1583. 🇧🇩 Bangladesh Commemorates Victory Day.

🇧🇩 The postal service of Bangladesh issued a single stamp on 16 December 2019 to commemorate the national ‘Victory Day’. Rating:- ***.

🇬🇧 Illustrations, though not of great quality, of the Royal Mail issue to be released on 11 February 2020 which is titled ‘Visions of the Universe’ can now be seen on the internet. The issue coincides with the Bicentenary of the Royal Astronomical Society. The set is made up of 2 x 2nd class, 2 x 1st class, 2 x £1.55 and 2 x £1.60 values and there will also be a 4 pane Prestige booklet. Two of the panes include Machin Head definitives and one of them also includes ‘regional’ stamps from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Apparently the definitive codes are M19L MPIL.

The definitive pane includes 4 x 2p, 2 x £1.35p and 2 x 1p stamps and the regional pane additionally contains 2 x 5p and 2 x 10p stamps. If nothing else, this is a very colourful issue as well being interesting and commemorating a notable British anniversary. Rating:- ****.

🇹🇹 During 2019 T & T Post, the postal service of Trinidad And Tobago, reissued the 2 strips of stamps taken from the London 2010 Festival Of Stamps miniature sheet (issued on 8 May 2010) all with the original values obliterated and $2 surcharges applied to each stamp. I do not know the date of issue. Rating:- ****.

1582. 🇸🇿 Eswatini Still Using Swaziland Definitives.

🇸🇿 I received a registered package from eSwatini today (16  January 2020, package mailed on 29 November 2019 though one date-stamp on the reverse of the cover is dated 29-11-2014 (!)) which is very telling. The cover seems to indicate that although the King of eSwatini changed the country’s name from Swaziland in mid-2018 this has had little effect on the mail coming out of the country. The cover has values of the Swaziland ‘Butterflies’ definitive series with the name unchanged and the postmarks are unchanged and also include the name ‘Swaziland’. In the past countries that have changed their names have frequently overprinted their current definitive issue with the country’s new name and then gone on to issue a new series with the new country’s name inscribed on the new stamps. Despite 18 months having elapsed since the change of the country’s name the eSwatini postal service does not appear to have rushed into, or even dawdled into, reflecting the change of name although a couple of ‘commemorative’ sets have been issued with the new name printed on them (see Blog 1552). 

  New issue news coming out of eSwatini is sparse but it does not look as though it’s postal service did not issue any new stamps during 2019 but it may still be too early to know for sure.

🇺🇸 IGPC, the USA-based philatelic agency, has announced some new products with the names of its client philatelic entities printed on them. Most of the items have little or no relevance to the countries whose names are used on them nor is there any real reason for those territories to issue such ‘stamps’ though there is an issue from Guyana which is of national relevance in that country:- 

🇦🇬 Antigua And Barbuda - 1 November 2019 - Chinese art - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing a single stamp and the other containing 3 different stamps. Rating:- 0.

🇬🇩 Grenada - ?2019 - Wildlife Of Madagascar - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing a single stamp and the other containing 4 different stamps. Rating:- 0.

🇬🇾 Guyana - 30 December 2019 - Golden Jubilee of The Republic Of Guyana - 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps. Rating:- *****.

                       25 November 2019 - ‘Plants’ - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 1 stamp and the other containing 3 different stamps. Rating:- 0.

🇰🇳 Nevis - 6 January 2020 - Rabbits - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing a single stamp and the other containing 4 different stamps. Rating:- 0.

                   6 January 2020 - Sea animals - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing a single stamp and the other 4 different stamps. Rating:- 0.

🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea - ?2019 - HH Dorje Chang Buddha III - 1 sheetlet containing 6 identical stamps. Rating:- 0.

🇰🇳 St Kitts - ?2019 - 150th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi - 1 stamp issued in a sheetlet of 25. Rating:- ***.

🇹🇻 Tuvalu- ?2019 - Centenary of the 19th Amendment to the United States constitution (female suffrage) - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 6 different stamps and 1 containing a single stamp. Rating:- 0.

🇵🇰 Pakistan Post issued a single stamp on 10 January 2020 to commemorate the Birth centenary of Shaheed Hakim Mohammed Said who was a prominent researcher in eastern medicine and also the governor of Sindh Province from 1993 to 1994. Rating:- **.

🇮🇳 India Post’s first non-My Stamp issue of 2020 was released on 14 January 2020 as the fourth part of its ‘Indian Fashion’ series. The issue, titled ‘Designers’ creations’, was made up of 9 stamps and a miniature sheet containing all 9 stamps. Colourful. Rating:- ****.

1581. 🇨🇦 New Far And Wide Stamps From Canada.

🇨🇦 The first issue of 2020 from Canada Post was released on 13 January 2020 and took the form of a further part of the ongoing Far and Wide definitive series necessitated by a change in postal rates. The series depicts interesting landscapes across Canada. There are 9 stamps - 5 ‘P’ (permanent) values issued in booklets of 10 and 2 types of coils, 1 x $1.07 self-adhesive stamp sold in coils, 1 x $1.30 self-adhesive stamp (postal rate to The United States)  sold in coils and booklets of 6, 1 x $1.94 self-adhesive stamp (‘over-sized’ postal rate) sold in booklets of 6 and coils and 1 x $2.71 self-adhesive stamp (International rate) sold in booklets of 6 and coils. All 9 stamps have been combined in a gummed miniature sheet.

  The stamps were designed by Stéphane Huot and lithographed by Lowe Martin. Rating:- *****.

🇮🇳 The first India Post issue of 2020 was a My Stamp item issued in sheetlets of 12 and sold at a premium and commemorating the Centenary of the incorporation of Kirloskar Brothers Ltd as a public limited company. The stamp was issued on 6 January 2020.

  India Post then plans to release the following issues:-

14 January 2020 - Indian fashion, part 4

22 January 2020 -Centenary Of The International Labour Court

26 January 2020 - The Constitution Of India.

🇹🇷 The postal service of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus intends to release the following issues during 2020:-

12 March - UEFA EURO 2020 Football Championships

12 March - 32nd Olympic Games, Tokyo

21 May - Europa, ‘Ancient postal routes’

10 September -  Old Local soft drinks

19 November - Events and anniversaries.

🇴🇲 Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said of Oman died from bowel cancer at the age of 79 on 10 January 2020. The country has had a long history of close relations with The United Kingdom - detailed in Blog 438 - and its early philatelic history was tied to that of Britain’s Indian Empire initially and then, after Indian Independence, to Pakistan and then it had a British Post Office dealing with its postal needs from 1948 to 1966.

  The Anglo-Omani ties were so close, as they still remain, that the British helped Sultan Qaboos 

overthrow his father in a coup in 1970 and it has been announced that, following his death, flags will be flown at half mast on public buildings in The United Kingdom. The Omani royal family has chosen Sultan Qaboos’ cousin, Haithim bin Tarim al Said, to succeed him as Sultan.

  Sultan Qaboos was depicted on many Omani stamps during the course of his reign.

Sultan Hathim 

🇮🇳🇳🇬 In my opinion the undoubted major omnibus issue of 2019 was that which commemorated the 150th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The collecting of Gandhi stamps is immensely popular in India itself and there, if nowhere else, there is a large potential market for new stamps featuring this immensely important figure in Indian, Commonwealth and World history. Not only did his struggle affect India but as his work ended in the independence of India and the beginning of the break-up of The British Empire, Britain’s own history took a new path. Sadly Royal Mail felt it was more important to issue stamps during 2019 which commemorated the 20th anniversary of the publication of The Gruffalo rather than to commemorate Gandhi philatelically.

  But a large number of Commonwealth philatelic entities did release stamps to commemorate this significant anniversary - Antigua And Barbuda, Cyprus, Fiji, Ghana, Guyana, India, Kiribati, Malta, Mauritius, Montserrat, Mozambique, Nevis, Nigeria, St Kitts, St Vincent And The Grenadines, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Uganda.

  However the most spectacular item from these issues has to be that just sold on an internet auction site. The Nigerian single stamp (there was also a miniature sheet) was sold with and without holograms attached to it. The hologram-less stamps were used on the first day covers and very few were left in an unused state. A block of 4 of the hologram-less stamps sold for £305 (equal to £76.25p each) probably quite reasonably reflects the value of a rare item on a popular and sought-after theme. I might have placed a bid for a single but I am quite happy to have an example of that stamp in my collection used on first day cover and at a more easily affordable price.