2942. 🇲🇼 More Malawi Surcharges.

 

New issues -

🇲🇼 Malawi Post -

2026 - Provisional issue, surcharges in RED on previously issued stamps (surcharges on the same stamps in black were reported in Blog ). Rating:- ***.

The following issues are reported by Spectre-of-Stamps on its internet site -

🇲🇺 Mauritius Post -

15 June 2026 - Stamp from previous ‘Indigenous flowers’ set reprinted with ‘2026’ imprint. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.

🇰🇮 Postal service of Kiribati -

17 October 2026 - 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s third voyage - 4 stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.

🇧🇿 postal service of Belize -

17 July 2026 - Definitive issue, various subjects - 11 values. Further details awaited. Rating:- *****.

2907. 🇲🇹 Malta’s Europa Stamp.

 

🇲🇹 MaltaPost -

9 May 2026 - EUROPA, 70th anniversary of Europa stamps - 1 stamp and 1 booklet containing 5 identical stamps. Designed by Klaus Welp and lithographed by Printex and perforated 14. Rating:- **. A horrible, tedious and incomprehensible design brings Europa stamps to an all time low - at least MaltaPost is only issuing a single stamp on this occasion.

🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Post Office -

7 May 2026 - 250th anniversary of the rebellion of Britain’s North American colonies - 6 stamps. Designed by Glazier Design and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 11.5. The stamps depict Manx people involved in the conflict. Rating:- ****.

🇲🇺 Mauritius Post -

2026 - Freshwater flora (reprint with 2026 imprint) - 1 stamp.Lithographed. Rating:- ***.

2026 - Seashells of Mauritius (reprint with 2026 imprint) - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ***.

2026 - Reprinted definitive, extinct species of birds with 2026 imprint in lower border (previously issued with 2024 imprint) - 1 stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- ****.

  The above illustrations of the Mauritius stamps are taken from the internet auction site of Spectre of Stamps which are offering them for sale.

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.

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.

2842. 🇸🇴 Somaliland Finally Receives International Recognition (By Israel) But Still No Stamps.

 

🇸🇴 Somaliland Recognised By Israel.

  The former British protectorate of British Somaliland which declared itself to be the independent state of Somaliland on 18 May 1991 and since then, apart from a functioning postal service, has been a fully operative de facto sovereign state, has finally received its first recognition as an independent state by the government of Israel (also of course a former British protectorate, then known as Palestine).

  Somaliland had previously been a sovereign state from 26 June 1960, when it received its independence from the United Kingdom, until 1 July 1960 when it was absorbed into the Republic of Somalia, after Italian Somaliland had received its independence from Italy. A rebellion against the communist dictator of Somalia, Siad Barre, began in Somaliland in May 1988 and Barre was overthrown in January 1991 and the result was violent chaos right across Somalia and Somaliland’s secession from Somalia on 18 May 1991 as mentioned above. Since then, Somaliland has remained separate and relatively peaceful and sought international recognition but without success until 26 December 2025 when the Israeli government announced its formal recognition of Somaliland as a fully independent sovereign state. Given Somaliland’s strategic location at the mouth of the Red Sea, Israel doubtless sees influence with the breakaway state as being highly advantageous to it but this represents an important step in Somaliland becoming Africa’s 55th country and, who knows, developing a postal service which actually issues postage stamps. Will any African states now follow? Look out for recognition by Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.

Independent Somaliland’s only 3 stamps (issued 26 June 1960) -

post scriptum - the flag emoji shows the flag of Somalia, no emoji of Somaliland’s flag is available. This is also true of Turkish Cyprus, Alderney (but one exists for Sark), British Antarctic Territory, Tristan Da Cunha and Ascension.

🇮🇴 Chagosians form a government in exile.

With the British Indian Ocean Territory (the Chagos Islands) still not yet under Mauritian sovereignty (though if the Starmer government has its way, it soon will be despite the objections of those of Chagossian descent) the Chagossians formed a ‘government-in-exile’ on 17 December 2025 with Midley Mandarin as interim First Minister. Philatelically, it will be interesting to see where this one goes - will, for instance, the Chagossian government-in-exile issue propaganda stamps to highlight its cause as the Tibetan government-in-exile did after the Dalai Lama was exiled in India (two sets of four - the first issued in 1972 and the second in 1974)? They were very collectable and historically interesting even though their significance as postage stamps was highly questionable. The story of the Chagos Islands may not yet have reached the final page, even in the stamp album.

Midley Mandarin, interim Chief Minister of Chagos government-in-exile

Commonwealth countries which are not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during 2025 -

Anguilla

Antigua and Barbuda 

Belize 

British Indian Ocean Territory 

British Virgin Islands

Cameroon

Cayman Islands

Cook Islands including Rarotonga 

Cook Islands Aitutaki 

Cook Islands Penrhyn

Dominica

Gabon

Ghana 

Grenada Carriacou and Petite Martinique 

Kingdom of eSwatini 

Lesotho 

Montserrat 

Nauru

Nevis

Nigeria

Niue

Papua New Guinea 

Rwanda

St Kitts or St Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

St Vincent and The Grenadines

Solomon Islands

Tokelau 

Tonga

Tonga Niuafo’ou

Turks and Caicos Islands 

Tuvalu

Uganda

United Republic of Tanzania 

Vanuatu 

Zambia

Therefore at the end of the year 36 out of 89 (40.5%) Commonwealth philatelic entities are not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during 2025. This compares with the figure for 2024 at the end of that year of 28 out of 89 or 31.5%.

.

2841. 🇲🇺 Mauritius Reprints Extinct Birds Definitives.

 

New issues.

🇲🇺 Mauritius Post -

2025 - Extinct birds definitives - reprinted values with ‘2025’ inscription on lower border - 3 stamps. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.

🇮🇳 India Post -

December 2025 - 85th anniversary of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, personalised My Stamp sold by India Post in sheetlets of 12 with attached labels and at a premium price - 1 stamp.

🇴🇲 Oman Post -

30 October 2025 - Omani gemstones - 6 stamps produced in a sheetlet of one of each stamps, 1 miniature sheet containing 1 of each stamp (6 x 500 baisa) and a second limited edition miniature sheet containing all 6 designs but in a higher value (6 x 2 rials). Lithographed. Rating:- ***.

2826. 🇹🇷 🇮🇴 New Issues From Northern Cyprus; BIOT Not Dead Yet.

 

New issues -

🇹🇷 Postal service of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus -

12 November 2025 - Works by Northern Cyprus cartoonists - 4 stamps. Designed by Kustafa Camal Azizoğlu, Husain Mehmet Ulubatli, Çakmak and Alper Susuzlu and printed by Devlet Basimevi. Rating:- ***.

12 November 2025 - Chess in Northern Cyprus - 2 stamps. Designed by Gabriel Sönmezer and printed by Devlet Basimevi. Rating:- ***.

BIOT - Reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

On 22 May 2025 I published this -

  On the basis of the belief that the issue was settled - the issue being that the British government would pay the Republic of Maurice £30 billion to take over the British Indian Ocean Territory - I removed the BIOT from my list of active Commonwealth philatelic entities. This turned out to be somewhat precipitate as the British Parliament still had to pass a bill to allow the government to lose the strategically important islands as well as the £30 billion it had promised to pay Mauritius where there was a considerable amount of pleasure voiced by the public there as the prime minister of Mauritius promised he would use it to cut taxes in Mauritius. 

  The descendants of the people who had lived in the Chagos Islands for 200 years, known as the Chagossians, who had been expelled from the Chagos Islands in the early 1970s by the British, were less pleased than the Mauritians because they would never be able to return to their ancestral homeland. It was a rare case of a colonial people wanting to continue with British rule. They mounted a heavy resistance to the bill which would deprive them of their homes and they were supported by the British opposition parties and other influential people. The bill to abandon the Chagos Islands did however make its way through the House of Commons and was then debated in the House of Lords where there was heavy resistance to it and the British government stepped back from attempting to take the final step. Today it has been announced that the bill will not be proceeded with until next year. 

  Therefore the British Indian Ocean Territory, for the present at least, continues to exist as a political entity though we do not expect to see any new stamps being released. I shall, however, return it to my list of philatelic entities until, and if, the bill to end the territory for ever is passed eventually.

BIOT - The present situation as one British commentator sees it.