2955. 🇮🇲 Isle Of Man - No Respite From Unending Flood Of New Issues.

 

New issues -

🇮🇲 Isle of Man Post Office -

10 August 2026 - Trinacria (second issue) - 6 stamps. Lithographed. Further details awaited. Rating:- 0. Colourful but excessive given how many other stamps the IOM Post Office has already issued this year.

🇮🇳 India Post - 

?July 2026 -750th anniversary of the birth of Saint Dnyaneshwar, poet, My stamp personalised stamp - 1 stamp with attached label issued in sheetlets of 12 and sold by India Post at a premium price.

🇹🇿 Tanzania - Steven Zirinsky reports surcharges/overprints from Zanzibar and Pemba.

I have in this Blog, over recent years, reported from time to time the appearance of various surcharges from the postal service of modern-day Tanzania. Of course I have no expertise in the modern issues of that country and no local access to them and I only take an interest in them as part of my Commonwealth stamps collection. I was therefore very interested in and even startled when I read the new Newsletter by Steven Zirinsky, the expert on modern surcharges. Fascinatingly he states,  “Modern Tanzania (post-1980s) has: …. Local post office overprints in Zanzibar and Pemba ….”. I searched the site of Mr Zirinsky’s internet shop but could find no examples that I could recognise but  I look forward to discovering more about these items. As I say, these items sound fascinating as well as any other previously unreported general surcharge issues from Tanzania.

1590. 🇹🇿 Tanzania Commemorates 40th Anniversary Of PAPU.

🇹🇿 In Blog 1585 I mentioned that collectors should look out for new stamp issues from various African postal administrations to commemorate the 40th of the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU) and especially an issue from Tanzania Posts Corporation which was the host postal service at the meeting of the organisation held in Arusha from 17 to 19 January 2020. Well, it appears that Tanzania Post Corporation has indeed released such an issue and the issue appears to be made up of 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet. The issue has a low face value and takes the form of a 900/- value (regrettably the illustration here of a block of 4 is rather poor) depicting Tanzania Posts Corporation transport, a 2300/- value (“Mv Mapinduzi of Zanzibar Improves Transport”) and a 2300/- miniature sheet (“Air Tanzania Energize Route”). The issue was lithographed by Oriental Security Printing Solutions Bahrain. Rating:- *****.

🇪🇬 While I’m on the subject of the PAPU anniversary I mention that the postal service of Egypt ‘unveiled’ a single stamp on 18 January 2020 to commemorate the 40th year of the organisation. Will some Commonwealth postal services follow Tanzania’s and Egypt’s precedent? I would not be surprised to see more such issues.

🇳🇿 It is reported that New Zealand Post intends to release the following issues during 2020:-

4 March - Parakeets
1 April - 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War
6 May - Olympic Games, Tokyo
3 June - Four Winds
1 July - Paralympic Games, Tokyo
5 August - World War 2 landscapes
2 September - Maori Language Week
7 October - ‘Kiwi cakes and bakes’
7 October - issue for Ross Dependency
4 November - Christmas
2 December - Chinese new year, Year of the Ox.

1227. 🇹🇿 Excellent New Issues Featuring Art, Dance And Spices From Tanzania.

 🇹🇿 This is what happens when an African postal service takes responsibilty for the type of subject featured on its stamps instead of allowing some money-grubbing foreign postal agency to run riot with its national and philatelic reputation.

  Posta, the Tanzanian Postal Corporation, issued some wonderful, original, interesting and colourful stamps on 17 May 2018 on subjects mainly related to various local arts. There's not a hint of Elvis Presley or Diana Princess Of Wales or Marilyn Monroe or polar bears or Royal weddings about them. The stamps conjure up images which are pure Africa. For all of them I give a rating of *****.

  The issues are:-

  Music and Dance - 4 different stamps in a sheetlet and 1 single stamp miniature sheet. Lithographed by Enschedé:-

  Tinga Tinga arts - 2 sheetlets, 1 containing 6 different stamps and 1 containing 4 different stamps and 1 single stamp miniature sheet:- 

  Spices of Zanzibar - 1 sheetlet containing 6 different stamps and 1 single stamp miniature sheet:-

  🇧🇲 The Bermuda Post Office issued a set of 3 stamps on 21 May 2018 to commemorate the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The designs are fairly humdrum and unlike the stamps and products put out by New Zealand Post, Jersey Post and Gibraltar Stamps after the actual wedding do not feature scenes from the wedding but show photographs of the couple at the time of their engagement. This may explain the publicity photograph of the first day cover of the issue which shows the three stamps cancelled by a postmark dated 22 March 2018. Rating:- **.

  🇮🇲 Hong Kong Post will issue a set of 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 7 June 2018 which is titled 'Inclusive communication'. The issue was designed by Ching tsui Chan and printed in lithography and Braille ink by Cartor with the miniature sheet being printed in lithography and Braille ink and lenticular also by Cartor. The issue is perforated 13.5. Rating:- *.