New issues.
🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Post Office -
12 April 2024 - ‘The Life of Bees’, 150th anniversary of the British Beekeepers Association - 6 stamps (total face value £10.85 and I ‘Commemorate sheet’ containing the stamps in self-adhesive format sold for £20. Designed by EJC Design and lithographed by bpost and perforated 11.5. Rating:- **.
13 May 2024 - Peel traditional boats - 6 stamps. Designed by EJC Design from illustrations by Nicola Dixon and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13.5. Total face values £10.76. Rating:- **.
🇦🇺 Australia Post -
Postal rates will rise in Australia from 2 April 2024 including the basic domestic rate which will rise from $1.20 by an enormous 25% to $1.50. The price of ‘Concession stamps’ will remain unchanged at $3 for a booklet of five and the seasonal greeting card rate will remain at 65c.
The first new issue in the new rate will be -
28 March 2024 - Marine state emblems - 3 gummed stamps, 1 miniature sheet containing all 3 stamps and self-adhesive stamps from booklets of 10 or 20 featuring the Leafy sand dragon stamp andd from coils.. Designed by Simone Sakinofsky .using illustrations by Roger Swinton. Lithographed by RA Print or Rapid Labels and perforated 14 x 14.5. Rating:- ***.
🇸🇴 Somaliland - Fake Machin Head surcharges.
I have dealt with these items before (see Blogs - that of 10 July 2010 and Blog no. 1683). Since it declared itself to be an independent state on 18 May 1991 the Republic of Somaliland has failed to receive formal international recognition by any single country and continues to be considered to be a part of sovereign Somalia. This is despite the fact that Somaliland has functioned completely separately as a political entity since 1991 and may be viewed as a successor state to the former Somaliland which came into being on 26 June 1960 after the British granted independence to the former protectorate of British Somaliland which Britain had ruled since 1884. Somaliland ceased to exist as an independent state when it was joined to the former Italian Somaliland on 1 July 1960 to form the State of Somalia, meaning that Somaliland was a sovereign state for just four days, one of the shortest periods of existence of an independent country in modern times.
During its brief existence in 1960, the Somaliland postal service used three overprinted Somalia stamps for any mail that was sent by local residents. Subsequently, of course, the stamps of the State of Somalia were used in the former British territory.
At no time since Somaliland attempted to establish itself as an independent country in 1991 has it had a functioning postal service although in recent years there have been reports of developments which may, or may not, lead to one. The United Arab Emirates has played a role in these developments and, like a number of other countries has diplomatic relations with the Somaliland government though it does not recognise formally Somaliland as an independent state. Doubtless these moves by the regionally expansionist UAE government are linked to its agreement to have a military basis at Hargeisa, the Somaliland capital.
With no postal service, Somaliland has never required postage stamps. A number of nonsensical fake stamps came on to the market in 1998 and this has been covered in the previous blogs noted above. The most notorious of these items were the surcharges in Somaliland currency on Machin Head 1p definitives. For a long time, and probably even presently, some collectors of Machin Head stamps tended to believe the fantastical background story concocted about the genesis of these items. It is without doubt pure fabrication and there is nothing to suggest, and there is no reason to believe, that these surcharges were ever sold in Somaliland. To reemphasise, there was no functioning postal service in Somaliland when these confections first appeared on the philatelic market. They appear to have originated in Britain and were produced here and sold here and they are nothing but fantastical.
It is surprising therefore that these items continue to be offered for sale without it being made clear that they are fakes. These items are presently being sold on an internet auction site at the remarkable price of £499 (or best offer!) for an example of the 2 surcharges - “with and without stars”. The seller repeats the original information about them put out in 1998 and I can only think that he is unaware that these items were described untruthfully 25 years ago. I suspect there are many others who are also unaware of the nature of these products.
The two varieties -
