Thursday, 28 September 2023

2273. ๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡พ Malaysia Commemorates Arts Laureates.

 



New issues.

๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡พ Pos Malaysia -

26 September 2023 - National arts laureates -  3 stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.




๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ญ St Helena postal service -

2023 - Coronation of King Charles III - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Further details awaited. Rating:- *****.







๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฐ Pakistan Post -

22 September 2023 - Centenary of Novo Nordisk (Danish pharmaceutical company, manufacturer of insulin). Designed by Liaquat Ali and lithographed by National Security Printing Company Karachi and perforated 13. Rating:- ****.



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

Anguilla.
Belize 
British Indian Ocean Territory
Brunei Darussalam 
Cameroon 
Dominica 
eSwatini
Gabon
Kenya
Malawi
Maldives 
Montserrat 
Nauru 
Nevis
Niue
Penrhyn Cook Islands
Rwanda
St Kitts
Saint Lucia 
Samoa 
Seychelles 
Solomon Islands 
South Africa 
Tokelau
Trinidad And Tobago 
Turks And Caicos Islands 
Uganda
Vanuatu 
Zambia.

Therefore at the end of September, 28 Commonwealth philatelic entities are not yet known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during 2023. This represents 31.8% of the existing philatelic entities (down from 37.5% at the end of August 2023) and is similar to the figure of 31.5% which was the case at the end of September 2022.

Sunday, 24 September 2023

2272. ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡พ ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Cyprus Depicts Local Buses; Singapore Depicts Early Settlement.

 


New issues.

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡พ Cyprus Post -

22 September 2023 - Old buses of Cyprus - 3 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Lithographed by Baltic Banknote High Security Printing. Rating:- *****.



๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Singapore Post -

29 September 2023 - Early Singapore river settlement - 4 stamps. Designed by Pinch Design Pte Ltd and lithographed by Secura and perforated 13. Rating:- *****.



๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Guernsey Post -

Tweets reporting Post and Go issues with one day only inscriptions to commemorate visiting cruise ships - 

23 and 25 September 2023 - Visit and revisit of the Seven Seas Splendour.




Friday, 22 September 2023

2271. ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ฎ ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ผ Gibraltar Commemorates Coronation; Botswana Features Its Fish.

 



New issues.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ฎ Royal Gibraltar Post Office -
  
22 September 2023 - Coronation of King Charles III - 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by Stephen Perera and lithographed by Bpost. Rating:-*****.





๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ผ Botswana Post  -

21 September 2023 - Fish of Botswana - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by Keitshupile Tshiba and Onica Lecuntwane and lithographed by Southern Colour Print. Rating:- *****.








2270. ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช Cancer Awareness Stamps From Ireland.

 

New issues.

๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช An Post (postal service of the Republic of Ireland) -

21 September 2023 - Cancer Awareness, research @nd care - 2 self-adhesive stamps produced in sheetlets of 10. Designed by Zero-G and lithographed by Enschedรฉ. Rating:- ***.



๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฟ New Zealand Post -

1 November 2023 - 20th anniversary of the release of the movie Lord Of The Rings The Two Towers - 6 miniature sheets, each containing a single stamp. Further details awaited. Rating:- *.



๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India Post -

12 September 2023 - Commemoration of Dada JP Vaswani, spiritual leader and promoter of vegetarianism - 1 stamp. Rating:- ***.



๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฟ New Zealand Post -

6 September 2023 - Commemoration of the late Queen Elizabeth II - 2 ‘Gold’ miniature sheets, each containing 6 different stamps, the first being “made from 24-carat 99.9 gold foil …. embossed and edged with microfine detail” and sold for the equivalent of £89.56 (designs all in gold) and the second described similarly but with multicoloured designs and gold frames and sold for the equivalent of £137.20. Collectors will be pleased to know that these products are mounted in perspex stands and so must therefore be well worth the money. Rating:- 0. See also Blog 2353.




๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Singapore Post -

9 October 2023 - Machine dispensed stamps - 165th anniversary of the establishment of the Singapore postal service - 1 stamp. Rating:- ****.


๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Guernsey Post Office -

 Tweets reporting Post and Go issues with one day only inscriptions to commemorate visiting cruise ships - 

19 September 2023 - Visit of the Regal Princess.



Saturday, 16 September 2023

2269. ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ฎ ๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Butterflies From Gibraltar; Mountains Of Hong Kong.

 



New issues.

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ฎ Royal Gibraltar Post Office -

22 September 2023 - Butterflies of Gibraltar - 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 6 stamps. Designed by Stephen Perera from art by Jon Pointer and lithographed by bpost Security Printing. Rating- ***.





๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Hong Kong Post -

26 October 2023 - Hong Kong landscapes - Mountains - 6 stamps, 2 miniature sheets each containing a single stamp and a ‘collector card’ of 6 self-adhesive stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- **.











Thursday, 14 September 2023

2268. ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฐ Pakistan Commemorates 75 Years of Relations With Turkey.

 


New issues.

๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฐ Pakistan Post -

13 September 2023 - 75th anniversary of the establishment of Pakistan’s diplomatic relations with Turkey - 1 stamp. Designed by Mughiz Khan & lithographed by National Security Printing Corporation, Karachi and perforated 13. Rating:- ***.

๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Aures Collections.

This Algeria-based purveyor of numerous philatelic products, many of which are very expensively priced, appears to collaborate with the notorious Stamperija in selling items, said to be postage stamps and associated products such as booklets, postcards, sheetlets, miniature sheets and ‘deluxe proofs’, with the names of countries whose postal administrations have contracts with Stamperija. The Aures Collections items are produced to look much more convincing as postage stamps than the trash which normally emanates from Stamperija - they are of a sensible size, often produced in normal sheets and usually feature subjects of local interest to the countries named in the products. However the ‘stamps’ are produced in multiple formats, many of which are made available in very limited numbers at very high prices and the basic ‘stamps’ are sold in perforate and imperforate formats, the latter costing double the price of the former.

  I view these products as highly dubious unless evidence emerges of them being made clearly available at post offices in the countries whose names appear on them and of them being used on normal mail. At present they appear to be exploitative and nothing more. Products emanating from Aures Collections with the name of Sierra Leone have now emerged on an internet auction site (most products of this Commonwealth country clearly originate from Stamperija). I will deal with them here to illustrate their excessive nature and the ridiculous prices being asked for them. Subsequent products from this source will not be mentioned in future editions of the Blog. As always, caveat emptor.


๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Products inscribed Sierra Leone (all rated:- 0). Note - other products including items of postal stationery were issued alongside the items detailed below. Apologies for any products which have been overlooked - there are so many products, it is not difficult to miss something.

11 August 2023 - ‘Pre-Olympic Year 2023’ - 6 stamps each sold for €5, 2 miniature sheets containing all 6 stamps (1 perforated, edition of 300, sold for $15, the other imperforate, edition of 50, sold for €29), 1 ‘Deluxe proof’ containing all 6 designs sold for €29.










11 August 2023 - Post COVID-19 recovery of wildlife in Sierra Leone - 17 stamps - 9 x Le50 from 1 perforated miniature sheet (cost €22.49) and 9 from 1 imperforate miniature sheet (cost €39), 8 from 1 perforated sheet of 16 (2 sets of Le35 values, cost €35) and 1 single stamp miniature sheet (costing €9.99 perforated and €18 imperforate) and 4 ‘Deluxe proofs”.






































11 August 2023 - Election of Sierra Leone to be a new non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council - 2 stamps  (1 perforated, the other imperforate sold together for €10), 2 miniature sheets, each containing 8 identical stamps (1 perforated version sold for €19.99, 1 imperforate version sold for £33.51), 1 imperforate’Deluxe proof’ containing a single stamp design sold for €39.00 and 1 booklet costing €25.






11 August 2023 - Venomous and poisonous species - 2 miniature sheets (perforated and imperforate each containing 6 different stamps, costs €19 and €39 respectively), ‘Deluxe proof’, containing 1 of each stamp, cost €34 and 1 booklet costing €25.







11 August 2023 - Birds of Sierra Leone - 8 stamps (perforated, sold in block of 8 for €15) from 2 miniature sheets containing 2 of each value (perforated sold for €29 and imperforate sold for €49), ‘Deluxe Proof’ of the 8 designs sold for €29








 11 August 2023 - Reptiles and amphibians of Sierra Leone - 10 stamps (5 perforated from miniature sheets of 10 - 2 of each stamp, cost €20 - and 5 imperforate from similar miniature sheets, cost €39), 6 “Deluxe proofs”, one for each stamp and the other containing all 5 stamps (total cost €98) and 1 booklet costing €25












๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡น Stamperija itself continues to issue large numbers of products with the name of Sierra Leone printed on them. Among the latest barrage of rubbish is the following particularly distasteful item -