containing 2 of the stamps in 6 se-tenant pairs. The themes featured on the stamps are tourism, sport and bridges in each of the 2 countries.

  The timing of the date of issue of these stamps is of great interest as it was only 10 days before the unexpected loss of power of ex-President Yameen and the election of President Solih and the introduction of a foreign policy which leans much more to close relations with India rather than with China. An interesting issue. Rating:- *****.

  🇹🇹 Further to my detailing of new issues from the postal service of Trinidad And Tobago in Blog 1353 Gene W has pointed out to me another new release from T & T Post which is being offered for sale on an Internet auction site.

  This additional issue was released on 13 November 2018 as a set of 5 stamps sold in a presentation pack along with 2 first day covers to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum and the holding of the 20th Ministerial Meeting of GECF Countries in Port Of Spain. The contents of the pack are shown below though detailed pictures of the stamps are awaited.

  It's pleasing that T & T Post has rediscovered the benefits of issuing postage stamps but sad that it has not yet decided that promoting new issues to international collectors may also be a useful exercise. 

  Rating:- ***.

  🇱🇰 As reported by Stewie 1911in a comment at the end of Blog 1342, Sri Lanka Post reissued its recent Lighthouses miniature sheets with additional inscriptions in gold foil to commemorate its participation in the Thailand 2018 World Stamp Exhibition. The exhibition was held from 28 November to 3 December 2018 and so I assume that the date of issue is the same as that of the opening day of the exhibition.