2555. 🇬🇧 Royal Mail To Release Yet Another Issue Depicting Vintage BBC Television Comedy.

New Issues - 

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

3 September 2024 - Porridge, vintage BBC Television comedy programme set in a prison (‘porridge’ is slang for serving a term of imprisonment for criminal activities) - 8 stamps (4 se-tenant pairs, total cost £13.40p) and 1 ‘Collectors sheet’ containing 10:stamps with attached labels (sold for £17.30). Designed by Steers McGiven Eves and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 14.5 x 14. Rating:- *.

Meanwhile, anyone interested in a philatelic bowl of real porridge may recall this stamp from An Post which was issued on 16 July 2015 as part of a set of 4 with an accompanying miniature sheet. The set was titled - “Ireland - the Food island”  -

2436. 🇭🇰 Corruption In Hong Kong.

 

New issues.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post -

15 February 2024 - Anti-corruption campaign in Hong Kong - 6 stamps and 2 miniature sheets (one containing a single stamp and the other described as a ‘mini-pane’ containing 2 of each value). Designed by Hikoko Ito. Lithographed. Rating:- ***.

Events - Royal Visit to St Helena.

🇸🇭 St Helena -

23 - 26 January 2024 - The Duke of Edinburgh, youngest brother of King Charles III, will visit St Helena to open officially the new St Helena Airport (among other duties there) and it seems likely that stamps to commemorate the visit will be issued, probably after the event. This will be the first royal visit to the island since the visit of the Princess Royal in 2002. Six stamps and 1 miniature sheet were issued by the St Helena postal service on 1 December 2022 to commemorate the anniversaries of previous royal visits to St Helena - the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (Bowes-Lyon) with their two daughters, the then Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose in1947, the visit of the present king’s father, Philip Duke of Edinburgh in 1957 and the 2002 visit of the Princess Royal. The island was also visited by one of the son’s of Queen Victoria, Alfred the first Duke of Edinburgh.

  One royal visit to St Helena which was not featured on the 2022 issue was that of the third sibling of King Charles III, Prince Andrew Duke Of York, whose visit to St Helena in 1984 was commemorated by a set of 2 stamps issued on 4 April 1984. Presently of course the Prince is a virtual persona non grata due to his alleged links with the Jeffrey Epstein case.

  The first Duke of Edinburgh, Alfred, was depicted on a set of four stamps issued by Tristan Da Cunha, a dependency of St Helena, in 1967 to commemorate the centenary of his visit to Tristan. On the stamps he is shown with Tristan’s volcano in the background as well as portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the second Duke of Edinburgh. On the death of Prince Philip, Tristan also issued a set of four stamps released on 23 September 2021to commemorate his life of service and one stamp was illustrated by a photograph of him during his own visit to Tristan with the first day cover showing the then bearded prince at the tiller of a local boat

  Now we await an issue from St Helena to commemorate the visit of the Third Duke of Edinburgh.

2268. 🇵🇰 Pakistan Commemorates 75 Years of Relations With Turkey.

 

New issues.

🇵🇰 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:- ***.

🇩🇿 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.

🇸🇱 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

🇱🇹 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 -