2344.. 🇦🇮🇦🇬🇩🇲🇬🇩🇲🇸🇰🇳🇱🇨🇻🇨 Eastern Caribbean Omnibus In September.

 

🇦🇮🇦🇬🇩🇲🇬🇩🇲🇸🇰🇳🇱🇨🇻🇨 Postal services of the Eastern Caribbean States (Anguilla, Antigua And Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts And Nevis, Saint Lucia and St Vincent And The Grenadines) -

Expected date of issue - September 2023 - 40th anniversary of the Eastern Caribbean Community Bank, winning competition designs - 3 values. Competition winners - 1st  (age 5-11) - Vedant Shetty of St Vincent And The Grenadines, (turtle), 1st (age 12-17) Mea Emmanuel of Saint Lucia and 1st (age 18 and over) (signing of the ECCB agreement). Each postal administration will issue the stamps in the denominations most used in the respected territory.

🇳🇿 New Zealand Post -

3 August 2023 - 150th anniversary of the first postage stamp to be printed in New Zealand - the 1873 1/2d Newspaper stamp - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by Caitlin McArthur and lithographed by Brebner Print and perforated 14.5. Rating:- *****.

Withdrawn issue.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail - 

13 July 2023 - River wildlife - strip of 5 x 1st Class values. As reported by the indispensable Norvic Philatelic Blog, these stamps were printed in error with a single phosphor band (normally used on 2nd Class domestic rate stamps). The strip of five different stamps and the presentation packs have been removed from sale on the Royal Mail Stamps and Collectables internet site. These are the affected stamps:-

1722. 🇮🇪 Father Ted Celebrates His 25th Anniversary.

🇮🇪 An Post, the postal service of the Republic Of Ireland, issued a booklet containing 5 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing the 4 ‘N’ value stamps on 27 August 2020. The issue commemorates the 25th anniversary of the highly popular, well-loved and successful comedy television series, Father Ted, set on a lonely island off the Irish Coast where problematical Irish Catholic priests seem to end up. The issue, featuring memorable catchphrases of some of the most popular characters, was designed by Detail.

  The series is very memorable and I think the stamp issue itself might also have been more fun if some of the hilariously surreal scenes from the series had been featured on the stamps together with the quotations rather than dull lettering alone. A missed opportunity. Rating:- **.

🇲🇲 The postal service of Myanmar will issue a single stamp as the third in its immensely pleasing ongoing Craftsman series on 28 August 2020 featuring, so it would appear, a bell- maker. The stamp was designed by Shwe Yoe Yar and Thiha Lwin and lithographed by the Security Printer Myanmar,and perforated 14. Rating:- *****.

🇬🇮 The Royal Gibraltar Post Office will issue a set of 5 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing 2 different stamps on 25 September 2020 on the subject of Owls of Gibraltar. Further details are awaited but one of the values in the set is £4 which seems rather excessive. There appears to be no particular reason as to why the Gibraltar postal service should issue such a set at this particular time given that its new issue programme is once more a very busy one. The artwork is lovely but this is an excessive issue. Rating:- **. Illustrations of the remaining designs will be added when available.

🇲🇸 IGPC has now revealed the design of the miniature sheet containing 3 different stamps on the subject of Orchids which it states that it released on 31 December 2019. The issue has the name of Montserrat printed on it. Rating:- 0.

1676. 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea Commemorates Local Newspaper.

🇵🇬 Designs of some of the stamps to be released by Post PNG, the postal service of Papua New Guinea, which were detailed in Blog 1672, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the local newspaper, the Post Courier, can now been seen on the PostPNG Philatelic internet site. It is an interesting set. I can not yet see an illustration of the sheetlet of 4 stamps. Rating:- ****.

🇱🇰 Included below now are better quality illustrations of the Sri Lanka Post set of 3 stamps and 1 miniature sheet celebrating Vesak which was mentioned in Blog 1675:-

🇺🇸 The US-based philatelic agency which seems to have been hibernating over the last 3 months, no doubt due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, has released a very short list of additional new items with the names of client territories printed on them which it claims to have issued. The information is generally without any accompanying illustrations.

Items with the names of Commonwealth countries printed on them are:-

🇲🇸 Montserrat - 31 December 2019 - Orchids - I sheetlet containing 3 different stamps.

🇰🇳 Nevis - 20 May 2020 - Quatercentenary of the Pilgrim Fathers’ arrival in Plymouth - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 6 different stamps and the other containing a single stamp.

🇸🇱 Sierra Leone - 1 March 2020 - Commemoration of HH Dorje Buddha III - an item sold by the agency for US$8 but description of it not given.

This list covers the period up until May 2020 since the previous update.

1612. 🇸🇭 Tristan Da Cunha Commemorates UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

🇸🇭 The postal service of Tristan Da Cunha will issue an excellent set of 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet depicting birds on 24 March 2020 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of

Gough Island and Inaccessible Island as UNESCO World Heritage sites. Designed by Andrew Robinson from photographers by Michelle Risi, Andy Schofield, Jaimie Cleland and Chris Jones and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13.5 x 13 with production coordination by Creative Direction (Worldwide) Ltd.

🇫🇰 The postal service of The Falkland Islands will issue a set of 4 stamps on 16 March 2020 as the fourth part of its ongoing Ship wrecks series. The issue was designed by Tony Chater and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13 x 13.5. Rating:- ****.

  Many thanks to Juliet Warner of Pobjoy Stamps for information about the above two issues.

🇺🇸 The USA-based philatelic agents, IGPC, has outlined the latest products it is letting loose on to the new issue market. In the past few months there seems to have been a fall in the number of ‘issues’ it releases with the names of its client territories printed on them and which have been produced by the agency itself (Grenada, Antigua And Barbuda and The Gambia for instance) rather than merely being sold by them but produced by someone else (Guernsey Post for instance). Perhaps the general collapse of the new issue market which has been the result of excessive stamp issuing over the years and which all started with the activities of IGPC itself is now resulting in a case of being ‘hoist by its own petard’. Thus we have only 5 new issues for Commonwealth philatelic entities:-

🇬🇲 The Gambia - 24 February 2020 - Chinese art of Dr Wang - 2 miniature sheets, one containing 3 different stamps and the other containing a single stamp. Rating:- 0.

🇬🇩 Grenada - ?2020 - Rabbits - 2 miniature sheets, one containing 6 stamps and the other containing a single stamp. Rating:- 0.

🇬🇩 Grenada Carriacou And Petite Martinique - ?2020 - Commemoration of HH Dorje Buddha III - 1 sheetlet containing 6 identical stamps. Rating:- 0.

🇬🇾 Guyana - ?2020 - Chinese New Year, Year of the Rat - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 4 different stamps and the other containing a single stamp . Rating:- 0.

🇲🇸 Montserrat - ?2020 - Chinese new year, Year of the Rat - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 4 different stamps and the other containing a single stamp. Rating:- 0.

🇬🇧 Moving on to the latest philatelic product to be revealed by Royal Mail - a miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps (1 each of the Scottish regional stamps) to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Arbroath (see Blog 1579). This item with its exquisitely uninspired design will be sold from 6 April 2020. Clearly Royal Mail was trying to save money on designer’s fees when this product was conceived. Rating:- 0.

1565. 🇺🇸 Latest IGPC Products Depict Gandhi and Animals.

🇺🇸 The US-based philatelic agency, IGPC, has released illustrations of its latest products with the names of some of its client postal administrations printed on them. These items were detailed without illustrations in Blog 1550. A number of the items do not have a precise date of issue. It is worth noting that the Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue supplements published in Gibbons Stamp Monthly have not listed any IGPC products for over 2 years. Collectors will judge for themselves whether or not these items have a place in their collections.

🇦🇬 Antigua And Barbuda - 2019- the American crocodile

2019 - Sheep

2019 - Exotic birds, the Flamingo

2019 - Turkey vultures 

🇬🇲 The Gambia - 27 September 2019 - HH Dorje Chang Buddha III

2019 - The pangolin

2019 - Reptiles

🇬🇩 Grenada Carriacou And Petite Martinique - 2019 - Lizards

2019 - Saltwater fish.

🇬🇾 Guyana - 6 November 2019 - Mega moths

1 October 2019 - 150th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

27 September 2019 - HH Dorje Chang Buddha.

🇲🇸 Montserrat - 10 October 2019 - 150th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

15 August 2019 - The Caribbean flamingo.

🇰🇳 Nevis - 2019  - Angelfish

🇻🇨 St Vincent And The Grenadines - 2019 - Black Vulture.