2638. Commonwealth Stamps Review Of 2024.

 

Commonwealth Stamps Review Of 2024.

🇸🇱🇹🇬 1 January - 31 December 2024 - The war between Ukraine and the invading forces of Putin’s Russia continued and from time to time the Lithuania-based producer and purveyor of philatelic products, Stamperija, released products referring to the conflict with its two client Commonwealth countries - Sierra Leone and Togo being named on the products.

🇶🇦 🇴🇲 1 January - 31 December 2024 - The war in the Middle East continued in which Israel took on increasing numbers of Iranian allies following the events of 7 October 2023 when forces of the terrorist group Hamas, based in Gaza, massacred and kidnapped over one thousand Israeli citizens. In response, the Israeli assault on and invasion of Gaza had been severe and unrelenting and later in the year Israel expanded its military attacks to involve other Iranian clients - Hezbollah in Lebanon, pro-Iranian forces in Syria after the overthrow of the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, and the Hoothis in Yemen. A number of Arab states issued stamps to show solidarity with Gaza including Gulf states which had either been previous British protectorates or with treaties with Britain - including Qatar and Oman.

🇧🇳 14 January - Royal Wedding of the heir to the throne of Brunei Darussalam, Prince Abdul Mateen, to Yang Mulia Anisha Rosnah but no special stamps were issued to commemorate the occasion.

🇸🇭 23-26 January - Royal visit by The Duke Of Edinburgh to St Helena but no special stamps were released to commemorate the event. During his visit to the British Overseas Territory, Prince Edward was introduced to Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise and the oldest living animal in the world, as seen in the picture below (Jonathan is the figure on the left of the picture) -

Jonathan was depicted on a set of stamps issued by the St Helena postal administration in 2022 to commemorate his 190th birthday. 

🇬🇧 1 February - In a year of storms and depressing, warm damp weather, Royal Mail’s set of 8 stamps commemorating Weather forecasting anniversaries seemed remarkably appropriate. 

🇳🇦 4 February - The President of Namibia, Hage Geingob, died in office and was succeeded by Nangola Mbumba.

10 February - 🇫🇯 Numerous postal services such as that of  Fiji  issued stamps to commemorate Chinese New Year, the Year of The Dragon.

29 February - 🇬🇬🇮🇪🇮🇲🇯🇪 🇸🇭 The postal service of the Republic of Ireland joined those of Guernsey, Isle Of Man and Jersey in releasing stamps to commemorate the Bicentenary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Notably, Royal Mail managers did not consider the anniversary of enough importance to warrant a stamp issue but later in the year did consider that the 20th anniversary of Peppa Pig was a worthy subject to be celebrated with a special stamp issue. Later, on 1 July, the postal service of Tristan Da Cunha also released 8 stamps related to the RNLI’s significant anniversary.

1 March - 🇹🇨 One stamp and 1 miniature sheet were issued by the postal service of Turks And Caicos Islands to commemorate the Bicentenary of St Thomas’ Anglican Church on Grand Turk Island.

🇹🇷 The postal service of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus released an issue on 6 March to commemorate the 60th anniversary of its own founding.

🇬🇧 16 April - Royal Mail issued a set of 10 stamps to commemorate the centenary of the first British commemorative stamp.

🇫🇰 20 May - The postal service of Falkland Islands issued 2 stamps to honour the memory of two real local heroes on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of their tragic deaths - firemen Gerard Johnson and Robert Finlayson.

24 May - 🇲🇿 The government of Mozambique announced that it had appointed Correio Expresso de Moçambique as the new national mail services provider three years after it had terminated the contract of the former national postal service because of its excess costs. So far there has been no news of any intention on the part of Corre to issue any postage stamps.

28 May - 🇯🇪 Among a set of new definitives, Jersey Post issued a new £5 value depicting King Charles III.

26 July - 11 August - 🇨🇾 🇦🇺 A number of Commonwealth postal administrations, including those of Cyprus and Australia, issued stamps to commemorate the Paris Olympic Games.

28 June - 🇲🇾🇸🇬 Pos Malaysia and Singapore Post release an appropriate joint issue each of 4 stamps to commemorate the centenary of The Causeway linking the two countries.

🇬🇮 - 4 July - Royal Gibraltar Post Office issued an appalling ‘Crypto Miniature sheet’ containing 16 x £5 stamps selling for £80. I wonder who came up with that bright idea.

🇨🇾 10 July - Cyprus Post issued a miniature sheet marking the 50th anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Northern Cyprus by Turkish forces.

🇹🇷 19 July - The postal service of Northern Cyprus released a single stamp on 19 July on the same subject to commemorate what it viewed as ‘the liberation’ of Turkish Cyprus. 

🇬🇬🇯🇪 15 and 16 July - Royal visit of King Charles III and Queen Camilla to Jersey (15 July) and Guernsey (16 July). Jersey Post issued some aptly inscribed Post and Go stamps to mark the occasion while Guernsey Post planned to release a commemorative miniature sheet later in the year but this was eventually postponed until 2025.

19 July - 🇦🇬🇩🇲🇬🇩🇰🇳🇱🇨🇻🇨 The postal services of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts Nevis, Saint Lucia and St Vincent And The Grenadines released a joint issue in the form of two miniature sheets each of identical designs to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Eastern Caribbean Bank.

20 July - 🇲🇾 Pos Malaysia released an issue to commemorate the Installation of HM KeBawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Pertuan Agong XVII Sultan Ibrahim (installation of the 17th King of Malaysia).

🇯🇲 25 July. - Jamaica Post released 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate the Bicentenary of the Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and The Cayman Islands. Unfortunately the postal administration of the Cayman Islands did not commemorate the anniversary and so the opportunity to participate in a joint issue with Jamaica was missed.

5 August - 🇧🇩 After months of demonstrations against her regime, Primeminister Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, fled Bangladesh to seek refuge in India. Sheikh Hasina had in recent years been depicted on several postage stamps.

7 August - 🇳🇿 New Zealand Post released an issue to commemorate the centenary of the first tour of Great Britain and Ireland (plus Canada) by the Invincibles, the New Zealand rugby team.

8 August - 🇧🇳🇲🇾🇲🇲🇸🇬 A joint issue by members of ASEAN included participation in the omnibus by the postal services of Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore. The designs were centred on the subject of the postal headquarters of each country.

🇱🇰 20 August - Sri Lanka Post issued what it claimed to be the world’s longest stamp which measured 205 millimetres or 8.1 inches. The stamp commemorated the Sri Dalada Perahera, a Buddhist festival, and surpassed the previous longest stamp which measured 200 centimetres and had been issued by the Philippines postal services.

🇬🇭🇬🇧 27 September - Death at the age of 89 of the great British actress, Dame Maggie Smith. She had been featured on several previously issued stamps including that from IGPC (inscribed Ghana) noting her much loved performance as the Dowager Duchess of Grantham in the ITV period television series, Downton Abbey. She was also featured on two Royal Mail stamps - one issued in 2018 playing in Hedar Gablerand the second issued in 2023 depicting her in a Harry Potter movie.

9 October - 🇳🇬 🇲🇺 🇨🇾🇵🇰🇧🇩🇮🇳🇬🇭 World Post Day and the 150th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union. Numerous postal services including those of Nigeria, Mauritius, Cyprus, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Ghana released stamps to commemorate this anniversary.

3 October - 🇮🇴  The recently elected Labour government in the United Kingdom announced that it was preparing to cede the islands of the British Indian Ocean Territory which had been British sovereign territory since 1814 to Mauritius which had claimed the islands for some time. It was also intended that the British government pay the Mauritius government for accepting the islands while the joint US-British military base on Diego Garcia would be retained by the powers for 99 years. Subsequently the Mauritian government lost all but 2 seats in the parliament in Port Louis and the incoming government demanded Britain pay Mauritius more money before the Treaty of transfer could be signed. This presumably means the end of stamp issues with the name British Indian Ocean Territory printed on them. The Chagossians, the people whose ancestors had lived on the islands since the 18th century and who had been shamefully forcibly exiled to Britain and Mauritius, were broadly against the transfer of their ancestral home to Mauritius but they were not given any voice in the matter.

19 to 26 October - 🇦🇺 🇼🇸 King Charles III and Queen Camilla paid royal visits to Australia and Samoa culminating in their attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) held in Apia in Samoa from 21 to 26 October. The Samoan postal service is not known to have commemorated either the royal visit or the CHOGM by the issue of stamps.

5 November - 🇸🇱 Donald Trump was elected as the President of the United States for the second time and Stamperija wasted no time in putting out products with the name of Sierra Leone printed on them to cash in on the event.

16 November - 🇿🇦 South Africa Post Office released a single stamp to commemorate the second term in office of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

🇬🇮 🇫🇰🇬🇧🇸🇭 - 30 November - The postal services of a number of Commonwealth territories and countries including those of the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands and Ascension Island issued stamps to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the British statesman, Sir Winston Churchill, whose leadership, with the help of the Allies, ensured that Britain survived the Second World War and that Nazism was defeated.

16 December - 🇧🇭 Bahrain Post issued 2 stamps to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

🇬🇧 The British government approved the ownership of Royal Mail by the Czech businessman, Daniel Křetínský, by allowing the sale of its parent firm, International DistributionServices (IDS). Philatelic consequences awaited with interest.

Brian Tuke, first English post master general, 1517-45

Daniel Křetínský, new owner of Royal Mail

🇲🇹 - 20 December - MaltaPost issued a set of 3 single stamp miniature sheets to commemorate significant anniversaries in its modern history - the 60th anniversary of Independence, the 50th anniversary of the Republic and the 20th anniversary of Malta’s accession to the European Union.

🇮🇳 25 December - India Post issued a single stamp to commemorate the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, one of India's former prime ministers.

🇬🇩 29 December  - Former United States President James Earl Carter, known as ‘Jimmy’, died at the age of 100 years. In 2007 he had been featured on one stamp released by the Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation (IGPC) with the name of Grenada printed on it. This had been part of a long set issued in sheetlets, intended to feature in order all the former US Presidents. The face values of the stamps reflected the number of each Presidency (hence the Carter stamp had a face value of 39c, he being the 39th president). Doubtless the likes of IGPC and Stamperija will attempt to cash in on the former President’s death in the coming months with a barrage of new products claiming to commemorate him.

And with that thought -

Happy new year to everyone!