2436. 🇭🇰 Corruption In Hong Kong.

 

New issues.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post -

15 February 2024 - Anti-corruption campaign in Hong Kong - 6 stamps and 2 miniature sheets (one containing a single stamp and the other described as a ‘mini-pane’ containing 2 of each value). Designed by Hikoko Ito. Lithographed. Rating:- ***.

Events - Royal Visit to St Helena.

🇸🇭 St Helena -

23 - 26 January 2024 - The Duke of Edinburgh, youngest brother of King Charles III, will visit St Helena to open officially the new St Helena Airport (among other duties there) and it seems likely that stamps to commemorate the visit will be issued, probably after the event. This will be the first royal visit to the island since the visit of the Princess Royal in 2002. Six stamps and 1 miniature sheet were issued by the St Helena postal service on 1 December 2022 to commemorate the anniversaries of previous royal visits to St Helena - the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (Bowes-Lyon) with their two daughters, the then Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose in1947, the visit of the present king’s father, Philip Duke of Edinburgh in 1957 and the 2002 visit of the Princess Royal. The island was also visited by one of the son’s of Queen Victoria, Alfred the first Duke of Edinburgh.

  One royal visit to St Helena which was not featured on the 2022 issue was that of the third sibling of King Charles III, Prince Andrew Duke Of York, whose visit to St Helena in 1984 was commemorated by a set of 2 stamps issued on 4 April 1984. Presently of course the Prince is a virtual persona non grata due to his alleged links with the Jeffrey Epstein case.

  The first Duke of Edinburgh, Alfred, was depicted on a set of four stamps issued by Tristan Da Cunha, a dependency of St Helena, in 1967 to commemorate the centenary of his visit to Tristan. On the stamps he is shown with Tristan’s volcano in the background as well as portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the second Duke of Edinburgh. On the death of Prince Philip, Tristan also issued a set of four stamps released on 23 September 2021to commemorate his life of service and one stamp was illustrated by a photograph of him during his own visit to Tristan with the first day cover showing the then bearded prince at the tiller of a local boat

  Now we await an issue from St Helena to commemorate the visit of the Third Duke of Edinburgh.

2435. 🇮🇲 Isle Of Man To Commemorate Bee Gees Musician.

 

New issues.

🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Post Office -

28 February 2024 - Commemoration of the late Maurice Gibb, Isle of Man-born popular musician with the Bee Gees group - 8 stamps. Lithographed. This issue coincides with the 75th birth anniversary of Gibb. Rating:- ***.

🇬🇬 Guernsey Post - issue inscribed ‘Alderney’ -

14 February 2024 - Post boxes of Alderney - 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. This issue features the seven post boxes on the island. These are naive designs with the boxes themselves poorly illustrated in only a tiny fraction of the design on most of the stamps. Designed from illustrations by local artist Nickie Shales. Lithographed by bpost. Rating:- **.

2434. 🇧🇩🇲🇲🇵🇰 First Asian Issues Of 2024.

 

New issues -

🇧🇩 Bangladesh Post -

10 January 2024 - Homecoming Day of the Father of the Nation, Babangidu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman - 1 stamp. Rating:- ***.

🇲🇲 Myanmar Post -

4 January 2024 - 64th anniversary of Independence - 3 stamps. Designed by the Ministry of Information and lithographed by Security Printing Works (Myanmar) and perforated 14. Rating:- ****.

🇵🇰 Pakistan Post -

11 January 2024 - 25th anniversary of the Punjab Municipal Development Company - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- **.

Events - Royal wedding in Brunei Darussalam - 

  From time to time I try to highlight world events which might result in a stamp issue from a Commonwealth postal administration. With wars raging in Ukraine and Gaza, Venezuela poised to invade Guyana and the Houthis in Yemen launching missile attacks on shipping in the Red Sea with The United States and Britain, backed by their more stalwart western allies, hitting back at the Yemeni rebels, a royal wedding may not seem so important in this troubled world. 

  But royal weddings often lead to new stamp issues and so it’s worth noting that the heir to throne of the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, the 32 year old Prince Abdul Mateen (described elsewhere as Asia’s most eligible bachelor) married Yang Mulia Anisha Rosnah (described in the Press as a “commoner”) in a glittering ceremony at the Istana Nurul Imam palace in Bandar Seri Bagawan, the capital of Brunei on 14 January 2024.

  So far, I can find no evidence that the postal service of Brunei Darussalam has announced a stamp issue to commemorate the event but it has been surprisingly difficult in recent years to track down news of new stamp issues, and to obtain the stamps themselves for that matter. 

  There have been previous Royal Wedding stamp issues from Brunei but both releases commemorated weddings in the British royal family rather than those taking place in the Brunei royal family. Hence two stamps were issued on 14 November 1973 to commemorate the wedding of the Princess Anne (now the Princess Royal) to Captain Mark Phillips and a set of three stamps was issued on 29 July 1981 to commemorate the wedding of The Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer.

  

Football - Africa Cup of Nations -

  The Africa Cup of Nations is taking place between 13 January and 11 February 2024 in the Côte D’Ivoire with teams from the Commonwealth countries of South Africa, Ghana, The Gambia, Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, Cameroon and Mozambique all participating. Whether or not any of these  countries’ postal services will issue (or have issued already, though of course Mozambique does not have a formal national postal service) any commemorative stamps linked to this major sporting event remains to be seen. Notably when Cameroon hosted the event in 2021, the host country did not issue, or is not known to have issued, any postage stamps linked to the event. Some Stamperija products with the names of non-Commonwealth countries printed on them have appeared on internet auction sites recently and I expect we will see similar products making an appearance in the near future with the name of Commonwealth countries which allow their philatelic reputation to be abused by Stamperija printed on them - namely Sierra Leone and Togo.

2433. 🇮🇪🇳🇿Ireland And New Zealand New Issue Programmes For 2024.

New issues.

🇲🇹 MaltaPost -

1 December 2023 - Verona 2023 philatelic exhibition - 1 stamp with attached label.

🇴🇲 Oman Post -

5 January 2024 - Royal Oman Police Day - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.

Stamp new issue programmes for 2024.

🇮🇪 An Post (postal service of the Republic of Ireland) - 

To be announced - Tenth definitive series, ‘Art on a stamp’ (phase III) - 12 stamps 

1 February - St Brigid’s Day and Imbolc Festival - 2 stamps 

8 February - ‘Guaranteed Irish 50th’ - 1 stamp

22 February - US-Ireland relations 1924-2024 - 1 stamp

29 February - Bicentenary of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute- 2 stamps 

14 March - 50th anniversary of the death of Austin Clarke - 1 stamp 

11 April - Creating the branches of government - 2 stamps 

25 April - The Freeman’s Journal - 1 stamp

16 May - Native Irish bees - 4 stamps

30 May - Public art - 4 stamps

6 June - EUROPA, Underwater flora and fauna - 2 stamps

13 June - Imagine Ireland - 2 stamps

12 September - First Ordinance Survey of Ireland - 1 stamp

19 September - Popular traditional songs - 4 stamps

10 October - Mental health awareness - 2 stamps 

31 October - Christmas - 6 stamps

This makes a total of 47 stamps including the definitive issue.

🇳🇿 New Zealand Post -

7 February - Marine reserves

6 March - ‘Making games - a developing industry’ 

3 April - Veterans

1 May - Split Enz (a popular music group)

5 June - The Olympic Games, to be hosted by Paris

3 July - Matariki

7 August - Postcrossing 

7 August - Invincibles Tour

4 September - Mental Health Awareness Day

2 October - Christmas 

6 November - ‘Backyard pollinators’

4 December - Chinese new year, Year of the Snake.

4 September - Issue inscribed ‘Ross Dependency 

2432. 🇬🇧🇬🇮 Royal Mail And Gibraltar New Issue Programmes; Spice Girls Issue.

Stamp programmes for 2024 -

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

As reported by Ian Billings’ Norvic Philatelic Blog - 

11 January - Music Giants (IX), The Spice Girls (see below)

1 February - The weather, 170th anniversary of the Meteorological Office

20 February - The Vikings in Britain

12 March - Dinosaurs

16 April - Centenary of Britain’s first commemorative stamps (released to commemorate the British Empire Exhibition held in 1924)

16 May - Peppa Pig, children’s television cartoon  character

6 June - Dogs

20 June - 60th anniversary of the Red Arrows (RAF flight display team)

25 July - Dungeons and Dragons (role playing game)

13 August - The Tower of London

3 September - 50th anniversary of Porridge (BBC television comedy series)

26 September - Spiders

17 October - Music Giants (X) - The Who (veteran popular music group)

5 November - Christmas 

30 November - 150th Birth anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill

🇬🇮 Royal Gibraltar Post Office -

February - Chinese New Year, Year of the Dragon

February - Birds of prey

April - 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Winston Churchill 

April - EUROPA, Underwater fauna and flora 

June - SEPAC, main tourist attractions

June - 60th anniversary of the Red Arrows

September - Butterflies of Gibraltar (II)

November - Christmas 

New issues.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

11 January 2024 - ‘Music Giants IX’, The Spice Girls, a over-hyped British musical group made up of young women which enjoyed an intense, transient popularity in the 1990s - 10 stamps (see Blog 2421) (2 se-tenant strips each of 5 different stamps, total cost £12.50), 1 miniature sheet containing 5 different stamps (£6.25), 1 Prestige booklet sold for £23.70 containing 4 panes, the third being a pane with 4 definitive stamps (one each of 10p, 20p, £1 and £2), I deluxe limited edition Prestige booklet sold for £49.99, 1 ‘Collectors sheet’ (£13.70), 1 ‘Fan sheet - Brit Awards’ (£7), 1 ‘Collectors sheet Miniature sheet’ (£13.70), 1 ‘Spice Girls Gold Stamps set’ (£149.99) and 1 ‘Spice Girls Platinum miniature sheet’ (£199.99).

 These products were desIgned by Supple Studio’ and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 14.5 x 14. Rating:- 0.

🇬🇬 Guernsey Post -

25 January 2024 - Chinese new year, Year of the Dragon - 6 stamps, 1 miniature sheet containing all 6 stamps (see Blogs 2412 and 2419) and 1 gold miniature sheet (“souvenir sheet gold replica”) sold for £95 in a perspex box & in a limited edition of 100. Rating:- 0.

  I often wonder if the perspex boxes in which such items are usually sold are in real terms more valuable than the sheets themselves.

Issue inscribed ‘Alderney’ -

14 February 2024 - Postboxes of Alderney - 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by Nicky Shales and lithographed. Illustrations awaited.