2876. Commonwealth Day 2026.

 

Commonwealth Day

The annual Commonwealth Day ‘celebrations’ take place this year on Monday 9 March (the event traditionally takes place on the second Monday of March).

Every year there is a new theme - in 2026 it is “Unlocking opportunities together for a prosperous Commonwealth”.  This year finds relative upheaval in The Commonwealth with Mauritius having broken off diplomatic relations with its Indian Ocean neighbour Maldives because the latter will not support the former’s attempt to take the British Indian Ocean Territory off the hands of the United Kingdom together with more than £30 billion. Though the hapless British prime minister, Starmer, has signed a treaty with Mauritius, its journey through the British Parliament has stalled and the corrupt Mauritius government,  badly in need of the British money to balance its budget, is threatening to take the United Kingdom to court over its failure to handover the money and the islands.

  Meanwhile, Starmer finds himself in more trouble because of his initial failure to support Trump in the Middle East War and Britain’s failure to take swift enough measures to help to defend former British protected states and present allies in the Gulf - Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait as well as the British Sovereign Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia which has implications for the security of Cyprus. What Trump hasn’t said about Starmer is anybody’s business.

  Elsewhere Pakistan is effectively at war with its neighbour Afghanistan though Guyana is looking safe from invasion by its neighbour Venezuala now that Trump has kidnapped the Venezuelan despot, Maduro, and removed him from office.

Regardless of all this, Happy Commonwealth Day!

New issues -

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

27 March 2026 - Definitives in new values to cover increased overseas rates - 3 stamps, £3.60 (‘purple heather’), £3.80 (‘aqua green’) and £4.60 (‘sapphic blue’). Code - M26L MAIL. Rating:- ****. These stamps are described and illustrated in the always invaluable online Norvic Stamp Blog.

Meanwhile, if you feel that you have not already spent an adequate amount of money on Royal Mail products, you may wish to consider purchasing the latest little temptations recently added to the Royal Mail internet site. Or you may not.

2873 🇬🇧 First View Of Royal Mail Lord Of The Rings Stamps.

 

New issues - 

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

20 March 2026 - 25th anniversary of the first Lord of the Rings movie - 8 stamps  (4 se-tenant pairs all of 1st Class domestic rate) and other items expected. Further details awaited. These illustrations are taken from the Facebook page of a British local post office).

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka Post - 

2 March 2026 - 75th anniversary of the Sri Lanka Airforce - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ***. 

🇸🇬 Singapore Post -

28 March 2026 - Joint first day covers of previously issued Joint issue stamps - Singapore/Maldives and Singapore/Thailand (stamps issued in 2025). I have not yet seen the Maldives issue being offered for sale so this is an opportunity to obtain them. Rating:- ****.

🇦🇪 Emirates Post (postal service of the United Arab Emirates) -

22 January 2026 - The Sharjah Old Cars Club and Museum, rare vintage cars  -1 miniature sheet containing 6 different stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.

2870. 🇲🇲 Myanmar Commemorates Tea Industry.

 

New issues -

🇲🇲 Myanmar Post -

26 February 2026 - Myanmar Tea - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by Myanmar Post from photographs by Thiha Lwin and lithographed by Wafi Security Printing Works, Myanmar and perforated 14. Rating:- *****.

🇧🇩 Bangladesh Post -

21 February 2026 - Martyrs Day and International Mother Language Day - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ***.

Commonwealth countries not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during 2026 up until the end of February - 

Anguilla

Antigua and Barbuda

Australia Cocos (Keeling) Island

Australia Norfolk Island 

Australian Antarctic Territory 

Bahamas 

Barbados 

Belize

Bermuda 

Botswana 

British Antarctic Territory 

British Indian Ocean Territory 

British Virgin Islands 

Cameroon

Cayman Islands 

Cook Islands including Rarotonga 

Cook Islands Aitutaki

Cook Islands Penrhyn,

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 

Dominica

Gabon

Ghana 

Gibraltar 

Grenada 

Grenada Carriacou and Petite Martinique 

Guernsey Sark

Guyana 

Jamaica 

Kenya

Kingdom of eSwatini

Kiribati 

Lesotho 

Malawi

Maldives 

Montserrat 

Mozambique 

Namibia 

Nauru

Nevis

New Zealand Ross Dependency 

Nigeria 

Niue

Papua New Guinea 

Pitcairn Islands 

Rwanda 

St Helena 

St Kitts/St Kitts Nevis

St Vincent and the Grenadines 

Samoa

Seychelles 

Sierra Leone 

Solomon Islands 

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands 

The Gambia

Togo

Tokelau 

Tonga

Tonga Niuafo’ou 

Trinidad and Tobago

Turks and Caicos Islands

Tuvalu 

Uganda 

United Republic of Tanzania 

Vanuatu 

Zambia

Therefore, at the end of February, 65 out of 88 (73.9%) of Commonwealth philatelic entities are not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps.during 2026. This compares with 82.8% at end of January 2026 and 76.1% at the end of February 2025.

🇮🇴 British Indian Ocean Territory -

Back last summer, it seemed that the British Labour government, now deeply unpopular, had successfully signed away the islands of the British Indian Ocean Territory to the Republic of Mauritius along with agreeing to lease back from Mauritius the strategically important United States airforce base there for a sum of over £30 billion pounds. As a result I removed BIOT from my list of Commonwealth philatelic entities and prepared to close the pages of my BIOT stamp collection for good.

However all is not as straightforward as it seemed. BIOT remains a British Overseas Territory with the potential to issue stamps (though the UPU has taken it upon itself to say that only Republic of Mauritius stamps may be used on the Chagos and other islands of the BIOT) (of course Mauritius has no post office there). The treaty with Mauritius has yet to complete its passage through the British parliament and recently the self-appointed Chief Minister of the BIOT, Misley Mandarin, and other descendants of the most recent inhabitants of the Chagos, called Chagossians, who were expelled from the islands in the early 1970s following the decision of Harold Wilson’s Labour government to do so to enable the building of the US airbase, have landed on Peros Banos, their ancestral home, and have settled there. The British BIOT administration attempted to expel them but this move has, for the present, been rejected by the BIOT Supreme Court.

But it was not only the Mauritius government which has been interested in gobbling up these strategically placed islands which Starmer seems determined to give away but also, to the north, the Republic of Maldives, which views the immense area of sea, a potentially massive fishing area, has withdrawn Mauritius’ claim to sovereignty over the Chagos Islands. Consequently the Mauritius government broke off diplomatic relations with Maldives.

This story looks like it will run and run but for the moment we still have the BIOT as a continuing page in the stamp album.

2780. 🇭🇰 Hong Kong Commemorates End Of Second World War Anniversary.

 

New issues -

🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post -

3 September 2025 - “80th anniversary of the Victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Facist War” - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by Bon Kwan and lithographed by Beijing Stamp Printing House Company Ltd. Perforated 13.5 x 14. Rating:- ***.

🇸🇬 Singapore Post - 

5 September 2025 - Joint issue with Maldives, 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Maldives. Designed by Wong Wui Kong (Singapore) and Oni Studio (Maldives) and lithographed by Brebner Print and perforated 14. Rating:- ****

🇺🇸 Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation (IGPC) -

Items produced in the name of various postal administrations. All these products are rated 0 -

🇬🇲 Products inscribed The Gambia -

All have a stated date of issue of 30 April 2025 -

Chinese New Year - 2 miniature sheets (1 containing 6 different stamps and the other 2 different stamps), Wild animals of Africa - 2 miniature sheets (1 containing 6 different stamps and the other 2 different stamps) and ‘Whispers of Bloom - 2 miniature sheets (1 containing 6 different stamps and the other containing 2 different stamps)). Lithographed.

🇬🇾 Products inscribed Guyana -

Stated date of issue 1 April 2025 - Chinese New Year, Year of the Snake - 2 miniature sheets (1 containing 6 different stamps and the other 2 different stamps. Lithographed.

2769. 🇲🇻🇵🇰 Stamps From India’s Friend And India’s Protagonist.

 

New issues -

Maldives Post -

25 July 2025 - 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Maldives, Joint issue, local boats - 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet (see Blog 2758). Kennethsequera has posted an illustration of the Maldives contribution to the joint issue on Stampboards.

🇵🇰 Pakistan Post -

5 August 2025 - “Condemning revocation of Article 370/34A on 5 August 2019 India Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) - 1 stamp. Designed “supplied by the customer” (presumably the Pakistani government) and lithographed by National Security Printing Company Karachi. Rating:- **.

It seems that the governments of India and Pakistan are mainly playing out the eternal conflict between them through their postage stamps which when you think about, is not such a bad thing- at least no-one gets hurt through philatelic warfare.

Pakistan Post put out a pamphlet explaining this issue and I reproduce it below - 

2758. 🇲🇻 Two Joint Issues From Maldives.

New issues -

🇲🇻 Maldives Post -

25 July 2025 - 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Maldives and India, joint issue released on the occasion of the visit of the Indian prime minister to Maldives - 1 miniature sheet containing 2 different stamps depicting local boats. The India Post miniature sheet is depicted below. Rating:- *****.

Clear close-up illustration of the miniature sheet awaited -

?29 August 2025 - 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Maldives and Singapore, Joint issue with Singapore Post - 2 stamps possibly issued in miniature sheet format. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.

Again, clearer illustrations of the stamps awaited.

🇮🇳 India Post -

25 July 2025 - 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Maldives, Joint stamp issue with Maldives Post - 1 miniature sheet containing 2 different stamps. Rating:- *****.

🇸🇬 Singapore Post -

?29 August 2025 - 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Maldives - 2 stamps possibly issued in miniature sheet format. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.