New Issues -
đŹđŹ Guernsey Post -
đ¨đś Products inscribed Sark -
27 August 2025 - Sark during the German occupation and the 80th anniversary of liberation, marked by a royal visit by the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence - ?3 stamps. Further details and illustrations awaited.
3 September 2025 - Definitive series, wild flowers of Sark - 15 stamps. Further details awaited. Rating:- 0.
đŚđŞ Emirates Post (postal service of United Arab Emirates) -
30 July 2025 - 20th anniversary of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood - 1 stamp issued in a sheetlet of 4 identical stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- ***.
Sark?! What's next?!
ReplyDeleteGuernsey Post is trying to cash in as much as possible while they still can.
They know with ever increasing postage rates and a decreasing number of collectors and stamp using consumers the new issue market will crash sooner or later.
Found a better image of the flower stamps if you need it.
ReplyDeletehttps://x.com/guernseystamps
Thank you.
DeleteSark appears to have quite a bit of independence within the Bailiwick, thong not as much as Alderney. I agree with Stewie1980 that it is a cash grab, but Sark has a bigger population than a number of other British dependencies who issue stamps. Of course issuing stamps for Pitcairn, Tristan or South Georgia and South Sandwich is in part revenue raising, and part political flex. Tristan is actually part of St Helena so technically doesn’t need its own stamps.
ReplyDeleteThe political statuses of the Crown and British dependencies are complicated and confusing. Sark is a Crown Dependency ruled as part of the Crown Dependency of the Bailwick of Guernsey. I agree that as such and because of its longterm historical status, quite logically, it should be entitled to have its own postage stamps though ‘Sark’ will not be issuing those stamps - they will be released by Guernsey Post - and it seems it has taken decades for the people of Sark to feel they need to have their own postage stamps. Tristan is a Dependency of, not an integral part of, St Helena & has, by now, a long history and tradition of having its name on postage stamps. The South Atlantic & Antarctic Dependencies need postage stamps, even if unpopulated, as an assertion of British sovereignty over them. Finally we have the BIOT whose status was never fully defined in the original Treaty in the early 19th century but which was never part of the Crown Colony of Mauritius but ruled, for convenience, from Port Louis and as it had never been a part of Mauritius, despite an International Court ruling, should never have been handed over to be part of the Republic of Mauritius against the will of the exiled Chagossians by the present British government. It is not hard to believe that the issue of Sark stamps now has more to do with exploiting stamp collectors and trying to increase Guernsey Post failing sales than it does with the clamour of the small population of Sark for their own postage stamps.
DeleteI should take a deep breath after that!
DeleteActually I would argue that it seems more logical for Sark to have its own stamps than Alderney as Sark is far more independent of Guernsey than Alderney as a result of the 1948 agreement. Sark’s independent fiscal system, minimal delegation of services to Guernsey, and greater control over local legislation and administration give it a higher degree of self-governance. Alderney, while possessing its own legislature, is more integrated into the Bailiwick of Guernsey due to the 1948 Agreement, which delegates key services and fiscal rights to Guernsey, reducing its overall autonomy.
ReplyDeleteI agree the number of issues and the high values are getting out of control for many issuing territories but I for one am looking forward to these new issues as long as they remain relevant. I’ve long stopped collecting Royal Mail new issues for the reasons listed above. I shall miss BIOT issues and I very much miss the old Pitcairn philatelic bureau that operated out of Wellington. Those letter affixed with beautiful stamps were precisely what got me into philately as a teenager. Two other favourites Montserrat and Anguilla have not had a new issue in several years to my knowledge. I am grateful that there are still territories with conservative issuing programmes and beautiful issues among them TDC, Falkland Islands, South Georgia, BAT. Long may these continue.
WK replying- I agree with everything you say about all the different territories. I suppose Alderney, long ago, was set up as a ‘philatelic entity’ as it had a larger population than Sark. The way things are going with the rather desperate Guernsey Post I would not be surprised to see issues for islands which were once private post entities such as Jethou and Lihou and Guernsey Post establishing a new issue programme like the individual islands of St Vincent and The Grenadines or the islands of Tuvalu or the Cayes of Belize. So low have these offshore islands sunk that one of them or all of them could easily resume a ‘Leaders of the World’ series as we saw from Tuvalu and other clients of the notorious Philatelists Limited. Oh, and I’m surprised that the prolific IOM hasn’t found its way to issuing stamps for the Calf Of Man. How much longer can this go on?
DeleteCalf of Man has no regular inhabitants - just two who only spend six months on the island. The catalogues refuse to list Redonda stamps as there's no permanent inhabitants, and I suspect that Calf of Man wouldn't be listed. The comparison with the islands of Tuvalu etc. is a moot point - Stanley Gibbons will list the Sark issue. SG often lists things for the UK and the Channel Islands/Isle of Man which they don't list for other countries.
DeleteThank you. I guess you deduced that my most recent comment was written tongue-in-cheek though whether you can write, rather than say, tongue in cheek is, I suppose, debatable.
DeleteAn image of the first issue is shown on ITV's news website.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.itv.com/news/channel/2025-08-04/sark-to-issue-first-gb-stamps-in-historic-move
Thank you again, will post the illustrations.
Delete