1223. 🇯🇪 Jersey Post £17 Commemorative Sheet For Wedding Of Duke And Duchess Of Sussex.

  🇯🇪 To add to the growing list of products on sale to commemorate the wedding of the newly named Duke and Duchess Of Sussex, Jersey Post has issued one its enormously expensive 'Commemorative sheets' (price £17) containing 20 x UK letter ratestamps with attached illustrated labels. The date of issue was 19 May 2018, the date of the wedding. Rating:- 0.

  🇨🇦 Canada Post issued a single self-adhesive stamp sold in booklets of 10 on 18 May 2018 to commemorate the Centenary of the first awarding of the Memorial Cup (ice hockey). The issue was designed by Paprika and lithographed by Lowe Martin. Rating:- ***.

  There is also a $53 Prestige booklet containing 3 panes.

  🇰🇳 IGPC will release a miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps on 30 May 2018 with the name of Nevis printed on the stamps. The issue commemorates the 50th anniversary of Elvis Presley's 'Comeback Special', an event of clealy immense significance in the history of Nevis. The issue was designed by what IGPC calls its 'internationally acclaimed' IGPC Art Department and printed in lithography. Rating:- 0.

  🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post issued 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 8 May 2018 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Hong Kong Fire Services Department. This excellent issue was designed by Sunny Yuen Kan-shing and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 14 x 14.5 with the miniature sheet being perforated 13.5. Rating:- ****.

1222. 🇲🇹 Malta Commemorates Valletta As European City Of Culture.

  🇲🇹 MaltaPost will issue a set of 3 stamps on 22 May 2018 to commemorate the taking on of the role of European City of Culture by the Maltese capital city, Valletta. This interesting set was designed by Joseph Pulo and lithographed by Printex. Rating:- ****.

  🇦🇬🇬🇲 The New York- and Beijing-based philatelic agency, IGPC, continues to do its best to cash in on the British royal engagement and royal wedding in which Prince Henry Of Wales, known popularly as 'Harry' and Meghan Markel (known by the Press rather overfamiliarly as 'Meghan'), will tie the knot. I have already featured a number of products put out by this company in the name of a number of its client postal administrations and now 2 more have appeared.

  Firstly, there are 2 miniature sheets with the name of Antigua And Barbuda printed on them - one contains 3 stamps and the other a single stamp. It is worth repeating that the Stanley Gibbons Catalogue editor has recently reported that no commemorative stamps are sold at post offices in Antigua And Barbuda and one must therefore question whether any such items, despite their theoretical validity for postage, are actually true postage stamps and deserve a place in a collection of postage stamps. Personally I think not. 

  As regards the design, the Union Jack is very prominent on the stamps and I question why, given that Prince Henry is the grandson of The Queen of Antigua And Barbuda, the flag of that Caribbean country is not incorporated in the design. Rating:- 0.

  If Elizabeth II is the Head of State of Antigua And Barbuda she most assuredly is not Queen of The Gambia which long ago opted to become a republic and ditch the British royal family and have a Gambian as its Head of State. There therefore seems little reason for that country to commemorate philatelically the present royal engagement and wedding apart from any cash which may flow from sales of such items into IGPC's coffers. Nevertheless IGPC has released 2 miniature sheets in the name of The Gambia on the subject of the royal wedding - one containing 3 stamps and the other 2 stamps. Rating:- 0.

  As all of the items released by IGPC so far have referred to the royal engagement rather than the royal wedding I presume there are yet more to come which will feature scenes from the wedding itself. Ho hum.

  🇳🇿 New Zealand Post will update its 10 Personalised stamps to take account of new postal rates and issue them in sheetlets of 10 with attached labels on 6 June 2018. I don't find these peronalisable stamps to be all that interesting though I do see the point of them. The issue was designed by New Zealand Post and lithographed by Southern Colour Print and perforated 13. Rating:- *.

1221. 🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Attempts To Cash In On Science Fiction Craze.

  🇮🇲 The desperate scramble by postal services and philatelic agencies to come up with subjects which they can feature on their products and which they believe will have a special appeal to a wider audience than their faithful stamp collector customers seems to have taken a number of them down the route of science fiction and fantasy films and television programmes. Royal Mail was clever enough to bag the big prize of featuring Star Wars on not just one but 2 issues and prior to that it had prepared the ground with earlier issues featuring The Hobbit and Dr Who. New Zealand Post made the most of the Tolkien Hobbit books films having been made in the country by a New Zealand director and released scores of philatelic items featuring the countless Lord Of The Rings and Hobbit movies and then followed up by featuring the CS Lewis Narnia films with, I suspect, less success. Oh and ofcourse we haven't been spared the appearance of Harry Potter on various stamps and Jersey Post even thought it was a good idea to release a set of Superman movie stamps because the actor who plays the role was born on the island. Then, within in weeks of issuing its second Star Wars set, Royal Mail inflicted a large issue on the subject of Game Of Thrones on an unsuspecting philatelic world. Later this year Royal Mail has an unidentified new issue to be released in October, just 3 or 4 weeks before the 55th anniversary of Dr Who and its reappearance on television with the first ever female actor playing the title role - too tempting a money making opportunity to be missed?

  So how can a little philatelic entity cash in on this tide of science fiction/fantasy stamps without bankrupting itself by the amount of money it spends on acquiring the rights to feature such subjects? The Isle Of Man Post Office thinks it has an answer - feature a vintage film where the cost of the rights are probably considerably less. And the chosen subject - the 50th anniversary of the release of the famous 2001 A Space Odyssey which was directed by the revered if controversial Stanley Kubrick. The products for this issue are almost as numerous as those which accompanied the Royal Mail Star Wars issues but principally there are 8 basic stamps (total cost £7.99p) accompanied by 8
'Pictorial sheets' produced in limited editions of 3000 each and each containing 6 stamps and costing £47.94p for the set as well as an accompanying 'Commemorative sheet' which contains 8 different stamps and costs £7.99p.

  The designs, by Glazier Design, lack the visual appeal of Royal Mail's Star Wars stamps and I fear that this issue is not going to do as much for Isle Of Man Post Office's profits as it might hope. The issue was lithographed by Cartor, is perforated 13 and will be issued on 14 June 2018. I predict that this issue will not be popular with collectors. Rating:- 0.

  🇬🇧 Royal Mail issued a second counter booklet containing 6 self-adhesive stamps in connection with its issue which commemorated the Centenary of the Royal Air Force on 11 May 2018. The booklet contains 4 x 1st Class Machin Head definitives and 2 stamps from the miniature sheet depicting the RAF display team, the Red Arrows, Rating:- ***.

  A further counter booklet will then be issued on 26 June 2018 in connection with the Dad's Army issue. Again the booklet contains the 2 1st Class stamps from the set and 4 1st Class Machin Head definitives and is self-adhesive. Rating:- ***. In addition there will also be a 'Generic sheet', sold at the premium price of £7.50p, containing 10 1st Class stamps (5,of each of the 2 designs) with attached labels. The stamps in the sheet are self-adhesive. Rating:- *.

  🇮🇳 India Post issued a single stamp on 15 May 2018 to commemorate the late MV Arunachalam (1929-1996), a leading Indian businessman, Rating:- *.

  🇲🇾 Pos Malaysia will issue a set of 3 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 17 May 2018 as the fourth part of its ongoing Medicinal plants series. This is an attractive issue. Rating:- ***.

  Pos Malaysia also issued 2 Personalised stamp sheets on 15 May 2018 to commemorate Mothers' Day and Teachers' Day. Both sheets contain 8 stamps (2 x 4 different stamps) with appropriate attached labels).