The British Virgin Islands postal service issued a pair of stamps on 9 December 2016 to commemorate the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. The attractive pair was designed by Bee Design and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13.5.
The face value is astonishingly high and not at all what we have come to expect from the highly conservative BVI postal service. Nor have we ever seen such an issue coming out of the Pobjoy Stamps/Creative Direction stable. The total face value is equal to £79 - I confess I had to look twice at the illustrations of the upcoming issue before the face value fully registered with me. Does BVI really need a US$90 (£70.97p) stamp? Does any postal administration need a £71 stamp? Goodness gracious. This could be the most highly priced stamp in modern Commonwealth philatelic history making the emissions from IGPC and Stamperija look modest in comparison.
Rating:- *.
The Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus released a charming set of 3 stamps on 24 November 2016 on the subject of Bees. The stamps were designed by H Billur. The total face value of the set is equal to £5.09p - BVI postal administration please note. Rating:- ****
India Post issued a sheetlet of 12 My Stamp stamps with attached labels on the subject of Charminar, a monument and mosque in Hyderabad which was constructed in 1591 AD. Rating:- **.
In Blog 878 I mentioned the 3 stamps recently issued by Pos Malaysia which commemorate the Centenary of Guiding in Malaysia. Pos Malaysia also issued a sheetlet of 8 stamps (4 x 2 different designs) with attached labels on the same subject on 9 December 2016 as depicted below. Rating:- **.
Sri Lanka Post issued a single stamp on 7 December 2016 to commemorate the centenary of volleyball in Sri Lanka. The issue was designed by Jagath Kosmodara. Rating:- ***.
India Post issued a single stamp on 14 December 2016 to commemorate Acharaya Vimal Sagar. Rating:- ***.
Imagine you have a BVI new issue subscription at your local stamp dealer and you don't know they issued this $100 pair... With the dealer's mark-up and sales tax the price would become $150+...
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Yes indeed. I can't think what the BVI Post Office was thinking of when they came up with the idea of such a highly priced issue. I think your suggestion of $150 may even be optimistic given that dealers nowadays seem to add 50 - 100% of cost price to them to new issues and then there's value added/sales tax, postage and so on.
DeleteYou'd almost think that an error had been made and that it had been intended to issue a 10c stamp and a 90c stamp but in these present times we shouldn't be surprised by anything.
And dealers aren't going to be able to have many of these sets in stock given the high cost to them and the risk that they may not be able to sell them.
A dealer on Delcampe is selling the set for a price of more than £167. Well done BVI Post Office - you should be proud.
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