New issues.
🇮🇪 An Post (postal service of the Republic of Ireland).
29 February 2024 - Bicentenary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution - 2 self-adhesive stamps. Designed by Zinc Design Consultants from illustrations by David Rooney. Lithographed by Enschedé. Rating:- *****.
With this issue, The Irish Republic’s postal service joins those of Isle Of Man, Jersey and Guernsey in commemorating the 200 years of the RNLI, a great and important British institution which represents the noblest features of humanity - self-sacrifice, heroism, philanthropy, generosity and bravery. It is unfortunate and perhaps typical of the trite, show biz mentality of those who currently plan Royal Mail’s new issue programmes, that there is no room among this year’s Royal Mail commemorative stamps for an issue to celebrate the RNLI’s Bicentenary but philatelic commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Peppa Pig is so significant to these islands that it does warrant a stamp issue.
Those who run Royal Mail’s philatelic programme should be ashamed of the despicable way they are ignoring the good and noble for the trite and pointless. Commemoration on a British stamp should be accorded to those of great and historic achievement and not ephemeral music performers, games for men who never grew up or banal children’s cartoons.
Stamps from the RNLI sets issued by the postal services of Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey -
🇲🇺 Mauritius Post -
29 February 2024 - The Agaléga Islands 2 stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.
This is a very interesting issue. Agaléga is a dependency of Mauritius and a detailed discussion of the philatelic items produced by the Mauritius postal service over recent years on the subject of the islands is to be found in Blog 1678. Agaléga was very much ignored by the central Mauritius government until recently when Mauritius entered into an agreement with India to allow the latter to open a naval base on the islands in the face of opposition by the Agalégans themselves. The press was full of reports in January 2024 that the Indian base was to go ahead. This present issue seems to be tied in to local developments in Agaléga.
It is interesting because in laying claim to the British Indian Ocean Territory at the International Court, the government of Mauritius claimed to be paying attention to the needs of the Chagosians whom the British had forcibly expelled from their homes in the Chagos Islands in association with the building of an enormous American base on Diego Garcia in the early 1970s. Now it seems that the government of Mauritius, having long wilfully neglected their own citizens in Agaléga, is preparing to inflict on those unfortunate islanders the same loathsome treatment as the British inflicted on the Chagosians. This stamp issue seems to underline the cynical actions of the Mauritius government towards its own citizens and as such is of historical as well as philatelic interest.
🇮🇳 India Post -
25 February 2024 - Yakshagana (traditional form of folk dance performed in districts of Coastal Karnatika) - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.
27 February 2024 - Centenary of the All India Railwayman’s Federation - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:-*.
🇲🇾 Pos Malaysia -
27 February 2024 - Malay traditional firearms - 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Lithographed by Brebner Print. Rating:- ****.
Commonwealth countries and territories which are not yet known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any postage stamps during 2024 up until the end of Februa
Aitutaki Cook Islands
Alderney
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda
British Antarctic Territory
British Indian Ocean Territory
British Virgin Islands
Cameroon
Cayman Islands
Cocos (Keeling) Islands Australia
Cook Islands including Rarotonga Cook Islands
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Dominica
Gabon
The Gambia
Ghana
Grenada
Grenada Carriacou and Petite Martinique
Guyana
Jamaica
Kenya
Kingdom of eSwatini
Kiribati
Lesotho
Malawi
Maldives
Montserrat
Namibia
Nauru
Nevis
Nigeria
Niuafo’ou Tonga
Niue
Papua New Guinea
Penrhyn Cook Islands
Pitcairn Islands
Ross Dependency
Rwanda
St Helena
St Kitts
Saint Lucia
St Vincent and The Grenadines
Samoa
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Solomon Islands
Togo
Tokelau
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tristan Da Cunha
Turks And Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
Uganda
United Republic of Tanzania
Vanuatu
Zambia
Therefore, by the end of February, 61 out of 88 (69.3%) Commonwealth philatelic entities are not yet known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps. This compares with the figure of 74 (84.1%) at the end of January and a figure of 55 (62.5%) at the end of February 2023.
Regarding the list of non-issuing Commonwealth philatelic entities for 2023, as reported in Blog 2454 stamp issues were reported by IGPC from the postal services of Nevis, St Kitts and Turks and Caicos Islands (although no illustrations of them have been released yet as far as I can see). These therefore bring down the previously reported number of Commonwealth philatelic entities not issuing stamps during 2023 to a total of 24 (27% compared with 21.3% for 2022).
