1398. 🇵🇳 Pitcairn Features Bounty Paintings.

  🇵🇳 Bounty Post, the postal service of Pitcairn, issued an extremely attractive set of 4 stamps on 27 February 2019 on the subject of Paintings of The Bounty. The issue was designed by Denise Durkin and lithographed by Southern Colour Print. Rating:- *****.

  🇧🇩  The postal service of Bangladesh issued a single stamp towards the end of 2018, I suspect it was on 12 December, to commemorate Digital Bangladesh Day and 10 years of 'Digital Bangladesh'. Rating:- **.

  🇲🇾 I do not recall so far recording 2 miniature sheets released by Pos Malaysia in connection with 2 philatelic exhibitions it was involved with. Firstly the Panfila Balipex 2018/FourNations Baliphex 2018 exhibition (3 to 8 August 2018) was commemorated by an additional inscription being applied to the previously issued Sarawak River miniature sheet and then the Thailand 2018 World Stamp Exhibition (28 November to 3 December 2018) was commemorated by the previously issued Electric Train Service miniature sheet being reissued with an additional inscription. I assume that the sheets were issued on the opening days of the respective exhibitions. Rating:- **.

1397. 🇱🇰 Spicy New Issue From Sri Lanka.

 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka Post issued a set of 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 4 stamps on 26 February 2019 on the subject of Spices of Sri Lanka. The issue was designed by Palitha Gunasinghe. An attractive and interesting issue. Rating:- ***.

  🇨🇾 Cyprus Post has indicated what its new issue programme will look like for the rest of 2019:-

28 March - Centennial trees

24 April - Centenary of the birth of the late President Glavkos Clerides

2 May - Europa

9 July - Mediterranean costumes

9 July - 75th anniversary of The International Civil Aviation Organisation 

9 July - 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe

9 July - 20th anniversary of EMS Datapost

18 September - Cyprus Gymnastics Organisations

18 September - 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi 

14 November - Christmas.

  🇯🇪 When I visited Spring Stampex 2019 recently I must have completely overlooked a numbered, limited edition miniature sheet put out by Jersey Post to commemorate the exhibition. Copying the limited edition miniature sheet issued by Royal Mail which involved reissuing the Classic stamps miniature sheet with an added inscription, Jersey Post sold the '1970s' miniature sheet with an added inscription and individual numbering. There's no doubting that Jersey Post never misses the opportunity to fleece collectors of their money. Rating:- 0.

  🇮🇳 India Post issued a miniature sheet containing 2 different stamps on 23 February 2019 to commemorate the 12th Aero India International Show being held at Bengaluru. The issue is themed Women in Aviation. An attractive issue. Rating:- ***.

  🇲🇿 Some modern stamps take years to turn up. In Blog 1396 I illustrated a stamp from Mozambique issued in 2018 to commemorate World Vision and stamps on the same subject have been mentioned in other blogs (1181 depicting issues from 2013 and 2017) and in a comment in the same Blog Stewie1911 mentioned a World Vision stamp from 2011 with a 92MT face value. Now an even earlier Mozambique World Vision stamp has turned up - issued in 2008 with a 33MT face value and a design featuring a piece of child's art. Rating:- *****.

1396. 🇳🇿 Gandhi, Robert Falcon Scott And Birds All Featured On New Zealand Post Personalised Stamps.

  🇳🇿 As mentioned in Blog 1395 thirty four new 'personalised' stamps have been included in this year's special pack released by New Zealand Post. The first day covers of the issue which are sold in a separate pack are dated 31 December 2018. I now illustrate all of this year's pack contents here - there are 14 self-adhesive stamps and 20 gummed stamps with some designs being issued in the 2 different formats. Stamps covering a wide range of popular subjects are included in the pack. Collectors of stamps featuring Mahatma Gandhi will be interested in one of the stamps and the ever-popular Bird theme is featured on 5 of the gummed stamps and 1 of the self-adhesive stamps to mention another which features a cartoon kiwi.

  However you look at it these stamps are on sale to the public and are available for use on ordinary mail so regardless of whether New Zealand Post itself calls them 'labels' I think they qualify to be called Postage stamps and I like to add them to my New Zealand collection.

🇲🇿 An auction site dealer in Ukraine is offering a stamp from Correios de Moçambique, the postal service of Mozambique, which seems to be one of those rare items - a locally produced and relevant stamp intended for use on local mail from that country. The stamp commemorates World Vision which is an international organisation providing aid to children and which has previously been commemorated on Mozambique stamps. The stamp is naïve in its production qualities which has been a feature of Mozambique items intended for genuine postal service usage in recent years. I assume that the stamp was released during 2018 given that that year is inscribed on the item. Rating:- *****.

  🇵🇰 Pakistan Post has released its first issue of 2019 which takes the form of a single stamp which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the death of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797 to 1869) who was a prominent Urdu and Persian language poet. I do not yet know the precise date of issue. Rating:- **.

1395. 🇫🇰 Falkland Islands Stamps Depict Local Shipwrecks.

  🇫🇰 At a time when it looks like new issue collecting is in dire straits what with the activities of Stamperija and IGPC and Philatelic Collector Inc and Royal Mail's Marvel Comics stamps there's always that little beacon of hope in the form of the issues produced by Creative Direction and sold through Pobjoy Stamps on behalf of Britain's overseas territories in the South Atlantic and Antarctic not forgetting Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands. So we have news of the latest issue from the Falkland Islands postal service - a simple 4 value set illustrating Local ship wrecks, the third in an ongoing series. Using beautifully chosen photographs by Tony Chater as their designs the issue was lithographed by Cartor and is perforated 13 x 13.5. An excellent set which will be released on 4 March 2019 - Rating:- *****.

  Thanks to Juliet Warner of Pobjoy Stamps for information about this issue.

  🇳🇿 New Zealand Post has put its Personalised Stamps pack for 2018 on sale at a cost of NZ$37.20c for unused stamps or NZ$38.70c for the stamps used on covers dated 31 December 2018. The pack of unused stamps contains 20 gummed stamps and 14 self-adhesive stamps and some are illustrated below. I like these annual packs as the subjects of some of the stamps are splendidly parochial and tell the collector a lot more about New Zealand than 10 stamps depicting Marvel Comics characters tell the collector about Britain. Meanwhile collectors of stamps featuring Mahatma Gandhi will be interested that there is a Gandhi stamp included in this pack. Rating:- ***.

  🇨🇾 The first stamp issue of the year from Cyprus Post will be released on 20 February 2018 to commemorate the Carnival there. The two stamps were designed by Menalis Eustathidou and lithographed by Baltic Banknote High Security Printing. Not the most exciting of issues but quite colourful if nothing else. Rating:- **.