1383. 🇬🇧 Royal Mail Issue Reveals Da Vinci Skeleton In The Cupboard.

  🇬🇧 Better illustrations of the Royal Mail Royal Collection of Da Vinci drawings exhibition stamps to be issued on 13 February 2019 than previously shown in this Blog are now depicted below. As well as the basic set of 12 stamps, cost £8.04p, there will also be a 4 pane miniature sheet (one being made up of Machin Head definitives) which will cost £13.10p.

   🇰🇳 There are some additional philatelic items to mention which were released by the US-based philatelic agency IGPC in the name of Nevis towards the end of 2018 -

  5 December 2018 - 'Beautiful butterflies ' - 2 miniature sheets, one containing 3 different stamps and the other containing 2 different stamps. Rating:- 0.

  20 December 2018 - 150th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi - 4 stamps in a miniature sheet (previously mentioned but date of issue now given and better illustration provided).

  20 December 2018 - Red-footed tortoise - 2 miniature sheets, one containing 4 different stamps and the other containing a single stamp. This species is found in several Caribbean islands but notably NOT in Nevis. Rating:- 0.

  🇲🇾 The first My Stamp issues of Pos Malaysia are:-

  18 January 2018 - Chinese New Year - 2 sheetlets of 8 stamps (2 x 4 stamps with attached labels - 1 sheetlet contains stamps with labels for personalisation and the other contains stamps with illustrated labels).

  30 January 2019 - St Valentine's Day - 2 sheetlets each of 8 stamps (2 x 4 stamps with attached labels - 1 sheetlet contains labels for personalisation and the other contains stamps with illustrated labels).

  🇸🇬 Singapore Post has issued a new type of machine dispensed stamp - a design featuring the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. I do not know what was the first day of issue but presumably it was very recent to tie in with the upcoming Chinese New Year. Rating:- ***.

  🇹🇹 T & T Post, the postal service of Trinidad And Tobago, has issued a further surcharge, again another value from the 1990 Bird definitive series. This is the 40c value which depicts the Fork-tailed Flycatcher printed on paper with watermark spiral CA sideways and also with spiral Block CA sideways with a '1990' imprint. The stamp is surcharged with a stylised $1 in black and an icon of a perching bird. This stamp, in 2 watermark types, was previously surcharged 75c and issued on 24 May 1999. Rating:- ***.

  🇮🇳 India Post issued a single stamp on 25 January 2019 to commemorate Mahamati Prannath (1618 - 1694) who was the successor to the founder of the Pramani Sampraday religious sect and who was responsible for spreading it. It is affiliated to both Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism among others. Rating:- **.

  The single stamp and miniature sheet mentioned in Blog 1381 which were issued on 24 January 2019, India Post's first release of the new year, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology are depicted below. Rating:- *.

  The first India Post My Stamp of 2019 was issued on 15 January 2019 to commemorate the Soharai Festival. As usual the issue is a premium-priced sheetlet of 12 identical stamps with attached labels.

1382. 🇨🇦 New Issue Commemorates Canada's First Black Postman.

  🇨🇦 Canada Post issued a single P value stamp in self-adhesive form sold in booklets of 10 on 25 January 2019 to commemorate Black History Month. The stamp depicts Albert Jackson who is thought to have been Canada's first black postman appointed in Toronto in May 1882. Jackson had been born into slavery in The United States in 1857 but his mother had brought him across the border fleeing from the United States while he was still an infant.

  When he first took up his job his white colleagues refused to train him and he had to take another job as a hall porter. When news of the way Jackson had been treated the black community of Toronto rallied behind him and when the details of his case reached Sir John A Macdonald, then the Canadian prime minister, he was reinstated in his original post and began his training on 2 June 1882 working at the post office for 36 years until his death in 1918.

  The stamp was designed by Andrew Perro from an illustration by Ron Dollekamp. Rating:- *****.

  Canada Post will next issue 2 self-adhesive stamps on 14 February 2019 (St Valentine's Day) of which the subject will be Gardenia flowers. The stamps will be sold in booklets of 10 and in coils and there will also be a gummed miniature sheet containing the 2 stamps. The issue was designed by Andrew Conlon and Lionel Cadoury of Context Creative from art by Chantal Larocque. Rating:- *****.

1381. 🇳🇬 Crudely Printed Commemoratives From Nigeria.

  🇳🇬 In Blog 1352 I reported that the postal service of Nigeria had issued 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 13 December 2018 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of River state. The issue was reported in Stamp Boards and there was some debate about the genuineness of the issue particularly as it appeared to be very crudely printed, rouletted rather than perforated and without holograms. Today  I received a set of the stamps from the dealer offering the issue for sale on an Internet auction site and they are every bit as crude as they appeared in the original report but clearly are a genuine issue since the dealer very pleasingly used blocks of four on the envelope containing the stamps and they were duly postmarked and entered into the postal system by Nigeria Post. Disappointingly I was sent a first day cover instead of a miniature sheet though the package also contained a large glossy sheet with a picture of the miniature sheet on it. The sheet was not gummed and the 4 stamps are much larger than the actual stamps so I'm assuming that this must be a poster of the sheet rather than a peculiar form of miniature sheet. Then again, who can know what passes for stamps in Nigeria at present? The stamps and sheet were depicted in Blog 1352 and the used stamps on the cover I received are depicted below.

  🇸🇱 Now on sale on an Internet auction site is a single stamp and a single stamp miniature sheet commemorating the Centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela as part of the Pan-African Postal Union which Stamperija has issued with the name of Sierra Leone printed on them. This stamp has only been seen previously as part of a multinational sheetlet of stamps inscribed with the names of other Stamperija client postal administrations (see Blog 1362). These items are also being sold imperforate at a greatly inflated price (a normal practice for Stamperija) and a first day cover is dated 28 December 2018. I wonder if this issue is actually on sale in Sierra Leone.

 🇬🇲 The same dealer is selling a first day cover of the same PAPU omnibus miniature sheet with the name of The Gambia printed on it (see Blog 1250) suggesting that the date of issue of that item was 18 July 2018.

  🇮🇳 India Post's first issue of 2019 was released on 24 January 2019 and took the form of 1 x Rs41 stamp and 1 x Rs41 miniature sheet on the highly exciting subject of the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology. An illustration is awaited.

  🇬🇧 The Royal Mail Post and Go stamps to be dispensed from kiosk A001 at The Postal Museum in London from 13 February 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the National Postal Museum which were detailed in Blog 1372 are depicted below:-

  🇫🇯 In a comment at the end of Blog 1380 eyeonwall has kindly shared the information that Fiji Post will release an issue on the subject of the Chinese New Year, Year of The Pig, on 1 February 2019. No other details are available yet. Many thanks to eyeonwall for the information.

  🇵🇬 PNG Post, the postal service of Papua New Guinea, is planning to release the following new issues during 2019:-

  January 2019 - Faces of Papua New Guinea - Highlands and Mombasa regions

  31 January 2019 - Chinese New Year - 1 sheetlet containing 12 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing 4 stamps (2 x 2 different stamps). This issue is previously noted in Blog 1380. Rating:- 0.

  February 2019 - Team sports

  March 2019 - Reef fish

  March 2019 - Breadfruit 

  April 2019 - Agriculture rural farming

  April 2019 - 'Pioneer arts' - work by Iaben Sakale John

  May 2019 - Garlip nuts

  June 2019 - To be announced 

  June 2019 - Birds of Paradise.