663. Stamperija - Polar Bears Are Back Again.

  It's a Commonwealth double-whammy from Stamperija this week as the names of both Sierra Leone and Solomon Islands are inscribed on the agency's latest products.

  The items inscribed "Sierra Leone" make up an "issue" of the usual 10 "sheetlets", each of 4 different "stamps", and 10 "miniature sheets". For anyone who can be bothered the subjects featured are Bees, Butterflies, Domestic cats, Domestic dogs, Horses, Endangered animals, Extinct species, Kingfishers, Mushrooms and Eagles. The stated date of issue is 21 August 2015 and each item is limited to 1000 copies - rush to buy them before they sell out! Rating:- 0.

  Meanwhile the items inscribed "Solomon Islands", with a stated date of issue of 25 September 2015, again make up an "issue" of 10 "sheetlets" each of 4 different "stamps" and 10 "miniature sheets", again each item limited to an edition of 1000. The subjects featured are Trains, Birds of prey, 50th anniversary of the 1st space walk, 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Niccolo Paganini, 70th anniversary of the United Nations, Rotary in The Solomon Islands, Mahatma Gandhi, Football and....oh, yes...Polar bears. How I long for the day when I can pay a visit to the South Pacific and witness for myself the noble polar bears of The Solomons at home in their native habitat! Or not as the case may be. Rating:- 0.

  Someone at Stamperija must have a thing about polar bears - they keep turning up on the agency's products no matter how inappropriate the name of the country which is printed on the item. I suggest that Stamperija tries to persuade the Norwegian Post Office to allow it to produce philatelic items with the name of Spitzbergen printed on them - that way no-one could complain about the depiction of the agency's favourite animal on their products.

 Pos Malaysia will issue a set of 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 17 November 2015 on the subject of Islands of Malaysia. Rating:-***.

                              

  Royal Mail kiosks dispensed another 24 new Post And Go labels at the Salon Philatelique d"automne held in Paris from 5 to 8 November. Four different basic label designs were used, just as they were at the recent stamp fair in Sindelfingen at the end of October:- Union Jack, Machin Head, Heraldic lion and Poppy - giving us a total of 48 new labels in the space of about 1 week. It's as though Royal Mail has realised that the game is up for Post And Go labels and it is trying to squeeze the last bits of profit out of the items before the bottom completely falls out of the market, Well, that's business I suppose.

Heraldic lion European Collectors Strip

662. Penny Black Features In New British Passport; New Issues From Nigeria, Niue And Tokelau.

  The Penny Black will be featured in the new British passport which will be issued over the next 5 years. The theme of the illustrations in the passport is Iconic British Innovations and the world's first postage stamp appears on pages 12 and 13. The design also depicts a printing press and a Victorian-age red postbox as well as a building I know very well - the old Birmingham Head Post Office in Victoria Square which is situated next to what is now the central Birmingham Post Office in Pinfold Street. It's a glorious Victorian building and well worth depicting as an illustration of some of the splendid postal-related architecture of the time. Each page in the passport has a "three-dimensional watermark" of William Shakespeare as one of the many security features in the passport.

  It's not totally inappropriate to mention the passport here along with its postal connections since passport services are one of the numerous services on offer at modern British post offices - often at the cost of providing a satisfactory mail-handling service which is presumably less lucrative or a philatelic service which in most main post offices is usually non-existent now because it is probably not lucrative at all!

                        

  A single 60 sen stamp was issued by Pos Malaysia on 27 October 2015 to commemorate Stamp Week. Rating:- ***.

                                    

    A single 25c stamp from Antigua And Barbuda has turned up which depicts a mango fruit from a "Julie mango tree". I am not sure of the date of issue of this item and whether or not it is a definitive value but it looks like the sort of item that is actually being sold in Antigua for use on mail rather than being a philatelic collectable. Rating:- ***.

                                    

  I now illustrate the miniature sheet issued by Australia Post to coincide with the China International Collection Expo which was held from the 25 to 28 September 2015 (see Blog 657). With very appealing photographs of cuddly koalas and a panda this is an issue which is likely to be popular with the general public as well as stamp collectors. Rating:- *****.

                             

  Below, I include an illustration of the 2 self-adhesive stamps issued by Australia Post which were issued in a sheetlet of five on 9 September 2015 as part of the issue which commemorated the achievement of Queen Elizabeth II in becoming the longest reigning monarch in British history (see Blogs 622 and 625):-

                                      

  The postal administration of Niue will issue 4 circular Christmas stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 24 November 2015. These attractive and original items on the subject of "Candles by candlelight" were designed by Richard Payne and lithographed by Collectables and Solutions Centre, New Zealand Post Office. Rating:- *****.

                                         

                                         

                                         

                                         

                               

  The Tokelau postal administration will issue 4 Christmas stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 24 November 2015. The issue which features comical art with local subjects - Father Christmas in Tokelau - was designed by Jonathan Gray and lithographed by Collectables and Solutions Centre, New Zealand Post. Rating:- ****.                                                    

                                                         

                                                         

                                

                                     

  The postal administration of Nigeria issued 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 23 October 2015 to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the University of Nigeria. The issue was lithographed by Tacoms International Ltd. as shown in the illustrations below which are taken from the Delcampe auction site where these items are being offered for sale by Moseszee. The designs have the usual lack of sophistcation seen for decades in Nigerian stamps but The Nigerian postal service issues stamps sorarely  now that we can hardly complain. Rating:-***.

                                           

                                              

                                                     

                                             

661. Bonaparte Late To The Party.

  The good islanders of St. Helena had everything planned to commemorate the most important event ever to occur on the island - the bicentennial anniversary of the arrival there into exile of the deposed French tyrant, Bonaparte, who had plunged Europe into 20 years of war as well being the ultimate cause of countless deaths and terrible suffering.

  The islanders had a nifty logo (depicted above) and a wonderful programme of events lined up including the issue of a special set of stamps and a first day cover to commemorate the bicentenary and the release of these items was timed to coincide with the actual anniversary and the arrival of some notable French visitors coming to St. Helena to participate in the celebrations. 

  The events all seem to have gone very well except that as M. Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, the French consul there, wrote on the island's website, "...the visit started by a disappointment when it was announced the commemorative stamps and coins had not arrived on the island...". That at least explains why no news of the issue has yet been made available to collectors (see Blog 657) but it reflects badly on whoever was responsible for the issue - I wonder who it was? 

  Whereas Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha seem to be doing marvellously well with their stamp issues in all respects under the aegis of Pobjoy Stamps, philatelic matters in St. Helena, their mother island, seem to be far less satisfactory. Not having a special issue in place for a prestigious occasion seems to me to be an embarrassment to all those concerned. Let's just give a Gallic shrug of the shoulders and hope we see what ought to be a very interesting set appear for sale in the near future. Perhaps the St. Helenans can use them as Christmas stamps.

  In Blog 646 - "Post And Go's World Tour" - I mentioned the issues of the Post And Go kiosks now sited in Gibraltar itself - GI02 (Main Post Office) and GI03 (Parcel Office) - and that the 12 values on the "Gibraltar Flag" stamps would be given the added inscription "Trafalgar Day" from 19 October to 16 November 2015.

  However, judging by items being offered for sale by atm1976 on E bay, an additional inscription was used prior to these - "World Post Day" - on all 12 values of stamps dispensed by Main Post Office kiosk GI02. I am not sure of the period of sale of these stamps but World Post Day was observed on 10 October 2015 and the "Collectors' strips" offered for sale by atm1976 are dated 12 October 2015.

660. British Stamp Programme 2016; Mugabe Launches New Indian Issue.

  Having attempted to predict the 2016 Royal Mail new issue programme back in Blog 594, the real programme has now been revealed in the latest Norvic Philatelics Blog and shows that my crystal ball was rather cloudy at the time of my predictions but not entirely faulty!

  The real programme begins with an issue on 7 January which commemorates the Centenary of the Endurance Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. 

  Then - 17 February - 500th anniversary of the Royal Mail;

  15 March - British Humanitarians (including Sir Nicholas Winton);

  5 April - Quatercentenary of the death of William Shakespeare;

  21April - 90th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II;

  17 May - "Animail"

  21 June - Centenary of the First World War;

  7 July - Music icons;

  28 July - 150th Birth anniversary of Beatrix Potter;

  16 August - Landscape Gardens; 

  2 September - 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London;

  15 September - 40th anniversary of the death of Agatha Christie;

  20 October - "To be announced";

  8 November - Christmas.

  Almost everything in this programme has featured on British stamps before (yawn, yawn) - in the past we've had Shakespeare (but this is a very notable anniversary), royal birthdays, First World War, music icons (album sleeves including Pink Floyd which, I speculate, may be featured again), Beatrix Potter, Agatha Christie, gardens and Christmas. As usual, London is singled out for a commemoration (Great Fire issue) - does Royal Mail believe that nothing worth noting has ever happened in the rest of The United Kingdom?

   As usual too, the whole panoply of pre-Tudor British history is ignored by Royal Mail - even the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings - one of the most important events ever in English history - fails to qualify for proper philatelic commemoration apart from one of those tiresome and enormously overpriced "commemorative sheets".

  The Post And Go stamps continue to be issued despite their growing lack of favour among collectors - the subjects for 2016 are eclectic - "Royal Mail Heritage Transport" (17 February), "Ladybirds" (14 September) and "Christmas" (14 November).

  New definitive values are scheduled to be released in March or April due to revised postage rates.

  So it looks like being a matter of "more of the same".

  Two miniature sheets, each of 6 different stamps, were released by India Post on 29 October 2015 to commemorate India's hosting of the Third Africa-India Forum Summit which was held from 26 to 29 October in the Indira Gandhi National Stadium Complex in New Delhi and attended by the leaders of 54 countries. The first miniature sheet was sold for Rs70 (4 x Rs5 and 2 x Rs25) and the second with the same designs but embossed in gold and silver was sold for Rs300. Three of the stamps feature wild mammals of India and the 3 others depict corresponding species from Africa. 

  The publicity launch involved the Indian primeminister, Shri Narendra Modi, and the tyrant of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, in his role of Chairman of the African Union. Rating:- *****.

  I have not yet mentioned this "Personalised" booklet which is being sold on the New Zealand Post philatelic website for $9 ( total postage of $8 + $1 donation to the New Zealand Red Cross). It has been issued some time during 2015 and contains 10 x 80c stamps in two each of 5 different designs depicting subjects relating to Red Cross activities. I presume this will be included in the annual pack of personalised stamps for 2015 which will doubtless appear in the first few months of 2016. Rating:- ***.

  You have to really want to collect Post And Go stamps/labels to be pleased with the products coming out of the Sindelfingen Stamp Fair held from 29 to 31 October 2015 (see Blog 646) since all 4 types of label being sold there by Royal Mail - Machin Head, Union Jack, Heraldic lion and Poppy - were dispensed with the added inscription "Sindelfingen October 2015", this time in new "European Collectors' strips" of 4 values with 2 extra higher values being dispensed separately - making a grand total of 24 new labels to buy. We must remember, as usual with these foreign philatelic exhibition souvenirs, that none of these items had any postal validity in the country in which they were being dispensed for a limited period of 3 days. Rating:- 0.

  Presumably we will see another 24 labels in 3 or 4 days time when Royal Mail sets up shop with its kiosks at the Paris philatelic exhibition where the same 4 designs will be put on sale with an inscription relevant to the new location.

  And matters go from bad to worse if you also add the Jersey Post Post And Go products coming out of Sindelfingen because not only did the JE01 kiosk situated there dispense the usual "Jersey Flag" labels as intended (see Blogs 646 and 658) but also in error produced "Collectors' strips" of the "Protected wildlife" labels with added "Sindelfingen" inscription. Thus Jersey Post, intentionally or otherwise, produced 12 new "Post And Go" labels at this exhibition where of course they also had no postal validity. Rating:- 0.