1204. 🇮🇴 BIOT To Release Attractive Local Flowers Miniature Sheet.

  🇮🇴 The postal service of British Indian Ocean Territory will issue a delightful, colourful miniature sheet containing 6 different stamps on 2 May 2018 on the subject of native plants of the territory. Although the total face value of the issue is over £6, the territory's postal service's output of new issues per year is not large and BIOT continues to produce some excellent stamps. Rating:- *****.

  🇮🇪 An Post, the postal service of the Republic Of Ireland, is planning a remarkably modest number of stamp issues for spring 2018 - just 6 stamps in all for the second quarter of the year.

  3 May 2018 - International statesmen - 50th death anniversary of Martin Luther King (US politician) and Centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela, former President of South African - 2 stamps issued as a se-tenant pair. Designed by Aad and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13.5. Rating:- **.

  3 May 2018 - Europa (Bridges) - 2 stamps each issued in sheetlets of ten. Designed by Vermillion Design and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13.5. Rating:- **. The depicted bridges are Mizen Head footbridge in County Cork and the Boone Viaduct in County Louth.

  24 May 2018 - 50th anniversary of Na Píobairí Uilleann (the Society of Uilleann Pipers in Ireland) - 1 stamp - designed by Vermilion Design and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 14.5 x 14. An interesting design. Rating:- ***.

  31 May 2018 - 1400th anniversary of the death of St. Kevin - 1 stamp - designed by Vermillion Design from a sculpture by Imogen Stuart and printed in lithography and perforated 13.5. St. Kevin's Day is celebrated on 3 June, 3 days after the date of issue. Rating:- ***

1203. 🇬🇬 New Counter-Based Post And Go Unit For Guernsey Post.

  🇬🇧 I have previously illustrated the set of 6 stamps which Royal Mail will release on 17 April 2018 on the subject of Reintroduced Species but now include better quality illustrations of this excellent set. The set manages to include a creature for almost every natural history thematic collection - mammals, birds, flowers, reptiles and amphibians and butterflies. Rating:- *****.

  🇬🇬 Guernsey Post will use a new counter mounted Post and Go machine at the Essen International Stamp Fair which will take place from 3 to 5 May 2018. The new machine, GG03, will dispense the Guernsey Flag Post and Go stamps with an additional inscription applied, "Messe Essen/3-5 May 2018". Being dispensed on German soil means that these items will have no postal validity where they were actually issued and can only be used for genuine postal services if transported all the way back to Guernsey itself. Rating:- 0.

  🇸🇬 Singapore Post will issue a set of 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 18 April 2018 on the subject of 'Early trades'. The issue was designed by Lim An-ling and lithographed by Thai British Security Printing and perforated '13-14'. The set gives a pleasing look at Old Singapore. Rating:- *****.

1202. 🇫🇰 More Penguins, Their Prey And Their Predators From Falklands.

  🇫🇰 The Falkland Islands postal service will issue a set of 4 stamps on 18 April 2018 on the subject of the Predators and Prey of Macaroni penguins. These delightful stamps were designed by Vicky Chater and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13 x 13.5. Rating:- *****.

  Thanks to Juliet Warner of Pobjoy Stamps for information about this issue.

  🇸🇬 Singapore Post issued a set of 4 stamps on 21 March 2018 on the subject of Areas of historical interest. The interesting stamps, featuring views of Arab Street and Kampong Glam, were designed by Alynn Teo and lithographed by Secura Singapore and perforated 13. Rating:- *****.

  Interestingly the stamp designs used in publicity for the issue depict broader stamps compared with those actually released which also contain less of the designs. The upper 4 illustrations below depict the stamps as portrayed in the prerelease publicity while lower 4 depict the stamps which were actually issued:-

  🇧🇲 In Blog 1193 I mentioned the 4 stamps which the Bermuda Post Office issued on 22 March 2018 to commemorate its Turtle conservation programme. It appears that a miniature sheet containing 2 different stamps was also issued along with the 4 stamps. Rating:- *****.

  🇱🇹 An interesting advertisement from Stamperija - the Lithuania-based agency is offering large numbers of old Philatelic Collector Inc. stock for sale. What does that mean? Has Philatelic Collector sold out to Stamperija?

1201. 🇦🇺 Commonwealth Games Open In Gold Coast.

 🇦🇺 The 21st Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony has taken place in Gold Coast in Australia. The ceremony took place in the presence of The Prince Of Wales who received the Queen's Baton on behalf of his mother, the Head of The Commonwealth, and the Duchess Of Cornwall. I gave a very detailed description of stamps issued for previous Commonwealth Games in Blog 397 at the time of the previous Games which were held in Glasgow in 2014.

  This year there is only one stamp of which we need to take notice - that released by Australia Post on 20 March 2018. The stamp was designed by Sonia Young and lithographed by RA Print and perforated 14.5 x 14.

  🇵🇳 Bounty Post, the postal service of Pitcairn Islands, issued 2 stamps with a se-tenant label between them, on 5 April 2018 to commemorate the Constitution of Pitcairn which was drawn up by George Nobbs and Captain Russell Eliott of HMS Fly and signed by them on 30 November 1838. The interesting and colourful issue was designed by Lucas Kukkler and lithographed by Southern Colour Print. Rating:- *****.

  🇧🇩 Bangladesh Post issued a single stamp on 31 March 2018 to commemorate the 6th National Scouting Comdeca (Community Development Camp). This is an interesting design and I like the stamp. Rating:- ****.

  Bogus products

 The items depicted below are being offered for sale by a Russian dealer on the Delcampe Internet auction site. They all purport to commemorate the Football World Cup Championships soon to be held in Russia and the names of a number of Commonwealth countries are printed on them - Rwanda, Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, St Vincent And The Grenadines, Lesotho and Mozambique. These items are completely bogus and are valueless though the dealer is asking a not insignificant price for them. Collectors are advised not to be tempted to spend good money on what is nothing but trash. The final illustration shows a product which purports to originate in Burundi - there are several more such issues with the names of non-Commonwealth countries printed on them - and the degree of appalingness of these items is illustrated beautifully by this item since the name of the country is spelt 'Burunundi' - it's hard to believe that any postal administration would release a stamp on which the country's own name is spelt incorrectly.

  It is worth noting that similar items are also being sold by the same dealer which 'commemorate' the recent Winter Olympic Games - these are numerous, expensive but worthless and bogus. Avoid!

1200. 🇬🇧 Surprise Royal Mail Overprint Commemorates Commonwealth Meeting.

  🇬🇧 In a special announcement on 1 April over the Easter holiday, Royal Mail has revealed that, having previously chosen not to commemorate the event, a stamp will indeed be released to commemorate the hosting by the United Kingdom of the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London and Windsor from 16 to 20 April 2018 which will be attended by senior representatives of the 53 Commonwealth nations.

  This change of heart is likely to have occurred as the result of governmental pressure to commemorate this notable event and has resulted in a stamp which will be most unusual for modern day stamps from Royal Mail - an old commemorative, the 19 and a half pence value from the 1983 Commonwealth Day issue, with a '1st' surcharge and new inscriptions applied so that the 'Commonwealth Day 14 March 1983' wording is cancelled by a blue line and the inscription 'CHOGM 2018' is added in green.

  It is also unusual in these modern times for Royal Mail to release a single 1st Class stamp as it is unlikely to be cost effective but maybe it is the cheapest way to commemorate this event and meet the government's requests and also use up a convenient old stock of these stamps The date of issue will be Tuesday 17 April, the day after the meeting begins. An interesting item which commemorates a notable event, Rating:- ****.

1199. 🇬🇾 Political Interference Delays Stamp Issue In Guyana.

  🇬🇾 Who knows how the telling of history will be distorted over the next 500 years. Who can tell how many fine points about historical events will be lost. 2018 will be as remote to historians in a half millenium's time as 1518 is to us. Actually 1518 may be more familiar to us due to the keeping of paper records than 2018 will be in 2518 as the keeping of digital records seems altogether much more precarious than the methods tried and tested by the passage of time.

  A wise historian in 2518 may well decide to see if she can track down the unlikely continuing existence of a stamp collection for the wise historian might well appreciate the amount of contemporary 21st and 20th century information that could be contained in such a collection. She might discover the names of territories of which she was previously unaware, of events previously unknown and of political leaders and rulers long forgotten. Of course, she would need to be discerning about the information she extracts from these miniature records since they may well have been interfered with by a person of power, whether contemporary or in the future.

  In Blog 1183 I mentioned that the Guyana Post Office Corporation intended to issue a miniature sheet containing 4 different stamps to commemorate the Centenary of the birth of Dr Cheddi Jagan who first became Chief Minister of British Guiana in 1953 and was then prime minister of the colony from 1961 to 1964.

  Jagan founded the People's Progressive Party in 1950 with Forbes Burnham, After Jagan's election victory in 1953 the British staged a military intervention because the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, feared that Jagan was a Marxist-Leninist and that he would give the Soviet Union a foothold in Central America. Britain suspended the constitution and installed an interim government and restricted Jagan's movements but when the PPP won a general election in British Guiana in August 1961 Jagan returned to the role of Chief Minister for the following 3 years. By the 1964 elections, Forbes Burnham had established a separate party, the People's National Congress, and the PNC together with another party won a majority of seats in the new parliament and were invited to form a government. Jagan, however, refused to resign and had to be removed by the colony's Governor.

  Jagan was leader of the opposition for 28 years until the PPP won the elections of October 1992. By then Guyana had achieved independence and become a republic with an executive president and so Jagan became President of Guyana. He held the post until he died on 6 March 1997 having had heart surgery following a heart attack.

  Following his death the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre was established in Georgetown to commemorate his life and work and it was with this organisation that the Guyana Post Office Corporation collaborated to produce the illustrated miniature sheet containing 4 stamps. The plan was to release the issue on 22 March 2018 both locally and through the philatelic agents, IGPC, which are based in Beijing and New York.

  On the proposed date of issue the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre announced that it had had plans to release 400 first day covers of the miniature sheet and had made a deposit with the Guyana Post Office of $200000 (Guyana dollars). It had planned to launch the issue at an event scheduled for 20 March but the Guyana Post Office had not provided the items and had advised the Research Centre to contact the office of the President of Guyana about the matter. It appeared that the issue of these stamps had fallen victim to political interference from the office of President David Granger who had come to power in 2015 as leader of a coalition of APNU (A Partnership for National Unity) and Alliance For Change after defeating the PPP. Indeed President Granger is quoted as saying that the issue of the stamps "...was not a postal function...", whatever that may mean.

  It looked highly likely that this miniature sheet would have the status of having been unissued to local post offices and the Guyana Post Office Facebook site makes no mention of the sheet's release. It is featured on the IGPC website but if ordered via the site it is not available. It has been sold earlier to some dealers and I have been able to obtain one of the sheets from one such dealer. In the last couple of days it has been announced that the President's office will allow the stamps to be issued eventually but whether or not that is the case remains to be seen but for now it might be worth looking out for this interesting and historically significant philatelic item.

  I wonder if our future historian will come across this item and be puzzled about what happened in the run-up to the release of the sheet and wonder just who was Dr. Cheddi Jagan, 'Man of the People', as the stamp labels him. Of course that would be no problem at all for her in comparison with trying to work out who the 10 characters featured on the Royal Mail 'Game Of Thrones' stamps were and which territories they ruled over!