1578. 🇬🇧 Video Games To Feature On First Royal Mail Issue Of 2020.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail’s first stamp issue of 2020 will be released on 21 January in the form of a colourful set depicting British video games of the 1980s and 1990s. The issue is made up of 8 stamps, 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps, a Collectors Sheet containing 10 stamps with attached labels and a counter booklet containing 4 x 1st Machin Head definitives and 2 of the  stamps from the miniature sheet. It is a lightweight set but rather interesting at the same time showing as it does the rather primitive graphics of the early video games. The miniature sheet is devoted to the depiction of the Tomb Raider games and the character of Lara Croft. The issue was designed by Supple Studio and Bitmap Books and lithographed by International Security Printers and perforated 14.  Rating:- ***.

  The news that Royal Mail’s first stamp issue of the year will be on the subject of ‘video games’ should not really come as such a great surprise as this medium of entertainment is an important feature of modern British culture especially among the young. Indeed the UK game industry contributed $3.9 billion in GVA (gross value added which measures the contribution made to an economy by one individual producer, industry, sector or region) to the British economy in 2016. In 2018 games accounted for more than half of the entire UK entertainment market (51.3%) outselling video and music combined for the first time.
 In 2016 when collectors were waiting to have revealed to them what exactly was to be featured on a set of stamps which preannouncement were codenamed Project Atlas I suggested that the issue would be on the subject of computer games (Blog 771) only to be proven miserably wrong when the set was revealed to be on the subject of, of all things, the Mr Men (with the choice of codename remaining unexplained). It seems perfectly reasonable for Royal Mail to commemorate this burgeoning British industry though I can’t see the issue appealing to young people (who generally don’t collect stamps) or older people (who generally don’t play video games) or, frankly, anyone in between.

931. Ancient Artefacts From Jersey And Colourful Birds From Namibia.

 🇯🇪 The onslaught of new issues from Jersey Post continues with the following:-

  20 March 2017 - Birth centenary of Dame Vera Lynn - Post and Go Jersey Flag stamp with additional inscription "We'll meet again" (a title of one of her World War II period songs) - strip of 6 different values (cost £5.30p).

  28 March 2017 - Melbourne Philatelic Exhibition 2017 - Jersey Crest Post and Go labels from kiosk
B002 - strip of 6 values, sold for £4.38p. Rating:- 0.

  11 April 2017 - Ancient artefacts - 8 stamps (cost of set £8.45p) and Prestige booklet (sold for £16.90p). Designed by TPA and printed in lithography. Rating:- ***.

  Jersey Post attended the Southern England Stamp Show 2017 on 10 and 11 March 2017 taking with them Post and Go kiosk JE01 which dispensed Collectors strips of 6 x Jersey Crest stamps with the added inscription "Southern England/Stamp Show 2017" as well as Collectors strips of the recently issued Shells labels with no added inscription. Strips were also sold from back office kiosk B002 and these are also on sale from the Jersey Philatelic Bureau. Rating:- 0.

  🇳🇦 Nam Post, the postal service of Namibia, issued a splendid set of 3 stamps on the subject of Barbets, a type of bird, on 9 March 2017. The exquisite art used in the designs of the stamps is by the superb Helge Denker. Rating:- *****.

  🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post will issue a set of 6 stamps, 1 miniature sheet and 1 "mini-pane" consisting of 2 se-tenant strips of all 6 stamps on 23 March 2017 to commemorate the calligraphy and paintings of Professor Jao Tsung-I. The issue was designed by Carl Cheng Chi-ming and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 14.5 with the miniature sheet being perforated 14 x 14.5. Rating:- *****.