528. Joint Anzac Issue From New Zealand And Australia.

  New Zealand Post will release an issue of stamps on 23 March 2015 titled "the Spirit of ANZAC". This issue which will be part of a joint issue with Australia illustrates the country's involvement in the First World War in 1915 and centres on the Gallipoli Campaign which began with the landing of Allied troops at ANZAC Cove on 25 April 1915.  

  There are a number of elements to this issue which are a mint sheetlet of 10 gummed stamps, a se-tenant block of 6 different gummed stamps, 2 gummed miniature sheets - one of 6 different stamps and the other of 4 different stamps - and a $39.90c booklet containing 12 different miniature sheets. The issue was designed by Strategy Design and Advertising of Wellington and printed in lithography by Southern Colour Print:-

Miniature Sheet Booklet containing 12 different panes or "miniature sheets".

  There are always at least 2 viewpoints to military conflicts and as mentioned in Blog 515, the Postal Administration of The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will issue a set of stamps on 18 March 2015 to commemorate the centenary of the victory (of the Turkish forces) in the naval battle at The Dardanelles.

   Zimpost, the postal administration of Zimbabwe, issued a splendid set of 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 9 December 2014 on the subject of local frogs and their habitats:-

  Singapore Post issued 1 miniature sheet, presumably on 1 December 2014, to commemorate the World Youth Stamp Exhibition (29th Asian International Stamp Exhibition) held in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia:-

  Looking at Blog 527 where I listed the Lunar New Year issues of 2014/15 from participating Commonwealth postal administrations or their foreign philatelic agents I found that 2 issues had not yet been illustrated and so below I depict the pair of stamps issued by Gibraltar Stamps (see Blog 514):-

  and the Smilers Sheet which was released by Royal Mail. The sheet was designed by Rebecca Sutherland and issued on 19 November 2014. The total face value of the sheet was £12.40p but Royal Mail added 50p to the price and sold it for £12.90p:-

Wood Goat label and fireworks stamp.

  Depicted below are better illustrations of the 4 very attractive stamps issued by Hong Kong Post on 24 January 2014 (see Blogs 479 and 512) to commemorate the lunar new year. The 2 "Heartwarming" stamps are also shown:-

Heartwarming stamp.

Heartwarming stamp.

527. Bhutan New Issues, Commonwealth Lunar New Year Issues; SpecialCricket Miniature Sheet and Numerous Australian New Issues.

  Collectors will heave a sigh of relief now that the lunar new year has passed for another 12 months. We should be free of a deluge of "Year of ...." stamps for a few months at least. Numerous Commonwealth philatelic entities, or their philatelic agents, have released various philatelic products on to the market in relation to the Year of The Goat/Sheep/Ram (or whatever one chooses to call it) and many of these products have had little relevance to the countries whose names appear on these items.

  To the best of my knowledge the following postal administrations or philatelic agencies of Commonwealth territories have issued philatelic products related to the Year of The Goat/Sheep/Ram in 2014 or 2015:-

  Australia Post (issue inscribed Christmas Island Australia) (Blog 499J and 506), 

  Canada Post (Blog 501),

  Gibraltar Stamps (Blog 514),

  Guernsey Post (Blog 499J),

  IGPC (philatelic products inscribed Antigua And Barbuda (Blog 517), Ghana (Blog 495), Grenada, Grenada Carriacou And Petite St. Vincent (Blogs 495 and 499E), Guyana (Blog 495), Papua New Guinea (Blog 506), Sierra Leone (Blog 499C and 506) and Turks And Caicos Islands (Blog 501)),

  Isle Of Man Post Office (Blog 499F and 504),

  Philatelic Collector Inc. (philatelic products inscribed Cook Islands, Aitutaki Cook Islands, Penrhyn Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Niuafo'ou) (Blog 507),

  Pos Malaysia (Farm animals issue) (Blog 526),

  New Zealand Post (Blog 499C),

  Royal Mail (Smilers sheetlet),

  Singapore Post (Blog 506 and 511),

  Stamperija (philatelic products inscribed Maldives (Blog 526) and Solomon Islands) (Blog 522).

  I wonder how soon it will be before the first of next year's Year of the Monkey philatelic products will appear.

  A rather surprising issue is being sold by India Post for Rs400. New Zealand Post has redesigned the miniature sheet  it issued to commemorate the ICC Cricket World Cup Championship (see Blog 510) so that part of the design at the centre of the sheet recalls the Indian Cup victories of 1983 and 2011. The inscriptions on the individual stamps in the sheet show that these are New Zealand stamps rather than Indian stamps and they priced in New Zealand currency. They are therefore New Zealand stamps being sold abroad by the Post Office of another country - a similar situation to the Jersey and Guernsey machine printed "Post And Go" stamps by which not only may the stamps of Guernsey or Jersey be purchased but also those of a foreign postal administration, Britain's Royal Mail. The Indian version of the sheet is not offered for sale on the New Zealand Philatelic Bureau website at present:-

Special Indian version of New Zealand miniature sheet.

Original version of miniature sheet.

  Bhutan Post has revealed further stamps which were issued during 2014 but I have not yet seen the dates of issue:-

  2014 - 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bhutan and Thailand - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp:-

  2014 - Ornaments of Bhutan - 1 sheetlet of 6 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet:-

  2014 - Strong men of Bhutan - 1 sheetlet of 6 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet:-

  2014 - Butterflies of Bhutan - 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet:-

  What a wonderfully interesting and colourful collection of issues and even though there are a total of 16 different stamps and 4 miniature sheets the total face value is very reasonable at 660 ngultrum which is equivalent at present to £6.89p. The designs are straightforward and attractive and the subject matter depicted on the stamps is wholly relevant to Bhutan. The stamps of recent years from Bhutan make an excellent and fascinating collection and are a great pleasure to collect. 

 Meanwhile, less pleasingly,  Australia Post has not lost its appetite for stamp releases. It's upcoming issues are:-

  3 March 2015 - Tourist Transport - 4 gummed stamps, 4 self-adhesive stamps from coil and 4 self-adhesive stamps from a booklet of 10 x 70c stamps. Total - 12 new stamps, cost of all items:- $12.60c. Designed by John White and lithographed by McKellar Renown.

  17 March 2015 - Australian Trees - 4 gummed stamps, 1 miniature sheet and 1 gummed stamp printed on wood (only available from a special sheetlet pack sold for $14.95c). Total - 5 new stamps and 1 m.s., cost of all items:- $27.55c. Designed by Mary Callahan and litho. by McKellar Renown.

  24 March 2015 - issue inscribed "Cocos (Keeling) Islands" - Visiting birds - 4 gummed stamps only - cost of issue :- $2.80c. Designed by Owen Bell and litho. by RA Printing.

  7 April 2015 - ANZAC - Joint issue with New Zealand - 2 gummed stamps, 1 miniature sheet and 2 self-adhesive stamps from booklet of 10 x 70c and sheetlet of 5 x $1.85c. Total - 4 new stamps and 1 m.s., cost of all items:- $21.35c. Designed by Sonia Young and litho. by McKellar Renown.

  7 April 2015 - Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II - 2 gummed stamps, 1 miniature sheet, 1 self-adhesive stamp from sheetlet of 5 x $2.75c and 1 prestige booklet (cost $14.95c). Total - 3 new stamps and 1 m.s., cost of all items:- $35.60c. Designed by Simone Sakinovsky and litho. by RA Print.

 14 April 2015 - First World War centenary - Gallipoli - 5 gummed stamps, 1 gummed miniature sheet, 5 self-adhesive stamps from 10 x 70c booklet, 1 prestige booklet (cost $14.95c). Total - 10 new stamps and 1 m.s., cost of all items:- $28.95. Designed by Janet Boschen and litho. by EGO.

  For "one of everything" collectors (if such people still exist), the total number of new items from Australia Post in the next 2 months will therefore be 38 new stamps, 4 miniature sheets and 2 prestige booklets (total cost from Australia Post for all the above will be $128. 85c. (£65.62p). Added to the January and February total (see Blog 499J) the cost of new stamp issues from Australia Post for the first third of 2015 will be $287.10c (presently equivalent to £146.22p).

  

  

  

526. Exciting New Issues From Malaysia.

  Pos Malaysia will issue 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 25 February 2015 to commemorate the International Co-operative Project on Giant Panda Conservation being carried out by Malaysia and The People's Republic of China. This is a lovely issue and I will be delighted to add it to my collection. Malaysia seems at the top of its game at the moment in terms of issuing interesting and attractive new issues. I also very much like the 3 Farm Animals stamps which were issued on 16 February 2015 (depicted below) which were accompanied by 2 miniature sheets - 1 ordinary sheet depicting a domestic goat and a second Rm 15 sheet printed on wood to fit in with the Lunar New Year - the Year of the Wood Goat. Again, another interesting and attractive issue:-

  Another interesting recent issue was the miniature sheet issued by Pos Malaysia on 1 December 2014 which contained a Rm 50 stamp which was printed as 22k gold on copper (see Blog 512) but I was not aware that this was accompanied by a similar miniature sheet, face value Rm 35, with the main stamp design produced in an embroidered form. This may be a little gimmicky but it is still a very attractive miniature sheet. For other recent Malaysian new issues see Blogs 511 and 517. I think that Malaysia is producing some wonderful stamp issues at present and they are a great pleasure to collect:-

  Singapore Post issued 6 new definitive stamps on 26 November 2014 - four values made up the second part of the Vanishing Trades set and two stamps were new values of the Past Street Scenes definitive series. A Collectors' Sheet, sold for $28, featuring all the Past Street Scenes stamps issued so far was also released as was a second Collectors' Sheet which contained all 14 Vanishing Trades stamps and was sold for $12.80c. The stamps were designed by Ms. Lim An-ling:-

The postal service of The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus issued 4 very attractive stamps on 19 September 2014 on the subject of fruit tree blossoms. The set was designed by Gorel Korol Sonmezer and Huseyin Billur and was printed in lithography by the State Printing Works, Lefkosa:-

    The Malawi Post Corporation issued a set of 5 stamps and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate Christmas 2014. I do not yet know the date of issue of this set. The central theme of the issue seems to be that of the Christmas tree:-

  India Post issued a single stamp on 14 February 2015 to commemorate Project Rukmani, a dedicated Indian Navy satellite system:-

  Stamperija's first philatelic products of 2015 with the name of Maldives printed on them consist of the usual 10 sheetlets, each containing 4 different "stamps", as well as 10 miniature sheets. The various subjects of these items are:- 75th birth anniversary of John Lennon (British popular musician), Nobel Prize Winners of 2014, Lunar New Year (Year of the Goat), 75th anniversary of the D Day landings in Normandy, 175th birth anniversary of Piotr Tchaikovsky (Russian music composer), Mars Orbiter mission, 70th anniversary of the liberation of Paris, 135th birth anniversary of Albert Einstein (physicist), 40th birthday of Tiger Woods (US golf player), 80th birthday of Sophia Loren (Italian actress). The stated "day of issue" of these items was 13 January 2015:-