354. Jersey "Post And Go" Exhibition Souvenirs.

  The Jersey Post Office is to use a Hytech "Post And Go" machine at philatelic exhibitions so that visitors to the exhibitions can print "stamps" for themselves which depict the Jersey flag. Importantly while these publicly accessible machines will be sited at shows on mainland Britain - where the "stamps" are not valid for use on mail - no such machine will be available for public use in Jersey itself and so we must conclude that these are not true postage stamps but merely exhibition souvenirs. As such, I shall not feel any need to add them to my collection.

  The first British exhibition where these souvenirs will be sold is Spring Stampex in London where they will be available on 19 February 2014. There will be 6 values - Local Letter (45p), UK Letter (55p), Europe (60p), Local Large (68p), International (80p) and UK Large (88p) totalling £3.96p. But collectors who feel they must buy these items won't get away with it that easily - oh no - because they are to be produced in two versions - one set from a machine for the exhibition visitors to print themselves (the "J" series) - and a second set - the "B" series - to be produced behind the counter and sold to the customers by counter staff. Hence the obsessionally completist Jersey collector will need to pay £7.92p for these initial items from Spring Stampex and I have a nasty feeling that there will be few more exhibitions where the Jersey Post And Go will make an appearance before 2014 is over.

  As long as these items are not freely available from machines physically situated in Jersey itself, I can not think of them as true postage stamps and, like Jersey's infamous diamond-encrusted miniature sheet of 2012, I can not take them seriously even as "Footnote" issues. To me they are merely philatelic souvenirs which I can quite happily ignore and omit from my collection of postage stamps.

(See also Blog 334).

 I now illustrate some of the previously mentioned recent issues from Sri Lanka. 

 1 December 2013 - Christmas -

14 November 2013 - CHOGM held in Sri Lanka - 

27 November 2013 - Commemoration of Dr. Tissa Abeysekara (filmmaker);

2 December 2013 - All Ceylon Moor's Association - 

  The Singapore Post Lunar new year set was issued on 3 January 2014 and consists of 3 gummed stamps, 1 self-adhesive stamp and 1 miniature sheet issued as a "Collector's Sheet". The stamps were designed by Leo Teck Chang and lithographed by Southern Colour Print and Cartor - 

  How unobservant I am - I had not noticed that the Johanna Benson commemorative issue from Namibia was sold for 2 postal rates - "Standard Mail" and "postcard rate", the latter being released with an attached label - 

  The new Nevis definitive set which I mentioned in Blog 348 was issued on 4 December 2013 and consists of 12 stamps which depict fish:-

  The second issue of 2014 from Australia Post depicts orchids and consists of 4 gummed stamps and 4 self-adhesive stamps produced in booklet format. The issue was released on 14 January 2013 and designed by Sonia Young and lithographed by EGO - 

  Isle Of Man's third issue of 2014 will be released on 19 February and will commemorate the centenary of the start of World War I and depicts British soldiers' lives in the trenches. A worthy issue because Manxmen fought along soldiers from the rest of The Empire but it is not clear to me why the date of issue was not delayed until later in the year which would have been nearer to the actual date of the outbreak of the terrible war. The stamps were designed by CASCO and printed in lithography:-

  Following on from its set which commemorated the lunar new year, a subject of no relevance whatsoever to The Channel Islands, the Guernsey Post Office will issue a £3 miniature sheet on 12 February 2014 which features a subject which, yes, has no relevance to the island. The item consists of a charming portrait by Joel Kirk of a baby orang utan but it is a creature which is found in Sumatra and not Guernsey (and Guernsey is a very long way from Sumatra). The item was lithographed by Cartor. I guess that there are endangered species to be found in Guernsey which could be featured on the island's stamps but that they are not so appealing as a baby orang utan and probably would not sell so many stamps.

  At last a 2014 issue from the Guernsey Post Office which is relevant to the island - a set of 6 stamps which features local ladybirds. This set will also be released on 12 February 2014 which is a little odd since there are not many ladybirds to be seen at that time of year - why not release them during the summertime? The stamps are nicely designed by Petula Stone and lithographed by BDT International. The stamps bear the additional inscription "Alderney".

353. Superb New Hummingbird Issue From British Virgin Islands.

  Due for release by The British Virgin Islands on 30 January 2014 is an excellent set of 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet which features the Antillean Crested Hummingbird as a World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) issue. The designer of this set has produced a remarkably attractive 4 stamps which use clear, colourful, exquisitely detailed portraits of this little bird and which have perfectly positioned inscriptions and WWF logo and royal cameo. 

  This set is a lesson to every other stamp producer on what new stamps should be like and we should not be surprised that British Virgin Islands uses Pobjoy Stamps to plan and market its issues with Creative Direction (Worldwide) Ltd which commissions the designers and printers of the stamps. There have been many excellent stamps originating from the stable of the Pobjoy-Creative Direction duo but I feel this new set from BVI appears to surpass their previous issues. It is a truly lovely set and the miniature sheet adds something extra to the set instead of just being an additional catchpenny item which is so often the case with miniature sheets nowadays. The set is excellent and without any of the gimmicks that are currently so common - no holograms, gold or silver foil, 3D, fragrance, special paper and so on - just straightforward excellent design using well chosen beautiful photographs. Issues like this prevent me from giving up stamp collecting. Well done everybody in the production of these stamps. And well done to Pobjoy Stamps for giving good advanced publicity to collectors about this issue (as they do with all their stamps) along with interesting and helpful information about the featured subject. Seeing this issue makes me feel very happy. 

  The set is produced in ordinary sheets of individual values and sheetlets of 16 which contain 4 se-tenant strips of 4 different stamps:- 

  The final issues of 2013 from South Africa most notably include a "Prestige Booklet" which contains 12 different panes (which the South African Post Office refers to as "miniature sheets" in their  publicity about the issue) and which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Rivonia Trial. The booklet was released on 26 November 2013. Each pane depicts one of the individuals (all of whom were members of the African National Council) who were accused under the 1962 Sabotage Act of committing sabotage and attempting to overthrow the South African government by violence. The accused people who are depicted on the 12 panes are:- Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Mlangeni, Arthur Goldreich, Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi, Govan Mbeki, Harold Wolpe, James Kantor, Lionel Bernstein, Nelson Mandela, Raymond Mhlaba and Walter Sisulu. 

  The story of the trial is described in detail in the booklet and includes mention of the historic speech given by Nelson Mandela in his defence on 20 April 1964 which is one of the most significant speeches of South African history. All the accused were eventually found guilty by the court and they were sentenced to life imprisonment which led to Nelson Mandela's 18 years of incarceration on Robben Island near Capetown but eventually to his release to lead the newly democratic South Africa.

  The cover of the booklet is depicted below:-

  Example of the panes inside the booklet:-

  In view of his role as world statesman and Father of the Nation and his recent death, the most notable pane in the booklet is undoubtedly that which features Nelson Mandela:-

   The booklet was designed by Marie Vermeulen-Breedt and lithographed by Southern Colour Print. This current booklet is similar to that produced in 2003 which was titled "The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela". The booklet contained 10 different panes, each consisting of one stamp which illustrated different aspects of Mandela's life and also contained 2 postcards which depicted Mandela and had imprinted stamps on the reverse.

  The first of the 10 panes:-

  One pane in the booklet features Mandela's role as an ambassador for the new South Africa and depicts him with Queen Elizabeth II during his State Visit to Britain and is similar to the pane from the British "Prestige Booklet" which I mentioned in  Blog 350:-

  Pane 7 from the booklet shows a charming portrait of Nelson Mandela and other panes depict him with a gaggle of beauty queens and a champion boxer. Clearly this booklet is a key item in any collection of Nelson Mandela stamps and is of great interest to the general philatelist as well.

  Back to 2013 - South Africa issued a booklet of 10 stamps (2 x 5 different designs) on 29 November 2013 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of World AIDS Day. The artwork is described as being by www.keiskamm.org and the stamps were lithographed by Southern Colour Print.

  Two sheetlets each of 10 different stamps were issued on 12 December 2013 to commemorate the centenary of the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The stamps were designed by Anande Notling and lithographed by Enschede:-

1 of the 2 sheetlets.

 Many of South Africa's stamps are interesting and very well designed and printed but some of the gimmicks used in a number of the designs are unnecessary and tiresome - the circular miniature sheet in which it was not possible to see all the stamps at any one time and which was issued on 20 March 2013 to commemorate the International Year of Water Co-operation was silly rather than innovative although someone somewhere must have thought that it was good idea. As I have already written above in this blog when discussing the Virgin Islands new issue, gimmicks are no substitute for good design.

  The most worrying thing about South African stamps in 2013 however has been the number issued - 90 stamps and 17 miniature sheets (if you use the term which the South African Post Office has applied to the Rivonia Trial booklet panes). This is clearly an excessive number but at least the South African Post Office has not discovered "Post And Go" yet!

352. British Collectors Face £62 Bill For Mid-February Stamp Issues.

  In the Blog of 18 January 2012 I mentioned that I had finally obtained, after some years of hunting for it, a miniature sheet which had been issued by the Sierra Leone Post Office to commemorate the International Year of Microcredit. It was said to have been issued on 20 October 2005 and all 4 stamps contained in the sheet depicted "the portrait of a woman at left", as Stanley Gibbons Catalogue describes it. For me too the woman's identity was a mystery and I wondered why she had been included in the designs which featured this particular subject. 

  I have just stumbled on a website of The Gambia Postal Services Corporation and discovered from it that they too issued a Microcredit issue in 2006 and included in it a commemoration of Princess Maxima of The Netherlands who, according to Wikipedia, apparently is the UN Secretary General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development and was a member of the Advisor's Group for the International Year of Microcredit. The Princess became the Queen Of The Netherlands on 13 April 2013 when her husband, Willem Alexander, became King of that country.

  So there's a philatelic mystery solved. It may also explain why I found it so difficult to obtain this issue - I wonder if the sheet's particular relevance to The Netherlands meant that it was marketed there and not promoted elsewhere. At least Gibbons Catalogue can now alter its description of the stamp and change "portrait of a woman" to "portrait of Queen Maxima of The Netherlands".

  Incidentally a serious fire caused damage to Freetown General Post Office on 22 November 2013. The fire broke out in the General Manager's office while he was elsewhere at a meeting. Apparently many records were destroyed but fortunately no-one was injured. I have not found any report of the incident that suggests that there were any philatelic consequences of the fire.

Fire at Freetown Post Office, November 2013.

  A blogger, Sheku Sherif, writing about the fire describes how, soon after independence, the Post Office was one of the most efficient institutions in Sierra Leone but a wave of corruption swept the country in the late 1970's and early 1980's, when President Siaka Stevens was in power, and the Post Office was not immune from this and indeed many postal items were interfered with if they were thought to contain money or anything valuable.

  He also mentions that the Freetown Fire Brigade were remarkably slow to respond to the fire.

  Royal Mail will issue more philatelic items on 20 February 2014 when it releases a miniature sheet of 4 different stamps which depict railway locomotives from Wales. The sheet was lithographed by International Security Printers and is accompanied by a "Prestige Booklet" which will cost £13.97 and which has been lithographed by Enschede. The booklet will consist of 5 panes - 4 featuring the Wales locomotive stamps alongside previously issued stamps which depict locomotives of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and the 5th pane consists of a mixture of Machin definitives (2 x 2p and 2 x 5p),  a Northern Ireland regional stamp and 3 flag stamps for England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. 

  But it doesn't end there. Also to be issued on 20 February 2014 is a £3.60p retail booklet consisting of 4 x 1st Machin definitive stamps and 2 of the 2013 footballer stamps, this time depicting footballers from Wales (John Charles) and Scotland (Dave Mackay).

  But it does not end there. Due for issue on 19 February 2014 are the first "Post And Go" stamps of the year and the subject of the 6 new designs is "Spring blooms". The stamps were designed by Kate Stephens using art by Julie Trickey and printed in photogravure by International Security Printers. Of course, as usual, the collector does not have 6 stamps to buy but 18 of them since they are produced in the usual presentation pack format (cost £3.60p), digitally printed by Wincor Nixdorf machines in ordinary post offices and digitally printed by Hytech machines at the Spring Stampex philatelic exhibition (cost £6.42p each).

  In addition there will be a further 12 Post And Go stamps on sale at Spring Stampex since the Union Jack and Machin designs will be sold from the Hytech machines there with added exhibition inscriptions applied to them. Are you keeping up with all this? I'm not sure I am.

 It looks to me therefore that in the space of 2 days, Royal Mail will unleash 30 new Post And Go stamps (face value £29.28p), 2 booklets (total cost £17.57) and 1 miniature sheet (£3.96) on the unsuspecting collector meaning that if he or she wants to obtain just 1 unused example of each stamp and variant the cost to them will be £49.81p! (And that of course presumes that they will be buying the stamps at source and not having to obtain them from dealers whose costs and profit would have to be added to the total cost to the collector).

  But that is still not the end of it! This is because even more Post And Go stamps will be issued on 19 February from the Hytech machines at the British Postal Museum and Archive when new overprints will be applied to both the Union Jack and Machin designs to commemorate the centenary of the first British Postage Due labels. Each design will be overprinted "The B.P.M.A./Postage Due 1914".

  So, that means that the total face value of new Royal Mail stamps to be issued on 19 and 20 February 2014 will be £62.65p (hopefully I did my calculations correctly). All I can say is, good luck collectors of Great Britain, you'll need it (as well as an understanding bank manager).

  New Zealand Post has announced that its second issue of 2014 will be released on 5 February 2014 on the subject of "Marine Biodiversity" depicting native seaweed. The stamps were designed by 2di4 and lithographed by Southern Colour Print. It is an interesting and attractive issue but  I question whether a miniature sheet was needed given that it adds very little to the set and that a miniature sheet had been issued with the previous month's issue which commemorated the Year of the Horse. I hope that New Zealand is not going to make it a norm that a miniature sheet is issued with every set:-

351. Commonwealth New Issues.

  Pakistan released 2 final issues in late December 2013. A single stamp was issued on 26 December 2013 (shown above) which commemorated the Pakistani poet, Perveen Shakir. Another single stamp was issued on 28 December 2013 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Pakistan Bible Society:- 

  Papua New Guinea issued a new set on 6 November 2014 which consisted of 4 stamps, 1 miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps and 1 single stamp miniature sheet. The subject of the issue was that of traditional local cooking methods:-

  It appears that Brunei Darussalam will issue a set of stamps and 1 $30 miniature sheet to commemorate the 30th national day which is a celebration of the 30th anniversary of independence. The date of issue will be 23 February 2014. I mused recently in Blog 347 that another expensive miniature sheet might be produced for the 30th anniversary matching the face value to the number of years and it looks as though those worse fears are to be realised.

  Brunei Darussalam also released a third Butterfly issue on 12 December 2013 which consisted of 3 stamps, 1 single value miniature sheet and 1 booklet containing one stamp of each value.

  Yet another annoying Year Of The Horse issue from a territory which has no reason to release stamps on this subject is the pair produced by Gibraltar. This set will be  issued on 31 January 2014 and was designed by Stephen Perera and lithographed by Cartor. The total face value of the stamps is, admittedly, only £1.50p which is a lot less than that of the 6 stamps and miniature sheet issued by Guernsey (see Blog 339) but because the subject of this issue is of no relevance whatsoever to Gibraltar it will be the first set from that territory which I will not buy and shall omit from my collection.

  One territory which is naturally issuing stamps to commemorate the lunar new year is Hong Kong China. On 11 January 2014, Hong Kong will release a set of 4 stamps, 1 miniature sheet, 1 silk miniature sheet, 2 "Heartwarming" sheetlets and a gold and silver sheet which marks the passing of the Year of the Snake and the arrival of The Year of the Horse. The issue was designed by Kan Tai-Keung and the stamps, miniature sheet and Heartwarming sheetlets were lithographed by Enschede. 

  The silk sheetlet was produced by Cartor as was the gold and silver miniature sheet where the additional processes of silver hot foil stamping for the silver and application of 22-carat gold plated face metal were used.

Silk miniature sheet.

Gold and silver miniature sheet

  I also illustrate the previously mentioned Local Post and Airmail stamps issued by Hong Kong on 1 October 2013 to show the difference in size between the stamps from ordinary sheets and coil satmps:-

Local post stamps (coil stamp at the left).

Airmail stamps (coil stamp at the left).

  Malta issued its first set of the year on 3 January 2014 when it released 3 stamps in its continuing "Treasures of Malta" series. This is the second set to feature some of Malta's marvellous public fountains and was designed by Cedric Galea Pirotta and lithographed by Printex of Malta:-

  Possibly the final issues of 2013 from India are:-

29 November - Commemoration of Sashastra Seema Bal, an organisation which works in India's remote border areas (1 stamp) -

17 December - Commemoration of Beant Singh who was Chief Minister of Punjab from 1992 to 1995, when he was assassinated (1 stamp) - 

1 December - 50th anniversary of the establishment of Nagaland (1 stamp) -

4 December - The aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya (1 stamp) - 

5 December - Visit of the Japanese Emperor and Empress (1 miniature sheet) - 

27 December - Commemoration of Eklavya (1 stamp) - 

27 December -  Commemoration of Gulab Singh Lohi, Freedom fighter (1 stamp)- 

  Australia Post reissued the Year of the Snake miniature sheet with a gold overprint at the upper right edge presumably for sale at the "China International Collection Expo" and I am guessing that the date of issue was 26 September 2013, the opening day of the event. The stamps contained in the miniature sheet bear the additional inscription "Christmas Island".

  The final issue of 2013 to be released by Mauritius was a pair of stamps which commemorated 2 local eminent personalities. This pair makes another one of those remarkably uninteresting sets of stamps that Mauritius has become famous for in recent years - a dull, unimaginative issue comprising 2 depressingly sepia photographs of middle aged/elderly men which are never going to send collectors running to their stamp dealers mouthing the words "I just have to buy these fantastic new stamps from Mauritius". Because publicity about the country's stamps is so difficult to find mainly due to its philatelic agent's apparent disinterest in publicising its clients' new issues (about which I've moaned before) it was not immediately obvious why these two gentlemen are being commemorated philatelically - if we knew what area of life they had become distinguished in, we might feel more excited about buying the stamps. In fact they are Herve Masson, a Mauritian painter and journalist, and Professor Stanley Alexander de Smith, an English academic lawyer who served as Constitutional Commissioner for Mauritius. The date of issue was 11 December 2013:-

  It is some time since Zambia allowed its New York-based Philatelic Agents to issue an item on its behalf which has no direct relevance to the country. It is 50 years since Zambia achieved independence and gave up its ties with the British royal family so there is no real reason for the country to issue stamps to commemorate the birth of Prince George of Cambridge; however a sheetlet of 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet are said to have been issued. It is worth noting that the philatelic agency did not appear to know that Zambia had devalued its currency (see Blog 346) since the face values of the issue are clearly printed in the old values of the Kwacha rather than the revised currency. It appears that the old bank notes in the old currency were used in Zambia until 30 June 2013 and so there seems little excuse for stamps to be issued after that date whose values reflect the old exchange rates. It is hard to believe that this issue will actually find its way to the post office counters of Zambia and likewise it will not be finding its way into my collection of Zambian stamps.

  Malaysia issued its 50th anniversary of Independence stamp in miniature sheet format with an additional inscription at the right lower border to mark Stamp Week 2013. The inscription in red is circular and says "OMG STAMP WEEK 2013". I do not know the date of issue.