Tuesday 30 May 2023

2315. 🇧🇩🇮🇳🇵🇰 🇵🇬 South Asian New Issues, PNG 2023 Programme.

 

New issues -

🇧🇩 Bangladesh Post -

28 May 2023 - 50th anniversary of the award of the Joliot-Curie Peace medal to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman - 1 stamp. Rating:- **.



🇵🇰 Pakistan Post -

23 May 2023 - 25th anniversary of the Central Depository Company - 1 stamp. Designed by Mughaz Khan. Lithographed by National Security Printing Company, Karachi and perforated 13. Rating:- *.



29 May 2023 - Seventh digital census of Pakistan - 1 stamp. Lithographed by National Security Printing Company, Karachi and perforated 13. Rating:- **.


🇮🇳 India Post -

29 May 2023 - Inauguration of the new Indian Parliament building - 1 stamp. Rating:- **.


New issue programmes - 2023

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

July 2023 - Traditional canoe splashboards 

July 2023 - Traditional war shields

July 2023 - Lau Lau fruit trees in Papua New Guinea 

July 2023 - Papua New Guide-made products - chocolate 

July 2023 - Birds of the Forest floor

July 2023 - Kundu and garamuts 

August 2023 - Traditional grass skirts

August 2023 - Papua New Guinea faces - Highlands and Momase

August 2023 - Meri Blouse

Commonwealth countries and territories whose postal services are not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps so far in 2023 -

Anguilla

Belize 

British Indian Ocean Territory 

Brunei Darussalam 

Cameroon 

Dominica 

eSwatini

Gabon

Jamaica 

Kenya 

Kiribati 

Lesotho 

Malawi 

Maldives 

Montserrat 

Nauru

Nevis

Nigeria

Niue

Penrhyn Cook Islands 

Rwanda 

St Helena 

St Kitts

Saint Lucia

Samoa 

Seychelles 

Solomon Islands 

South Africa 

Tokelau 

Trinidad And Tobago

Turks And Caicos Islands 

Uganda 

United Republic Of Tanzania 

Vanuatu 

Zambia 

By the end of May therefore, 35 out of 88 (39.8%) of Commonwealth philatelic entities had not yet issued, or were not known to have issued, or were not known to have had issued on their behalf, any new legitimate postage stamps during 2023. This compares with 47.1% at the end of May 2022.

Saturday 27 May 2023

2314. 🇬🇧 Royal Mail Warhammer Stamps - The Silliest British Issue Ever?

 


🇬🇧 Royal Mail - 

8 June 2023 - Warhammer - 6 stamps (3 vertically se-tenant pairs) and 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps. Details awaited.  While depiction of this issue remains embargoed by Royal Mail to philatelic dealers and philatelic media, a source in the media surrounding gaming has published some photographs on the internet of the new stamps in the presentation pack. The illustrations are therefore poor quality but give an idea to the ordinary collector of what they will be like when they are released. Each design seems to feature a diorama of miniature figures - elves and other fantasy creatures all about to do battle with each other. 

At a time of important international events and notable national anniversaries which should be noted on the United Kingdom’s national postage stamps but are not, the subject of this issue seems bizarrely trite and immature and, ultimately, laughable and silly. What depths Royal Mail stamps have sunk to. Little wonder that British stamp collectors are giving up buying Royal Mail new issues. Better quality illustrations will be featured in a future edition of this Blog when available.





🇬🇬 Guernsey Post -

Tweets reporting Post and Go issues with one day added inscriptions commemorating visiting cruise ships.

27 May 2023 - Visit of the Renaissance -





2313. 🇭🇰 Hong Kong Issues July To December 2023.

 


New issues.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post -

25July 2023 - ‘Intangible cultural heritage’ - Hong Kong-style milk tea making technique - 4 stamps and 2 miniature sheet, each containing a single stamp. Designed by Lai Wai-ying. Rating:- **.






22 August 2023 - Cultural landmarks in Hong Kong - 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by Peter Ng Seung-ho. Rated:- **.







21 September 2023 - Vegetables of Hong Kong - 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by Benny Lau. Rating:- **.








20 October 2023 - Hong Kong landscapes - mountains - 6 stamps and 2 miniature sheets each containing a single stamp. Designed by Eric Wong. Rating;- **.








23 November 2023 - Development of railway services in Hong Kong - 6 stamps and 2 miniature sheets each containing a single stamp (one miniature sheet is self-adhesive). Rating:- **.








19 December 2023 - ‘Hong Kong - past and present’, Hong Kong postal headquarters - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet.Rating:- ***.




Thursday 25 May 2023

2312. 🇬🇧🇲🇺 Are We Approaching The End Of The BIOT?

 


🇬🇧🇲🇺 British newspaper reports US-UK tension as UK negotiates handover of BIOT to Chinese ally, Mauritius.

  Stamp collectors are probably more aware than most of the existence of the British Indian Ocean Territory which is home to the vital US military base on Diego Garcia as well as other islands of the Chagos Archipelago. The territory was established on 8 November 1965 from British islands which had been administered previously from Seychelles and Mauritius.

  Postage stamps were first issued for the territory on 17 January 1968 in the form of overprints (B.I.O.T.) on contemporary Seychelles stamps and a set of stamps with bespoke designs based on drawings by Mrs W Veevers Carter depicting local marine life was released later in the year on 23 October.

  When the Republic of Seychelles achieved independence in 1976 some BIOT islands including Aldabra, Farquhar, Cosmoledo and Assumption were transferred from BIOT to be included in the newly independent state. Chagos remained part of BIOT under the continuing British sovereignty which had existed since 1814 when the French had ceded the islands to the British Crown. In 1971 work began on the construction of an important United States military base on Diego Garcia and this base took on enormous importance for the Western Alliance with the fall of the Shah in Iran in 1973 and then the rise of Chinese attempts to influence and subjugate to Chinese will the various island states of the Indian Ocean and further away in the Pacific.

  In the course of preparing islands for the construction of the base, the British Labour government of Harold Wilson disgracefully forcibly deported all the Chagos Islanders to Mauritius, Seychelles and Britain.

  The waters of the region of the Chagos are an important area for fishing which the Mauritian government considered might be a valuable resource for the republic and decided upon getting its hands on it and with that in mind, claims of Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Islands were made despite the British Crown’s sovereignty established in 1814 and regardless of the British government having paid the then British colony of Mauritius £3 million at the time of the establishment of BIOT. Eventually the issue was taken to the United Nations which sought the opinion of the International Court of Justice which ruled in favour of the Mauritian government.

  Latterly, in August 2021, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) ruled that postage stamps inscribed British Indian Ocean Territory would not be registered, distributed or transmitted by that organisation and that only stamps of the Republic of Mauritius would be valid for use in or from Chagos (although there were no Mauritian post offices there). The British government appears to have acknowledged that announcement as no BIOT stamps have been issued since then.

  In December 2022 the British Foreign Secretary talked about ongoing Anglo-Mauritian negotiations on the future sovereignty of Chagos and the UK’s Foreign Office has recently stated, “The UK and Mauritius have held three rounds of constructive negotiations over the sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory/Chagos Archipelago”. Following this a British national newspaper has published an article reporting growing tension between the United States and Britain about the future of the Diego Garcia base and the USA’s concerns about handing Chagos sovereignty over to the Mauritians who have a close relationship with the People’s Republic of China (a relationship proudly celebrated by Mauritius Post on a number of postage stamps issued in recent years). There are fears that if Mauritius takes control of the islands, Diego Garcia may well end up as a Chinese base.




  The process of transferring BIOT to Mauritian sovereignty will clearly not be an overnight process but it does seem that the British Foreign Office and the current government are now set on achieving that as a final goal and the territory known as British Indian Ocean Territory will cease to exist. It also seems very likely that no more postage stamps inscribed ‘British Indian Ocean Territory’ will appear - King Charles III will never be featured on a BIOT stamp. Which seems a little sad to me at least.

  Of course the Chagossians may find that they at last are allowed to return home to their ancestral islands though they may be wise not to build their hopes up too much. The government of Mauritius has used them as one of its arguments to claim sovereignty over Chagos but they are largely irrelevant to the Mauritian claim and whether or not a US base remains on Diego Garcia or is replaced by a Chinese establishment, neither powers are going to want a lot of troublesome native Chagossians in the near vicinity.

  It seems unlikely that there would ever be any postage stamps inscribed ‘Chagos Islands’ since the present Mauritian government wishes to include the territory as an integral part of the Republic Of Mauritius and it has never issued stamps for other distant islands such as Rodrigues or the Agalega Islands and so only stamps inscribed ‘Mauritius’ would be used there even if the Mauritians bothered to establish a postal service for the islands (which seems unlikely as postal services become more and more irrelevant to the functioning of 21st century society).

  So, we may already have added the final page to our BIOT collections and the territory has already become another one of those philatelic ‘dead countries’.

Diego Garcia

 

Diego Garcia


2311. 🇲🇹 Malta Hosts The Games Of The Small States Of Europe.

 


New issues.

🇲🇹 MaltaPost - 

29 May 2023 - Games of the Small states of Europe - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by MaltaPost plc using illustrations provided by theMalta Olympic Committee. Lithographed by Printex and perforated 14. Rating:- ***.

🇵🇰 Pakistan Post -

16 May 2023 - 60th anniversary of Punjab Medical College Faisalabad - 1 stamp. Designed by Liaqat Ali. Lithographed by National Security Printing Corporation Karachi and perforated 13. Rating:- ***.


🇧🇲 Bermuda Post Office -

20 July 2023 - ‘Reflections’ - 4 stamps. Further details awaited. Reported on the Bermuda Philatelic Bureau internet site. Rating:- *****.




 
🇧🇧 Barbados Post Office -

22 May 2023 - 50th anniversary of the Central Bank of Barbados - 4 stamps. Further details awaited. This issue is reported on the Barbados Stamps internet site. Rating:- ***.






Wednesday 24 May 2023

2310. 🇨🇦 150 Years Of Always Getting Their Man.

 


New issues.

🇨🇦 Canada Post -

23 May 2023 - 150th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - 1 self-adhesive stamp issued in booklets of 5. Designed by Rejean Myette and lithographed by Lowe Martin. Rating:- *****.






Mounties at the Coronation of King Charles III


🇲🇲 Myanmar Post -

4 May 2023 - Endemic birds (part 8), White browned nuthatch - 1 stamp. Rating:- *****.