2442. 🇳🇿 New Zealand Issue Depicts Marine Invertebrates.

 

New issues.

🇳🇿 New Zealand Post -

7 February 2024 - Marine reserves - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 4 stamps. Designed by Hannah Fortune and lithographed by Brebner Print and perforated 14 x 14.5. Rating:- **.

Commonwealth countries and territories which are not yet known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any postage stamps so far in 2024 -

The philatelic entities included in the list at the start of 2024 are:-

Aitutaki Cook Islands

Alderney

Anguilla 

Antigua and Barbuda 

Ascension Island 

Australia *

Australian Antarctic Territory 

Bahamas 

Bangladesh *

Barbados 

Belize

Bermuda 

Botswana 

British Antarctic Territory 

British Indian Ocean Territory 

British Virgin Islands 

Brunei Darussalam 

Cameroon 

Canada *

Cayman Islands 

Christmas Island Australia *

Cocos (Keeling) Islands Australia 

Cook Islands including Rarotonga 

Cyprus 

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 

Dominica 

eSwatini

Falkland Islands *

Fiji

Gabon 

The Gambia 

Ghana 

Gibraltar 

Grenada 

Grenada Carriacou and Petite Martinique 

Guernsey *

Guyana 

India *

Isle of Man *

Jamaica 

Jersey *

Kenya 

Kiribati 

Lesotho 

Malawi 

Malaysia *

Maldives 

Malta 

Mauritius 

Montserrat 

Namibia

Nauru 

Nevis

New Zealand 

Nigeria 

Niuafo’ou Tonga,

Niue

Norfolk Island Australia *

Pakistan *

Papua New Guinea 

Penrhyn Cook Islands 

Pitcairn Islands 

Ross Dependency 

Rwanda 

St Helena 

St Kitts

Saint Lucia 

St Vincent and the Grenadines 

Samoa 

Seychelles 

Sierra Leone 

Singapore 

Solomon Islands 

South Africa *

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands 

Sri Lanka 

Togo

Tokelau 

Tonga

Trinidad and Tobago 

Tristan Da Cunha 

Turks and Caicos Islands 

Tuvalu 

Uganda 

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland *

United Republic of Tanzania 

Vanuatu 

Zambia 

Newspapers in Zimbabwe were reporting in December that it is expected that the country will be readmitted to membership of The Commonwealth in the first part of 2024 in time for the country’s full participation at the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) to be held in Samoa in autumn 2024 and so Zimbabwe may have to be added to the above list as the year proceeds.

The above list therefore presently includes 88 Commonwealth philatelic entities for 2024 (again Mozambique is not included as it has no functioning national postal service) and up to the end of January, 14 of them (indicated by asterisks) or 15.9% are known to have issued postage stamps during 2024. This compares with a figure of 19 (21.6%) at the end of January 2023.

2441. 🇮🇪 Ireland Commemorates St Brigid’s Day.

 

New issues.

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

1 February 2024 - St Brigid’s Day and the Imbolc Festival - 2 stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.

🇮🇳 India Post -

25 January 2024 - ‘Bharat - Mother of Democracy’- 1 miniature sheet containing 3 different stamps. Rating:- ***.

25 January 2024 - ‘Includive elections - the Election Commission of India’ - 1 stamp. Rating:- ***.

January 2024 - My Stamp (personalised stamp), 150th anniversary of Rio Tinto - 1 stamp with attached label (issued in sheetlets of 12 and sold at a premium).

🇯🇪 Jersey Post -

14 February 2024 - Post and Go, revised Jersey Flag with the royal cypher of King Charles III - 1 stamp in 6 different values. Rating:- *****.

2439. 🇬🇧 As Storms Hit Britain Royal Mail Celebrates Weather Forecasting.

 

New issues 

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

1 February 2024 - Weather Forecasting, 170th anniversary of the Met Office (Meteorological Office) -  8 stamps (4 se-tenant pairs - 2 x 2nd, 2 x 1st, 2 x £2 and 2 x £2.20). Designed by Hat-trick design and lithographed by Cartor. Perforated  14.5 x 14. Rating:- *****.

  This is an excellent set and as well as the basic anniversary, even if it is not, perhaps, the most significant (170th) it also includes commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the first appearance by a woman presenter of the weather forecast on British television; a tie-in with the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the D Day landings; a commemoration of the British Terra Nova Expedition in Antarctica and a stamp featuring a Space theme (which is unusual on British stamps if one excludes science fiction stamps relating to space).

2440. 🇿🇦 South Africa Commemorates Rugby World Cup Victory.

 

🇿🇦 South Africa Post Office -

18 January 2024 - Victory of the South African National Rugby Team in the Rugby World Cup - 2 self-adhesive stamps printed in sheetlets of 10. Designed by Thea Clemens. Lithographed. Rating:- ****. Illustrations of the first day cover show a postmark dated 28 November 2023 (one month after the end of the competition) but the announcement of the issue’s release was not made until the stated date of issue on 18;January 2024 and it seems likely that the illustrations of the first day cover show the wrong date of release.

🇨🇦 Canada Post -

29 January 2023 - Black history, Bicentenary of the birth of Mary Ann Shadd, first black female newspaper publisher in Canada 1 self-adhesive stamp from booklets of 6. Designed by Underline Studio using an illustration by Natasha Cunningham and lithographed. Rating:- ***.

🇮🇳 India Post-

24 January 2024 - Birth centenary of Karpoori Thakur, politician, former Chief minister of Bihar - 1 stamp. Rating:- ***.

2438. 🇴🇲 Oman Celebrates Road Link With Saudi Arabia.

 

New issues.

🇲🇾 Pos Malaysia -

14 December 2023 - ‘Free Palestine’ - 1 stamp. This previously reported item (see Blog 2417) has a different date of issue from that stated in Blog 2417 and the first day cover is cancelled ‘14.12.23’.

🇴🇲 Oman Post -

28 December 2023 - Joint issue with the postal service of Saudi Arabia, opening of the land road between Oman and Saudi Arabia - 1 stamp issued in a sheetlet of 6 and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Lithographed. Similar items using the same design were also issued by the Saudi postal service. Rating;- *****.

🇱🇹 Stamperija (notorious Lithuania-based producer and purveyor of (para)philatelic items contracted to a number of Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth African countries to release products with the countries’ names printed on them). The products of this ‘agency’ are not usually listed here but the following issue is included to complete the details of the previously mentioned Commonwealth issues celebrating the inauguration of the PAPU Tower in Tanzania. Prices for these items on the Delcampe internet auction site range from €9.65 for the basic set of 4 up to £25.55 for one of the ‘miniature sheets’. As always with these products, caveat emptor.

🇹🇬 Togo -

2024 - Inauguration of the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU) Tower in Arusha, Tanzania, omnibus issue of PAPU members (see Blogs 2402, 2410, 2280, 2274, 2263) - 4 ‘stamps’ and 7 miniature sheets (5 with a single stamp, 1 containing all 4 ‘stamps’ and 1 containing 2 sets of 4 - 1 of the sets being printed in inverted format - and an additional larger format stamp which also appears in one of the single stamp miniature sheets). Rating:- 0.

New issue programmes for 2024 -

🇹🇷 Postal service of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus -

6 March - 60th anniversary of the Postal service of Turkish Cyprus

2 April - Anniversaries 

6 May - EUROPA, Underwater flora and fauna 

24 June - Olympic Games, Paris

24 June - UEFA European Football Championship Finals

19 July - 50th anniversary of the’Cyprus Peace Operation’ (Turkish invasion of Cyprus)

30 September - Fighting Pine processionary moths

2437. 🇫🇰 Falkland Islands First 2024 Issue Depicts Working Dogs.

New issues.

🇫🇰 Falkland Islands postal service -

20 January 2024 - Working dogs of the Falkland Islands - 6 stamps. Lithographed. Further details awaited. Rating:- *****.

🇲🇾 Pos Malaysia -

20 February 2024 - 150th anniversary of Taiping, the second largest town in Perak - 3 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.

🇮🇳 India Post -

18 January 2024 - Shri Ram Janbhoomi Temple - 1 miniature sheet containing 6 different stamps. Rating:- ****.

My Post personalised stamps, usually issued in sheetlets of 12 with attached labels. 

10 January 2024 -  20th anniversary of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit - 1 stamp.

January 2024 - Commemoration of Rajmata Jijau - 1 stamp.