526. Exciting New Issues From Malaysia.

  Pos Malaysia will issue 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 25 February 2015 to commemorate the International Co-operative Project on Giant Panda Conservation being carried out by Malaysia and The People's Republic of China. This is a lovely issue and I will be delighted to add it to my collection. Malaysia seems at the top of its game at the moment in terms of issuing interesting and attractive new issues. I also very much like the 3 Farm Animals stamps which were issued on 16 February 2015 (depicted below) which were accompanied by 2 miniature sheets - 1 ordinary sheet depicting a domestic goat and a second Rm 15 sheet printed on wood to fit in with the Lunar New Year - the Year of the Wood Goat. Again, another interesting and attractive issue:-

  Another interesting recent issue was the miniature sheet issued by Pos Malaysia on 1 December 2014 which contained a Rm 50 stamp which was printed as 22k gold on copper (see Blog 512) but I was not aware that this was accompanied by a similar miniature sheet, face value Rm 35, with the main stamp design produced in an embroidered form. This may be a little gimmicky but it is still a very attractive miniature sheet. For other recent Malaysian new issues see Blogs 511 and 517. I think that Malaysia is producing some wonderful stamp issues at present and they are a great pleasure to collect:-

  Singapore Post issued 6 new definitive stamps on 26 November 2014 - four values made up the second part of the Vanishing Trades set and two stamps were new values of the Past Street Scenes definitive series. A Collectors' Sheet, sold for $28, featuring all the Past Street Scenes stamps issued so far was also released as was a second Collectors' Sheet which contained all 14 Vanishing Trades stamps and was sold for $12.80c. The stamps were designed by Ms. Lim An-ling:-

The postal service of The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus issued 4 very attractive stamps on 19 September 2014 on the subject of fruit tree blossoms. The set was designed by Gorel Korol Sonmezer and Huseyin Billur and was printed in lithography by the State Printing Works, Lefkosa:-

    The Malawi Post Corporation issued a set of 5 stamps and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate Christmas 2014. I do not yet know the date of issue of this set. The central theme of the issue seems to be that of the Christmas tree:-

  India Post issued a single stamp on 14 February 2015 to commemorate Project Rukmani, a dedicated Indian Navy satellite system:-

  Stamperija's first philatelic products of 2015 with the name of Maldives printed on them consist of the usual 10 sheetlets, each containing 4 different "stamps", as well as 10 miniature sheets. The various subjects of these items are:- 75th birth anniversary of John Lennon (British popular musician), Nobel Prize Winners of 2014, Lunar New Year (Year of the Goat), 75th anniversary of the D Day landings in Normandy, 175th birth anniversary of Piotr Tchaikovsky (Russian music composer), Mars Orbiter mission, 70th anniversary of the liberation of Paris, 135th birth anniversary of Albert Einstein (physicist), 40th birthday of Tiger Woods (US golf player), 80th birthday of Sophia Loren (Italian actress). The stated "day of issue" of these items was 13 January 2015:-

525. After Depicting Polar Bears, Near-Equatorial Solomon Islands NowFeatures Penguins.

  The Bahamas Postal Service will issue 3 stamps on 6 March 2015 to commemorate the World Day of Prayer which is a worldwide ecumenical movement of women which holds a global day of prayer on the first Friday of March. A service written by Bahamas women will be held which centres on Jesus Christ's washing of his disciples' feet. The art used for the stamp designs is by Jessica Coalbrooke, Chantal Bethel and Tyrone Ferguson and printing was in lithography by BDT International:-

  Gibraltar Stamps issued a set of 8 stamps on 11 February 2015 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Gibraltar Fire and Rescue Service. The stamps were designed by Stephen Perera from illustrations by Nicholas Ferrary and were lithographed by Lowe Martin:-

   Gibraltar Stamps had previously issued a set of 6 stamps on 18 January 2015 as the second part of its series of issues which commemorate the centenary of the First World War. Designs were by the Westminster Collection and lithographed by Lowe Martin:-

  I now include illustrations of the 3 self-adhesive stamps which were issued in booklet format by the Cayman Islands Postal Service on 18 November 2014 to commemorate Christmas. The designs depicted local churches:-

  Malta Post issued 3 stamps on 14 February 2015 which make up a set titled Maltese Flora series II. The stamps were designed by Guido Bonett and lithographed by Printex:-

  An Post, the postal service of Ireland, issued a single self-adhesive "Love and Marriage" stamp on 12 February 2015 in a booklet of ten and as "collector's strip" of 2 stamps. The stamp was designed by Oonagh Young and lithographed by Cartor:-

Booklet cover.

  Australia Post's latest new issue to be released on 17 February 2015 is titled "Era of Sail - Clipper Ships" and consists of a set of 4 gummed stamps (2 x 70c and 2 x$1.40) and, apparently, NO self-adhesive stamps nor miniature sheet. The total face value of this issue is therefore only $4.20c (£2.12p) - perhaps Australia Post has discovered that, with an output of approximately an issue per week, collectors have given up spending their money on this flood of stamps and is going to cut back on the number of stamps released. Or is that too much to hope for?

The stamps were designed by Lisa Christensen and lithographed by RA Print:-

  The latest philatelic products to be released by Stamperija with the name of Solomon Islands printed on them have a stated "day of issue" of 20 December 2014. As usual there are 10 sheetlets each containing 4 different "stamps" as well as 10 accompanying miniature sheets. The subject matter of some of these items is extraordinary with "Antarctica" top of the list of subjects which are enormously irrelevant to Solomon Islands. For the record the featured subjects on these philatelic products are:- Antarctica, Trains, Domestic cats, Fish, Fossils, Impressionist art, Koalas, the Art of Peter Paul Rubens, Rescue boats and Whales.

   Therefore in the past few months near-equatorial Solomon Islands has found itself in the fortunate position of having had its name printed on "stamps" which depict both polar bears (see Blog 484) and penguins. What sort of (philatelic) world would it be without Stamperija?

524. A Bunch Of Comedians.

  The list of British comedians who will be commemorated by the upcoming Royal Mail stamp issue to be released on April Fools Day and titled Comedy Greats is surprising since it includes a large number of living comedy performers, some more worthy of commemoration than others, and at the same time manages to ignore some of the truly great British comedians of the past fifty years or so.

   Furthermore, a couple of the comedy personalities who have been featured on previous stamps quite recently are given a repeat performance in this latest issue which provides another example of the lack of imagination shown increasingly by those who choose subjects for portrayal on British stamps as is also the case with another soon-to-be issued set, that of British bridges (see Blog 520). 

  The comedy performers who are to be featured in the upcoming set are:- Spike Milligan, The Two Ronnies, Billy Connolly, Morecambe and Wise (Eric Morecambe was included in a set issued in 1998), Lenny Henry, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (Cook was also featured on a stamp from the 1998 set), Norman Wisdom, the Monty Python team, French and Saunders and Victoria Wood.

    In the past, Britain's greatest comedy performer, Charlie Chaplin, has been depicted on 2 British stamps - 1 of the stamps from the Performer's Tale part of the 1999 Millenium issue and 1 stamp from the 1985 British Films set which depicted Chaplin as an older man in a photograph taken by Lord Snowden, the Queen's former brother-in-law (shown above and below):-

  Five British comedians were depicted on a set of stamps issued in 1998. The featured comedy performers were:- Tommy Cooper, Eric Morcambe, Joyce Grenfell, Les Dawson and Peter Cook.

  In the upcoming issue Peter Cook will be depicted with Dudley Moore:-

  A number of British comedy performers were depicted on the 3 stamps which were issued in 2008 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Carry On films. Among those comedy actors/comedians who appeared on the Carry On Stamps were Bob Monkhouse, Dora Bryan, Kenneth Connor, Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey and Harry H Corbett. A number of others are named on the film posters which were used as the basis of the designs:-

    The earliest British comedy to be featured on British stamps is that of William Shakespeare - the set issued in 1964 to commemorate the quatercentenary of his birth included characters from two of his comedies - Puck and Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream and Feste from Twelfth Night:-

  The set of 8 stamps which was issued in 2011 on the subject of stage musicals depicted a poster for a Monty Python musical Spamalot:-

  The various members of the Monty Python team will be featured in the upcoming set - to the left of the stamp in the background is a depiction of John Cleese acting out the famous Ministry of Silly Walks:-

  (See also Blog 532).

   The most disappointing point about this new set is the omission of some very important comedians whom Royal Mail has chosen to ignore. The most likely reason for omissions of comedians such as Benny Hill, who at the time of his greatest popularity was internationally famous. is that of political correctness. There is no doubt that by modern standards Benny Hill's comedy is considered to be sexist in nature (and frankly his comedy was not to my own personal taste) but he enjoyed spectacular international popularity, especially in The United States, for a number of years. 

  Other British comedians have had troubled lives and one such was Tony Hancock whose greatness as a comedian is generally acknowledged and, despite his troubled life, he surely should have been included in this new set (there was controversy about his omission from the 1998 set) instead of subjects who have appeared on previously issued stamps or some of the living comedians whose achievements in the field of comedy are notable but hardly approach the importance of Hancock.

  Some of those ignored by Royal Mail:-