1571. 🇬🇧 Commonwealth Stamps Review Of 2019.

  And so 2019 draws to a close. Here is a list of some of the notable events and anniversaries associated with The Commonwealth which resulted in stamp issues or which might have philatelic consequences in the future.

15 January - 🇬🇧 Royal Mail issued a miniature sheet containing 6 different stamps to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Royal Philatelic Society.

13 April - 🇮🇳 India Post issued 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate the Centenary of the Amritsar Massacre, one of the most shameful events in British colonial history.

26 April - 🇿🇦 The South African Post Office issued a miniature sheet to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of democracy in South Africa.

28 April - 🇬🇮 The Royal Gibraltar Post Office issued a set of stamps to commemorate the territory’s hosting of the 18th Island Games.

2 May - 🇨🇾 🇬🇮🇬🇬🇮🇪🇮🇲🇯🇪🇲🇹🇹🇷 The postal service of Cyprus, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Ireland, Jersey, Malta and The Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus all released issues as their participation in the 2019 Europa omnibus issue. Notably Royal Mail did not participate in the issue.

6 May - 🇻🇨 Numerous Commonwealth postal administrations issued stamps to commemorate the birth of Archie Mountbatten Windsor, first child of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

24 May - 🇬🇧 Numerous Commonwealth postal administrations issued stamps to commemorate the Bicentenary of the birth of Queen Victoria.

6 June - 🇬🇲 🇬🇧 Numerous Commonwealth postal administrations issued stamps to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Infamously, Royal Mail, in pre-publicity, had released a picture of one of the planned designs which actually depicted US troops landing in New Guinea not Allied troops landing in Normandy!

14 July - England beat New Zealand in the final of the Cricket World Cup. Royal Mail later issued a miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps to commemorate the victory as well as a second one to commemorate the England Women’s team victory 2 years earlier.

1 October - 🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post issued a set of 4 stamps and 2 miniature sheets to commemorate the 70th anniversary of The People’s Republic Of China while protestors against the Beijing government rioted in the territory’s streets. 

16 October - 🇬🇧 The postal service of British Antarctic Territory issued 3 stamps to commemorate the Bicentenary of the first recorded human landing on the Antarctic continent by Master mariner William Smith.

23 July - 🇳🇿 New Zealand Post released a set of stamps to commemorate the Birth centenary of Sir Edmund Hillary who was in the first group ever to climb Mount Everest.

19 June - 🇲🇺 Mauritius Post issued a set of 3 stamps and a miniature sheet to commemorate the country’s hosting of the Indian Ocean Games.

22 June - 🇸🇬 Singapore Post issued a set of 10 stamps to commemorate the Bicentenary of its founding by Sir Stamford Raffles.

31 July 2019 - 🇲🇾 Pos Malaysia issued a set of 3 stamps and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate the installation of the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King Of Malaysia), Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Ak-Mustafa Billah Shah.

8 August -  🇧🇳🇲🇾🇲🇲🇸🇬 Commonwealth member states of ASEAN, including Brunei Darussalam, participated in a minibus issue depicting national costumes.

🇲🇺 Mauritius Post released an issue noting the decision of the International Court Of Justice to recognise Mauritius’ claim to the Chagos Islands which form the British dependant territory of British Indian Ocean Territory. In the 1960s the British had expelled the islanders from their homes to enable a large US airforce base to be built on the island of Diego Garcia. This has long been considered to be another shameful episode in British colonial history.

23 August - 🇵🇰 The postal service of Pakistan issued a single stamp to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the modern Commonwealth.

10 September - 🇨🇾🇲🇻🇱🇰 A number of Commonwealth postal services or of other countries regularly mentioned in this Blog, including those of Cyprus, Maldives and Sri Lanka, participated in an international omnibus issue to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Express Mail Service (EMS).

2 October - 🇨🇾🇮🇳 150th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi - numerous Commonwealth postal services, including that of Cyprus, released stamps to commemorate this anniversary.

9 October - 🇧🇩 A number of Commonwealth postal administrations, including that of Bangladesh, participated in an omnibus issue to commemorate the 145th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union.

1 November - 🇯🇪 Jersey Post issued a set of 6 stamps to commemorate the Birth bicentenary of George Eliot, the notable novelist who spent some months in Jersey. Royal Mail did not consider this a worthy subject for philatelic commemoration instead choosing to issue 6 stamps and a miniature sheet to mark the 20th anniversary of the publication of the children’s book, The Gruffalo.

9 November - 🇮🇳🇵🇰 India Post and Pakistan Post both issued stamps to commemorate the 550th Birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh religion.

🇵🇬 10 December - 98% of voters in a referendum in the autonomous province of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea opted for Independence for the territory. The final decision has yet to be made by the PNG Parliament but Bougainville May become the newest member of The Commonwealth in the foreseeable future and will be a new philatelic entity.

🇬🇧  12 December - Voters in The United Kingdom reelected a Conservative government under Boris Johnson thus ensuring that Britain would leave The European Union - the first country to do so - probably on 31 January 2020. This decision may have philatelic consequences.

🇦🇺  16 December - Australia Post issued 9 Personalisable stamps in new formats.

🇲🇻 24 December - Baroness Scotland, Secretary General of The Commonwealth, confirmed that the government of  Maldives had fulfilled all necessary requirements to enable the country to rejoin The Commonwealth early in 2020.

Finally, some news:-

🇸🇬 Singapore Post will issue 2 gummed stamps, 2 self-adhesive stamps (each from booklets of 10) and 1 gummed Collectors Sheet ($10 stamp) on 8 January 2020 to commemorate the Chinese new year which will be the Year of the rat. The issue was designed by Lim An-ling and Andy Koh (Collectors sheet) and lithographed by Southern Colour Print and Cartor (Collectors sheet with additional gold hot stamping and laser die-cut). The stamps are perforated 14.5. Rating:- **.

🇮🇳 India Post issued a single stamp on 26 December 2019 to commemorate the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence which does not sound like the most exciting subject for a stamp issue. Rating:- *.

1557. 🇵🇬 Bougainville Chooses Independence.

🇵🇬Collectors may find that there will soon be a new Commonwealth philatelic entity to collect after 98% of the 181067 voters in the referendum held in Bougainville, an autonomous island group which is presently part of Papua New Guinea, voted for full Independence (see Blog 1550). The referendum was not binding but talks will now take place on the next steps to take to achieve the goal which the vast majority of Bougainville voters have chosen.

  Bougainville would be a small country in size, a little larger than Cyprus in area with a population slightly smaller than that of Vanuatu and slightly larger than that of Barbados. 

  In recent years philatelists have found that collecting the stamps of new, moderately poor countries to be problematical since, when such stamps are issued, they are not easily obtainable from postal services which do not have a well developed philatelic service or a reliable overseas philatelic agent and there is always the risk that a predatory agency such as Stamperija or IGPC might persuade the new nation’s postal authority to sign contracts with it which results in the release of abusive issues, such as we are all familiar with.

  The Papua New Guinea government may choose to ignore the expressed wish of the voters of Bougainville just as the ruling elite in Britain has done its best to ignore the expressed choice of British voters on the issue of the country’s departure from the European Union but when as many as 98% of voters have opted for Independence then it will be very difficult for the Papua New Guinea government to ignore such an overwhelming majority.

  And so, prepare to add the name of Bougainville to your stamp album.

  

🇯🇪 Jersey Post has announced that its new issue programme for the first half of 2020 will be:-

3 January 2020 - Chinese New Year, Year of the Rat - 1 Stamp and 1 miniature sheet (see Blog 1556)

12 February 2020 - Jersey artists, Claude Cahun (actually a French female photographer who eventually came to live in Jersey. This issue does not appear to be tied to any particular anniversary but gives Jersey Post the opportunity to demonstrate its awareness of and sensitivity to gender issues that are so important in present society)

26 March 2020 - 250th Birth anniversary of Ludwig Van Beethoven (German music composer with no links to Jersey)

7 April 2020 - Europa, Ancient mail routes - Mail ships 

9 May 2020 - 75th anniversary of the Liberation from Nazi occupation

9 June 2029 -  150th anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens (English writer)

🇧🇩 Bangladesh Post issued a single stamp on 27 July 2019 to commemorate the holding of Bangladesh 2019. The issue is a previously issued stamp with an overprint applied in gold. Rating:- **.

🇳🇬 The miniature sheet issued by Nipost, the postal service of Nigeria, was sold in 2 forms - the imperforate type featured in Blog 1534 and a considerably rarer perforated type which is depicted below. The date of issue was 2 October 2019. Ratings:- *****.

🇲🇺 Mauritius Post issued a single stamp on 7 December 2019 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). An excellent little stamp. Rating:- ****.

1550. 🇵🇬 Bougainville Begins Independence Voting.

🇵🇬 The people of the province of North Solomons - otherwise known as Bougainville - have today begun to vote in a 2 week-long referendum on the future status of the territory within Papua New Guinea and whether or not the province should become an independent state. 

  The island of Bougainville was visited by the French explorer, Louis de Bourgainville, in 1768 who, with an absence of modesty, named the island after himself. The island was subsequently visited by American whaling ships and in 1899 it was claimed by the Germans and incorporated in German New Guinea.

  The Australians occupied Bougainville during the First World War and incorporated it in the mandated territory of New Guinea in 1920.

  After World War 2, in 1949, New Guinea was combined with the territory of Papua to form the United Nations Trust Territory of Papua and New Guinea under Australian administration. 

  Bougainville became part of the newly independent Papua New Guinea in September 1975 but the inhabitants of the island declared the territory to be an independent state on 11 September 1975 as The Republic Of The North Solomons but subsequent negotiations reached a settlement resulting in the full absorption of the territory in Papua New Guinea. This led to a civil war between 1988 and 1998 with an eventual peace settlement resulting in the territory being given an autonomous status.

  If the present referendum results in the local people choosing Independence then the decision must still be agreed by the Papua New Guinea Parliament but if that occurs then we may have a new independent nation in the foreseeable future with the resultant emergence of a new philatelic entity which may well become a member of The Commonwealth.

🇺🇸 Upcoming new products from the US-based agency, IGPC, with the names of Commonwealth philatelic entities printed on them will be:-

🇦🇬 Antigua And Barbuda - The American crocodile - 1 miniature sheet contains 4 different stamps.
                                                Farm animals - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 3 different stamps and the other a single stamp.
                                                The Flamingo - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 4 different stamps and the other a single stamp.
                                                The Turkey vulture - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 4 different stamps and 1 containing a single stamp.
🇬🇲 The Gambia - The Mantis - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 3 different stamps and the other a single stamp.
                               The pangolin - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 4 different stamps and the other a single stamp.
                               Reptiles - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp.
🇬🇩 Grenada Carriacou And Petite Martinique - Lizards - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 4 different stamps and the other a single stamp.
                                                                                   Saltwater fish - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 3 different stamps and the other containing a single stamp.
🇬🇾 Guyana -       27 September 2019 - HH Dorje Chang Buddha - 1 miniature sheet containing 4 stamps.
                             1 October 2019 - 150th anniversary of the Birth of Mahatma Gandhi - 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps.
                             6 November 2019 - Mega-moths - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 3 different stamps and the other a single stamp.
🇲🇸 Montserrat - 15 August 2019 - The Caribbean flamingo - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 4 different stamps and the other a single stamp.
                             10 October 2019 - 150th anniversary of the Birth of Mahatma Gandhi - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 4 different stamps and the other containing a single stamp.
🇰🇳 Nevis - Angelfish - 2 miniature sheets, 1 containing 4 different stamps and the other a single stamp.
🇻🇨 St Vincent And The Grenadines - the Black vulture - 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps.