2263. 🇮🇲 Manx Stamps Feature Local Artist’s Work.

 

New issues.

🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Post Office -

15 March 2023 - Artworks by Michele Tramontana - 6 stamps. Designed by Isle of Man Advertising and lithographed by bpost and perforated 11.5 Rating:- **

🇮🇪 An Post (postal service of the Republic of Ireland) -

3 March 2023 - Irish Women in public service (2261). I have received a communication from Brian Warren, to whom many thanks, who has kindly sent some fascinating information about this issue - 

🇲🇳 Postal service of Mongolia -

2023 - 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Mongolia and the United Kingdom  - 1 miniature sheet containing 2 different stamps. 

  Of course Mongolia has never had any links with The Commonwealth or the former British Empire but I illustrate this item because, while many countries at present issue stamps to commemorate various anniversaries of the establishment of diplomatic relations with countries such as China, Russia, Taiwan, Japan and many more (often they are gifts from the countries whose relationship with the issuing country is being celebrated), issues noting a country’s diplomatic relationship with the UK are very infrequent. Aptly, the Mongolian postal service has included illustrations of each country’s first postage stamp and early means of transportation. Well worth collecting. Rating:- ****.

2010. 🇦🇮 No New Issues Planned For Anguilla.

 

New issues.

🇨🇾 Cyprus - 10 December 2021 - 30th anniversary of the Commissioner for Administration and Protection of Human Rights - 1 stamp. Rating:- ***.

2 December 2021 - Personalised stamp, Visit of Pope Francis I to Cyprus - 1 stamp. The British specialist stamp dealer, Cyprus Stamps, has this stamp with attached label for sale on its internet site. It was produced in sheetlets of 10 with attached labels. Rating:- ***.

🇯🇪 Jersey Post - 17 February 2022 - Jersey food and drink - 6 stamps (there may be other items making up the issue). Details awaited.

6 December 2021 - Post and Go stamps, 60th anniversary of the Jersey finance industry - strips of 6 different stamps (mentioned in a previous Blog but now illustrated here).

New issue programmes for 2022. 

🇦🇮 An enquiry just made by me to the Anguilla Post Office as to whether any new stamps had been issued during 2021 or if any new issues were planned for 2022 brought me this very courteous response- 

“Thank you for your enquiry. Regrettably, no new stamp issues were released during 2021. We do not have any plans to release new stamp issues in 2022. Our outgoing mail service was suspended in 2020, due to the pandemic and recommend [recommenced] during the latter months of 2021. …..”

So this is one British Overseas Territory’s postal service which is NOT planning to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee with a special stamp issue. The Anguilla Post Office’s most recent stamp issue was released on 10 October 2016.

1825. 🇦🇮🇨🇲🇷🇼🇼🇸🇹🇨 The Commonwealth’s Philatelically Inert Postal Services.

🇦🇮🇨🇲🇷🇼🇼🇸🇹🇨 One term used in stamp collecting, probably more in the past than now, is Dead Country which refers to a country or postal service which has ceased to issue postage stamps. In the past that was usually due to the country ceasing to exist or perhaps changing its name. Examples of philatelically ‘dead countries’ are Bahawalpur, Heligoland and Newfoundland. The land is still there and there are people in it but as a philatelic entity it no longer issues postage stamps and probably never will again).

  When we look at our annual final lists of territories whose postal services have not issued postage stamps in a particular year it seems that in the last few years the same few names keep cropping up. These are postal services which seem to have actively decided not to issue new postage stamps (which of course the postal service of Iceland famously announced that it would not do last year and this year we are seeing, apparently, the last ever new postage stamps from Iceland which seems improbable). Thus the postal service of Rwanda is not known to have issued a new postage stamp since 15 November 2010 missing even the opportunity to commemorate philatelically the 50th anniversary of the country’s achievement of Independence (see Blog 1781). 

  Meanwhile the postal service of Samoa turned to using the services of Philatelic Collector Inc for a while after it found it was losing large amounts of money on every issue it released when New Zealand Post was assisting it with producing new issues and subsequently tore up its contract with Philatelic Collector announcing that it would concentrate on Express Mail and parcel services as a means of defending producing some highly expensive surcharges apparently not consistent with its contract with the US-based agency. No new issues seem to have appeared from Samoa in the last couple of years or so and there is no news that the Samoa postal service intends to produce any (though, who knows?. there may be some as yet unknown surcharges floating around out there in the philatelic new issue ether). Those who run the Samoa postal service seem to have made a decision not to issue new postage stamps.

  

Then there’s the question of Cameroon. The country’s last known postage stamp was released in 2015 to commemorate the inauguration of the Kribi Deep Water Port. There has been no news of any further releases in the past 5 years. Prior to 2015 Cameroonian issues were becoming very infrequent and presently there seems no enthusiasm to issue new stamps there. The postal service seems to have missed the opportunity to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Independence which was achieved on 1 January 1960 which might have been a good reason to issue some commemorative stamps.

  Finally we might mention Turks And Caicos Islands which like Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory. Its postal service last issued stamps on 7 December 2015, just over 5 years ago. The territory had placed its new stamp issues in the hands of the US-based IGPC agency for many years and it had produced some horrors in the territory’s name over that time but whether or not the agency still has a contract with IGPC I do not know but certainly nothing unpleasant - nothing at all in fact - has appeared on the new issue market with the territory’s name printed on it for long time. This is no guarantee that Turks And Caicos has purged itself of its sad philatelic history stretching from the 1980s to 2015 - one might have thought that Dominica had successfully ditched IGPC over the last few years but at the end of 2020 a large number of new philatelic products inscribed with the country’s name was announced by the agency.

  All of these philatelic entities have passed quite a long period without being known to have issued any new stamps. Clearly they are not ‘dead countries’ but they may be considered to be philatelically inert, seemingly lifeless but still able to spring back into life if there is the local political will to return to issuing stamps or possibly, for some, if someone comes along with a good enough offer.

  To this group we may add others - Lesotho and Zambia come to mind (both reformed former IGPC clients) - and then there’s a whole slew of Commonwealth postal services which are partially inert with new issues appearing infrequently and unpredictably. On this list we may place Nauru, eSwatini, Seychelles, St Helena, Belize, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Malawi, Brunei Darussalam and a few others (it looked as though Solomon Islands could be included here until IGPC announced recently it was issuing a sheetlet commemorating an American Buddhist figure with the country’s name printed on the products).

  These inert countries are a problem to the new issue collector. Firstly one can not be sure that the country has issued any stamps at all, even after 10 years, and secondly obtaining the stamps can be very problematical and sometimes involve paying a sum way over face value. It seems to me that new issue collectors  face the same problems as their Victorian era predecessors did even though this is an era of mass communication and globalisation in that we can often find no news or announcement about stamp issues from some postal services and when we know about them tracking them down for our collections may be a major task, and occasionally, impossible.

  Still it’s always satisfying to learn about the issues of these inert/partially inert stamps and even more satisfying to see them filling their space in one’s album after which one forgets them and sets off in pursuit of another stamp from one of these countries.

  One final thought - it might be considered that many of the philatelic entities which have large numbers of stamps produced in their names by foreign exploitative agencies are actually inert territories. If the agency issues are ignored, which they should be, then many territories have not issued any stamps or have released only a handful of issues in their own right or according to their real needs. This list of inert postal administrations with stamps by proxy is very long - Sierra Leone, Nevis, Grenada, Maldives, Tonga, Cook Islands, The Gambia, St Vincent And The Grenadines to name but a few. Tracking down the stamps that are really being sold to mail-sending customers over post office counters in some these countries can be just as difficult as searching for those territories which have very very few stamps appearing on the market.

🇮🇳 India Post (not inert at all) issued a single stamp on 6 February 2021 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the High Court of Gujarat. Rating:- ***.

1766. 🇧🇸 Bahamas First Issue of 2020 Depicts Medicinal Plants.

🇧🇸 The postal service of Bahamas will issue its first stamps of 2020 on 12 November in the form of a very attractive set of 6 stamps depicting Medical plants of Bahamas. The issue was designed by Bee Design from photographs taken by Dr Ethan Freid and the stamps were lithographed by Cartor and are perforated 13.5 x 13. Rating:- *****.

🇫🇰 The postal service of Falkland Islands will release a set of 4 stamps on 14 November 2020 on the subject of Demining (getting rid of the mines laid down by Argentine forces during the occupation of 1982). This interesting set was designed by Bee Design from photographs taken by John Hare Safe Lane Global Ltd 2015 - 2020 (32p) and GuyMargot, Demining Programme and was lithographed by Cartor and the stamps are perforated 13.5. Rating:- ****.

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Thanks to Juliet Warner of Pobjoy Stamps for information about the above issues.

 🇸🇬 Singapore Post will issue a set of 4 stamps on 6 November 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Organisation. The stamps were designed by Wong Wui Kong and lithographed by Secura Singapore and perforated 13. Rating:- ****.

🇮🇳 India Post issued a single My Stamp on 27 October 2020 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the College of Defence Management. As usual it was produced in sheets of 12 with attached labels and sold at a premium.

🇲🇿 The Lithuania-based philatelic item producer, Stamperija, which for many years now has produced literally thousands of abusive products in the name of various countries’ postal services and for a longer time, I think, for Mozambique than any other, has released a number of such items recently which are not typical of their products. In Blog 1765 I mentioned the “Act now” sheetlets of stamps from Mozambique and Sierra Leone which could be viewed as being part of an international omnibus issue which includes some philatelically respectable countries. Now I should like to draw attention to 2 more recent issues with the name of Mozambique printed on them which suggest that, like an unpleasant virus, Stamperija is adapting itself to deal with the current mood of new issue collectors. And it seems to be cooperating with the other source of a philatelic pandemic - the USA-based IGPC.

  Hence amid its vast recent outpouring of products with the name of Mozambique printed on them we have another two atypical products one of which is similar to a series of sheetlets recently released by IGPC. These products commemorate, for some reason or the other, the Buddhist artist Dorje Chang Buddha III. How closely linked are Stampetija and IGPC?

  The second item is a sheetlet of 8 stamps (4 x 2 different stamps) which commemorate the 250th Birth anniversary of the birth of the German music composer, Ludwig Van Beethoven, which again is a subject which has little direct relevance to Mozambique. The item is markedly dissimilar to typical Stamperija products and again gives the impression that Stamperija is attempting to appeal much more to mainstream stamp collectors who instantly reject the standard types of items emanating from Stamperija. It is to be noted that Beethoven commemoratives in the same style have already been released by Stamperija with the name of Sierra Leone printed on them as well as those of the non-Commonwealth countries of Liberia and Chad.

  I have no idea about whether these issues are something different which might actually be sold in Mozambique post offices. I doubt that they are and as with so many Stamperija products the subjects featured on them have no relevance to Mozambique so they have no place in my collection. Which is equally true of the upcoming Star Trek stamps due soon from Royal Mail.

1544. 🇵🇬 Nuts From Papua New Guinea.

🇵🇬 A set of 4 stamps and 2 miniature sheets was issued by the postal service of Papua New Guinea on 1 October 2019 on the subject of Galip nuts which have played an important role in the diet of the people of Melanesia for thousands of years. The nuts grow on Galip trees which grow wild in lowland tropical forests in the area. 

  The issue was designed by Yang Yansom from illustrations by Billy Telek and was lithographed by Southern Colour Print. Unfortunately the miniature sheets have a rather high face value. Rating:- ****.

🇲🇺 A couple of items from the post office of Mauritius have so far escaped my attention. The first is a miniature sheet which appears to have been issued alongside the 2 stamps released on 23 August 2019 to note the recognition by The International Court Of Justice of Mauritius’ claim to sovereignty over the Chagos Islands which in reality make up the British Indian Ocean Territory. An interesting item. Rating:- ****.

  I suspect that the second item was issued on 3 October 2019. It is a single stamp but I have seen no publicity for it yet. The issue commemorates the opening of the first phase of the Mauritius Metro Express which is a light rail project running 13km from Immigration Square to Rose Hill. The second phase from Rose Hill to Curepipe will be opened in 2021. The inauguration ceremony was carried out by the Mauritian prime minister, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, on 3 October 2019 which is why I assume that the stamp was issued on that date. Rating:- *****.

🇳🇬 The stamp and miniature sheet issued on 2 October 2019 by the postal service of Nigeria to commemorate the 150th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi which I mentioned previously in Blog 1534 make an odd couple. Now that I am in possession of the ordinary stamp used on first day cover and the item termed a ‘miniature sheet’ I can see that the stamp is fairly normal with the usual poor printing quality that is to be expected with stamps from Nigeria but it is perforated. 

  The ‘miniature sheet’ on the other hand is very abnormal including as it does a very large version of the single stamp which is imperforate and printed on thick glossy paper without any gum and looking more like a flyer advertising the issue than a postally valid stamp. In this respect the miniature sheet resembles that issued previously on 13 December 2018 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the River State which is so large that it is impossible to fit it on to a normal stamp album page (see Blog 1352).