1843. 🇰🇼 Kuwait Commemorates 60th National Day.

 🇰🇼 In Blog 1831 I listed the countries for which 2021 brings a significant anniversary of the granting of their independence from The United Kingdom or other Commonwealth states and speculated whether or not their postal administrations would issue stamps to commemorate those anniversaries.

  The first of these which has actually done so is the postal service of Kuwait which achieved independence when Great Britain gave up its protectorate of Kuwait on 23 June 1961 and which therefore celebrates its sixtieth anniversary of independence during 2021. The postal service of Kuwait has issued annually for many years a set of stamps to commemorate the anniversary of the granting of independence but has labelled the sets as ‘National Day’ sets. The sets were originally issued on the date of the anniversary which was also an occasion for national celebration but the date of National Day was later brought forward to earlier in the year.

This year the Kuwaiti postal service has issued 2 se-tenant stamps printed in a sheet of 20 (10 se-tenant pairs) which feature the present Emir of Kuwait, Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, who succeeded on 29 September 2020 on the death of the previous 6th Emir of Kuwait, Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabar al-Sabah who is featured on the other stamp in the pair. These fine stamps were issued on 25 February 2021.

  There have been too many previous National Day issues released over the past 60 years to be able to detail them all here but those issued to commemorate some of the more significant National Days - anniversaries of Independence from Great Britain - are depicted:-

25 February 1971 - 10th National Day - 2 stamps - 

25 February 1981 - 20th National Day - 2 stamps - 

1991 - In August 1990 forces from Iraq invaded Kuwait and the country was annexed to Iraq. An international coalition was formed to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait and the country was liberated on 26 February 1992. 3 stamps were issued to commemorate the liberation on 22 May 1991 with the design recalling the statue of US soldiers raising the US flag at Iwo Jima during the Second World War. There were further issues during 1992 to commemorate the liberation including  a sheet of 42 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet which depicted the flags of the nations which had taken part in the coalition to liberate Kuwait and 2 eye-catching stamps and 1 miniature sheet which drew attention to the plight of Kuwaiti prisoners of war being held by the Iraqis.

25 February 1992 - 31st National Day and 1st anniversary of the liberation - 2 stamps again using the flags of the coalition countries in one of the designs.

25 February 2001 - 40th National Day - 3 stamps.

26 February 2011 - 50th National Day - 4 stamps in se-tenant strips from sheets of 20 and 1 miniature sheet.

  There are another couple of sets of interest which recall the period of the British Protectorate which introduced a postal service and postage stamps to Kuwait.

  The first was issued on 12 November 1973 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first postage stamps of Kuwait which were overprints on Indian stamps depicting King George V which had been released on 1 April 1923. The designs did not depict the stamps themselves sadly but were chosen instead to feature portraits of Kuwaiti rulers presumably because it was felt inappropriate to feature the portrait of a foreign former king.

 A second issue of 5 stamps and 1 miniature sheet relating to the British involvement in the development of the Kuwaiti postal service was released in 2017 to commemorate the Centenary of the opening of the first post office in Kuwait which occurred in 1915. The stamps depicted Kuwaiti post offices across the century including the post office in the residence of the British political agent in Kuwait from 1915 to 1929. A very interesting issue.

  

The Kuwait postal service has released one other issue so far this year. Also on 25 February a sheetlet of 10 different stamps but all with same basic design commemorated the 30th anniversary of the liberation from Iraqi occupation.

  The Kuwait postal service has a reasonably conservative new issue policy usually on interesting subjects of national relevance and Kuwait is worth considering as a philatelically satisfying country to collect. Of course, Kuwait chose not to join The Commonwealth and for that reason is not featured regularly in this Blog.

  🇧🇩 Having listed several more new issues of 2021 from Bangladesh Post in Blog 1842, another has surfaced, another single stamp issued I would think on 21 February 2021, to commemorate International Mother Language Day. An eye-catching design. Rating:- ***.