1268. 🇲🇹 Beautiful Scenes On Malta SEPAC Issue.

  🇲🇹 MaltaPost issued a set of 4 stamps on 27 July 2018 as its contribution to the 2018 SEPAC mini-omnibus series which is this year themed 'Spectacular views'. The set was designed from photography by Camille Casar, Martin Galea, Darren Vella and Norbert Juhasz and lithographed by Printex and perforated 14. This is easily the most eye-catching of this year's SEPAC issues. Rating:- *****.

  🇮🇴 The postal service of the British Indian Ocean Territory has joined the other Overseas Territories of The United Kingdom in issuing a set of 4 stamps on 27 July 2018 to commemorate the wedding of The Duke And Duchess Of Sussex. All 4 stamps depict scenes from the wedding itself and were printed in attractive small sheetlets of 8 stamps as depicted below. Rating:- *****.

  🇵🇰 Pakistan Post issued a single stamp on 24 July 2018 to commemorate the Centenary of the Mama Parsi Girls Secondary School. The stamp was designed by Masood-ur-Rehman and lithographed by National Security Printing Company Karachi and perforated 13. Rating:- **.

  🇬🇬 Guernsey Stamps 'tweeted' on 28 July 2018 that its Post and Go kiosk, GG03, situated in the Guernsey Information Centre in St Peter Port was dispensing on that date for that day only strips of its Flowers stamps with an additional inscription to welcome the passengers of the cruise ship Ventura into port.

1267. 🇯🇪 Birds Link Jersey With China.

  🇯🇪 Jersey Post will issue a set of 6 stamps and 2 miniature sheets on 3 September 2018 as part of its ongoing series of issues on the subject of 'Links with China' this time depicting Birdlife found in both territories. The issue was designed by Wang Huming and Martin Môrck and lithographed by Cartor. This is an attractive set though the subject is rather obtuse. Rating:- ***.

  Jersey Post will issue 6 new Post And Go stamps on 12 September 2018 which feature nautical knots, a quite original theme. The issue was designed by Martin Mörck and digitally printed by Walsall Security Printers. Rating:- ***.

  🇵🇳 Bounty Post, the postal service of Pitcairn, issued a miniature sheet containing 6 different stamps on 18 July 2018 on the subject of 'Colours of Paradise' featuring colourful flowers of Pitcairn. The issue was designed by Rachel Walker and lithographed by Southern Colour Print. This is a very attractive item. Rating:- *****.

  🇲🇾 Pos Malaysia released a set of 3 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 23 July on the subject of Historic museums of Malaysia. The issue was designed by Shahrul Izrah of World Communications and lithographed. Rating:- ***.

  🇸🇬 Another botanical issue - this time from Singapore Post, which will release a set of 4 stamps on 24 July 2018 on the subject of native gingers of Singapore. The set was designed by Ivory Seah and lithographed by Secura Singapore and perforated 13. An attractive set. Rating:- ****.

1266. 🇰🇾🇰🇮 Cayman Islands And Kiribati Commemorate Royal Wedding.

🇰🇾 Cayman Islands Postal Service issued a set of 4 stamps on 18 July 2018 to commemorate the wedding of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. This is a nice straightforward set which surprisingly, given that other postal administrations have included photographs from the wedding itself, shows only portraits of the royal couple taken at the time of their engagement. Rating:- ***.

  🇰🇮 The postal service of Kiribati also issued a set of 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 20 July 2018 to commemorate the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The issue was designed by Derek Miller and lithographed. A reasonably attractive issue. Rating:- ***.

  🇬🇧 It's interesting to note that another month has gone by without the Gibbons Stamp Monthly Catalogue Supplement listing any IGPC productions (see Blog 1252). This means that the Catalogue has not given full listing to any IGPC stamps in the period July 2017 to August 2018. It would be helpful if the Catalogue editor would update his thoughts on the listing of these items given that such a long period has now elapsed without any listing of the stuff.

  🇧🇫 In Blog 1264 and 1265 I depicted stamps released by various African countries as part of a Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU) omnibus issue to commemorate the Birth centenary of the great South African and Commonwealth statesman, Nelson Mandela. So far most have been from non-Commonwealth countries. The postal service of Burkina Faso, one of the Francophone countries, seems to have issued a single stamp on 18 July 2018 as its contribution to the series. The imprint at the bottom of the stamp indicates that the stamp was lithographed by Cartor.

1265. 🇧🇼 African New Issues Commemorate Former Presidents.

  🇧🇼 While the South African Post Office is busy commemorating the birth centenary of former President Nelson Mandela with several stamp issues, Botswana Post has also been philatelically celebrating the life of another notable Commonwealth statesman, the former President of Botswana, Sir Ketumile Quett Joni Masire on the occasion of the first anniversary of his death on 22 June 2017.

  Quett Masire, as he was then known, became President of Botswana in 1980 after the death of the country's founding father, Sir Seretse Khama. It is a tribute to these first two presidents that throughout its modern history Botswana has remained a stable and prospering democracy unlike many other states across Africa.

  The issue was designed by Baboloki Somolekae and lithographed by Southern Colour Print and perforated 13.5. The P7.00 value depicts Sir Ketumile Masire with the late Nelson Mandela. Rating:- ****.

  🇬🇬 Guernsey Stamps 'tweeted' on 18 July 2018 that its Post and Go kiosk GG03 situated in the Guernsey Information Centre in St Peter Port had dispensed on that day strips of the 'Flowers' Post and Go stamps with additional inscriptions applied to commemorate the visits of the cruise ships Black Watch and Columbus to the island on that date.

  🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Stamps And Coins will issue a set of 6 stamps on 1 August 2018 to mark the Centenary of the end of the First World War by depicting ANZAC war memorials which were designed by Rayner Hoff who had been born in The Isle Of Man in 1894 and studied at the Nottingham School of Art and then fought in France during the War. After the War he studied in Rome and in 1923 he became Director of sculpture and sketching at East Sydney Technical College in Australia and from 1931 to 1934 worked on sculptures and panels for the ANZAC War Memorial in Hyde Park in Sydney. It is this achievement which is commemorated by this stamp issue.

  The set was designed by Louise Cornwall and lithographed by Lowe Martin and perforated 13. A worthy issue with some relevance to the Isle Of Man. Rating:- ***.

  🇳🇪🇹🇬 Nothing to do with The Commonwealth except of course that the issues commemorate a great Commonwealth statesman - 2 more Nelson Mandela Centenary issues which form part of the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU) omnibus issue, this time from Togo and Niger. Here, as well as single stamp miniature sheets, there are sheetlets of 6 identical stamps. Interestingly, although these stamps are from Francophone countries, the inscriptions on the stamps are entirely in English:-

  See also Blog 1264.

1264. 🇿🇦 Mandela Birth Centenary.

  🇿🇦 On 18 July 2018, the actual date of the Centenary of his birth, the late Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, was commemorated by a joint stamp issue released by the South African Post Office and the postal service of Germany. The South African issue takes the form of a miniature sheet containing a single stamp while the German issue is a completely different design and is a single stamp - this is rather unusual since joint issues of two countries often share the same format even if the designs are different. The South African sheet was designed by Rachel-Mari Ackermann. Rating:- ****.

  It has also been announced that the South African Post Office was to release a joint issue with the other member states of the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU) (see Blog 1250). I have not yet seen the South African contribution to this omnibus but the issues of 4 countries - only 1 of which is a Commonwealth territory -  have now become known to collectors. Although I do not usually write about the stamps of non-Commonwealth countries it is fair to say that Mandela is an important figure in the history of The Commonwealth and this PAPU omnibus is potentially a very large and momentous series and so I illustrate below the first available items from the omnibus issue which are from, The Gambia, Algeria, Liberia and Tunisia:-