Illustrated at the top of this blog is the latest label to be dispensed from Post and Go IAR kiosk A003. Going on sale from 1 December 2016 the label bears the additional inscription "Seasons Greetings/From all at BFPO" and well may they celebrate as the highly restricted accessibility of the kiosk ensures that anyone with access to it can put these labels on sale on internet auction sites at highly inflated prices. Collectors strips of these are being sold for £35 and anyone selling a few of these will be guaranteed a very merry Christmas, me thinks. Caveat emptor. Rating:- 0.
As detailed in Blog 863 kiosk A003 sited at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Somerset began to dispense specially inscribed "Union Jack" and "Machin Head" labels from 3 December 2016 to commemorate the first carrier jet landing by Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown on 3 December 1945. The Vampire jet in which he flew is displayed in the museum. The kiosk will continue to dispense the labels with these particular inscriptions until 3 January 2017. This issue seems to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the first landing which seems like an odd anniversary to commemorate and therefore the rating for the issue is:- 0.
Also having a merry old Post and Go Christmas is the Royal Gibraltar Post Office which is dispensing Post and Go stamps with special Christmas inscriptions from both kiosk GI03 in the territory's Parcel Office and GI02 in the Main Post Office. There are no new designs for Christmas 2016 and instead the "Year of the Monkey" and "Christmas tree" (introduced in 2015) are reemployed, presumably therefore at very little cost to the Gibraltar Post Office but at some cost to collectors if they choose to buy "Collectors strips" of each design from both sites. No thanks. Rating:- 0.
Barbados Postal Service will issue a set of 20 stamps and a miniature sheet containing another 7 stamps on 8 December 2016 on the subject of centenarians who live in Barbados. Things are not quite as bad as they sound as each stamp will only have a face value of 65c making a total face value of $16.50c which is equivalent to £6.48p which is less than many of the multitude of Royal Mail, Jersey Post and Isle Of Man Post Office stamps which have flooded on to the market during 2016.
A presidential election has just been held in The Gambia, which left The Commonwealth in 2013, and in a shock result the current president Yahya Jammeh was defeated by the relatively inexperienced leader of a coalition of the 7 opposition parties, Mr Adama Barrow. Jammeh has ruled The Gambia in a tyrannical manner in recent years and has said in the past that if God wills it his presidency could go on "for a billion years". If Jammeh allows his victorious opponent to take power the hand over should take place in January 2017 and Barrow has said that he will support Gambia's rejoining of The Commonwealth which means that I shall have to consider collecting the country's stamps again. Perhaps the new president will change the philatelic agents which produce the country's postage stamps (hopefully not replacing IGPC with Stamperija!).
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