Wednesday 1 December 2021

1987. 🇫🇰 Boaty MacBoatface - Er, Sorry, RRS Sir Richard Attenborough Depicted On New Falklands Miniature Sheet.

 










 ðŸ‡«ðŸ‡° The postal service of the Falkland Islands has announced the issue of a miniature sheet containing a single stamp on 11 December 2021 to commemorate the first visit of Boaty MacBoatface, more properly known as the RRS Sir David Attenborough, to Port Stanley. The issue was designed by Bee Design from a photograph of the British Antarctic Survey and was lithographed by Cartor and the stamp is perforated 13.5. A legendary and worthwhile issue even if the official name of the ship was not the people’s choice. Rating:- *****.

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

🇧🇼 Botswana Post issued a set of 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing the four stamps on 30 November 2021 on the subject of Cheetahs in Botswana. The designs by Joseph Ebulu-Otim use the lovely artwork of Sarah Glendinning and the issue was lithographed by Southern Colour Print. Rating:- *****.





  Ian Billings in his Norvic Stamps Blog, the essential guide to modern British issues, draws our attention to the latest edition of Philatelic Bulletin from Royal Mail which announces to an expectant world the news that the first ‘Great Britain’ issue of 2022 will be released on 20 January on the subject of the popular music group The Rolling Stones, old men who were famous 50 to 60 years ago. This is the sixth part of the increasingly tiresome Music Giants series which seems to have gone on for ever but no doubt there are equally old stamp collectors who will remember these elderly performers when they were young and scandalous and nostalgic feelings for a long lost youth may encourage them to buy these philatelic products. Ian estimates that the one-of-everything collector may be faced with a bill of £1000 given that there are so many paraphilatelic products being released as part of this issue. 

  I myself have not read the article as I have not renewed my subscription for the Bulletin which I find to be packed with drivel relating to the banal subjects now featured on Royal Mail stamps. Really there are better things on which to spend one’s money. The same goes for most Royal Mail new issues as well.

6 comments:

  1. So after Elton John, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd and Queen the Rolling Stones are the next Music Giants. If I looked it up correctly all of them are men and nearly all are from England. Hopefully they will come up with a Bonnie Tyler set soon to compensate the inequality at least a bit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To be fair dustin15 the really big names in 1960s popular music were mainly men and mainly English. I recall there was Cilla Black and Dusty Springfield but in those early years it was generally men who had the big ‘hits’ and who generally might be viewed as modern ‘Music giants’. I don’t hold the view that people should be honoured on a nation’s postage stamp to address a gender or racial imbalance and I’m not sure that Bonnie Tyler is quite up there in the pantheon of modern British music deities. And one wonders when the greatest British musical giants of previous ages will receive philatelic commemoration - Elgar, Tallis, Handel, Holst, Byrd, Brittan etc (yes, I know several of them have had single stamps acknowledging their greatness but their philatelic commemoration has so far been trivial compared with the likes of the Beatles and their ilk).

      Delete
    2. You are of course right that many of the big names are English men and that people should be chosen due to achievements, but it is just strange to notice that there are sets like the recent Rugby issue which frantically created a parity of genders and regions while here is a series where no one cares at all. Bonnie Tyler I just mentioned, as I personally like many of her songs, but also because she is a Welsh woman and her songs are still enjoyed by younger generations (with Holding Out For A Hero leading the way). And to be fair Paul McCartney without the rest of the Beatles is also not such a big Music Giant. I agree however that a set about Classic Music would be better than anything else.

      Delete
    3. I thought the criteria for Music Giants would be a) internationally known b) 50 plus years of recordings c) still active today. So Bonnie Tyler will be about 2025 and possibly up against Kate Bush.

      Of course, if you discount the length of career then Adele is the obvious candidate...

      Delete
  2. "packed with drivel relating to the banal subjects now featured on Royal Mail stamps"

    Not this time - in the absence of any new stamps to write about the articles are:

    - The Penny Black and the Victorian Media (incl Fake News) - 8pp
    - Lost Mail in the Firth of Tay (1871) - 8pp
    - William Muir the illustrator, with only a passing reference to illustrated envelopes - 4pp
    - Sark - 3pp

    And the inserted Voting for your favourite stamps shows 147 face-different stamps, with only one definitive. I'm hard put to find a favourite, but from the design aspect it would probably be an Industrial Revolutions stamp.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, I must agree that all sounds very interesting. As regards the favourite stamps designs, who can resist the seal from The Wild Coasts set? but my favourite issue was The War of The Roses set with its wonderful historical art.

      Delete