Ghana's Rarest Recent Stamp? A Postcard From South Sudan.

Of the recent Ghana definitives, the value that has proved most difficult to obtain is the C500 value featuring the seashell, Typanotomus Fuscatus, which the Stanley Gibbons West Africa catalogue dates to July 2003. Up until a fortnight ago I had never seen this stamp being offered for sale and it remained a glaring blank spot in my collection. Interestingly, the now retired and much missed Commonwealth stamp new issue dealers, M & N Haworth, who were second to none in obtaining obscure new issues from around The Commonwealth, were never able to obtain this particular stamp to put on sale and, despite frequent searching, I had never seen it for sale on E Bay or Delcampe. And then, whilst examining the photograph of some kiloware being offered for sale by auction on E Bay, I noticed this insignificant-looking, little stamp among the items included in a particular lot and, fortunately, for a very modest sum, was able to secure the lot and at long last that nasty blank spot in my collection has been filled by what I believe to be the rarest of recent Ghanaian stamps (at least until the recent production of various surcharged stamps, a number of which will probably be very difficult to obtain). Astonishingly, a few days after I had made my successful bid, I found another kiloware packet for sale which also included this particular stamp, from a completely different seller in a different country but up to now these are the only 2 specimens of this particular stamp which I have ever seen for sale (and both of them in a used condition). Incidentally, the current Gibbons Commonwealth West Africa Catalogue, 2009 edition, prices the used stamp at a mere 20p and a mint example at 50p, all I can say is, try getting hold of a copy.

  Meanwhile, I have also been delighted to add a postcard to my collection which was sent from the new country of South Sudan to Egypt which bears a pair of the 3.5 SSp value of the first stamp issue which depicts the leader of the independence struggle, John Garang. The stamps are cancelled by a circular date stamp from Juba, the capital, on 5 September 2011 - about 6 weeks after the stamps were issued - and there is an Egyptian cancellation applied to the card which is dated 11 October 2011; apparently the item took a month to arrive at its destinatio which suggests that the South Sudan postal service may not yet be in its optimal working state.

 I find it an exciting item to add to my 1897 to 1955 collection of Sudan stamps which contains some of the most interesting designs ever issued in The British Empire including the very exotic and romantic-looking Camel postman design which first appeared in 1898 and the spectacularly beautiful General Gordon 50th death anniversary set of 1935.

First available South Sudan set sells for $231

The first complete set of South Sudan stamps to be auctioned on E Bay was sold yesterday for an astonishing $231 (£145.45p). The first set of three stamps was prepared and donated to the new country, whose application to join The Commonwealth is currently under consideration, by the government of The People's Republic of China and, as mentioned in a previous blog, consisted of three stamps issued in the country's new currency, the South Sudan pound. The values are 1ssp, 2.5ssp and 3.5ssp and respectively feature the new national flag, the national coat of arms and an image of the president. They were probably issued on the 18 July 2011 when the new currency became available. In all, the Chinese authorities donated 100,000 copies of each value for use in South Sudan. I have not yet seen any professional dealer offering these stamps but one can not help but imagine, given the number of stamps issued, that they will eventually come on to the market to fill the requirements of collectors in sufficient numbers to ensure that they are sold at sensible new issue prices. The person who paid $231 may feel that their impatience to possess these stamps has resulted in them spending at least $200 more than they need have done.

 The fact that South Sudan will probably be admitted to membership of The Commonwealth in the next couple of years makes this first issue very interesting to Commonwealth stamps collectors since even though they were issued before membership began, it would be wholly impractical for a catalogue publisher - that is - Stanley Gibbons, to omit them from the Commonwealth catalogue and start at a later issue since that would leave this first issue, and any more that come along in the next couple of years, floating around in a catalogue limbo. Thus collectors would be wise to buy a set of these stamps when they become available at sensible prices (not £145 however).

  The international recognition of South Sudan contrasts sharply with the international community's reluctance to recognise Somaliland which at least had the status of being a separate independent state (albeit for 4 days) in 1960 before it joined the former Italian Somaliland as part of The Somali Republic. Somaliland remains the one de facto independent country in the world to have not operated a postal service since it reasserted its independence in the 1990's and therefore not to have issued any postage stamps although, as described in a previous blog, a large number of bogus stamps have been released with the country's name on them. Perhaps the Chinese could prepare a stamp issue for Somaliland and help them to establish a postal service. That would be interesting.

The Commonwealth's Greediest Stamp Producers 2010

Philatelists still continue to complain about excess issuing of new stamps in general and by some countries in particular. I present here a list of the worst examples of greedy, excessive stamp production by countries in The Commonwealth during 2010. There may be a little disagreement about when stamps are issued in a sheetlet, does that constitute a number of individual stamps or a single miniature sheet? The Gibbons Stamp Catalogue editor allocates only a single number to what may be an issue of several miniature sheets which gives a false impression of conservatism of new issue releases among some producers but at least it saves space in his book which already features many "stamps" which theoretically have postal validity but hardly get sold at all to mail senders in the countries whose names the stamps have inscribed upon them. The list includes stamps issued in ordinary sheets and miniature sheets and booklets (although some countries' booklets are not included such as the ludicrous number of prestige booklets released by Australia which, if they were included, would make the Australian total look even worse. New varieties e.g. change of perforation or type of paper, are included as new stamps and varieties of commemoratives e.g. gummed from ordinary sheets or self-adhesive from booklets etc. are included as different stamps.

  

      country            no. of stamps     no. of min. shts.     no. of booklets       total no. of items

 1. Mozambique            1136                   101                                                                1237

 2. The Gambia               216                     17                                                                  234

 3. Australia                    205                     14                     not included                      229

 4. St. Vincent                 166                       6                                                                  172

 5. Sierra Leone              150                     14                                                                  164

 6. Grenada                     145                      15                                                                  160

 7. G.B. Royal Mail        120                      13*                          15                                  148

 8. Dominica                   135                       9                                                                  144

 9. Antigua                       128                      9                                                                  137

 10. Nevis                         120                     15                                                                  135

 11. Malaysia                    110                       9                              2                                 121

 12. South Africa             116                       2                                                                  118

 13. St. Kitts                     109                      6                                                                  115

 14. New Zealand            100                     11                                                                  111

 15. Guyana                        91                      15                                                                 106

 16. India                            91                      12                                                                 103

 17. Tanzania**                 81                      14                                                                   95

 18. Grenada

          Grenadines             84                        8                                                                   92

 19. Papua New Guinea   61                       25                                                                   86

 20. Cook Islands             76                         4                                                                   80

 21. Jersey                         69                         9                              1                                   79

 22. Canada***                 57                        16                            ***                                 73

 23. Maldives                    64                         9                                                                   73

 24. Singapore                  60                         4                              4                                   68

 25. Isle Of Man***         60                          7                            ***                                 67

  *     G.B. Royal Mail: does not include "Smilers" and "commemorative" sheets.

  **   Tanzania: may increase in number as little information about the locally available  issues of  2010 for use on genuine local mail  is currently available.

  *** Booklets not included but individual stamps from the booklets are included in the first  column.

 In truth, these numbers hold little surprise, the list comprising principally of countries who have postally valid items produced with their name inscribed on them who have allowed a single philatelic agency in The United States to produce such items. Their status as true "postage stamps" i.e. freely available receipts for the pre-payment of postage in the particular countries whose name is printed on them, is questionable. Nor is the outrageous excessive issuing of stamps by Australia Post and Royal Mail anything new - it has been going on, but gradually getting worse, for years. Neither of those postal authorities find anything wrong with it and clearly collectors continue to buy such items as well Gibbons continuing to list them in their catalogue. Stamp new issues continue to be a license to print money. The offshore islands of Britain also continue to cynically overproduce new issues and Jersey and The Isle Of Man find themselves in the top 25 and Guernsey would as well if its stamps were combined with those produced with the inscription "Alderney" (total number of items: 86). But there are some rays of sunshine, the following are the top 10 of lowest numbers of new stamp issues in The Commonwealth during 2010:-

       country                no. of stamps            no. of miniature sheets               total

 1.= Nauru                           0                                        0                                         0

 1.= Rwanda                        0                                        0                                         0

 1.= Turks & Caicos           0                                        0                                          0

 4.   Samoa                          0                                        1                                           1

 5.   Anguilla                        3                                        0                                          3

 6.=Belize                            4                                        0                                          4

 6.=Cocos (Keeling)           4                                        0                                          4

 6.=Jamaica                         4                                        0                                          4

 6.=Penrhyn                        4                                        0                                          4

 6.=Tonga*                          4                                        0                                          4

       * Tonga produced locally surcharged stamps for use on local mail and not available through  philatelic channels.

 

 

Rwanda new issues: Illustrations

Commonwealth stamp news: Rwanda, South Sudan and elsewhere.

The most exciting piece of Commonwealth stamp news is that the latest member of the group of Commonwealth nations has issued its first new stamps since 2003 when 4 stamps were released on the subject of AIDS. Sometime during 2011, Rwanda has issued a set of 4 stamps on the subject of Rwandan culture and another 4 featuring gorillas which are the centre piece of tourism in the country. Many bogus stamps have been produced in the last few years on all sorts of bizarre subjects and I have recently found another website which mentions the issue of 6 stamps to commemorate the 5oth anniversary of the first manned space flight by Yuri Gagarin - these stamps look bogus to me as well. The two real stamp issues represent the first stamps issued by Rwanda since it joined The Commonwealth and so are of great interest.

  South Sudan gained its independence, after many years of struggle, in July 2011 and issued three stamps to commemorate this event on 18 July 2011. I have not yet seen these being offered either on the internet or by any dealer, but they are clearly of great interest and more so to general Commonwealth collectors since, one imagines, the new country will be admitted to membership of the organisation at the CHOGM, the meeting of the Commonwealth heads of government, which will be held in Perth, Australia in November 2011. Only three stamps have been produced so far, with designs featuring the former leader of the South Sudan liberation movement, the country's flag and its coat of arms.

  New Zealand Post, meanwhile, has started a new line of stamp issues - local stamps - which are produced in booklets; so far a 10 x 50c booklet and a 6 x $1.80 booklet have been produced for Kaikoura on the east coast of South Island and a 10 x 60c booklet depicting Te Papa. The booklets are very similar to those produced by Universal Post in New Zealand and Great Britain, which contain stamps which have international postal validity for use on postcards. The New Zealand Post stamps are produced with the tourist market in mind and do not seem to have received any mention in the philatelic press that I have seen here in England and so may be overlooked by many collectors. New Zealand Post insist on calling them "labels" rather than "stamps" even though they are produced to prepay postage which in my way of thinking fully qualifies them to be called "postage stamps", much more so than most of the rubbish produced by some philatelic agencies which produce sticky-backed bits of paper with certain countries' names printed on them but which are unlikely ever to see usage on mail sent in or from those countries. I strongly recommend obtaining these local issues produced by New Zealand Post as I suspect that they be the start of "The Next Big Thing".

  Malawi seems to have returned to making its stamps available to the philatelic public if only by selling them directly from the Philatelic Bureau in Malawi - I have not yet seen any of their most recent issues being offered for sale by international dealers. So, we have finally been able to obtain the 2007 and 2010 SAPOA miniature sheets as well all the values of the Protect Wildlife butterflies set. They also produced a set of 4 Christmas stamps last year and 2 stamps and a miniature sheet commemorating the country's links with The European Union. 

  The Cook Islands, whose issues were taken over by a new philatelic agency last year, have gone mad philatelically and by recommencing issues inscribed "Aitutaki" and "Penrhyn" as well as introducing issues inscribed "Rarotonga", managed to issue 174 stamps and 22 miniature sheets between 14 September 2010 and 25 July 2011. Not bad going! Particularly lavish were the celebrations of the Royal engagement and subsequent wedding which resulted in a total of 39 stamps and 16 miniature sheets. The set for the wedding itself which was simply inscribed "Cook Islands" was particularly odious featuring, as it did, some very unconvincing portraits of the royal couple. Let's say the portraits did not do them any favours. Equally obnoxious are the miniature sheets and sheetlets which have been released which feature peonies and are related to a Chinese stamp exhibition and which have very high face values. Let us hope that the new philatelic agency can curb its apparent greed now that it has had a year of money-making opportunities with The Cook Islands.

  On the subject of face values, Brunei has released a miniature sheet to commemorate the Sultan's 65th birthday with the eye-watering face value of ....$65. I guess you have to be The Sultan Of Brunei to be able to afford it.

  Champion over-issuer of The Commonwealth in the past two or three years is undoubtedly Mozambique whose post office allowed a total of 1,236 stamps and 107 miniature sheets to be produced in its name during 2010 alone. Gibbons have not updated their catalogue listing for the country since 2004 - I should think that the editor could consign 99% of what has been produced straight to the Appendix. In fact, if I was him, I'd review everything from 1998 onwards because he has given full catalogue status to a whole pile of rubbish produced between that year and 2004. Go on, be a man, be radical, be decisive, and withdraw any credibility that presence in the catalogue bestows on these items. You know it makes sense.

  

Commonwealth Catalogue 2011 (1)

                                                                           11001 - 07

United Kingdom (A) issues by Royal Mail

 

11 January 2011

  11001 - 06  Television puppet shows by Gerry Anderson:- 

                       3 x 1st & 3 x 97p

  11007          Television puppet shows by Gerry Anderson:-

                       miniature sheet containing 1 each of 41p, 60p, 88p & 97p. This item printed in the microlenticular method effectively has no practical usage on ordinary mail but was easily obtained from an ordinary provincial sub-post office and is therefore                             considered to be a true item readily available for postal use and is therefore listed in this catalogue.

Commonwealth Catalogue 2011

 Modern stamp catalogues are very annoying - there seems to be no logic to them - the way that editors continue to fully list hundreds of "stamps" which frequently never see a postal counter in the country whose name they are inscribed with and which feature designs and subjects with no relevance to the country ostensibly "issuing" them. The editor of Gibbons catalogues questions his right to list or omit such issues in his catalogue - well, he is the editor, so I guess he has got a perfect right to choose what is and what is not listed in the book that he is editing. Perhaps there is a legal element to it, after all the Gibbons Catalogue is a commercially influential piece of work; if your stamps are not listed in it then most collectors are unlikely to buy them; perhaps the editor is fearful that one or two of the more brash and aggressive philatelic agencies (and we know who they are) would take legal action against him on the grounds that the catalogue was causing a restriction of trade. The result is that Gibbons now lists stamps that are not true postage stamps - that is - they are not produced with the purpose of providing a receipt for the pre-payment of postage. I like to call them "collectable labels with postal validity".  I have long excluded from my Commonwealth collection products of philatelic agents which have been produced persistently for countries of which the subject matter has no relevance to the countries involved. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to visit quite a large number of these territories and have found universally that such items are not sold at ordinary postal counters for use on regular mail - they are not freely available to members of the public for postal usage. Such items do not qualify to be listed in a catalogue of postage stamps. In my opinion it is counter-productive to list them in stamp catalogues as it is no more valid for them to occupy places in these publications than it is for revenue stamps or hunting stamps to be there. A catalogue of postage stamps should do precisely what it says on the cover - it catalogues postage stamps.

 Here, within this blog, I hope to provide my own catalogue of Commonwealth issues for 2011 by providing a list of stamp issues issued during the year which a reasonable observer (in this case, myself!) would describe as a postage stamp and which seems to have been issued for genuine postal usage (although other subsidiary reasons for issue such as commemoration of important anniversaries, events, people, culture, particularly of national interest - and international commemorations may have relevance to some countries). I will give all listed issues a number and if an "issue" does not appear in my list then it will mean that I do not view it as a genuine postage stamp according to my own definition - it may be a collectable with postal validity but not, in my opinion, an item worthy of inclusion in a catalogue of postage stamps.

 I wonder how 2011 will turn out eventually. Will the greed for philatelic revenue that has gripped so many postal administrations and philatelic agencies in recent years finally kill the golden goose and terminally turn collectors of postage stamps away from new issue collecting? Will the growing chaos involved in obtaining new issues from some countries help to put the boot in too? In the last two or three months of 2010 two major British dealers of new issues called it a day and sought refuge in well-earned (semi-)retirements and they will be hard to replace for their sheer reliability and enthusiasm for obtaining items for their customers. And what of possible new countries to collect, Southern Sudan, for instance? 2011 should be a very interesting year, not so much for the stamps that will be issued as much as for what may happen to philately itself.