530. Ghana's 2005 Panafest Set.

  An Post, the postal service of Ireland, issued a single stamp on 26 Febuary 2015 to commemorate St. Patrick's Day (17 March). The stamp was designed by Steve Simpson and lithographed by Cartor. An Post describes Simpson's design as being in the style of the country's first definitive series which was issued by The Irish Free State in 1922. St. Patrick's Day is a national holiday in Ireland and Northern Ireland as well as parts of The Commonwealth whose original European settlers were largely made up of Irishmen - Newfoundland And Labrador and Montserrat. I like the design of the new stamp very much - An Post continues to have an excellent programme of new issues with frequently interesting designs.

The c4500 Panafest stamp.

  I have been waiting for 10 years to see a set of the 2005 Ghana Panafest issue offered for sale and that day has finally come along and I have managed to obtain a set of this issue from an internet auction site. In the past I have managed to obtain used examples of 6 of the7 values but I have never seen an illustration of the C4500 value (depicted above) let alone seeing it being offered for sale. This must be the rarest modern Ghana set of stamps - at least up to now anyway - perhaps it is about to start to appear on the market as we saw with the long rare 1998 Malawi Christmas set which only began to be offered for sale more than 10 years after its issue (see Blogs of 20 and 27 August 2012). Still it is pleasing to see the ugly gap in my Ghana collection filled finally and to obtain this set after a very long search for it (see Blog of 21 July 2010).

  Understandably, the lunar new year is a big philatelic event in Hong Kong - in Blog 528 I illustrated the basic set of 4 stamps and 2 "Heartwarming" stamps which were issued by Hong Kong Post on 24 January 2015. Below I now illustrate the remaining items of the issue, designed by Kan Tai-Keung, which are a miniature sheet, silk miniature sheet, a "gold and silver" miniature sheet commemorating the end of the Year of The Horse and the beginning of the Year of The Ram and 4 "gold" stamps depicting the Years of The Dragon, Snake, Horse and Ram. It is a colourful and beautifully produced collection of items which are a pleasure to add to my collection:-

Silk miniature sheet

"gold and silver" miniature sheet

gold dragon to ram stamps.

  Hong Kong's next stamp issue was the "Heartwarming" set of six stamps which was issued on 12 February 2015. These are sold as a se-tenant block of 6 different designs and with Personalisable labels attached to each design:-

Heartwarming stamps with attached labels

Heartwarming stamps with attached labels,

528. Joint Anzac Issue From New Zealand And Australia.

  New Zealand Post will release an issue of stamps on 23 March 2015 titled "the Spirit of ANZAC". This issue which will be part of a joint issue with Australia illustrates the country's involvement in the First World War in 1915 and centres on the Gallipoli Campaign which began with the landing of Allied troops at ANZAC Cove on 25 April 1915.  

  There are a number of elements to this issue which are a mint sheetlet of 10 gummed stamps, a se-tenant block of 6 different gummed stamps, 2 gummed miniature sheets - one of 6 different stamps and the other of 4 different stamps - and a $39.90c booklet containing 12 different miniature sheets. The issue was designed by Strategy Design and Advertising of Wellington and printed in lithography by Southern Colour Print:-

Miniature Sheet Booklet containing 12 different panes or "miniature sheets".

  There are always at least 2 viewpoints to military conflicts and as mentioned in Blog 515, the Postal Administration of The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will issue a set of stamps on 18 March 2015 to commemorate the centenary of the victory (of the Turkish forces) in the naval battle at The Dardanelles.

   Zimpost, the postal administration of Zimbabwe, issued a splendid set of 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 9 December 2014 on the subject of local frogs and their habitats:-

  Singapore Post issued 1 miniature sheet, presumably on 1 December 2014, to commemorate the World Youth Stamp Exhibition (29th Asian International Stamp Exhibition) held in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia:-

  Looking at Blog 527 where I listed the Lunar New Year issues of 2014/15 from participating Commonwealth postal administrations or their foreign philatelic agents I found that 2 issues had not yet been illustrated and so below I depict the pair of stamps issued by Gibraltar Stamps (see Blog 514):-

  and the Smilers Sheet which was released by Royal Mail. The sheet was designed by Rebecca Sutherland and issued on 19 November 2014. The total face value of the sheet was £12.40p but Royal Mail added 50p to the price and sold it for £12.90p:-

Wood Goat label and fireworks stamp.

  Depicted below are better illustrations of the 4 very attractive stamps issued by Hong Kong Post on 24 January 2014 (see Blogs 479 and 512) to commemorate the lunar new year. The 2 "Heartwarming" stamps are also shown:-

Heartwarming stamp.

Heartwarming stamp.