1265. 🇧🇼 African New Issues Commemorate Former Presidents.

  🇧🇼 While the South African Post Office is busy commemorating the birth centenary of former President Nelson Mandela with several stamp issues, Botswana Post has also been philatelically celebrating the life of another notable Commonwealth statesman, the former President of Botswana, Sir Ketumile Quett Joni Masire on the occasion of the first anniversary of his death on 22 June 2017.

  Quett Masire, as he was then known, became President of Botswana in 1980 after the death of the country's founding father, Sir Seretse Khama. It is a tribute to these first two presidents that throughout its modern history Botswana has remained a stable and prospering democracy unlike many other states across Africa.

  The issue was designed by Baboloki Somolekae and lithographed by Southern Colour Print and perforated 13.5. The P7.00 value depicts Sir Ketumile Masire with the late Nelson Mandela. Rating:- ****.

  🇬🇬 Guernsey Stamps 'tweeted' on 18 July 2018 that its Post and Go kiosk GG03 situated in the Guernsey Information Centre in St Peter Port had dispensed on that day strips of the 'Flowers' Post and Go stamps with additional inscriptions applied to commemorate the visits of the cruise ships Black Watch and Columbus to the island on that date.

  🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Stamps And Coins will issue a set of 6 stamps on 1 August 2018 to mark the Centenary of the end of the First World War by depicting ANZAC war memorials which were designed by Rayner Hoff who had been born in The Isle Of Man in 1894 and studied at the Nottingham School of Art and then fought in France during the War. After the War he studied in Rome and in 1923 he became Director of sculpture and sketching at East Sydney Technical College in Australia and from 1931 to 1934 worked on sculptures and panels for the ANZAC War Memorial in Hyde Park in Sydney. It is this achievement which is commemorated by this stamp issue.

  The set was designed by Louise Cornwall and lithographed by Lowe Martin and perforated 13. A worthy issue with some relevance to the Isle Of Man. Rating:- ***.

  🇳🇪🇹🇬 Nothing to do with The Commonwealth except of course that the issues commemorate a great Commonwealth statesman - 2 more Nelson Mandela Centenary issues which form part of the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU) omnibus issue, this time from Togo and Niger. Here, as well as single stamp miniature sheets, there are sheetlets of 6 identical stamps. Interestingly, although these stamps are from Francophone countries, the inscriptions on the stamps are entirely in English:-

  See also Blog 1264.

801. Welcome To Adamstown.

  Bounty Post, the postal service of Pitcairn Islands, will issue a set of 4 stamps on 24 August 2016 on the subject of Adamstown, the settlement on Pitcairn. The interesting and colourful set depicts scenes of the settlement which are depicted on 2 x $2 se-tenant pairs which were designed by Denise Durkin and lithographed by Southern Colour Print and perforated 14.5 x 14. Rating:- *****.

  Natalie Rooney of New Zealand won the country's first medal at the 2016 Olympic Games when she achieved the silver place in the women's trap shooting event on 7 August and therefore becomes the first competitor who will feature on one of New Zealand Post's medallist miniature sheets mentioned in Blog 797.

  Australia Post, meanwhile already has 3 sheetlets of gold medallist stamps to issue - one each for Mack Horton in the men's swimming 400m freestyle event, the women's 4 x 100m freestyle relay team (Bronte Campbell, Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmslie, Emma McKeon and Madison Wilson) and Catherine Skinner for the women's trap shooting competition.

  Pos Malaysia will reissue the Sabah train miniature sheet with an additional inscription on 10 August 2016 to mark its participation in Thailand 2016 32nd International Philatelic Exhibition to be held in Bangkok from 10 to 15 August 2016. 

  The excellent website, Joint Stamp Issues, has pointed out something which I had not previously noticed - that the notorious philatelic agency, Stamperija, has apparently had its first shot at an omnibus series, or at the very least, a minibus issue. Towards the end of 2015, it released a number of philatelic products in the form of 3 "sheetlets" which were said to commemorate the 70th anniversary of The United Nations. 

  Two Commonwealth members had their names inscribed on these products - Mozambique and Solomon Islands - whilst the third was inscribed with the name of a French-speaking African country - Niger. The "sheetlets" each contained 4 "stamps" - 3 of them were repeated in all 3 "sheetlets" and therefore giving us what may pass as an omnibus issue whilst the fourth "stamp" in each sheet depicted the national flag and coat of arms of the named country. The appropriate flag and arms were depicted on the "stamps" from the 2 Commonwealth territories but the "stamp" of Niger, while depicting correctly the country's national flag (apart from the flag's proportions), featured not the arms of Niger but the coat of arms of Nigeria.

 Easy mistake I suppose - here you are, appointed official philatelic agent for a country and charged with designing, producing, selling and making a profit from official items which bear the country's name and project its national image, and you can't even be bothered to identify correctly one of the most important symbols of that country's sovereignty. Still, I don't suppose anyone in Niger will be particularly bothered about it since it's unlikely that any of these "stamps" will ever find their way to a post office counter in Niger. 

  Stamperija's first omnibus issue:-

  The coat of arms of Nigeria as shown on the above sheet from Niger:-

  The real coat of arms of Niger:-

 As mentioned in Blog 800, India Post's Rio Olympics stamps, issued on 5 August 2016, were issued in sheetlets which contained the stamps in different formats - as singles, as blocks of 4 and as strips of four. Why?

  At least recent issues from India Post have been rather more interesting than some of the issues from earlier in the year - a set featuring orchids will be released on 8 August 2016 and will be made up of 6 stamps (2 x Rs5, 2 x Rs15 and 2 x Rs25) and 1 x Rs90 miniature sheet containing the 6 basic stamps.

756. Two New Post And Go Museum Sites.

  New Zealand Post will issue a sheetlet of 10 different stamps on 22 June 2016 to provide new values and some new designs for its Personalised Stamps. The stamps were designed by New Zealand Stamps and lithographed by Southern Colour Print, perforated 14. Rating:- **.

  The Royal Mail "Post and Go" extravaganza continues unabated. From 1 June 2016 two new kiosks will begin dispensing labels on both of the tiresomely familiar  Machin Head and Union Flag designs. Both kiosks will be situated at Royal Navy museums - at HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool (kiosk A006) and at HMS Caroline in Belfast (kiosk A008) - and the labels will be dispensed with the inscription "Royal Navy". Just to double the cost to collectors, the labels will have the additional inscription "Battle of Jutland" which will be used only until 30 June 2016. 

  HMS Trincomalee was built in India due to a shortage of oak in Britain resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and launched in 1817 and on her maiden voyage visited St. Helena in 1819 where it took on board John Stokoe, a surgeon who attended the deposed French tyrant Bonaparte who was exiled there (I see the likely subject for a stamp issue from that island coming up in 2019). The ship was placed in reserve until 1845 and then served on the North American and West Indies station. While there the ship participated in quelling riots on Haiti and prevented an invasion of Cuba and served in the anti-slavery patrol. The ship then served off Newfoundland and Labrador and later as part of the Pacific Squadron off the American west coast. The ship ended its Royal Navy service as a training ship and was withdrawn from service in 1895 and sod for scrap in 1897 but its private buyer restored it and it remained in service until 1986 and it has now become the historic dockyard museum in Hartlepool.

  HMS Caroline is a decommissioned cruiser which was launched in 1914 and saw active service in the First World War. The ship served as an administrative centre in World War II and was finally decommissioned in 2011. The ship was a static headquarters and training ship for the Royal Naval Reserve based in Alexandra Dock in Belfast and is the last surviving ship of The Battle of Jutland.

  The Caroline was turned into a visitor attraction in time for the centenary of the Battle of Jutland.

  It is quite appropriate therefore that the "Post and Go" labels at the HMS Caroline site in particular should have The Battle of Jutland  additional inscription but isn't it time that these museum "Post and Gos" were printed on labels which have more interesting illustrations? - surely it can't be that much more expensive to produce individual designs for each site rather than the excruciatingly boring Machin Head and Union Jack designs - punters buying these labels might then feel as though they're getting value for money.

  IGPC, the USA-based philatelic agency has produced some more philatelic items with the names of various Commonwealth territories printed on them:-

  Ghana - 1 March 2016 - Commemoration of Muhammad Ali (US boxer) - 1 sheetlet of 6 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Rating:- 0.

  Grenada - 16 May 2016 - 90th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II (Queen of Grenada) - 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Rating:- ***

  16 May 2016 - "NY 2016" Philatelic Exhibition, New York, USA - 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps and1 miniature sheet. Rating:- 0.

  Grenada Carriacou And Petite St. Martinique - 1 May 2016 - 50th anniversary of the Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Terechkova becoming the first woman in space - 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Rating:- 0.

  1 April 2016 - 90th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II (Queen of Grenada) - 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Rating:- *.

  30 May 2016 - "NY 2016" Philatelic Exhibition, New York, USA - 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Rating:- 0.

  St. Vincent And The Grenadines - 11 April 2016 - Achievement of Queen Elizabeth II in becoming the longest reigning British monarch (she is also the Queen of St. Vincent And The Grenadines) - 1 sheetlet of 3 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Rating:- **.

  Collectors of stamps of The Commonwealth have been spared any new items produced by the notorious Stamperija this week but I reproduce one of the products which has appeared, with the name of Niger printed on it, which is said to commemorate the 90th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. The design is incredibly appalling and includes monstrous depictions of The Queen which verge on being insulting.

Who buys this stuff? Is anyone out there prepared to admit to it?