2639. 🇲🇺 🇳🇿 Mauritius Features Observatory; New Zealand’s 2025 New Issue Programme.

New Issues -

🇲🇺 Mauritius Post -

30 December 2024 - 150th anniversary of the Royal Alfred Observatory - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.

🇦🇺 Australia Post -

Up until now I have not featured all the stamps issued in individual booklets which commemorate the Australian gold medal winners in the 2024 Paralympic Games (some of them were illustrated in previous Blogs). This omission is now corrected - 

September 2024 - Australian gold medal winners at the Paris Paralympic Games - 18 stamps -

 New Issue Programmes for 2025 - 

🇳🇿 New Zealand Post -

15 January - Chinese New Year, Year of the Snake (see Blog 2627).

5 February -  75th anniversary of The British Empire Games, 1950

5 March - Animals in service 

7,8,9 March - Royalpex Exhibition 

2 April - Pasifika Festival 

7 May - The Rocky Horror Show 

4 June - Soil

2 July - Native frogs

6 August - Black ferns 

3 September - Round kiwi stamp

3 September - issue inscribed Ross Dependency 

1 October - Christmas 

5 November - Biosecurity

Commonwealth countries and territories which are not yet known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during 2024 up until the end of December.

Anguilla 

Belize

British Indian Ocean Territory 

British Virgin Islands 

Cameroon 

Cook Islands including Rarotonga 

Cook Islands Aitutaki

Cook Islands Penrhyn

Gabon

Grenada Carriacou and Petite Martinique 

Kenya 

Lesotho 

Maldives 

Montserrat 

Mozambique 

Nauru 

Niue

Rwanda

Samoa 

Solomon Islands 

Tokelau 

Tonga

Tonga Niuafo’ou 

Trinidad And Tobago 

Tuvalu 

Uganda 

United Republic of Tanzania 

Vanuatu 

  Therefore by the end of December 2024, 28 out of the 89 (31.5%) Commonwealth philatelic entities are not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during the year. This contrasts with the figure of 27 (30.7%) at the end of December 2023 and 21.3% at the end of 2022. It also contrasts with the figure of 29 (32.6%) at the end of November 2023. 

  It appears there is very little change between 2023 and 2024 in the number of Commonwealth philatelic entities which have failed to release postage stamps during the preceding year. If only those that do issue stamps in excessive numbers would alter their policies to reduce the price and number of products they release then new issue collecting would be far more satisfactory. But if people keep buying them then they will keep producing them.