273. Uganda Independence 50th Anniversary Issue.

  Despite being enmeshed in the tentacles of the Lithuanian Stamp Agents, Stamperija, the Uganda Post Office issued a set of 3 stamps on 9 October 2012 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the country's independence. Clearly, this particular set was neither designed by nor printed by Stamperija but I note that Stamperija is now offering it for sale on its website to registered dealers though I can not say what price they are being asked to pay for it. I can find only one dealer who is offering it on E Bay (and none on Delcampe) and that dealer, based in China, is asking for more than £20 for the set of three. We will see what price the regular new issue dealers in Britain and the USA will be asking for it. Clearly this is an issue which is actually produced to see use on mail in Uganda so, apart from the AIDS set which was released on 29 March 2012, it will be the only Uganda set from 2012 which I will want to obtain for my collection - though hopefully at a price lower than is currently being asked for on E Bay.

  Australia Post issued 5 gummed stamps and 5 self-adhesive stamps in the same designs from a coil on 9 July 2013 to commemorate notable members of the Aborigine community:-

  This will be followed up by stamps on the subject of "Headline News" which will be issued on 23 July 2013 and there will be another 3 issues for August, one of which will be a set with the name of Cocos (Keeling) Islands inscribed on the stamps. Australia Post has found that it can create a smokescreen about the total number of issues it is producing by adding the name of Australia's various dependent territories to the stamps, even though they are all issued by Australia Post to whom, no doubt, all profits go. So, in actual fact the company is producing about 3 sets per month, many of them in various formats (gummed, self-adhesive from coils. self-adhesive from booklet, miniature sheet, prestige booklet and so on). 

  To return to Stamperija and their current pet project which appears to be that Solomon Islands must issue more "stamps" in 2013 than any other country - yes, another issue has been announced! The title of this little lot is, imaginatively, "Various Stamps" and the issue consists of 2 more sheetlets each of 9 different stamps on the subject of the Visit of The Duke And Duchess Of Cambridge to Solomon Islands (a total of 18 "stamps"), 6 sheetlets each of 4 different stamps with 6 accompanying miniature sheets on the following subjects:- Australian fire engines, the 4th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, 15th anniversary of the death of Mother Theresa, Crabs, British monarchs and 125th anniversary of the birth of Chiang Kai-Shek the former Chinese leader. This collection adds another 42 stamps and 6 miniature sheets (total 48 items) to the total number of items released with the name of Solomon Islands printed on them so that by 10 May, 372 stamps and 86 miniature sheets (total 458 items) have been issued in 2013. Somehow, I don't think that either Royal Mail or Australia Post will be able match that.

272. Royal Mail To Boost Profits With Andy Murray Miniature Sheet.

  In Blog 271, I bemoaned the fact that the Solomon Islands Post Office was leading the race ahead of Royal Mail to issue far more stamps than any other Commonwealth country during 2013 and concluded, at the risk of being self-referential, that I felt sure that "not to be outdone, that Royal Mail has a few more tricks up its sleeve yet which we will witness as the rest of the year goes by." Little did I expect that we would witness another of these tricks within a few minutes of writing that!

  The latest trick is to begin a series of miniature sheets which will be released every time a notable British sporting victory occurs. With a Briton currently leading in the Tour De France cycle race and recent British rugby success and England also leading in The Ashes cricket Test series against Australia you can see where all this is going, can't you? 

  So it all begins with a miniature sheet, similar to last year's Olympic Gold Medallist miniature sheets, to commemorate the recent winning of the Wimbledon Men's Tennis championships by Andrew Murray. The miniature sheet contains 4 different stamps with scenes from the final and was designed by  hat-trick and is lithographed by International Security Printers (previously named Walsall Security Printers).

  There is no doubt that the issue will be popular with the members of the British public who hold the Wimbledon tennis tournament in a special place in their hearts - usually middle-aged, middle class single women who will want to buy one of these miniature sheets for their nieces or nephews (not having any children of their own) as a special commemoration of the first British male to win the championship since the days of King Alfred. 

  Yes, I think Royal Mail is on to a winner with this one. And regular stamp collectors will have to pay the price as usual. Oh by the way, Solomon Islands, look out because Royal Mail is hard on your heels. Perhaps we will have a miniature sheet at the end of the year commemorating Royal Mail's success at issuing more stamps than anyone else during 2013. Now that would be self-referential. 

271. Commonwealth New issues.

 

Bangladesh:- 

     13 January 2013 - 50th anniversary of the Asian-Pacific Postal Union - 1 stamp. Designed by Jasim Uddin and lithographed by the State Printer, Gazipur (see above);

     13 January 2013 - 40th anniversary of SOS Children Village work in Bangladesh - 1 stamp. Designed by Anowar Hussain & lithographed at Gazipur (as are all subsequent Bangaladesh stamps):-

     7 February 2013 - Audit Day - 1 stamp. Designed by Anowar Hossain:-

                          

     26 March 2013 - 42nd anniversary of Independence (portrait of Shaikh Mujibur Rahman) - 1 stamps. Designed by Anowar Hossain:-

       5 June 2013 - Tree plantation, 2013 - 1 stamp. Designed by Anowar Hossain;-

      8 July 2013 - Centenary of the Bangladesh National Museum - 1 stamp. Designed by Anowar Hossain and Aninul Islam Hossain:-

Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus:- 

      12 March 2013- People who served the Turkish Cypriot Community - 4 stamps:-

     18 April 2013 - Road Safety - 2 stamps:-

    6 May 2013- Europa - Post Office vehicles - 2 stamps:-

Sri Lanka - 

     10 May 2013 - Vesak - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet:-

     2013 - Centenary of Dharmaboka College, Ambalangoda - 1 stamp:-

     2013:- 150th anniversary of the birth of Swami Vivekananda - 1 stamp:-

     2013 - Dambigoda Bodhisatva Statue - 1 stamp:-

     The Gambia

     2013 - United Nations World Radio Day - 1 miniature sheet:-

     2013 - The Hubble Telescope - Sheetlet of 4 stamps (part of the previously mentioned Space Anniversaries set of 2 sheetlets):-

Jersey:- 

     8 August 2013 - Tall ships which have visited Jersey - 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Designed by Anthony Theobald and lithographed by Lowe-Martin:-

New Zealand - 7 August 2013 - Classic Travel Posters of New Zealand - sheetlet of 20 stamps. Designed by Hamish Thompson and lithographed by Southern Colour Print:-

Tokelau - 7 August 2013 - Butterflies of Tokelau - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Designed by New Zealand Post and lithographed by Cllectables ans Solutions Centre, New Zealand Post, Whanganui:-

Solomon Islands:-

  10 May 2013 - Australia 2013 Philatelic Exhibition - 96 "stamps" and 24 miniature sheets. The issue is divided up into 24 different sub-issues each consisting of 4 different philatelic items contained in a sheetlet and 1 miniature sheet, each sub-issue depicting a different feature of Australian wildlife - Dolphins, Platypuses, Reptiles, Owls, Bushtail possums, Snakes, Water buffaloes, Seals, Saltwater crocodiles, Wombats, Sharks, Tasmanian devils, Whales, Sea-lions, Box jelly fish and the Blue-ringed octopus, Butterflies, Extinct mammals, Huntsman spiders, kangaroos, Extinct kangaroos, endangered mammals, Koalas, Emus, Dingoes. 

  Hence, by 10 May, the agency Stamperija has produced sheetlets containing 330 "stamps" plus 79 miniature sheets - totaling 409 items - for the Solomon Islands Post Office during 2013 which means that they have actually issued more philatelic items so far in 2013 than the British postal service, Royal Mail, has been able to churn out (see recent blog). But I'm sure, not to be outdone, that Royal Mail has a few more tricks up its sleeve yet which we will witness as the rest of the year goes by.

270. Royal Mail Postmark Commemorates Criminals.

  A sponsored official Royal Mail postmark will commemorate the 50th anniversary of a serious and notorious crime. The crime was the so-called Great Train Robbery which took place in 1963. The crime involved the theft of 2.6 million pounds (equivalent to £41 million pounds in present times) from a train and was committed at Bridgego Railway Bridge at Ledburn in Buckinghamshire. Extraordinarily, the postmark commemorates a crime against Royal Mail itself since the train which was involved was the Glasgow to London Travelling Post Office (TPO). The robbers stopped the train in the early hours of the morning of 8 August 1963 and assaulted the train driver and then moved the train so that it could be unloaded. The gang unloaded all but 7 of 128 sacks of money which were being carried on the train and divided the spoils between the 17 main participants in the crime, each receiving about £150000 plus smaller amounts going to others who had some involvement in the crime. Eleven people were eventually arrested and sentenced to prison terms although it was later acknowledged that not all of them were actually guilty of involvement in the crime. Two of the criminals escaped from prison. Perhaps because of the large amount of money stolen, the criminals gained an inappropriate glamour and films were made about them.

  So, 50 years later, the crime has merited a philatelic commemoration by Royal Mail itself in the form of a commemorative postmark. The circular cancellation bears the geographical location of Cheddington Leighton Buzzard and the inscription "50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery" with the actual anniversary date of the crime "08 08 2013." At the centre of the cancellation is a depiction of a fingerprint. What can one say about the appropriateness of such a commemoration? What will Royal Mail next produce a postmark for? The murders of Dr. Crippin? A series of 6 to commemorate the 6 victims of Jack The Ripper? Honestly, philately has gone mad and now a once respectable stamp-producing administration has been reduced to making money from the glamourisation of crime - one in which it was the victim and where innocent men were injured. 

269. Post And Go .... Straight To The Bank.

Hytech machine printed at Midpex in Warwickshire.

  The British postal service, Royal Mail, told collectors last year that it listened to its customers and as a result it was going to reduce the number of special issues it would make in 2013. And indeed, the organisation was true to its word and reduced its number of special stamp issues from 17 issues plus 62 Olympic and Paralympic medal winner issues to just 12 announced special issues (of course we must remember that Royal Mail issued more stamps, miniature sheets and booklets than any other postal administration in The Commonwealth apart from Mozambique during 2012).

  Sadly, this "12 issues per year" has proven to be cynical window dressing as the British postal administration has markedly increased the number of stamps per set as well as continuing to increase all the additional items which are valid for postage which need to be bought and placed in the completeist's collection of British stamps for 2013. In fact, even with no Olympic gold medallists to commemorate this year, Royal Mail could well be on its way to producing as many stamps and postally valid items as in 2012. Remarkably, the excellent Norvic Stamps website identified as early as May that in the first 5 months of the year, 42 - yes 42 - new collectable Machin definitives or new Machin definitive varieties had been produced by Royal Mail.  

  The other sort of definitive - the machine-produced "Post And Go" labels - have also proliferated exhaustingly; if we exclude the 12 labels produced at the Australia 2013 Philatelic Exhibition which were never sold at a British post office in a country where they could be used postally or by the Edinburgh Philatelic Bureau (a different version of the stamps was sold from there), then so far we have had 76 - yes 76 - collectable new Post And Go stamps. Not even Aitutaki, Cook Islands, Penrhyn and Rarotonga combined (with Tonga, Niuafo'ou and Samoa thrown in as well) have managed to issue 118 definitive stamps in the space of 7 months. The latest addition to the Post And Go mayhem were the 6 Freshwater Life Part 2 stamps which were sold at the Midpex Stamp Fair held in Leamington Spa on 6 July 2013 which were printed by Hytech machines rather than the Wincor-Nixdorf machines in which they are printed in ordinary post offices - thus 6 new Post And Go stamps were created. I depict a strip of the 6 Hytech printed Midpex stamps above with a detail of 2 of the values below:-

  One of the vaguely strange habits of collectors of Post And Go stamps is the need to include in their collections the receipt dispensed by the machine which delivers the stamp - an example is shown below which relates to the Midpex stamps. I see the usefulness of these items since they give a lot of detail about the stamps but the problem with them is that the ink on them fades with age so they will prove to be ephemeral items. A stamp is a receipt for postage paid so I guess that collecting the Post And Go receipts is a form of collecting receipts of receipts! Big fleas. little fleas, ad infinitum etc...

  The creation of numerous definitive varieties which devoted collectors will buy undoubtedly and the proliferation of Post And Go stamps leaves Royal Mail laughing all the way to the bank at the cost of collectors' own bank balances. Surely the most joyous sales success for Royal Mail in 2013 will prove to be the vast outpouring of items on the subject of Dr. Who which I have dealt with in previous blogs. To add to previous items on some of the commercially available first day covers for the issue, I now depict a first day cover produced by Buckingham Covers which bears the miniature sheet which contains 5 designs depicting Dr. Who's enemies and his travel machine:-

  The post mark depicts Dr. Who's sonic screwdriver and is for Cardiff where the studios are located where the television programme is made:-

  Perhaps most interesting of all is the fact that the covers are autographed by the actor, Paul McGann, whose autograph is much rarer than those of some of the other actors and so this is probably the best of the commercially available miniature sheet first day covers:-

Paul McGann's autograph.

  There are still a large number of items to appear from Royal Mail during 2013 - a set of 6 stamps and a miniature sheet and a retail booklet of self-adhesive stamps to be issued on 13 August which will feature automobiles - classic sports cars and service vehicles (one of the miniature sheet designs features a post van which will tie in with the Europa theme for 2013) - the issue commemorates the birth centenary of Henry Royce and the centenary of Aston Martin; on 19 September, 6 stamps, a miniature sheet, a prestige booklet and (probably) another retail booklet will commemorate the bicentenary of the British merchant fleet and the Atlantic and Arctic convoys of the Second World War and on 10 October 2013 Royal mail will issue 10 stamps depicting British dinosaurs. There will be a further Post And Go issue on the subject of Pond Life and Post And Go issues for the Autumn Stampex exhibition and of course there will also be a Christmas issue plus - who knows? - an issue to commemorate the new baby soon to be born to The Duke And Duchess of Cambridge (it's impossible to believe that Royal Mail will miss such an opportunity). 

  So far, Royal Mail has delivered 207 new stamps, miniature sheets and booklets (I don't even mention "Smilers" and Business sheets) to its collector customers during 2013 - they're just 88 short of last year's total and just under 6 months left to do their worst - come on, Royal Mail, see if you can beat Mozambique this year! That would be something to be proud of! By the way, Mozambique is definitely lagging behind so far with only 176 stamps and miniature sheets announced in 2013. Remarkable - Royal Mail is currently beating Mozambique - what can you say? I guess that "We are only going to release 12 special issues in 2013" is looking a little meaningless and cynical.

  Meanwhile, I draw attention to a rather neglected area as far as I am aware. We have heard a lot about Royal Mail's counter printed "Horizon" labels but Britain is not the only country where its post offices use such items in preference to the plethora of commemorative stamps that are produced. Below, I depict a counter-printed label from The Isle Of Man - I have received a number of such items used on ordinary mail to the UK from the island instead of conventional postage stamps and they seem to be more postally significant than the flood of commemorative stamps which pours out from the island:-

  Finally, having moaned so much about Great Britain's current stamp issuing policy, I return to a country whose vast number of new issues in the 1960's and early 70's reminds one so much of what the British postal service is up to today. In Blog 241 I highlighted the set of 6 stamps and 2 miniature sheets which were issued by Umm Al Qiwain to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the British landings in the Gulf area - I have now managed to acquire the set and sheets of what I see as a very interesting set historically and I depict them below:-

 

268. New British Dependent Territory In 2017?

  The British Ministry Of Defence has suggested that when Scotland becomes independent in 2017, the nuclear submarine base at Faslane should become a British Sovereign Base similar to the British Sovereign Bases in Cyprus because it would be far too expensive to decommission the base and move it to some other part of the remaining United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland and Wales). Presumably Faslane would then become a British Overseas Dependency similar to Akrotiri and Dhekelia and its postal service would be delivered by the British Forces Postal Service. In Blogs 218 and 233, I have described some philatelic items relating to Akrotiri and Dhekelia and the establishment of a new British Overseas Dependency (with the unique distinction of being located in the British Isles!) would give collectors an interesting new area to collect and study. In fact it may well be worthwhile trying to obtain pre-independence philatelic material prior to Scotland's independence relevant to the area which may become a new British, er, colony.

Akrotiri Forces Post Office 124 cancellation, 1972

  Relevant to this subject is the set of 4 stamps which Royal Mail issued on 10 April 2001 which commemorated the centenary of the Royal Navy Submarine Service; a Vanguard Class submarine of 1992 being depicted on the 2nd Class value stamp:-

British submarine, 1992,

  It surprises me that no-one has yet come up with stamps specifically for use by for the British Forces Postal Service given the number of different places the service operates from. Unless the treaty with Cyprus which established the Sovereign Bases specifically does not allow such stamp issues, I would think that such stamps could be used in the territory as they could on British forces mail from elsewhere in the world including, if the Ministry of Defence gets its way, the new Dependency in independent Scotland. Isn't stamp collecting interesting?

  One philatelic agency which seems to appreciate how to make stamp collecting interesting is Pobjoy Stamps which will release some attractive, locally relevant issues for its client territories in the coming weeks. There will be a "mini-bus" issue from Ascension, Falkland Islands and South Georgia And The South Sandwich Islands which will appear on 29 August 2013 which will commemorate the Shallow Marine Survey Group and which will depict various marine life. Each territory will issue 4 different stamps and a sheetlet of 4 sets of stamps in se-tenant format and there will be an additional single miniature sheet which will include 1 £1 stamp from each territory.

  They are very attractive designs - by Bee Design - and are lithographed by Cartor. Ascension will also release a set of 6 interesting and attractive stamps on 16 August 2013 which commemorates the return of breeding pairs of frigate birds to the island following a campaign of eradicating local feral cats which had obliterated the previous local frigate bird population. This seems to me like an event well worth celebrating philatelically for a territory such as Ascension and the designs, again by Bee Design, are very appealing. This set is also lithographed by Cartor:-

267. New Issues From Pakistan And The Pacific.

From the excellent Pakistan Post office philatelic website comes news of the most recent issues from that country - 

  30 May 2013  Centenary of Islamia College in Peshawar (1 value) - depicted above;

  6 June 2013  Shafiq Ur Rahman (Men of Letters series) (1 value) - depicted below:

  12 June 2013  Men of Letters: Mumtaz Mufti and Ishfaq Ahmed (2 stamps):-

  15 June 2013  Men of Letters: Ibn-e-Insha (1 stamp):-

  20 June 2013  60th anniversary of the All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS) (1 stamp):- 

As usual with Pakistan's stamps, the designs of these stamps are not the most interesting that can be produced nor the printing of the highest quality but these are true stamps produced by the postal administration of a populous country in face values which indicate that they are primarily intended to be used on mail as well as commemorating distinguished Pakistan citizens and significant local events and anniversaries. Three cheers for the Pakistan Post Office!

  From one of the largest of The Commonwealth's territories to just about its smallest - Pitcairn - and news of an item to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. A miniature sheet will be issued on 11 July 2013 which contains 2 identical $6 stamps which feature a portait of The Queen in the style of jasperware pottery made by companies such as that of the world famous Wedgewood of Stoke-on-Trent. A pleasing and original design by Denise Durkin with printing carried out in lithography and embossing by Southern Colour Print:-

  Australia Post issued 5 gummed stamps from ordinary sheets and 5 self-adhesive stamps  from booklets plus a gummed miniature sheet on 2 July 2013 on the subject of "The road trip", this being the second such issue with that title. Presumably Australia Post thought the designs were witty or amusing or something along those lines. The designs are by Gavin Ryan and the lithographic printing was by McKellar Renown. It is worth noting that Australia Post's latest little dodge to extract money from stamp collectors is to no longer issue the complete self-adhesive set in one booklet of 10 x 60c stamps (cost $6) but to now produce them with 2 of the designs in a $6 booklet and the other 3 designs in a $12 booklet so that to obtain the complete set both booklets must be bought for a total price of $18! Do they think we're mad? I guess they do.

From Norfolk Island, a set of 5 stamps which was issued on 20 May 2013 which commemorated the holding of the Norfolk Island Country Music Festival. The stamps were designed by Robin Nisbet and lithographed by Southern Colour Print:-

  Finally, the latest issue from Tuvalu, a sheetlet of 6 different stamps and an accompanying miniature sheet, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the World Health Organisation was released on 25 June 2013.  As so often happens, the designer working for the New York-based philatelic agency which produces philatelic items for Tuvalu, does not appear to have made any effort to link this questionable anniversary (65th - why is that so important that it requires a stamp issue?) to Tuvalu - there is nothing in the designs which links WHO to Tuvalu, not even the maps featured on the stamps depict the area of the world where Tuvalu is located! This set will do nothing to add interest to my Tuvalu collection so I certainly won't be obtaining it.