2556. 🇦🇬🇩🇲🇬🇩🇰🇳🇱🇨🇻🇨 Caribbean ECCB Omnibus Stamps

New issues -

🇦🇬🇩🇲🇬🇩🇰🇳🇱🇨🇻🇨 - Joint issue by the postal services of Antigua And Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts And Nevis, Saint Lucia and St Vincent And The Grenadines -

19 July 2024 - 40th anniversary of the Eastern Caribbean Community Bank (described in previous Blogs including Blog 2549) 2 miniature sheets for each postal service. These issues are now illustrated below -

🇦🇬 Antigua And Barbuda -

🇩🇲 Dominica -

🇬🇩 Grenada - 

🇰🇳 St Kitts And Nevis -

🇱🇨 Saint Lucia -

🇻🇨 Sr Vincent And The Grenadines -

🇬🇩 Grenada Postal Corporation -

1 August 2024 - Joint issue with the postal service of the Republic of Korea, 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Grenada and Korea - 2 stamps. Issue previously described in Blog 2541 but better quality illustrations are now provided -

Commonwealth countries and territories which are not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps this year up until the end of August -

Aitutaki Cook Islands 

Anguilla 

Bahamas 

Belize 

British Antarctic Territory 

British Indian Ocean Territory 

British Virgin Islands 

Cameroon

Cook Islands including Rarotonga

Gabon 

Grenada Carriacou And Petite Martinique 

Kenya

Kingdom of eSwatini 

Kiribati 

Lesotho 

Maldives 

Montserrat 

Mozambique 

Nauru 

Nigeria 

Niuafo’ou Tonga

Niue

Penrhyn Cook Islands 

Pitcairn Islands 

Ross Dependency 

Rwanda 

St Helena

Samoa 

Solomon Islands 

The Gambia

Tokelau 

Tonga

Trinidad And Tobago 

Uganda 

United Republic of Tanzania 

Vanuatu 

Zambia

Therefore, by the end of August, 37 of the 89 (41.6%) Commonwealth philatelic entities (Mozambique has been added to the list as it once more has a functioning postal service) are not known to have issued or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps in 2024. This compares with the figure of 43 (48.9%) at the end of July 2024 and the figure of 33 out of 88 (37.5) at the end of August 2023.

2553. 🇵🇰 Pakistan Commemorates Relations With Egypt.

New issues -

🇵🇰 Pakistan Post -

21 August 2024 - 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Egypt, Joint issue - 1 stamp. Design “supplied by the customer” and lithographed by National Security Printing Company Karachi and perforated 13. Rating:- ****.

The Egyptian part of the joint issue was released on 14 August 2024 and took the form of a single stamp -

🇺🇸 Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation (IGPC) -

This USA-based agency has now featured on its internet site the joint issues by 6 Commonwealth Caribbean states to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Eastern Caribbean Community Bank (ECCB). No illustrations are yet available but each postal service has released 2 miniature sheets, one sheet containing 2 different stamps and the other, presumably, a single stamp.

The stamps of all 6 territories are stated to have been issued on 19 July 2024. 

The participating postal services are those of -

🇦🇬 Antigua And Barbuda

🇩🇲 Dominica 

🇬🇩 Grenada

🇰🇳 St Kitts And Nevis

🇱🇨 Saint Lucia and

🇻🇨 St Vincent And The Grenadines,

🇮🇳 India Post -

My Stamp personalised stamps, usually issued in sheetlets of 12 with attached labels and sold at a premium - 

2024 - 165th Income Tax Day - 1 stamp. 

2549. 🇦🇬🇩🇲🇬🇾🇰🇳🇱🇨🇻🇨 Eastern Caribbean Bank Stamps “Now In Circulation”.

 

New Issues -

🇦🇬🇩🇲🇬🇩🇰🇳🇱🇨🇻🇨 Postal services of Antigua And Barbuda, Commonwealth Of Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts And Nevis, Saint Lucia and St Vincent And The Grenadines - 

2024 - Caribbean news outlets were reporting on 2 August 2024 a statement by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank which indicated that the stamps first reported in Blog 2344 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the ECCB are “now in circulation” with 3 stamps being issued by the postal services of each of the countries named above. Each territory appears to have issued a se-tenant pair of two $5 stamps and a single stamp of $10 or whatever value is the “best selling stamp” in each respective country (whatever that means).

  The reports stated that “two sheets of stamps will be available to each country” which is rather ambiguous in that it might mean that only 2 sheets of the stamps will be sold in post offices of each of the six nations (which seems like a rather inadequate supply) or that sheets of each of the two values will be sold in each country. We will have to see the situation regarding the stamps’ availability to collectors and how accessible they are. I assume that all of them will be sold to collectors via the Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation - IGPC - as five of the postal administrations have IGPC as their philatelic agent and Saint Lucia has previously been a client of IGPC though it has issued stamps very infrequently in recent years. If IGPC does not handle the Saint Lucia issue then it could well be something of a pain to try to obtain as was the case of the single stamp issued in 2015 to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Sir William Arthur Lewis, the notable Saint Lucian economist. 

  In Blog 2543 I recently highlighted that the most recent official new stamp issues from the postal administrations of Saint Lucia and Dominica date back to 22 February 2019 and 18 November 2020 respectively and so the new stamp issue is of particular interest in the case of those two countries.

  Collectors will also of course take note that the St Kitts and Nevis stamps will bear the inscription St Kitts-Nevis and not take the form of separate issues for the two islands. 

  So there are a lot of interesting features to this miniomnibus making them very worthwhile additions to collectors’ albums. In its press announcement, the ECCB provided illustrations of the stamps without the country names applied to them but illustrations of the Grenada $10 value and the St Kitts-Nevis se-tenant pair are available as shown below. Other illustrations are awaited.

Basic designs -

St Kitts-Nevis se-tenant pair of 2 x $5 -

Grenada $10 value -

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka Post -

12 August 2024 - Inscriptions and sannas of Sri Lanka - 4 stamps. Lithographed by Government Printer Sri Lanka. Rating:- *****.

2464. 🇰🇳 St Kitts And Nevis Returns As A Philatelic Entity.

 

New issues.

🇰🇳 Issues inscribed either St Kitts And Nevis or St Kitts.

15 December 2023 (miniature sheets) - 26 December 2023 - 40th anniversary of the Independence of St Kitts and Nevis - 4 stamps (inscribed St Kitts) and 3 single-stamp miniature sheets (inscribed St Kitts And Nevis). Lithographed. The basic set includes a $100 value which is the equivalent of £28.90p. Despite the high value I like this set and therefore the rating is ****.

The four stamps and the $5 miniature sheet emphasise the close links between Taiwan and St Kitts and Nevis in the year of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. As previously reported the 4 stamp designs are by local residents of St Kitts and Nevis who won a design competition sponsored by the Taiwanese Embassy in Basseterre. See also Blogs 2390 and 2396.

🇮🇳 India Post -

My stamps (personalised stamps with attached labels usually printed in sheetlets of 12 and sold at a premium and sold to the public by India Post) -

2024 - Fiftieth anniversary of TAHDCO (Tamil Nadhu Adi Dravadar Housing and Development Corporation Ltd) - 1 stamp.

2024 - 25th anniversary of the Guru Gobind Singh Indrapastha University - 1 stamp.

🇲🇾 Pos Malaysia -

15 January 2024 - Se temku, personalised stamps, 75th anniversary of the Malaysian Red Crescent - 1 sheetlet containing 10 different stamps.