1821. 🇲🇲 Military Coup In Myanmar Deposes Aung San Suu Kyi.

🇲🇲 Though Myanmar has never been a Commonwealth member, in recent years I have included reports of its often excellent new stamps here in the Blog. The British have had links with what was once Burma since 1617 when the East India Company opened trading posts in the territory. Burmese territory was incorporated in the Indian Empire on 1 January 1886 and Indian stamps were used there until 1 April 1937 when the territory was transferred to direct British rule when stamps were issued inscribed with the name of Burma on them. 

  Burma was occupied by Japanese armed forces from April 1942 until 1945. Burma became the first country after the end of the Second World War to achieve Independence from Great Britain on 6 January 1948 as a republic which at the time prevented Burma from joining The Commonwealth. A military coup took place on 2 March 1962 led by General Ne Win and since then the military has dominated the government of Burma. The country’s name was changed to Myanmar in 1989. 

  Although the military remained a powerful force in the politics of Myanmar it did allow a process of reforms to be made from 2011 to 2015 when a general election resulted in victory for  the party of Aung San Suu Ky, daughter of the leader of the Independence movement in the 1940s. Myanmar seemed to be facing a bright new future and the prospects of its eventually being able to apply for Commonwealth membership if it wished strengthened greatly. That is when I started to collect the country’s stamps again and reporting on them here. Further general elections were held on 8 November 2020 when Aung San’s party strengthened its position in Parliament and the Military’s own party received just 6% of the total vote. The Military disputed the election results and claimed that they were fraudulent and on 1 February 2021 staged a coup removing Aung San Suu Kyi from power. Myanmar seems to be back to square one.

  I will continue to feature the stamps of Myanmar here because of its historical links with Commonwealth countries though there is no prospect of the country joining The Commonwealth under present circumstances. 

See also Blog of 10 April 2012. Latest new issue - Blog 1807.

🇧🇿 Where are the definitive stamps of Belize featuring local birds which Gibbons Stamp Monthly listed in its Catalogue Supplement last year but which have not yet appeared on the sales lists of any new issues dealers? The date of issue was said to have been 29 April 2020 but nothing happened. It was later reported that the issue had been delayed. The excellent internet site Birds of the World on Postage stamps compiled by Chris Gibbins reports from time to time on any progress with this particular issue that can be discovered and on 5 January (2021) he reported that “the package (I assume this means ‘the package containing the stamps’) was sent to Harry Allen (philatelic agents of Belize’s postal service) but they were closed due to Covid and HA (Harry Allen) cannot trace it yet!”.

  I have been bemused for a long time as to why postal administrations continue to use Harry Allen as their philatelic agent when there is the obvious superb alternative of using the services of Creative Direction/Pobjoy Stamps which produce a fine continuing programme of new issues, neither excessive nor  so inadequate as to result in loss of interest by collectors, for their client territories. Stamp issues from Creative Direction/Pobjoy are imaginative, relevant in subject matter, well designed and produced and are of a sensible total face value and publicity to collectors about the issues is first rate. 

  I recall the St Helena Napoleon Bicentenary issue of a few years ago when the authorities in St Helena were holding a rather grand event on the island with visiting foreign dignitaries and were planning to distribute examples of the commemorative miniature sheet to their visitors. The St Helena authorities (Harry Allen is the philatelic agent for the St Helena postal service) suffered the embarrassment of not having the items on the island in time to hand out to their guests. The reasons for the inability to distribute the philatelic items were never spelt out but one has one’s suspicions. The event took place towards the end of 2015 but the miniature sheet was not issued until January 2016, too late for the official celebrations.

As January comes to a close and winter is two thirds over, the world of Commonwealth stamps carries on with the first of this year’s issues nestled comfortably in my albums and the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has been doing its work in my left deltoid muscle for the last 11 days which may mean I might be able to go to a philatelic exhibition this year (and I don’t mean a virtual one) which would be nice. And so it’s time to take a first look at which Commonwealth philatelic entities have not yet issued stamps (or are soon to do so) during 2021:-

Aitutaki Cook Islands

Anguilla

Antigua and Barbuda

Ascension Island

Australian Antarctic Territory

Bahamas 

Barbados 

Belize 

Bermuda

Botswana

British Antarctic Territory

British Indian Ocean Territory 

British Virgin Islands

Brunei Darussalam 

Cameroon

Cayman Islands

Cocos (Keeling) Islands Australia,

Cook Islands

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

Dominica

eSwatini

Falkland Islands

Ghana 

Guyana

Jamaica

Kenya

Kiribati 

Lesotho

Malawi

Maldives

Mauritius

Montserrat

Mozambique 

Namibia

Nauru

Nevis

Nigeria

Niuafo’ou Tonga

Niue

Pakistan

Papua New Guinea

Penrhyn Cook Islands

Pitcairn Islands

Rarotonga Cook Islands

Ross Dependency

Rwanda

St Helena

St. Kitts

Saint Lucia

St Vincent and The Grenadines

Samoa

Seychelles

Sierra Leone 

South Africa

South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands

Sri Lanka

Tanzania

Tokelau

Tonga 

Trinidad and Tobago

Tristan Da Cunha

Turks and Caicos Islands

Uganda

Vanuatu 

Zambia

  This means that a grand total of 65 Commonwealth philatelic entities have yet to issue stamps during 2021. Then again, there are still another 11 months left of the year for them to do so.

1791. 🇰🇾 Very Expensive New Definitives From Cayman Islands.

The British stamp dealer/agent, Harry Allen, has distributed its latest list of new stamps from various of its client territories and the list includes a number of items from various Commonwealth postal administrations:-

🇧🇧 Barbados - 1 March 2020 - ‘Builders of Barbados’ definitive series - 1 value (not stated which value nor if it differs from the original 2016 printing in any way).

🇮🇴 British Indian Ocean Territory - 8 December 2020 - Butterfly fishes - 6 values contained in 1 miniature sheet.

🇰🇾 Cayman Islands - 18 November 2020 - New definitive series, the Botanic Park - 12 values (which Harry Allen is selling to the trade for £55.69p), 3 self-adhesive stamps each from a different booklet (25c, 75c and 80c) sold for £21.14p (which I suppose must be the price of the 3 booklets rather than the individual stamps though the price list does quote that price both for a set of 3 or for the set of 3 booklets) and a $2 miniature sheet costing ££2.36p. No illustrations yet available.

So, some Christmas joy there for somebody.

🇵🇳 In response to a question I raised with Tower Mint, Kerry O’Sullivan has been kind enough to respond about the future of the stamps of Pitcairn Islands. She states, “The Pitcairn Stamps programme is still in development due to delays owing to the COVID-19 crisis. Advice will be available via our website next year with regards to Pitcairn stamp issues and distribution”.

 🇬🇧 While so many new stamp issues put out by Royal Mail are just tiresome and horribly expensive there are still a few little free pleasures to be derived from keeping an eye on what the company is up to. In the last few days the organisation has presented to the British public, 4 more of its amusing commemorative post boxes, this time for Christmas 2020. As usual they have appeared in locations in all four of the nations of the United Kingdom - in Brighton in England, in Bangor in Northern Ireland, in Wrexham in Wales and in Aberdeen in Scotland.

  The Brighton postbox is located off Churchill Square and is the only one of the four to be a parcel posting box rather than for ordinary letters.

  The Northern Ireland postbox is located “outside the YMCA” in High Street. Prior to Royal Mail’s announcement about the decoration of the these postboxes the local newspaper in Bangor ran a story about confusion in the local public when they discovered that the postbox had been painted green without any explanation and before the Christmas messages and Christmas trees had been added to them.

  The Wrexham postbox is located outside the Natwest bank in Lord Street. A local newspaper ran a story about the postbox but included a stock photograph which appeared to show the Bangor postbox so I have no illlustration of the Wrexham box.

  The Aberdeen postbox is located outside the Clydesdale bank in Union Street and I again have not been able to find a photograph which shows the actual postbox but the box in its predecorated state is shown below:-

  The postbox decorations include a QR code which can be scanned so that people posting items can view a message from Father Christmas on their mobile phones.

 

  See also Blogs 1705, 1655, 1654, 1479, 1445, 1390, 1210 and 662.

1413. 🇳🇷 New Issue Mysteries Of Nauru.

  🇳🇷 Nauru Bulletin edition of 22 March 2019 has indicated that Nauru Post will issue a 'stamp and first day cover' to commemorate the State Visit of President Dr Tsai Ing-wen of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to Nauru from 24 to 26 March 2019. A second article states that the date of issue of the stamp was 25 March 2019 and that "it (is) the sixth stamp to be released since Nauru Post was established in March 2018". In previous Blogs I have reported the issue of three previous stamps which suggests that Nauru Post has issued 2 other stamps of which I am not aware in the past 2 years. Furthermore I have only received the first of the 6 stamps from my new issue service and have not seen any of the other stamps being offered for sale on the internet or otherwise by any dealers. Harry Allen, which consumed CASCO some years ago, has been the agent for previous stamps of Nauru but is clearly out of touch with philatelic events in Nauru and as with the stamps of Saint Lucia from which it does not seem to have received any stamps for distribution for several years, is letting down new issue collectors of the two countries very badly. Its website for collectors appears to be non-existent and its prices for collectors are very high. If only some these territories would switch to the excellent Creative Direction/Pobjoy Stamps stable I suspect that publicity to collectors about them would improve considerably, designs of stamps would improve (no more reindeers and snow scenes from British Indian Ocean Territory) and collectors might actually be able to obtain stamps from the countries in which they are interested. Regardless, collectors have a task ahead of them to find out about and to obtain these six recent Nauruan stamps.

  🇨🇦 Canada Post issued a set of 5 self-adhesive stamps from a booklet of 10 (2 x 5 stamps) and 1 gummed miniature sheet on 27 March 2019 on the subject of Canadian aviators. This interesting set was designed by Ivan Novotny of Taylor Sprules Corporation. Rating:- ***.

1172. 🇸🇭 New St Helena Philatelic Website Announces RMS St Helena Issue.

  🇸🇭 The St Helena government has recognised that information about its stamp issues to collectors in recent times, particularly since Harry Allen took over CASCO, has been sadly lacking. Unlike its dependencies - Ascension Island and Tristan Da Cunha - which have opted wisely to be client philatelic postal administrations of the impeccable Pobjoy Stamps/Creative Direction, the St Helena postal administration has failed to maintain a regular new issue programme for the past 2 or 3 years or so. 

  Now the St. Helena government has announced that it has set up a 'new webpage for St. Helena stamps' and has stated on its Facebook page that 'St. Helenian stamps are a prolific source of revenue for St Helena Government' (though I doubt that this is the case in recent years).

  The Facebook page states that the St Helena postal service now intends to 'release six stamp issues per year, entirely at the discretion of the Stamp Advisory Group who are responsible for putting together the different stamp issues'.

  The article also states that Advisory Group members 'decide on a theme, which could include local or international issues relating to St Helena. These can include endemics of St Helena, British royal engagements, or an anniversary of an internationally renowned historical figure that has affiliation with St Helena e.g. Charles Darwin.'

  The piece recommends that overseas customers can visit a Harry Allen website to 'place an order' but if one does indeed visit the named website one is greeted with a 'New website under construction' notice (shown below) which has remained unchanged for the past 12 months or so.

 

  St Helena's new website has recently announced its first planned new issue which will commemorate the last voyage of RMS St Helena from the island itself. It is planned that a set of 4 stamps and one miniature sheet will be released later in March 2018 and the designs will include images of the departure of the ship from St Helena which is due to occur on Saturday 10 February. Clearly, as these images will not be available till 10 February, there are no illustrations yet of the upcoming stamps.

  It is very pleasing that the St Helena government has come to terms with just how helpful stamps can be to its finances, how important it is to provide information to collectors and that there should actually be some new stamps available for it to sell to collectors.

  Now, if only a few more of Harry Allen's clients could come to the same conclusions - Saint Lucia, Seychelles, Nauru, Jamaica - yes, I mean you. These postal administrations don't have to go wild like Gibraltar, Isle Of Man, Jersey and Guernsey, and certainly not like Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Montserrat or Grenada - just a nice steady flow of attractive, reasonably priced, locally relevant stamps is all we ask for.