1538. 🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Sheetlet Gift To Its Standing Order Customers.

🇮🇲 The Isle Of Man Post Office will distribute to its Philatelic standing order customers a free sheetlet containing 6 different stamps with the title of ‘The Collectors Sheetlet Steam Trains’. This attractive item will also be sold to customers who do not have a standing order. I’m sure that loyal customers will be appreciative of the gift. The Manx postal service has also sent out a pleasant Christmas card to its customers as it usually does annually. This is particularly apt this year as Christmas cards are of the subject of this year’s Christmas stamps.

  The date of issue of the Steam Trains sheet is 20 November 2019.

  The gifts to the customers are excellent and the Isle Of Man Post Office should be praised for treating their customers at Christmas time but there is one Christmas gift I would prefer to see from the IOM PO and that is the passing on to its philatelic customers the gift of reducing the number of issues it releases to say 6 or at most 8 per year along with reducing the cost and making all stamps issued be strictly relevant in subject matter to the island. A promise to do that in 2020 would be the best present it could give to the collectors of its stamps.

🇮🇳 India Post issued a single stamp on 25 October 2019 on the subject of the Siachen Glacier in the Siachen region which is an area the sovereignty of which is disputed between India and Pakistan. In 1984 India launched Operation Meghdoot which resulted in India gaining military control of the glacier and its tributaries. Various military engagements in the area have taken place between the two sides since then. Rating:- ***.

🇧🇩 The postal service of Bangladesh issued a single stamp on 9 October 2019 as part of the worldwide omnibus issue to commemorate World Post Day and the 145th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union (UPU). A colourful and attractive stamp. Rating:- ***.

1537. 🇨🇦 Christmas And Hanukkah Stamps From Canada Post.

🇨🇦 Canada Post will issue 4 self-adhesive Christmas stamps all sold in booklets and 1 gummed miniature sheet on 4 November 2019. The colourful designs are by Andrew Lewis Design and the stamps were printed in lithography. Rating:- ***.

Canada Post will also issue a single self-adhesive stamp sold in booklets of 10 on 14 November 2019 to commemorate the festival of Hanukkah. The stamp was designed by Context Creative ans lithographed. Rating:- ***.

🇺🇸 IGPC released a philatelic item in the form of a miniature sheet containing 4 identical stamps inscribed ‘Grenada’ on 3 September 2019 to commemorate the self-proclaimed ‘Supreme Leader Of Buddhism HH Dorje Chang Buddha III’ who lives in California. I have not found a connection between Grenada and this particular person and I therefore can not explain why IGPC thought that the country’s name should be printed on these items. Rating:- 0.

1536. 🇵🇰 New Issue Commemorates Pakistan’s Relations With Japan.

🇵🇰 Pakistan Post issued a block of 4 different stamps with 2 valueless labels at the centre of the block on 22 October 2019 to commemorate ‘Japan’s International Co-operation Towards Pakistan’ (sic). The rather awkwardly titled set was designed by Khalid Nawaz and lithographed by National Security Printing Company Karachi and perforated 13. An interesting addition to the constant flow of  new issues from around The Commonwealth which emphasise various countries’ relationships with certain East Asian countries, in particular China, Taiwan and Japan. Rating:- ***. 

🇮🇪 Gene W has kindly pointed out to me a couple of issues from An Post, the postal service of the Republic Of Ireland, which I have thus far overlooked. The first is a pair of self-adhesive stamps sold in coils in the ongoing ‘A History Of Ireland in 100 Objects’ definitive series and the second is a pair of self-adhesive stamps again sold in coils which feature the designs of 2 commemorative stamps issued earlier this year - the Centenary of the first Dháil Éireann stamp and the Be an Organ Donor stamp. I do not know the dates of issue of these items. Rating:- ***.

🇵🇳 Bounty Post, the postal service of Pitcairn Islands, issued an attractive and straightforward set of 4 stamps on 23 October 2019 on the subject of Echinoderms, spiny marine creatures. The set was designed by Donna McKenna and lithographed by Southern Colour Print. Rating:- ****.

1535. 🇯🇪 Best Christmas Stamps Of The Year From Jersey?

🇯🇪 Jersey Post will issue what is probably the best set of Christmas 2019 stamps on 20 November 2019. The set depicts scenes from a children’s nativity play and the beautiful designs are by Sharif Tarabay and the stamps are printed in lithography with what are described as ‘kiss-cut’ perforations. Illustrations of the 8 stamps appear to depict them with conventional-looking perforations but the stamps are also to be sold in 8 sheetlets (each containing 10 stamps of the same value) and the illustrations of those suggest that they are rouletted. It is regrettable if Jersey Post has come up with an exceptionally attractive set but has found it necessary to issue them with two types of perforations hence doubling the cost to collectors.

  The perforation issue aside, this is a lovely set of stamps. Rating:- *****.

🇺🇬 Posta Uganda has recently added to its Facebook page the post depicted below which seems to be encouraging local businesses to sponsor postage stamps as a means of reaching ‘thousands of people per month’ by the message inscribed on the stamps, in other words, I assume, by using postage stamps as a means of advertising. I suspect that quite a lot of stamps now being released by some poorer postal administrations in particular are paid for by sponsors who are not necessarily commercial in nature but may be political (including donations by foreign states) or community groups.

  I followed the ‘shop now’ button at the bottom of the posting but found that it lead to a ‘We’ll be back soon’ sign which didn’t seem like a very good outcome both for Posta Uganda’s efforts to boost its business nor for businesses trying to boost their’s by promoting themselves through the medium of the postage stamp.

🇸🇬 Singapore Post will Issue 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet as a joint issue with the postal service of Poland. The stamps depicting birds were designed by Sonny Lee and Andrzej Gosik and lithographed by Secura and perforated 13. Rating:- ****.

1534. 🇦🇺🇳🇬 Australia Post Christmas Issues And Nigeria Gandhi Issue.

🇦🇺 Australia Post has revealed another new batch of stamp issues mostly related to Christmas 2019.

🇨🇽 Issue inscribed ‘Australia Christmas Island’ 

 1 November 2019 - Christmas - 2 gummed stamps and 1 miniature sheet, 1 ‘sheetlet’ of 10 x 65c self-adhesive stamps sold for $6.50c and 1 booklet of 5 x $2.20c self-adhesive stamps sold for $11. 

Designed by Simone Sakinofsky and lithographed by RA Printing and perforated 14.5 x 14. Rating:- ***.

🇦🇺 Issues inscribed ‘Australia’ - 1 November 2019 - Christmas - (a) gummed stamps, 3 ‘secular’ designs by Simone Sakinofsky and 2 ‘religious’ designs by Sonia Young, (b) 2 self-adhesive ‘embellished’ secular stamps from sheetlets of sheetlets of 10, (c) 5 self-adhesive stamps from booklets or sheetlets  - 20 x 65c secular sold for $13, 20 x 65c religious sold for $13, 5 x $2.20c secular sold for $11 and 5 x $2.20c religious for $11, (d) 1 gummed religious miniature sheet. Rating:- *.

1 November 2019 - Perth Stamp and Coin Show - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Rating:- *.

November 2019 - 3 x $23 ‘Stamp packs’ each containing 2 panes of 10 stamps with attached labels on the subjects of ‘Emoji’, Disney’s ‘Frozen’ and ‘Star Wars, The Rise Of Skywalker’.  Rating:- 0.

November 2019 - Nat Fife Fremantle, the 2019:Brownlow medallist of 2019 - 1 x $15.95 ‘souvenir stamp sheetlet’ containing 8 ‘Map of Australia’ stamps with attached labels. Rating:- 0.

November 2019 - AFL and NRL Champions, 2019 - 2 x $15.95c ‘souvenir stamp sheetlets’, each containing 8 ‘Map of Australia’ greetings stamps with attached labels. Rating:- 0.

🇳🇬 The postal service of Nigeria issued a single stamp and 1 miniature sheet containing the same stamp in early October 2019 though I am not yet sure of the precise date of issue to commemorate the 150th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The design depicts Gandhi at his spinning wheel and the miniature sheet also includes the flags of Nigeria and India. Rating:- ****.