2896. 🇮🇲 Isle Of Man And New Multi-territory Sheet Commemorate Queen Elizabeth.

  New issues -

🇮🇲 Isle of Man Post Office -

21 April 2026 - Birth centenary of Queen Elizabeth II (‘fashion legacy of Her Majesty’ - 6 stamps costing £13.48 and 1 pack costing £35 and containing 2 panes, one a sheet of 12 stamps (2 each of stamps from Isle of Man, Ascension Island, Bahamas, Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and Tristan Da Cunha) and the other sheet made up of 18 different Isle of Man stamps). Lithographed. Rating:-*****.

New issue programmes.

The philatelic dealer, Spectre of Stamps has reported the following new issue programmes for 2026 -

🇲🇼 Postal service of Kenya -

Birds and butterflies

Diplomatic relations with Russia.

No dates of issue have been reported yet.

🇸🇨 Postal service of Seychelles -

June 2026 - 50th anniversary of independence 

October 2026 - 165th anniversary of the establishment of the Seychelles postal service 

🇧🇲 Postal service of Bermuda -

Remaining issues are -

May 2026 - Perot post office cancellations 

August 2026 - 60th anniversary of the Bermuda Regiment

2894. 🇮🇴 BIOT - “The Reports Of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated”.

 

Chagos Islands To Remain British.

It was announced on 10 April 2026 that  the British Labour government had given up its attempt to cede the British Indian Ocean Territory which includes the Chagos Islands of which Diego Garcia is the most important (in size and as a vital strategically important US Airforce base) to Mauritius and then pay over time more then £30 billion to lease back the base (see Blogs 2888, 2876, 2872, 2842, 2876, 2728 and 2580). 

This followed criticism of the plan by United States President Trump who described the plan as an “act of total weakness” (which was humiliating for the hapless British prime minister, Starmer, who had spent well over a year kowtowing to Trump in the hope that a successful foreign policy would rescue him from domestic unpopularity) and the running out of time for the parliamentary bill which would enable the sovereignty of the islands to be transferred to Mauritius.

Meanwhile the transfer had been strongly opposed by the former inhabitants of Chagos and their descendants who had been expelled from the islands in the early 1970s and who had formed a Chagos ‘government in exile’ under ‘Acting First Minister’ Misley Mandarin who had landed with a small group of ‘Chagossians’ on île du Coin and set up a camp there and begun restoring the buildings and graves of their ancestors on the island. After Starmer’s government attempted to remove them, the Supreme Court of the British Indian Ocean Territory (yes, such an entity really does exist) ruled that the ‘resettlers’ could not be expelled and so Misley and his group remain on Île du Coin.

The British government remains keen to carry on with its transfer of sovereignty but for the moment the plan has been ‘shelved’ and any wise government will probably recognise that any revisiting of it will cause it more trouble than it is worth.

Hence, from the philatelic point of view, the BIOT remains a potential philatelic entity even though the UPU has ruled against BIOT stamps and if the resettlement of the islands continues then we may well see postal facilities being set up there and an eventual resumption of stamp issues.

The news of the British government’s climb down as reported in The Times and by the BBC -

New issues -

🇸🇬 Singapore Post -

27 April 2025 - Joint issue with Japan, orchids - 2 stamps possibly issued in a miniature sheet containing one of each stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.

2892. 🇮🇳 India Commemorates Postal Training Centre.

 

New issues - 

🇲🇼 Malawi Post -

2025 - Christmas, previous issue surcharged. In addition to the 3 values previously illustrated a 4th value,  K1280, was also included in the set though it appears to be scarcer than the 3 other values. See Blog 2860. Rating:- ****.

🇸🇩 Postal service of Sudan -

22 May 2025 - 80th anniversary of the Arab League, joint issue with other Arab postal administrations - 3 stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.

3 August 2025 - Joint issue with other Arab postal authorities, Arab Post Day - ‘Towards more innovative postal services’ 3 stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.

🇬🇮 Royal Gibraltar Post Office -

30 March 2026 - 70th anniversary of EUROPA stamps, ‘imperforate proofs’ - 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing both stamps. These products are sold additionally to the basic stamps & miniature sheet which have been reported previously. These products cost £59.95 for the pair and £69.95 for the miniature sheet. See Blog 2881. Rating:- 0.

🇮🇳 India Post -

2 April 2026 - 75th anniversary of the Postal Training Centre, Saharanpur - 1 stamps. Rating:- ***.

2026 - My Stamp personalised stamps. Issued in sheetlets of 12 with attached labels and sold at a premium.

25th anniversary of Uttaranchal University - 1 stamp.

50th anniversary of the Dredging Corporation of India Limited - 1 stamp.

2874. 🇧🇿🇼🇸🇫🇯 Belize, Samoa, Fiji, Middle East War.

 

New issues -

🇧🇿 Belize postal service -

2025 - Previously issued definitives with surcharges applied 80c on 15c, $1.50 on 60c, $3 on 10c and $5 on 25c. These are the best illustrations I can presently provide and are taken from a post on Stampboards by superftg, based in Guangdong in China. Rating:- *****.

🇼🇸 Samoa Post - 

6 November 2025 - Birds, joint issue with the postal service of the Chinese People’s Republic (see Blog 2827) - 2 stamps. Further information on the Samoan part of this issue as reported by superftg (see above) on Stamboards - the issue was lithographed by Government Printing Samoa and appears to be rouletted. Steven Zirinsky reports that the stamps are sold ungummed.

🇫🇯 Fiji Post -

4  February 2026 - World Stamp Exhibition, Dubai - 3 stamps. Previously issued stamps overprinted and surcharged. Rating:- *****.

The above set is now being offered on the internet site of the Spanish dealer Princestamps who attended the Dubai exhibition but it appears from a notice on the site that his return home has been delayed because of outbreak of the Middle East War and the Iranian regime’s attack on the United Arab Emirates. Good luck to him in returning home and a thought that there may well be a number of future philatelic consequences of the conflict.

The British government’s delay in allowing allied aircraft to use British bases including Diego Garcia and the subsequent Iranian regime’s attack on the British sovereign territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia highlight the importance of British Indian Ocean Territory remaining a British Overseas Territory and, potentially, continuing as a separate philatelic entity.

🇯🇪 Jersey Post -

23 March 2026 - Passenger vessels - 8 stamps, price £19.87), 1 miniature sheet containing all 8 stamps (19.87) and 1 prestige booklet costing an incredible £34.74. Total cost - £74.48p! Designed by Martin Mörck and lithographed by bpost. Rating:- 0.

2872. 🇳🇬 Nigeria Commemorates The 50th anniversary of ECOWAS.

 

New issues -

🇳🇬 Nigeria postal service -

12 February 2026 - 50th anniversary of ECOWAS (joint issue with the postal services of other ECOWAS member states) - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.

The stamp is also included in a multi-national sheetlet of 12 different stamps - one each from the 12 member states - Commonwealth countries - Togo, The Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria - plus  Benin, Côte D’Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Liberia and the Cape Verde Islands. The specialist dealer of Nigerian stamps, C J Tern, is currently offering this interesting items on his internet site for a little over £50.

🇼🇸 Samoa Post -

2025, possibly August - Previously issued stamp with $3.00 surcharge applied in black. This illustration is taken from Zirinsky Stamps internet site where it has been featured recently. Rating:- ****5.

🇮🇳 India Post -

16 February 2026 - Centenary of Ol Chiki script by Pandit Raghunath Murmu - 1 stamp. Rating:- ***.

🇲🇼 Malawi Post -

?2025 - Another surcharge on the previously issued Butterfly definitives (K960 on K60) which I have overlooked. Thanks to Anonymous for drawing my attention to this stamp.

🇬🇬 Guernsey Post -

🇨🇶 Products inscribed Sark -

1 April 2026 - ‘An Artist’s View of Sark’ - Art by Louise Hill and lithographed by Brebner Print and perforated 14. Cost of set - £16.38. An attractive set but far too expensive, Rating:- *.