End of the British Indian Ocean Territory.
🇮🇴 Postal service of the British Indian Ocean Territory -
22 May 2025 - The fate of the Chagos Islands including Diego Garcia, location of a large, strategically important United States Airforce base, was finally settled on this date when the British prime minister signed an agreement to hand over the territory which had been a British possession since the Napoleonic Wars to Mauritius, an ally of China, along with a sum of money amounting to £30 billion. This agreement was generally against the wishes of the former inhabitants or their descendants (known as the.Chagossians) who had been given no formal say in the fate of the islands. Hence, British Indian Ocean Territory ceased to be a philatelic entity and became what stamp collectors have long termed, “a dead country”. The last stamps of the BIOT were issued in 2021 and featured Angelfish. See also Blogs 2580, 2312, 2260 and 2695 (April 1 edition).
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| BIOT’s final stamp, 2021. |
New issues -
🇱🇹 Stamperija (or affiliate) -
🇸🇱 Products inscribed Sierra Leone -
Stated ‘date of issue’, 15 January 2025 - Further to the reports in Blogs 2720 and 2721, additional numerous and expensive products have appeared with the name of Sierra Leone printed on them on the following subjects:- ‘Biodiversity of Africa treasures of the wild’, ‘Amazing species’, ‘Animal camouflage art’ and ‘Birds of Sierra Leone’. To give an idea of what some of these products look like, some ‘first day covers’ are depicted below. These products are not otherwise dealt with in any detail and as ever, caveat emptor.
