2696. 🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Announces Another Flood Of New Issues.

 

New Issues -

🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Post Office -

15 April 2025 - 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War - 6 stamps (total face value £11.31) and 1 Commemorative sheet costing £18.50. Designed by The 572 and lithographed by bpost and perforated 11.5. Rating:- *.

24 April 2025 - Harbours of the Isle Of Man - 6 stamps (cost £11.70). Designed by Isle of Man Advertising from art by Janine Shelly and lithographed by bpost and perforated 11.5. Rating:- *.

8 May 2025 - Photographs by the Manx photographer Leonard McCombe -  8 stamps (total face value £11.60p) issued as 2 setenant blocks in a sheet containing 2 complete sets (£23.20) and 1 Prestige booklet containing 4 different panes and sold for £23.20. Designed by EJC Design and lithographed by bpost and perforated 11.5. Rating:- *.

  I like the above stamps - they are interesting and attractive - but it is clear that the IOM Post Office releases far, far too many issues which are too expensive, especially for such a small territory, and therefore I rate all of its products as just *.

2695. 🇮🇴 Trump To Annex BIOT And Create The US Indian Ocean Territory.

 

🇮🇴 While the British government continues to negotiate with that of Mauritius to persuade the latter to take the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean off its hands and to be good enough to receive £9 to £18 billion courtesy of the British taxpayer for the trouble of doing so, the somewhat unpredictable President of the United States, Trump, has indicated that he will cut through all this talking and annex the British Indian Ocean Territory to the USA and rename it the US Indian Ocean Territory and then no-one need bother about it any more.

This will enable the USA to ensure the security of the huge and strategically important US military base on Diego Garcia and make sure that the People’s Republic of China, to which Mauritius is a supplicant state, does not get its hands on the island. Trump also revealed that he intends to not only preserve the security of the military base on the island, but also establish a space vehicle launch facility on Diego Garcia as suggested by one of his political allies, Elon Musk.This was presaged, strangely, by a BIOT stamp issue of 2009 which depicted the launch of Apollo 11 and other stamps depicting American spacecraft and a miniature sheet with an American flag planted on the moon just as Trump now intends to plant a Stars and Stripes on the BIOT. 

  We can only speculate at the moment as to whether Trump’s planned annexation of BIOT will result in a ‘new country’ - the USIOT - finding its way into the stamp catalogues but it may well be that this newly named territory will indeed have its own stamps when a new postal service is established there.

 Trump has also stated that he may well annex the Falkland Islands to prevent Britain and Argentina from ever feeling the need to go to war with each other again and to make it easier for Americans to go on holiday in the Caribbean he will probably take over Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos Islands and Montserrat. The British government is said to be having talks with Trump’s officials on how these transfers of sovereignty can be completed smoothly. No consultation with local populations is felt necessary as Trump feels everyone who lives on these islands will be much better off under American sovereignty.

Reported - 1 April 2025.

2694. 🇬🇬 Alderney Features Blond Hedgehogs In New Issue.

 

New issues -

🇬🇬 Guernsey Post -

Issues inscribed Alderney -

23 April 2025 - Blond hedgehogs of Alderney,Alderney Animal Welfare Society commemoration - 6 stamps (total cost - £8.16p). Designed by Chloe Sarre and lithographed by bpost. Rating:- ***.

🇺🇸 Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation (IGPC) (United States-based producer and seller of philatelic products under contract from various postal services) - 

The following products were reported in Blog 2691 but illustrations are now available -

🇦🇬 Products inscribed Antigua and Barbuda -

12 December 2024 - Reptiles of the Caribbean area - 2 miniature sheets, one made up of 6 different stamps and the other of 2 different stamps. Rating:- 0.

🇬🇩 Products inscribed Grenada -

24 March 2025 - Definitives - 7 stamps (25c, 50c, $1, $1.50, $4, $5 and $500, Eastern Caribbean currency, the set is presently being sold by IGPC for US$189.55). Lithographed. See note below illustrations.

Although the above stamps appear to be being offered as new issues by IGPC it seems to me that the only new stamp is the $4 value and all the other stamps may be reprints or are just the original versions added to the new $4. I have covered these stamps before in Blog 2465.

Previous issue dates were -

4 November 2022 - 50c, $1.50, $5, $500 plus $100 (not included in present ‘issue’)

19 December 2023 - 25c, 50c, $1 and $5 (for the second time)

For the present at least I view the $4 as the only new stamp to have been released on 24 March 2025.

2693. 🇬🇧 Monty Python, Mushrooms and Monopoly To Feature On Royal Mail Stamps During 2025. Oh! And Peanuts.

 

2025 New Issue Programmes.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail 

Royal Mail has now released details of the remainder of its 2025 new issue programme -

I take it that the Peanuts issue refers to the American cartoon and not the food. What on Earth is ‘Peanuts’ to do with the Britain and why does it qualify for depiction on a British stamp issue? Note there are now 16 new issues planned. Things are getting worse.

Commonwealth countries and territories which are not yet known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during 2025 - 

Anguilla 

Antigua and Barbuda 

Australia Cocos (Keeling) Islands 

Bahamas 

Barbados 

Belize 

Botswana 

British Antarctic Territory 

British Indian Ocean Territory 

British Virgin Islands 

Brunei Darussalam 

Cameroon 

Cayman Islands 

Cook Islands (including Rarotonga)

Cook Islands (Aitutaki)

Cook Islands (Penrhyn)

Dominica

Falkland Islands 

Gabon 

Ghana

Grenada Carriacou and Petite Martinique 

Guyana 

Jamaica 

Kenya

Kingdom of eSwatini 

Lesotho 

Malawi 

Maldives 

Mauritius 

Montserrat 

Mozambique 

Nauru 

Nevis 

New Zealand Ross Dependency 

Nigeria 

Niue

Papua New Guinea 

Pitcairn Islands 

Rwanda 

St Helena 

St Kitts or St Kitts Nevis

Saint Lucia

St Vincent and The Grenadines 

Samoa 

Seychelles 

Solomon Islands 

South Africa 

The Gambia

Togo

Tokelau 

Tonga

Tonga Niuafo’ou 

Trinidad and Tobago 

Tristan Da Cunha 

Turks and Caicos Islands

Tuvalu 

Uganda 

United Republic of Tanzania 

Vanuatu 

Zambia

Therefore, at the end of March, 60 (67.4%) Commonwealth philatelic entities appear to have not issued, or have not had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during 2025 compared with 76.1% at the end of February 2025 and 63.7% at the end of March 2024.

2692. 🇸🇬 Singapore Features Kebaya Costumes.

 

New issues -

🇸🇬 Singapore Post - 

4 April 2025 - ‘Multinational inscription of Kebaya on UNESCO’ - Kebaya (traditional blouse-dress combination worn by women in Peranakan communities in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia - 4 stamps. Designed by Syed Ismail of Pinch Design Pte Ltd and lithographed by Secura and perforated 13. Rating:- *****.

🇵🇰 Pakistan Post -

23 March 2025 - 130th anniversary of the discovery of X rays - 1 stamp and 1 miniature sheet. Designed by Khalid Nawaz and Rana M Younis and lithographed by National Security Printing Company Karachi and perforated 13. Rating:-  **.

🇬🇬 Guernsey Post -

23 April 2025 - Places to visit in the Bailiwick - 4 stamps. Designed by Caroline Cummins and lithographed. These designs were originally intended to be used for the SEPAC issue due for release on 25 July 2024 but did not appear “due to unforeseen circumstances”. It was originally intended to use the royal cipher on the stamps rather than the cameo of King Charles and, not surprisingly, the face values are now different from those originally intended (65p, £1.20, £2.71 and £4.31 - now 69p, £1.37, £2.82 and £4.63 - a total increase of 62p - what a difference 8 months makes. Rating:- 0.

Originally proposed SEPAC stamps -

2691. 🇮🇳 India Commemorates Mata Karma.

 

New issues -

🇮🇳 India Post -

25 May 2025 - Commemoration of Mata Karma, 1016-1064, devotee of Krishna. According to India Post, Mata Karma’a life “is an exceptional example of devotion, courage and social service”. It is told that she embarked on a journey to Jagannath Puri and arriving at Puri she was asked by the temple attendants to cook khichdi, a traditional dish, which was accepted by Krishna. Designed by Ms Himani and printed by Security Printing Press, Hyderabad. Rating:- ***.

🇸🇸 Postal service of South Sudan -

27 March 2025 - 150th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union - 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ***.

🇺🇸 Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation (American producer and seller of philatelic products under contract from various postal services) -

🇦🇬 Products inscribed Antigua and Barbuda -

12 December 2024 - Reptiles of the Caribbean region - 2 miniature sheets - one containing one or two stamps costing a total of $5.55 and the other containing 6 different stamps and sold for $6.65. Illustrations awaited.

🇬🇩 Products inscribed Grenada -

24 March 2025 - ‘Fish and flowers definitive stamps - 7 stamps, with a total price of $189.85. Illustrations awaited.