2347. 🇵🇰 Pakistan Post Honours Award Winner.

 New issues.

🇵🇰 Pakistan Post -

27 July 2023 - “Eve of the 75th year of Shahadat Captain Raja Muhammad Sardar Shaheed” (1st Nissan-e-Haider) - 1 stamp. Designed by “the customer” and lithographed by National Security Printing Company Karachi and perforated 13. Rating:- ***.

🇬🇬 Guernsey Post -

Tweets (or Xs!) reporting Post and Go issues with additional one day only inscriptions commemorating visiting cruise ships - 

26 July 2029 - Visit of the Ambience -

28 July 2023 - Visit of the Mein Schiff -

Commonwealth news.

🇿🇼 There seems little chance of Zimbabwe rejoining The Commonwealth, which the former deposed President ‘Comrade’ Robert Mugabe took it out of in 2003, in the foreseeable future as its present president, Emerson Mnangagwa, allies it more and more with Putin’s Russia. At the recent Russia-Africa summit held in St Petersburg, Mnangagwa was one of only a handful of African heads of state (twelve out of 54) who chose to be present, joining the leaders of other pariah states such as Eritrea and the leaders of military regimes such as Russia’s close allies, Mali, Burkina Faso and Central African Republic. As a reward, after Russia had recommenced its policy of preventing the export of grain from the ports of Ukraine, which its military forces have invaded, partially occupied and are savaging brutally, Russia has announced that Zimbabwe will be one of only six of its poodle states to which it will donate a large supply of free grain (the others being Eritrea, Mali, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso and the failed state of Somalia).

Stamp-wise, Zimbabwe, whose economy is in dire straits, has not issued, as far as is known, any postage stamps since 15 February 2022 when 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing the 4 stamps were issued on the subject of the Cottage industries of Zimbabwe.

  Also shown at the head of this piece is the single stamp issued by the Russian postal service to commemorate the gathering of the African leaders in St Petersburg even though the turnout was not quite as full or as enthusiastic as Putin might have hoped for.

  Commonwealth countries represented at the meeting were Mozambique (represented by President Filipe Nyusi), South Africa (President Cyril Ramaphosa) and Uganda (President Yoweri Museveni), with the following sending lower ranking delegations - Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Seychelles, The Gambia and Ghana. 

Commonwealth countries and territories whose postal services are not known to have issues or have had issued on their behalf any legitimate postage stamps during 2023 up until the end of July - 

The list remains unchanged from that published at the end of June (see Blog 2334). This means that 33 out of 88 (37.5%) Commonwealth philatelic entities have not yer released, or had released on their behalf, any postage stamps so far during 2023. This compares with the figure of 42.5% at the end of July 2022. This figure of 37.5% may change somewhat in September when 8 Commonwealth Caribbean territories are due to participate in an omnibus issue commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Eastern Caribbean Bank

2346. 🇲🇹 🇬🇧 Excellent New Marine Life Set From Malta; Royal Mail 1st Class River Wildlife Back On Sale.

 

New issues.

🇲🇹 MaltaPost - 

28 July2023 - Marine life of the Mediterranean - 5 stamps. Designed by MaltaPost from paintings by Andrew Micallef and lithographed by Printex and perforated 14.. Rating:- *****. What excellent paintings.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail - 

27 July 2023 - River wildlife, 5 x 1st Class stamps with corrected phosphor bands. The Royal Mail Stamps and Collectables internet page is now advertising the 1st Class domestic rate stamps again having withdrawn them because of incorrect phosphor bands which have meant that they would have been recognised as 2nd Class rate values. The information states that those bought from 27 July “are not affected” and so presumably they are being reissued with the correct phosphor bands printed on them.

🇯🇪 Jersey Post -

2 August 2023 - The Jersey Dolls Hiuse and Miniatures Club - 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 6 stamps. Designed from photographs by Glenn Perotte and lithographed by bpost, Belgium. This issue does not seem to be associated with any particular event or anniversary. Rating:- *.

🇮🇳 India Post -

25 July 2023 - 75th anniversary of the High Court of Orissa - 1 stamp. Rating:- **.

25 July 2023 - India’s hosting of the G20 Summit, September 2023 - 2 stamps. Information obtained from tweets by Better Philately. Rating:- ***.

2345. 🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post Takes Part In Chinese Belt And Road Minibus.

 

New issues.

7 September 2023 - 10th anniversary of the Chinese Belt and Road programme - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp and 1 booklet containing a pane of 4 identical stamps issued by the postal service of The People’s Republic of China and 1 miniature sheet each issued by Hong Kong Post and the postal service of Macao. Rating:- *****.

  This is a fascinating issue publicising the Chinese government’s Belt and Road policy which was designed to expand its trade, power and influence globally and which has engulfed large numbers of countries - 151 so far - including a number of Commonwealth countries, by which the Chinese government makes loans to these states to fund infrastructure developments and sometimes plain vanity projects which the countries may not be able to pay back. This has been described as a form of debt trap diplomacy associated with neocolonialism and economic imperialism. In recent years, stamp collectors have seen propaganda associated with it in the form of numerous stamp issues, sponsored by the Chinese government and donated to ‘partner countries’, which commemorate the ‘friendly ties’ of the countries with China, often related to anniversaries of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two sides.

  The ‘belt’ part of the term refers to the road and rail overland trade routes to and from China and is short for the “Silk Road Economic Belt” while the ‘Road’ part refers to the “21st century maritime silk road’ - the Indo-Pacific sea routes, both by which Chinese influence, trade and power may expand.

  The subject of this issue, as the West comes to terms with its growing conflict of interests with the Chinese super power, is very interesting for collectors who are looking for stamps which highlight important aspects of modern history.

🇮🇳 India Post - My Stamp personalised stamps usually issued in sheetlets of 12 identical stamps with attached labels and sold at a premium - 

2023 - 50th anniversary of the Goods and Services Tax Council - 1 stamp.

🇬🇬 Guernsey Post -

Tweets reporting Post and Go issues with additional one day only inscriptions commemorating visiting cruise ships -

24 July 2023 - Return visit of the Ventura.

2344.. 🇦🇮🇦🇬🇩🇲🇬🇩🇲🇸🇰🇳🇱🇨🇻🇨 Eastern Caribbean Omnibus In September.

 

🇦🇮🇦🇬🇩🇲🇬🇩🇲🇸🇰🇳🇱🇨🇻🇨 Postal services of the Eastern Caribbean States (Anguilla, Antigua And Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts And Nevis, Saint Lucia and St Vincent And The Grenadines) -

Expected date of issue - September 2023 - 40th anniversary of the Eastern Caribbean Community Bank, winning competition designs - 3 values. Competition winners - 1st  (age 5-11) - Vedant Shetty of St Vincent And The Grenadines, (turtle), 1st (age 12-17) Mea Emmanuel of Saint Lucia and 1st (age 18 and over) (signing of the ECCB agreement). Each postal administration will issue the stamps in the denominations most used in the respected territory.

🇳🇿 New Zealand Post -

3 August 2023 - 150th anniversary of the first postage stamp to be printed in New Zealand - the 1873 1/2d Newspaper stamp - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by Caitlin McArthur and lithographed by Brebner Print and perforated 14.5. Rating:- *****.

Withdrawn issue.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail - 

13 July 2023 - River wildlife - strip of 5 x 1st Class values. As reported by the indispensable Norvic Philatelic Blog, these stamps were printed in error with a single phosphor band (normally used on 2nd Class domestic rate stamps). The strip of five different stamps and the presentation packs have been removed from sale on the Royal Mail Stamps and Collectables internet site. These are the affected stamps:-

2343. 🇵🇰 Pakistan Commemorates Close Links With China.

 

New issues.

🇵🇰 Pakistan Post Office -

July 2023 - 10th anniversary of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, ‘From Vision to Reality’ - 1 stamp. Rating:- ***.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post -

22 August 2023 - Cultural landmarks in Hong Kong - 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp and 1 ‘mini-pane’ containing 2 sets of 6 stamps. Designed by Peter Ng Seung-ho and lithographed. Rating:- **.

🇬🇬 Guernsey Post -

7 July 2023 - 10th International Island Games hosted by Guernsey, Post and Go - The  stamps reported in Blog 2340 were dispensed by machines GG02 and GG05 and examples of both are now illustrated below:-

🇮🇳 India Post -

My stamps, personalised stamps with attached labels usually sold in sheetlets of 12 at a premium -

1 July 2023 - 75th anniversary of the Association of Chartered Accountants of India - 1 stamp.

2023 - 25th anniversary of Panipat refinery and Petrochemical complex - 1 stamp.

2023 - Centenary of Sri Kaliswari group of industries - 1 stamp.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

2023 - Horizon labels. The leading Blog on British stamps, Norvic Philatelic Blog, edited by Ian Billings, has recently drawn attention to a change in the design of the counter printed Horizon labels to substitute the cameo of King Charles III to replace the silhouette of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II. These are fascinating items as they may be seen as postage stamps, if one so wishes, as they are receipts indicating the prepayment of postage which are adhesive and fulfill the role by being stuck to items of mail prior to them being sent through the post. I suspect that far more of them are used on mail in Britain now than any conventional postage stamps and in particular, the vast array of ‘commemorative’ stamps. For anyone interested in the evolution of the carriage of mail, they are vital parts of the story and a section should be set aside for them, I believe, in a modern British stamp collection.