2904. 🇧🇲 Bermuda Commemorates Royal Visit.

 

New issues -

🇧🇲 Bermuda postal service -

30 April 2026 -Royal visit of King Charles III and Queen Camilla to Bermuda (30 April - 1 May) - 1 previously issued high value stamp overprinted. Rating:- ***.

🇲🇲 Myanmar Post -

30 April 2026 - 70th anniversary of the 6th Buddhist Council - 7 stamps. Lithographed by Wazi Security Printing Works. Rating- *****.

Commonwealth countries and territories not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during 2025 up until the end of April.

Anguilla 

Antigua and Barbuda 

Australia Cocos (Keeling) Islands 

Australia Norfolk Island 

Australian Antarctic Territory 

Barbados 

Belize 

Botswana 

British Antarctic Territory 

British Indian Ocean Territory 

British Virgin Islands 

Cameroon

Cook Islands including Rarotonga

Cook Islands Aitutaki 

Cook Islands Penrhyn

Dominica 

Gabon

Grenada 

Grenada Carriacou and Petite Martinique 

Guyana 

Jamaica 

Kenya

Kingdom of eSwatini 

Kiribati 

Lesotho 

Malawi

Maldives 

Mauritius 

Montserrat 

Mozambique 

Nevis

New Zealand Ross Dependency 

Niue

Papua New Guinea 

Pitcairn Islands 

Rwanda

St Helena 

St Kitts/St Kitts Nevis

St Vincent and the Grenadines 

Samoa 

Seychelles 

Solomon Islands 

Tokelau 

Tonga

Tonga Niuafo’ou 

Trinidad and Tobago 

Turks and Caicos Islands 

Tuvalu 

Uganda 

United Republic of Tanzania 

Vanuatu 

Zambia 

Therefore at the end of April, 52 out of 88 (59.1%) Commonwealth philatelic entities have not issued or are not known to have issued, or have had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps in 2026. This compares with 64.8%at the end of March 2026  and 63.6% at the end of April 2025.

2903. 🇳🇿 New Zealand Commemorates Popular Musician.

 

New issues -

🇳🇿 New Zealand Post -

3 June 2026 - Commemoration of Sir Dave Dobbyn, New Zealand popular musician- 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 4 stamps. Designed by Chris Jones of Graphetti and lithographed by Brebner Print and perforated 14.5 x 14. Rating:- *.

🇮🇲 🇸🇭🇧🇸 🇫🇰 🇬🇸🇸🇭 Isle Of Man Post Office and others -

21 April 2026 - Birth centenary of the late Queen Elizabeth II - large booklet costing £35 released by the Isle of Man Post Office containing four pages, two of which take the form of self-adhesive panes, the first containing 12 different black and white stamps - 2 each from the postal services of Isle Of Man, Ascension Island, Bahamas, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and Tristan Da Cunha (the stamps of all these countries and territories have been marketed by Isle of Man Stamps since Pobjoy Stamps ceased business) and the second pane containing versions of 12 different previously issued Isle of Man stamps which featured Her Late Majesty (all perforated) and 6 illustrations of the present Isle Of Man stamps depicting the late Queen ‘cancelled’ with gold, small circular ‘postmarks’.

These multi-territory items are my guilty pleasure even though in this particular case the booklet is said to be going to be sold only by the Isle of Man Post Office and not in Bahamas nor the British Overseas Territories. Without checking, I think the first pane features the first ever self-adhesive stamps from several of the territories - Bahamas, Ascension, Tristan Da Cunha and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

2902. 🇵🇬 More PNG News From Spectre Of Stamps.

 New issues -

🇵🇬 PNG Post (postal service of Papua New Guinea) -

?2025 (originally said to be due for release in June 2024 - see Blog 2646) - Birds of the Forest Floor) - 4 stamps, I miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp.Lithographed. Rating:- ****.

This issue was reported by the philatelic dealer Spectre of Stamps from whose internet blog site the illustrations are taken.

Mention of the issue as published in the new issue programme for 2024.

Meanwhile Norvic posting on Stampboards has reported another issue previously intended to be part of the 2024 ptogramme - 

? 2025 - Coastal lighthouses - 4 stamps, 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp.Lithographed. Rating:- ***.

🇮🇳 India Post -

25 April 2026 - Centenary of the Shri Ram College of Commerce - 1 stamp. Rating:- ***.

2901. 🇬🇮 Gibraltar’s Belated Chinese New Year Issue.

 

New issues -

Royal Gibraltar Post Office -

24 April 2026 - Chinese new year, Year of the Horse - 6 stamps (£7.95) and 1 miniature sheet containing the same 6 stamps(£7.95). Designed by Stephen Perera from illustrations by Rising Design Lab and lithographed by Cartor. Rating:- *. A cheerful enough design but on a subject of little or no relevance to Gibraltar issued well over a month after the event.

🇸🇬 Singapore Post -

27 April 2026 - Joint issue with the Japanese postal service - 2 stamps (see Blog 2894), 1 miniature sheet containing both stamps and a sheetlet containing 3 of each stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.

2900. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Happy St. George’s Day From The Heart Of England.

 

Happy St George’s Day! -

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 23 April 2026 - previous British Post Office and Royal Mail issues commemorating St George, the patron saint of England, on his feast day. 

  Surprisingly perhaps, there are no real established traditional events to commemorate the saint’s day but the flying of the St George’s cross flag on 23 April still continues. In recent years, right wing politicians have taken a shine to flying the flag and in 2025 thousands of the flags, plus the national flag, the Union flag, were raised on lamp posts in various parts of the country. Those who were responsible claimed it was done with no political intent while others argued it was a right wing attempt to be divisive.

  It is worth noting that both William Shakespeare (probably) and JMW Turner, one of Britain’s most important painters, were born on St George’s Day. 2025 marked the 250th anniversary of Turner’s birth, a notable anniversary worthy of philatelic commemoration, but Royal Mail decided otherwise and issued stamps depicting Peanuts cartoon characters and scenes from The Vicar of Dibley instead (though the miniature sheet in particular depicted a scene from the television programme which was so very English - a parish council - a group of slightly eccentric volunteers gathered around a table discussing how to deal with hyper local problems, all at the expense of their own time and money.

  Elsewhere in The Commonwealth, the New Zealand postal service released a stamp depicting St George as part of a set of 3 stamps issued to mark the peace at the end of the Second World War.

  Shakespeare famously wrote the line “Cry for Harry, England and St George” in his play Henry V and a stamp in the 2018 Royal Mail issue commemorating the bicentenary of the Old Vic theatre depicted the Welsh actor and film star Richard Burton (Henry V can be said to also be a Welshman having been born at Monmouth) in the role of Henry.

So - Happy St George’s Day from here in the English Midlands, “the Heart of England”.

2899. 🇬🇧 Royal Mail Reveals New Issues For Second Half Of 2026.

 

2026 New issue programmes.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

Royal Mail has now revealed most of the remaining new issues for 2026.

The subjects of two issues have still not been revealed. The Commonwealth Games are to be hosted between 23 July and 2 August and there appears to be no issue to celebrate the Games. This will be the first Commonwealth Games to be hosted in the United Kingdom not to be marked by a Royal Mail stamp issue. This appears to be a remarkably random collection of subjects and there seems to be little of significance to justify the vast amounts of money which doubtlessly will need to be paid by one-of-everything collectors (if there are any such creatures still in existence). Depressing. I’m not really all that interested to know what the unidentified issues are. Ho hum.

New issues -

🇮🇳 India Post -

16 April 2026 - Commemoration of Pandit Chatur Lal, musician - 1 stamp. Rating:-***. 

🇲🇾 9 April 2026 - Treasures of the national visual arts, part 3 - 3 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.