3014. 🇬🇧 Royal Mail Football Season 1 Stamps.

 

New issues -

🇫🇯 Fiji Post - 

10 November 2026 - 65th anniversary of the first Fijians being recruited to serve in the British Army - 4 stamps. Designed by Timaima Williams (local artist) and lithographed. Rating:- *****.

This issue is interesting because of the involvement of the British High Commission in Suva in the launch of these stamps. Western nations in general, and the United Kingdom in particular, have largely ignored the potential of philatelic diplomacy while China in particular is especially good at promoting its interests and projecting a positive image of itself by its collaboration with small and poor nations especially in the Pacific and also Africa and by involving itself in joint issues or sponsorship of certain stamp releases. China has played an important role in Fijian issues of recent years and so this issue goes some way to restore a diplomatic balance. Hopefully the British government might pick up on this idea and seen the potential benefits of involving itself in philatelic diplomacy.

The launch ceremony in Suva -

2026 - Definitives, surcharges - 85c xxx on 63c in black, Not previously reported in this blog, I think. Rating:- ***. See Blog 2924.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

1  December 2026 - ‘Football, Season 1” - 10 stamps, presumably produced as 5 se-tenant pairs (including Manchester City, just one of them shown below). These poor quality illustrations are the best I can do at present taking them from the illustrations for a sale of RM postcards on an internet auction site. There may be additional items. As this is titled ‘Season 1’ and only 4 English football teams are featured it seems to me that this must be the first issue of a prolonged annual series on football clubs to be released over a number of years. 

3013. 🇨🇦 Canada Celebrates Hanukkah.

  

New issues -

🇨🇦 Canada Post -

9 November 2026 - Hanukkah, Jewish religious festival - 1 self-adhesive stamp sold in booklets of 6. Designed by Hélène L’Heureux from a painting by Jacqueline Kott-Wolle and lithographed by Lowe-Martin. Rating:- ****.

🇧🇩 Bangladesh Post -

4 November 2026 - National Revolution and Solidarity Day - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.

3012. 🇨🇾 Cyprus Celebrates Christmas.

 

New issues -

🇨🇾 Cyprus Post -

8 November 2026 - Christmas - 3 stamps. Printed by Baltic Banknote High Security Printing. Rated:- *****. 

🇳🇷 Naoero Post -

April 2026 - Japan Expo 2025, the Naoero pavilion at the exposition - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.

What’s happening in Commonwealth countries which have stopped issuing stamps?

  The number of Commonwealth postal administrations which issue postage only rarely or not at all seems to increase gradually as the years go by. Take Rwanda and Cameroon for instance. The Rwandan postal service quite remarkably is not known to have issued any postage stamps since 2010 and new issues from from Cam Post are extremely infrequent - there had been no new issues from Cameroon since 2021 until a single stamp was released earlier this year. So, given that both countries still have operating postal services, which stamps are actually being used on any mail posted in those countries?

  Some clues may be gleaned from a couple of 2026 covers which appear to be non-philatelic and which have recently been offered for sale on internet auction sites. Firstly, a cover from Rwanda showing usage of two stamps from the 2010 issues and secondly, a cover from Cameroon in which stamps dating back decades have been applied to the envelopes suggesting that Cameroon’s post offices have a large number of old issues from the philatelic boon years which are still in stock and available to use up.

  Why waste money producing new stamps when you have got large numbers to hand to still make use of?

3011. 🇧🇼 Botswana Depicts The Honey Badger On February New Issue.

 

🇧🇼 Botswana Post -

24 February 2026 - The Honey badger or ratel - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by Omphile Sephako and lithographed. The illustrations are taken from an internet auction site sale by 15dsouth. Rating:- *****.

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka Post -20 October 2026 - Commemoration of ‘The Courageous Loser’, Ranathunga Karunandanda (Olympic athlete) - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.

🇱🇹 Stamperija (exploitative producer and purveyor of paraphilatelic products under contract from several African postal administrations or governments). Usually ‘issued’ in perforated or imperforate formats. All products are rated ‘0’. Caveat emptor.

Products inscribed Togolese Republic -

2026 (unspecified date) - 65th anniversary of the World Wide Fund For Nature - various previously released products said to be overprinted and surcharged - 8 sheetlets/miniature sheets as illustrated below - 

Along with the above products Stamperija also released an additional 26 miniature sheets (sold perforated and imperforate totalling 52 sheets) on the following subjects - Snakes, Frogs, Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Prehistoric water animals, Owls, Water birds, Hummingbirds, Parrots, Butterflies, Bees, Beetles and Birdpex 2026 Exhibition - pratincoles.