2142. 🇧🇸🇫🇰 Water Birds From Bahamas And Seafarers Mission Commemorated By Falklands.

 

New issues.

🇧🇸 Bahamas postal service 

15 September 2022 - Wetland birds - 6 stamps. Designed byBee Design from photographs by Candis Marshall and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13.5. Rating:-

🇫🇰 Falklands Post Service Ltd -

20 September 2022 - 25th anniversary of the Lighthouse Seamfarers Mission - 4 stamps. Designed by Bee Design from photographs by Penguin News, Jo Summers and Ian France and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13.5. Rating:- ****.

Thanks to Juliet Warner of Pobjoy Stamps for information about this issue.

2141. 🇰🇾 Cayman Islands Platinum Jubilee Issue.

 

New issues.

🇰🇾 Cayman Islands postal service -

16 June 2022 - Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II - 4 stamps. Further details awaited. Rating:- **.

🇨🇰 Cook Islands postal service - 

2022 - Surcharges - 4 previously issued stamps with various surcharges applied. Rating:- ***.

2140. 🇶🇦 Qatar Miniature Sheet Depicts World Cup Poster.

 

New issues.

🇶🇦 Qatar Post - 

9 August 2022 - The official poster of the FIFA World Cup Championships to be held in Qatar in 2022 - 1 miniature sheet. Designed by Abdellatif Zolam of Qatar Post. Lithographed by Cartor. Rating:- ***.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail  -

  Several post boxes across the United Kingdom were painted by Royal Mail to commemorate the hosting by the City of Birmingham of the 22nd Commonwealth Games from 28 July to 8 August 2022. The postbox in the host city itself is located in one the main thoroughfares, New Street, and as of now (27 August) the postbox retains the commemorative markings applied to it. This postbox has previously received similar daubings on the occasion of the hosting by England of the Cricket World Cup in 2019 (see Blog 1479).The box is paired with a parcel postbox which was not decorated on either occasion.

Commonwealth entities whose postal services are not yet known to have issued, or to have had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps so far in 2022 or in the case of Gabon and Togo from 25 June 2022 which is when they joined The Commonwealth - 

Anguilla 

Barbados 

Belize 

British Indian Ocean Territory 

British Virgin Islands 

Cameroon 

Cook Islands Rarotonga 

Dominica 

eSwatini

Gabon,

Ghana

Kenya 

Lesotho 

Montserrat 

Nauru 

Nigeria 

Niue

Ross Dependency 

Rwanda

St Kitts

Saint Lucia

Seychelles 

Solomon Islands 

South Africa 

Togo

Tokelau 

Turks And Caicos Islands 

Uganda

United Republic of Tanzania 

Vanuatu 

  At the end of August therefore 30 entities remain on the list, 8 fewer than at the end of July. Therefore 33.7% of Commonwealth philatelic entities are not known to have issued, or have had issued in their name, any legitimate postage stamps so far in 2022 compared with 42.3% at the end of July.

2139.🇰🇮 Kiribati Commemorates Local School Centenary.

 

New issues.

🇰🇮 Kiribati postal service -

5 August 2022 - Centenary of King George V School - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Rating:- *****.

🇮🇳 India Post -

20 August 2022 - 351st death anniversary of Ondiveeran Pagada who resisted operations of the East India Company in Tamil Nadu, now described as a ‘Freedom Fighter’ - 1 stamp. Rating:- ****.

🇯🇴 Jordan Post Company - 

11 April 2021 - Centenary of the Jordanian State, firstly as the Amirate of Jordan, a British Mandate and later as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan - 10 stamps and 1 miniature sheet.

  Although I do not normally include the new issues of Jordan here this is a set of importance and interest when relating the history of the British Empire and then The Commonwealth. Most people think of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee as being the absolute apogee of British imperialism and yet the Empire had not reached its greatest extent because the Allies’ defeat of the Germans and Turks in the First World War was to see the British in a scramble with the French to take over the previous colonies of the extinguished German and Ottoman Empires. 

  The scramble in the Middle East saw the two rivals agree to carve up the old Turkish Empire between them and the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 drew the boundaries of their new territories - the French would take Syria and Lebanon while the British were allocated Transjordan, Southern Iraq and Palestine. Earlier, in 1915, the British had been in contact with Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, agreeing to recognise Arab independence following an Arab revolt against the Ottomans.

  Assisted by Captain TE Lawrence, Hussein forced the Ottoman military to withdraw from Aqaba in 1917 and the British and their Arab allies were able to take over Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq by 1918. The French took control of Syria and Lebanon according to the Sykes-Picot Agreement and installed Faisal, third son of Hussein,  as King of Syria with the territory being established as a French League of Nations Mandate which led to a war between Faisal’s forces and the French. The victorious French deposed Faisal and the British subsequently established him as King of Iraq. 

  Meanwhile Transjordan became part of the British Mandate of Palestine; the area west of the river  Jordan was governed as part of Palestine while the part east of the Jordan was administered separately as Transjordan but in November 1920 Abdullah, Faisal’s brother, arrived and occupied most of the territory. Abdullah established his government as Amir on 11 April 1921, which this issue commemorates.  

  Abdullah was acknowledged as Amir of Transjordan until 25 May 1946 when, with the pending ending of the British Mandate, he became King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan; the Mandate being terminated on 17 June 1946. The country’s name was changed to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1949 and Abdullah continued to rule it until his assassination by a Palestinian at the Al-Aqua Mosque in Jerusalem on 20 July 1951. During Abdullah’s reign, and under subsequent monarchs, Jordan continued to maintain close relations with the United Kingdom.

26 October 2021 - Centenary of the first Jordanian postage stamps (which were inscribed EEF - Egyptian Expeditionary Force - and overprinted in Arabic and first issued in November 1920) - 1 miniature sheet.  

2138. 🇮🇪 An Post Commemorates Centenary Of Michael Collins’ Murder.

 

New issues.

🇮🇪 An Post (postal service of the Republic of Ireland) -

18 August 2022 - Centenary of the murder of Michael Collins. Collins was the head of the Provisional Government of Ireland in line with the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. He had formerly been the director of Intelligence for the IRA and had been Joseph Plunkett’s aide-de-camp during the 1916 Easter Rising. He was a strong supporter of the Anglo-Irish Treaty which would lead to the establishment of the Dominion of Ireland and paid the price for this support when an anti-Treaty faction of the IRA ambushed him at Béal na mBlath in County Cork on 22 August 2022.

Designed by Ger Garland from a photograph by C and L Walsh and lithographed by Enschedé and perforated 14 x 13.5. Rating:- *****.

🇶🇦 Qatar Post -

19 August 2022 - World Humanitarian Day - 1 sheetlet containing 10 stamps (2 vertical se-tenant strips of 5 different stamps with attached labels). Further details awaited. Rating:- **.

🇵🇬 PNG Post, postal service of Papua New Guinea -

Date uncertain ?2021 ?2022 - 

Originally scheduled for release 24 May 2021 - Centenary of the Royal Papua Yacht Club - 4 stamps and 2 miniature sheets, I containing 4 different stamps and the other a single stamp. Rating:- *****.

Originally scheduled for release 1 June 2021 - 70th anniversary of Mission Aviation Fellowship - 4 stamps and 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 4 different stamps and the other a single stamp. Rating:- *****. 

Note - a long awaited set depicting Birds of Paradise was scheduled for release on 7 June 2021. It will be interesting to see if this now also becomes available on the philatelic market.

2137. 🇺🇸 Birds, Pandas And The Queen Feature On PCI Latest Products.

 

New issues.

🇺🇸 Philatelic Collector Inc. -

Products released with the names of Commonwealth philatelic entities printed on them which it is able to issue because of its contract with the postal services of Tonga and Cook Islands -

2022 - products related to Birdpex 2022 exhibition, Gmunden in Austria - 

🇨🇰 Cook Islands Aitutaki - 1 single stamp miniature sheet depicted above. 

🇨🇰 Cook Islands - 1 single stamp miniature sheet containing 6 different stamps.

🇨🇰 Cook Islands Penrhyn - 1 single stamp miniature sheet.

🇹🇴 Tonga - 1 miniature sheet containing 6 different stamps.

🇹🇴 Tonga Niuafo’ou - 1 single stamp miniature sheet.

2022 - products related to the Chinese New Year, Year of the Tiger - 

🇨🇰 Cook Islands - 1 single stamp miniature sheet.

🇨🇰 Cook Islands Aitutaki - 1 single stamp miniature sheet.

🇨🇰 Cook Islands Penrhyn - 1 single stamp miniature sheet.

🇹🇴 Tonga - 1 single stamp miniature sheet.

Tonga Niuafo’ou - 1 single stamp miniature sheet.

2022 - Products related to the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II - 5 miniature sheets each containing 6 different stamps with the names of Tonga, Tonga Niuafo’ou, Cook Islands, Cook Islands Aitutaki and Cook Islands Penrhyn inscribed on them.

2022 - Miscellaneous other products - 

Cook Islands - various surcharges (details and illustrations awaited)

Cook Islands Aitutaki - 2022 - Famous coastlines of the world - 2 miniature sheets, one containing 6 different stamps (1 design features a beach in Aitutaki) and a single stamp miniature sheet (featuring Big Sur, California).

Tonga - The Northern Lights - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 6 different stamps and the other a single stamp.

Tonga - the Giant Panda - 1 miniature sheet containing 6 different stamps.

Tonga Niuafo’ou - Animals of the Amazon Rain Forest - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 6 different stamps and the other a single stamp.

Royal Mail (regional issues) - Wales.

11 August 2022 - Ian Billings in his extremely valuable Norvic Philatelic Blog has pointed out that the recently issued Royal Mail Welsh regional 1st Class rate barcoded stamp exists in two forms in which the font used for the stamp value (in English and Welsh (1AF/ST) from the ordinary sheet stamps is different from that on the stamps applied to the official first day covers sold by Royal Mail which were produced in coils rather than sheets. Rating:- *****.

Upper stamp - coil, lower stamp - from sheet:-