391. The Gambia Cashes In On Royal Christening Despite Rejecting "Neo-Colonialist" Commonwealth.

  In October 2013, the Gambian dictator, President Sheikh Professor Alhaji Doctor Yahya Jammeh, announced that The Gambia was to immediately give up its membership of The Commonwealth because it was a "neo-colonial institution" and that The Gambia "would never be a party to any institution which represents an extension of colonialism". Unfortunately, he does not seem to have passed that information on to the philatelic agents based in New York which are allowed to produce philatelic items with The Gambia's name printed on them. 

  On 31 December 2013 a sheetlet of 4 different "stamps" and an accompanying miniature sheet appeared which commemorates the christening of Prince George Of Cambridge, who is third in line to the throne of The Gambia's old imperial master, the United Kingdom, and great grandson of Queen Elizabeth II who is Head of The Commonwealth, that despised "neo-colonialist" organisation. Not an event you really want to commemorate if you state publicly that you will never be a party to this extension of colonialism. Surprising, too, that The Gambia would commemorate a christening when more than 90% of its population are Sunni Muslims.

  Fortunately, since The Gambia has left The Commonwealth it has not been necessary to keep track of the items which the country's philatelic agents have produced in its name but it seems reasonable to mention these products here since they highlight what a nonsense much of the philatelic new issue market is in these modern times. I wonder if President Sheikh Professor Alhaji Doctor Jammeh knows about these items and if he is happy to see members of this arch neo-colonialist family appearing on items which could be used on his countrymen's mail.

  Meanwhile, it seems to be necessary for Guyana to commemorate foreign painters who have no connection whatsoever with this South American country. Stated to have been issued on 24 March 2014 is a sheetlet of 4 different "stamps" and a miniature sheet containing 2 additional designs which commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the French artist, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec:-

  

  Additionally, on 24 March 2014, 2 items titled "World Famous Paintings" were released which depict art by European artists - a miniature sheet featuring a painting by Vincenzo Catena and a sheetlet of 3 different stamps depicting paintings by Eugene Delacroix:-

  An issue consisting of a sheetlet of 6 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet will be made for Guyana on 2 May 2014 to commemorate the "Philakorea 2014 World Stamp Exhibition". The designs feature garden flowers of South Korea and no attempt has been made to make the items relevant to Guyana itself:-

   On the same date a sheetlet of 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing 2 different stamps will be issued in the name of Guyana to commemorate the centenary of the Panama Canal. No attempt has been made in the designs to link Guyana to the subject.

  St. Vincent And The Grenadines issued a sheetlet of 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 5 March 2014 on the subject of the British television programme, Downton Abbey. As I have written before about this omnibus issue, some of the participating territories get to feature the aristocrats on the "stamps" which are issued in their name and others are stuck with the servants - St. Vincent is in the latter group and does not get to rise up the social scale any higher than the butler. I wonder if there will be a new wave of snobbery rising up among the Downton Abbey stamp countries depending on whether they get to depict the "Toffs" or whether their featured characters are distinctly below stairs:-

  Also issued by St. Vincent And The Grenadines - on 24 March 2014 - was a sheetlet of 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing 2 additional stamps on the subject of the centenary of the beginning of the First World War I. As we might expect, the designer has made no effort to make the designs relevant to St. Vincent itself:-

  The latest dramatic issue from Hong Kong China features weather phenomena and was issued on 27 March 2014. It is a rather complicated issue which consists of 6 stamps, 1 miniature sheet with ordinary lihographic printing ($5) and a second m.s. printed in lithography with additional lenticular printing ($20) which shows the trajectory of a Typhoon Vicente. There is also a prestige booklet (cost $53) which contains 3 sheetlets each of 6 stamps and a $5 stamp sheetlet. The stamps were designed by Benny Lau and lithographed by Enschede:-

  Australia Post issued 3 stamps (2 gummed and 1 self-adhesive from sheetlets of 5 stamps) and 1 miniature sheet on 4 April 2014 to commemorate the birthday of Queen Elizaberh II. The stamps were designed by John White and lithographed by McKellar Renown:-

390. Busy Day For Canada.

  Postal services in various parts of The Commonwealth have had a busy time recently producing stamps to address the increase in postal rates in which many of them have indulged. Canada Post had a busy day on 31 March 2014 when it released a number of new definitives in the new postal rates and the consequences of its activity are detailed below:-

  "Permanent" value stamps - 5 different self-adhesive stamps produced in booklets of 10 (2 of each design) on the subject of Canadian UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The stamps were designed by Lime Design and lithographed by the Canadian Bank Note Company:-

  22c stamp (part of the insects series) depicting a Monarch butterfly. The stamp was designed by Keith Martin and lithographed by the Canadian Bank Note Company. The stamp is gummed and printed in sheets of fifty:-

  Baby animals - designed by Monique Dufour and Sophie Lafortune and lithographed by Lowe Martin:-

  $1 - owls - self-adhesive issued in coil format:-

   "Permanent" value - beavers - self-adhesive issued in coil format:- 

  $1.20c value - mountain goat - self-adhesive issued in coil format:-

  and self-adhesive in booklets of 6 stamps:-

  $1.80c value - puffins - self-adhesive issued in coil format:-

  $2.50c value - wapiti - self-adhesive issued in booklets of 6 stamps:-

    and self-adhesive in coil format:-

  Miniature sheet of all 5 designs printed on gummed paper:-

  Although I myself have now given up collecting British Post And Go stamps which have limited availability to the public - Postal Museum and Exhibition souvenirs - I record here that as a result of the recent postal rate changes there are now 4 more British Postal Museum And Archives Post And Go labels for enthusiasts to buy for their collection - both the Machin Head and Union Jack stamps are now produced in the Europe and Worldwide up to 60g rates. The Machin Head labels have the MA13 date codes but the Union Jack types have no date code:-

  Finally would you pay £103 for this?:-

  This item is being sold by Guernsey Post as a "collectable" and is a 24 carat gold foil version of the 2014 Lunar New Year miniature sheet, an event apparently of great significance to this small island situated off the coast of France (the distance from Guernsey to Beijing is actually 5232 miles) although it is not known for having a large Chinese population. The cost includes the acrylic display stand in which it is encased as well as the worldwide postage. 

  I do not know whether these miniature sheets are supposed to be postage stamps (presumably one would have to be a little deranged to pay so much for an item and then separate the stamps and use them on one's mail) or whether they are sold as a financial investment (I wonder what is the actual weight of gold in these items - Guernsey Post tell us the dimensions of the sheet but not the weight of gold used in their production). Clearly if they're not postage stamps they are not of interest to stamp collectors who like to spend their money on, er, postage stamps. So if stamp collectors and gold investors won't buy them, who will? 

  Guernsey Post claims that the sheets are produced in a limited edition but as limited editions go the total is not all that limited - 1000 are being produced. It may be that Guernsey Post is aiming the item at the Chinese market with the thought that collectors in that far away country have so much money to spare that they will buy anything. I wonder how correct this marketing strategy is. 

  Of course if all 1000 are sold then Guernsey Post will have shifted £103,000 worth of goods which is pretty good going I should think. Personally though, I just can't think why anyone would spend so much money on these items and one thing is for sure - they really do not have a place in a collection of postage stamps. 

  Australia Post also issues expensive gold foil Chinese New Year miniature sheets in acrylic display stands and they have no more legitimacy as postage stamps than the above Guernsey product (see Blog of  22 January 2012). Australia Post also regularly issues sheetlets in special packs, such as the Dr. Who pack which was featured in Blog 320, and I see that a recent product in that range is a pack on the subject of the popular musical performers, One Direction, which, like Dr. Who, have no connections with Australia but are apparently performing in a world tour which will take in Australia in September 2014. Presumably this product is aimed at teenage girls, not a constituency known to be avid stamp collectors as far as I know. This product takes the same format as the Dr. Who pack and consists of 2 different sheetlets of Greetings stamps with labels depicting various members of this music ensemble. I expect that anyone who has young women in their family will have a source to hand who can inform them of the names of the young men featured on these labels:-

389. Post and Go - New Machines And Postal Rate Changes.

One of the 2 new NCR Post And Go machines, Harborne, Birmingham.

  For those who are struggling through the Slough of Despond that is otherwise known as collecting Royal Mail "Post and Go" stamps the challenge grows greater almost by the day. The new NCR machines are being introduced into post offices at quite a rapid rate and a post office about 5 miles from my home introduced the new machines on 27 March 2014. Two machines (pictured above) were introduced at Harborne Post Office and on visiting the post office today I was able to buy stamps from the machines. 

  The stamps on sale were in the Machin Head design and were sold at the following rates:- 2nd class, 2nd class large, 1st class, 1st class large, Europe up to 20g and Worldwide up to 20g. The 2nd class stamps have the MA12 security text and the 1st class designs have MA13. The value inscription is of  course  different In appearance from that which appears on stamps produced by Wincor Nixdorf machines which have been in use up to now in ordinary post offices (see illustration below). Presumably we will find Union Jack stamps and spring flowers stamps also being supplied by these new machines before long. 

  The machines have the facility on them to produce "Collectors' strips" of 6 different values but I was told that they were not being sold in that format in this post office. 

6 values from NCR machine, Harborne Post Office.

Comparison of the Wincor Nixdorf (left) and NCR Post And Go Inscriptions.

  The purpose of the machines remains something of a mystery since a post office assistant has to be available full time to explain to customers how to use the machines which seems to take more time to do than if the postal assistant sat behind a counter and just got on with carrying out the task required by the customer.

  Harborne Post Office itself is quite interesting since it must be one of the most unattractive post offices in Britain. It is typical of the dreary buildings which were constructed across Britain in the 1960's  and is far too small for its purpose and when I visited there was a long line of people queuing to the entrance door to get service at the counters. The new NCR machines occupy a significant area in the corner of the post office and if a couple of customers and the assistant responsible are standing by the machine the queue has to move aside for them. I cannot help but think that money could have been better spent in improving the post office itself rather than installing 2 new "Post And Go" machines and employing an assistant to service them. Still, where there's a Post And Go machine there are stamp collectors buzzing around spending money.

Harborne Post Office, Birmingham.

  On the subject of spending money, new postal rates were introduced by Royal Mail today, 31 March 2014, as detailed in Blog 376. After visiting Harborne Post Office I travelled on into Birmingham city centre to visit the main post office there situated in Pinfold Street where several Wincor Nixdorf "Post And Go" machines are located. I bought a new "Collectors' strip" from one of them and the 6 values are depicted below. This particular machine dispensed Machin Head design stamps with no security date and there are 2 new values included in the strip which take account of the change of postal rates - a rate to Europe up to 60g and Worldwide up to 60g with the previous Worldwide up to 10g and Worldwide up to 40g disappearing from the strip.

 [Addendum - 1 April 2014 - The Norvic Philatelics Blog reports (including input from its readers) that the 2 new postal rates have already been found not only on the Machin Head no date Post And Go stamps as I report above but also on other types of Post And Go's from other post offices - namely 

  Robin MA13

  Spring Flowers

  Cattle

  Union Jack no year code

  River life

  Sheep

  Pigs

  Birds 4th issue

  Robins MA12

This astonishing array therefore adds another 20 stamps to the Post And Go stamp total. I have completely lost track of the grand total of Post And Go stamps that have appeared on the market and I shall certainly not be bothered to try to obtain all of the above at a face value of £3.59p per pair (total face value so far being £35.90p! I shall merely add a note under my new Machin Head Post And Go stamps that these other items were produced in various post offices around the country completely randomly. The Norvic Blog illustrates many of the above items.]

 The cost of the complete 6 value collector strip now totals £7.42p (previously £6.42p) so we note a 15.6% increase in price for this item which is considerably ahead of inflation in Britain:-

The 6 values of the Collectors' strip from the Wincor Nixdorf machine in Pinstone
 Street, Birmingham's main  post office, with 2 new Worldwide rates 

388. Art, Wooden Horses And An Exciting New Designer's Spin On Downton Abbey.

A booklet containing 4 different stamps was issued by the postal service of Ireland, An Post, on 27 March 2014 which is the second issue of the Contemporary Arts series. The stamps were designed by Ger Garland and lithographed by the Irish Stamp Security Printers:-

  The art depicted on the stamps is "Patterned Behaviour" by Diana Copperwhite, "Maesta" by Sean Scully, "Light Receiver" by Ellis O'Connell and "Chaplet" by Alice Maher. An interesting issue and modestly priced. If Royal Mail had issued a set of paintings we would undoubtedly have been expected to buy 10 or even 12 se-tenant stamps at two and a half or three times the price of this Irish set. An Post really seems to have its new issue policy precisely right and invariably produces well designed and interesting stamps.

  Also on the subject of art, amidst the vast ocean of issues which has washed out in recent months from a large New York-based agency which produces philatelic items on behalf of a large number of Commonwealth countries, I overlooked a sheetlet of 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet from Tanzania which depicted art by the Chinese artist, Dong Qichang. The set was issued in conjunction with the China International Collection Expo in 2013. Clearly the designs have no relevance to Tanzania  and I would not include the stamps in my own collection of Tanzania stamps, but I mention them for completeness of information:-

  Dong Qichang was a painter, scholar and calligrapher of the late Ming period who lived from 1555 to 1636. He famously produced distorted landscapes as can be seen in the stamp designs. He also served as an official in the imperial civil service. None of which, of course, is anything to do with Tanzania.

  Art was the subject of Bhutan's last issue rather controversial issue featuring house wall phallus paintings (see Blog 356) but its latest issue returns to a more familiar theme - the lunar new year, this year being (as we know from countless issues from other territories such as Gibraltar, Guernsey and Tanzania where obviously Chinese New Year is a big event) the Year Of The Horse. Bhutan expands our knowledge of the Year of The Horse by pointing out that this is actually the "Wood Male Horse Year" and this year's issue consists of 1 sheetlet which depicts the 12 animals which make up the zodiac with the horse picked out in the sheetlet by a yellow background. There is also a miniature sheet with a single stamp which depicts a stylised horse. I do not yet know the date of issue of these items:-

  I found an intriguing website recently which features work by Siobhan McDevitt and which has the text "Turks And Caicos postage stamps and poster. Official Downton Abbey licensed product concept submission. Completed at IGPC." The text accompanies an illustration of a sheetlet of 20 x 50c Turks And Caicos stamps (5 rows of 4) perforate and the same sheetlet imperforate and without the stamp values and country name inscription added to the designs.

   I have to say that even if I don't particularly approve of lots of countries issuing stamps which depict subjects such as a British television programme that is totally irrelevant them, these designs are very original and effective and interesting and would make an exciting stamp issue. As the text says that these are submitted designs one wonders if they will actually be Turks And Caicos' contribution to the Downton Abbey series - I have not seen such an issue announced yet but time will tell.

  The website shows other work by the artist including previous designs produced for the same New York-based agency as well as designs for marketing campaigns by that agency. In my opinion, Siobhan McDevitt is an exciting stamp designer who brings something new to the increasingly tired world of stamp design. I hope that we continue to see a lot more of her work in the near future.

The stamps with perforations and inscriptions added.

Siobhan McDevitt's submitted designs.

  I have not really taken much notice of her previous work since the stamps on which it has been used have generally had no direct relevance to the countries for which they have been produced but after looking at her website I shall look out for more of her work even if the stamps are not going to find a place in my collection. Recent stamps which feature her designs include:-

The Tanzania 2012 Olympic Games stamps.

Guyana 2013 World Environment Day sheetlet

Artwork for 2013 Guyana Environment Day issue.

One of the Nevis Diamond Jubilee stamps (2012)

One of the stamps from one of the very clever 2013 Nevis Crossword sheetlets.