2531. 🇬🇬 Guernsey Post To Commemorate Royal Visit.

Revised Guernsey Post new issue programme will include Royal Visit stamps.

🇬🇬 Guernsey Post -

Guernsey Post will release a miniature sheet on 9 October 2024 to commemorate the Royal Visit of King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the island which will take place on 16 July 2024. This is an addition to Guernsey Post’s previously published new issues programme. The King and Queen will also visit Jersey on the previous day, 15 July 2024, but I have not yet seen any news from Jersey Post saying that it too will release a commemorative issue related to the Royal Visit to that island though I doubt that Jersey Post would miss the chance to release a philatelic item to mark the first visit of the King and Queen to the Channel Islands.

Jersey Post press release on day of Royal Visit, 15 July 2024.

Interestingly, Guernsey Post’s issue is scheduled to be released on World Post Day and on the same day 4 stamps will be issued to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union, the United Nations agency which has taken it on itself to proscribe the stamps of the British Indian Ocean Territory claiming that the Chagos Islands are an integral part of the republic of Mauritius.

On the subject of Royal Visits it has been confirmed that the King and Queen will visit Australia and Samoa in October 2024 so that the King can attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Samoa from 21 to 25 October.

We may well expect stamps related to the visits. The Australian government has recently released official Australian photographs of Their Majesties, who of course are King and Queen of Australia, and it is likely that these may be used for future Australia Post stamp issues, perhaps even on an issue to commemorate the Royal Visit later this year. The photographs are credited to Millie Pilkington 2024.

Previously, Samoa Post is known to have last issued postage stamps in 2022 but these were surcharges, some of them of very high face value, and other surcharges had been produced and issued in years previous to 2022 but the last stamp produced with a distinctive design and with the name of Samoa printed on it was stated to have been released on 30 December 2016 by the ‘boutique’ philatelic agency (as it likes to call itself) , Philatelic Collector Inc. New issues then ceased because Samoa Post fell out with Philatelic Collector Inc over the release of the surcharges mentioned above and seven and half years have now passed without a Samoan commemorative stamp being issued. It must be doubtful therefore that Samoa Post will see that the issue of a stamp to celebrate the Royal Visit and the hosting of CHOGM is a good way of drawing attention to this small country and enhancing its international reputation but on the other hand the events may just prove a good enough reason for Samoa Post to once more release a new stamp issue. We must wait to see.

New issues -

🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post -

26 July 2024 - “Support to the delegation of Team Hong Kong, China to Paris 2024” - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 4 stamps. Designed by Chan ching-tsui and lithographed by Enschedé and perforated 13.5. Rating:- **.