1707. 🇲🇲 Myanmar Features The Art Of The Blacksmith.

🇲🇲 The postal service of Myanmar is to issue a charming single stamp on 24 July 2020 on the subject on Panbe - the Art of the Blacksmith. The publicity for the issue states that it is aimed at raising “awareness among young people (of) the Myanmar cultural arts and crafts as it is one of the 10 Myanmar’s cultural crafts”. I wonder if this is the start of an ongoing series which will introduce the other 9 cultural crafts to the collector.  Rating:- *****. This is the fourth issue of the year from the Myanmar postal service. Myanmar has a population of 54,410,000. 

🇮🇲 Meanwhile the Isle Of Man Post Office plans to issue a set of 6 stamps and 1 Prestige booklet costing £16.16 on 11 August 2020 which will be the 9th issue of the year from that island which has a population of 85,000. The issue is on the subject of ‘Master watchmakers of Isle Of Man’ with 2 stamps each commemorating 3 watchmakers with local ties. There does not seem to be a particular event or anniversary which has lead to the issue of these stamps at this particular time. 

  As well as being interesting, these stamps are nicely designed and could well be the first ever set of 6 stamps in which every person depicted on the stamps is wearing a pair of spectacles! Unfortunately this set is the ninth issue in the first 8 months of this year and without any clear cut reason for its issue at this particular time. This is plainly excessive. Isle Of Man Post Office along with the postal services of the other British offshore islands and Gibraltar issue far too many stamps without good reason. Sadly therefore I rate this issue as * only and I shall not be adding the issue to my collection.

  Finally, I have to ask, is there someone who is choosing the subjects for IOM stamps who has an obsession with clocks as this is the second issue on this subject in 3 years - 6 stamps and a £15.16 Prestige booklet were issued by the Manx postal service on 13 October 2017 on the same subject; on that occasion the issue commemorated the work of the horologist Dr John Taylor though again not on any particular notable anniversary nor coinciding with any particular event relevant to the subject.

🇸🇬 The issue ‘Mascots of Singapore’ from Singapore Post planned originally for issue on 29 April 2020 (see Blog 1663) will be released finally on 3 August 2020. The set of 5 stamps was designed by Lim Wenbin of Pinch Design Pte Ltd and lithographed by Secura and perforated 13. The designs do seem rather inconsequential but perhaps the issue is more meaningful in Singapore than it is abroad. Rating:- **.