2705. 🇻🇦 Death Of Pope Francis. Many Stamp Issues Expected.

 

🇻🇦 The Vatican announced the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday morning, 21 April 2025. The 88 year old pontiff had previously been hospitalised for a severe case of pneumonia but on Sunday appeared before thousands of Roman Catholics in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City to make an appearance and to give a shortened blessing to the faithful. He was dead less than twenty fours later. 

  Pope Francis was the first non-European Pope to be elected to the post since the Syrian-born Gregory III who died in 741 and he was the first pope to come from the Americas and the southern hemisphere. He was elected to be pope on 13 March 2013 and since then numerous stamp issues featuring him were released particularly by the Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation with the names of its various client countries printed on them though the subject of the issues rarely had any direct relevance to the countries in whose names they were issued. Most of the IGPC issues had less to do with honouring the Pope and more to do with making a fast buck.

  We must expect that a large number of stamps commemorating the late Pontiff will be released in the coming months from entities such as IGPC and the notorious Stamperija as they attempt to cash in on the memory of Francis and doubtless there will be even more depicting his successor, once chosen. A papal death and election are always a business opportunity for the less scrupulous producers of philatelic products.

Some previous philatelic products which featured Pope Francis -

New issues -

🇱🇹 Stamperija -

🇹🇬 Issues inscribed Togolese Republic -

I do not usually report Stamperija products but as these are the first items of 2025 to purport to emanate from Togo, I mention them with illustrations to remind us all of the cynicism and bad taste of this particular ‘agency’ - 

1 April 2025 - Miscellaneous subjects - 13 miniature sheets or sheetlets containing varying numbers of ‘stamps’. Produced in perforate and imperforate forms. Two miniature sheets (one of 4 stamps and the other containing a single stamp) on the subject of the war in Ukraine giving the impression that the government of Togo supports the Ukrainian fight against the Russian invaders and 11 sheets depicting scenes from vintage Walt Disney cartoons - 8 showing the character Mickey Mouse and three depicting scenes from the Danse Macabre (skeleton dance). All very tasteless and exploitative. 

It is worth noting that while these stamps give the impression of Togolese support for Ukraine, at the UN General Assembly meeting held on 24 February 2025, the Togolese delegation failed to support a Ukrainian motion calling for peace and highlighting the role of Russia as the aggressor and instead Togo abstained on the vote (which was better than the United States which supported Putin and voted against the motion). There’s no point in issuing stamps suggesting support for a cause if that support does not actually exist.

Rating - 0 - Avoid.

2261. 🇬🇦 Military Coup In Gabon.

 🇬🇦 Military officers in Gabon appear to have taken power after announcing the cancellation of election results which had confirmed that the country’s President, Ali Bongo, had won a third term of office with 64.27% of the vote.  Bongo has been President since October 2009 when he succeeded his father, Omar Bongo, who died in office.

  The Bongo family had held the Presidency since 1967 when Omar Bongo had come to power with the death in office of the country’s first president, Léon M’ba. In all, the Bongo family had held the Presidency for 53 years.

  Gabon was admitted to membership of The Commonwealth on 25 June 2022 at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kigali in Rwanda. It is a Francophone country and, unlike most Commonwealth territories, had had no links with Britain prior to its admission to the organisation. Gabon becomes another West/Central African Francophone country to have experienced a military coup recently - Niger was the location of a coup in July 2023 and others took place in Burkina Faso (January 2022), Mali (August 2020), Chad (April 2021), and Guinea (September 2021). News of Ali Bongo’s fate is awaited.

Announcement of the coup

  The usual response of The Commonwealth is to suspend the membership of countries which have experienced military coups until democracy is restored. 

  The Gabon postal service is not known to have issued any new stamps since the country joined The Commonwealth. Whether or not this coup will have any effects on future Gabon stamp issues remains to be seen.

1217. 🇬🇮 Gibraltar Commemorates 2 Queen Elizabeths.

  🇬🇮 Gibraltar Stamps released 2 new stamp issues on 10 May 2018. The first is a £4 stamp produced in sheetlets of 6 to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. This singularly unexciting item uses the many times seen before Coronation photograph by Cecil Beaton with the lettering added by Stephen Perera. The item was lithographed by BPost Security Printers. Rating:- *.

  A miniature sheet was also issued containing a single £3 stamp to commemorate the first visit of the new British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to Gibraltar. The issue was designed by the Royal Navy - MOD and Stephen Perera and lithographed by BPost Security Printers. Rating:- **.

  🇸🇬 Singapore Post will issue a set of 3 stamps on 16 May 2018 commemorating various local anniversaries. The issue marks the 50th anniversaries of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) and the JTC Corporation. The set was lithographed by Secura and perforated 13. Rating:- ***.

  🇧🇩 The Bangladesh Post internet site is showing that it has issued only 1 stamp so far in 2018 and that is a 5p Official stamp. The small brown definitive stamp depicting Lalbag Fort has the overprint 'SERVICE' applied to it. The dare of issue was 8 March 2018. A real but not very glamorous stamp. Rating:- ***.

  🇬🇧 Royal Mail will issue another overpriced 'Commemorative sheet' on 1 June 2018 to note the 150th anniversary of the Trades Union Congress. The sheet of 10 1st Class stamps (total face value of £6.80p) with attached labels will be sold for £15.95p but for that enormous sum you also get informative packaging and a protective sleeve! It's a good thing that these items are no longer to be issued by Royal Mail. Perhaps if they had sold them at a reasonable price they would have been more popular. Rating:- 0.