2392. 🇲🇺 Mauritius Depicts Birds To Commemorate Diplomatic Relations With India.

 

New issues.

🇲🇺 Mauritius Post -

2 November 2023 - 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Mauritius and India - 1 stamps from sheets of 100 and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Lithographed by Brebner Print. Rating:- *****.

🇮🇳 India Post -

My Post personalised stamps usually sold at a premium in sheetlets of 12 with attached labels 

2023 - 40th anniversary of Apollo Hospitals - 1 stamp.

2023 - 150th anniversary of Bombay Port Authority - 1 stamp.

1884 🇭🇰 Hong Kong Museum Series Depicts China Trade Art.

 

  🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post continues to issue very attractive stamps. It’s new issue programme is clearly excessive but the stamp designs are generally excellent and tell Hong Kong’s story beautifully as its approaches its end of days as an international political entity and, one assumes, also as a philatelic entity (The People’s Republic of China, daily tightening its grip on political freedoms inside the former British colony, must surely suppress it entirely over the next five to ten years). So let us make the most of Hong Kong new issues while we still have them.

  A beautiful set of 6 stamps and 3 miniature sheets (2 containing a single stamp and the other a ‘mini-pane containing 2 of each stamp) was issued on 25 May 2021 as part of the ongoing ‘Hong Kong Museums Collection’ (an annual issue), this time depicting 19th century ‘China Trade’ paintings. The issue was designed by Shirman Lai and lithographed by Cartor, the $20 miniature sheet also having ‘3D embossing’. The stamps are perforated 14 x 13.5 with the $10 and $20 miniature sheets being perforated 14.5 x 14. Rating:- *****.

  🇲🇹 MaltaPost issued a set of 4 stamps on 28 May 2021 on the subject of Old maps. The 50c value also includes the inscription ‘sepac’ as its contribution to this year’s mini-omnibus series. Generally I think maps as subjects for stamp designs do not work well especially if the maps have a lot of detail on them. This is the case with this issue, designed by MaltaPost plc using images supplied by the Malta Map Society. The stamps were lithographed by Printex and are perforated 14. Rating:- **.

  As May draws to a close we return to the list of Commonwealth philatelic entities which have not so far issued, or are not known to have issued, or not have issued on their behalf, any new postage stamps during 2021:-

Aitutaki Cook Islands

Anguilla 

Belize 

Brunei Darussalam

Cameroon 

Cayman Islands

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 

Dominica

eSwatini

Ghana

Jamaica

Kenya

Lesotho

Malawi

Maldives

Montserrat

Mozambique

Nauru

Niuafo’ou Tonga

Papua New Guinea

Penrhyn Cook Islands

Pitcairn Island

Rarotonga Cook Islands

Ross Dependency

Rwanda 

St Kitts

Saint Lucia

Samoa

Sierra Leone

Solomon Islands

Tanzania

Tokelau

Trinidad And Tobago

Turks And Caicos Islands

Uganda 

Vanuatu 

Zambia.

  That is a total of 39 philatelic entities, down from 41 at the end of April and 54 at the end of March. I include a total of 88 territories in my list of Commonwealth philatelic entities and so 49 of these have now issued stamps in 2021.

1068. 🇯🇪 Jersey Commemorates Lillie Langtry But Why Now?

  🇯🇪 Jersey Post will issue a large set of 8 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 22 September 2017 to commemorate the fabled "Jersey Lily", the Jersey-born actress and mistress of King Edward VII, Lillie Langtry This is undoubtedly an attractive and interesting set though very little effort seems to have been put into its design since it is made up of photographs of the actress with a little bit of lettering and the Queen's Head applied to them (I could produce these designs myself on my I Pad in a matter of minutes).

  Another question about these items arises as to why they are to be issued now, the issue doesn't seem to coincide with any notable anniversary relating to Langtry (born 1853 [164th birth anniversary?], died 1929 [88th death anniversary?] ho hum). One presumes that the subject was thought up because Jersey Post issues so very many stamps per year that any subject relating to the island is fair game whether there's a good reason to release such an issue or not. It all goes to meeting the Philatelic bureau's financial targets - there's always some collector out there with the money to spend. Interesting stamps but Rating:- 0.

  🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Post Office plans to issue a set of 6 stamps on 13 September 2017 to commemorate the inventor, horologist and philanthropist, Dr. John C. Taylor, who, while being an Englishman born in Buxton in Derbyshire, attended school in the Isle Of Man and worked in business in Castletown and was awarded an Honorary degree by the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology having made donations to the University and he was also a donor to Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, his alma mater.

  Taylor is a horologist and in 2008 donated a £1 million clock to Corpus Christie which was the first in a series of such time pieces which he calls Chronophages (which sounds rather fanciful and like a monster from Dr. Who). The stamps depict various aspects of Taylor's interests, inventions and innovations. The question I have about this issue is similar to the Jersey Post Langtry issue - why issue it now?

  The issue doesn't seem to commemorate any particular anniversary relevant to Taylor (he was born in 1936 - perhaps the issue is to commemorate the 81st anniversary of his birth, or perhaps not). Ho hum, again.

  Rating:- 0.