1762. 🇲🇺 Mauritius Commemorates Historic Post Office Building.

 🇲🇺 Mauritius Post will issue a single stamp on 28 October 2020 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Central post office in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius. An interesting stamp. Rating:- ***.

🇵🇰 Pakistan Post issued a single stamp on 24 October 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations Organisation. The stamp was designed by Murghiz Khan and lithographed by National Security Printing Company Karachi and is perforated 13. Rating:- **.

🇲🇿 Correios de Moçambique has issued a single stamp on an as yet unknown date to commemorate International Day of Family Remittances which occurred on 16 June 2020 (which of course may have been the day of issue). Thanks to super for drawing my attention to the issue in a comment left at the end of Blog 1762 which referenced an item on the excellent Joint Stamps site which in turn had received news of the issue from Nejmeddine Boudaren of Aurescollections. The stamp appears to be part of a joint issue with Togo and St Thomas And Prince.

🇬🇧 The Postal Museum in London will reopen its 2 Post and Go kiosks on 29 October 2020 and dispense the Mail Coach Stamps with the additional inscription “The Postal Museum/Postcards 150” to commemorate 2020 as a year of celebration of the 150th anniversary of the introduction of “the British postcard”. This is an interesting and worthy anniversary to commemorate. Rating:- ****.

  The first British postcard followed the example of such items which had been introduced previously in Austro-Hungary on 1 October 1869 and appeared exactly 1 year later on 1 October 1870 following a recommendation being made by the Postmaster General on 26 May. The early postcards were printed by De La Rue and included an imprinted halfpenny stamp which depicted a portrait of Queen Victoria. This halfpenny value was a new postal rate for open correspondence. The postcard was immediately popular and 675000 were sold on the first day of issue.

1761. 🇸🇨 Will Historic Political Change In Seychelles Alter Conservative New Issue Programme?

 

🇸🇨 Seychelles has been ruled by one political party in its various guises since 1977 when France Albert René overthrew the then recently independent country’s first president, Sir James Mancham, while he was out of the country attending the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Conference in London which was taking place during the celebrations to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee. These events and their philatelic consequences are detailed in the Blog of 4 June 2012. 

  As the previous Blog describes the immediate philatelic effect of René’s coup was to prevent the use of Mancham’s portrait on Seychellois stamps and more importantly to put an end to IGPC’s involvement in Seychelles new stamp issues. A fresh danger arose when the notorious Philatelists Ltd (later Philatelic Disribution Company Ltd) was appointed as philatelic agents for the Seychelles postal service but those who ran the Seychellois mail service were wise enough to never allow the company to produce the extreme horrors such as the Leaders Of The World thematic series in the mid-1980s that other less perspicacious postal services allowed to be released.Who knows we might have had issues for individual islands such as Farquhar and Desroches depicting classic motor cars or old steam locomotives as we did from Tuvalu. Unfortunately however the Seychelles postal service did succumb to allowing separate stamps being released for the Seychelles Outer Islands (Zil Elwanyen Sesel [spelt in 3 different ways]) which continued to appear for the several years during which Philatelists Ltd oversaw Seychelles stamps but the stamps were generally innocuous and usually relevant to the territory and even quite attractive and so not a great deal of harm was done. After the fall of Philatelists Ltd, the Seychelles postal service turned to the Crown Agents to help it with its stamp issues. This became CASCO and, if I remember rightly, CAPHCO, and the subject of issues were often irrelevant to the country and more numerous so that by 2009 stamps were appearing with the name of Seychelles printed on them that depicted European Explorers such as Sir Martin Frobisher and Sir John Franklin who were connected with North America and the Arctic rather than the Indian Ocean.

  Fortunately this phase of new issues came to a rapid end and again less harm was done to the philatelic reputation of Seychelles than was the case with some other territories. Since 2010 the Seychelles postal service has had an excruciatingly conservative  new issue policy with most years seeing no new stamps or just one stamp being released. In many ways this a great pity as there are many interesting subjects which could be featured on the stamps of Seychelles including its unique and fascinating wildlife, both avian and marine.

  So as the long period of rule by René and his successors (James Michel [2004-16] and Danny Faure [2016-20]) comes to an end with the defeat of Faure in the recently held Presidential election the results of which have just been announced, stamp collectors might wonder if the new administration under Wavel Ramkalawan, the newly elected President of the Linyon Demokratik Seselwa Party, might take a fresh look at the new stamp issues of Seychelles and abandon the present ultra-conservative new issue policy. I would welcome a slight increase in the number of new stamps being issued by the interesting and beautiful country and the change of a political administration is quite frequently associated with a change of approach to the issuing of stamps. We can only hope that if a new administration sees benefits in increasing the number of new issues it does not see there being advantages in returning, after all these years, to using the services of IGPC or even mor terrifyingly, Stamperija. If this article ever comes to the attention of anyone associated with the new Seychelles regime or postal service, which is admittedly unlikely, could I mention the words Pobjoy Stamps/Creative Direction?

1760. 🇮🇲 Manx Christmas Set.

🇮🇲 Isle Of Man Post Office will issue a set of 6 stamps on 30 October 2020 for use on Christmas mail. It is a highly appealing set featuring as it does details from great works of art. The issue was designed by Glazier Design and lithographed by Lowe Martin and perforated 13.The issue of this set follows on immediately after a set of 6 stamps commemorating the 150th anniversary of the death of the novelist Charles Dickens all of which featured scenes from his story A Christmas Carol which could easily have doubled up as this year’s Christmas set from Isle Of Man but no, why issue one set when you can issue two and make double the profit?

Well three actually. Because the Christmas art set is also accompanied by 6 Post and Go stamps - what the Manx Post Office likes to call “variable rate” stamps - which use the designs of the basic stamps as shown below. They are dispensed from “retail kiosks and the post office counter network”.

An attractive Christmas issuue, Rating:- ***.

 🇲🇾 Pos Malaysia will issue a set of 3 stamps on 27 October 2020 to commemorate Malaysia Day. The stamps will be issued as a se-tenant strip of 3. Rating:- ***.

🇸🇬 Singapore Post has published its intended programme of upcoming new issues:-

🇮🇳 India Post issued a single stamp on 24 October 2020 - United Nations Day - to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Organisation. Rating :- ***.

India Post has also released 2 My Post stamps issues sold in the usual format of 12 stamps with attached labels and at a premium price. The first commemorates the 13th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory species and the second commemorates the 50th anniversary of the founding (actually in 1969) of the National Institute of Bank Management.

1759. 🇸🇭 🇹🇴 Migrant Species Of Tristan, Tourism In Tonga.

🇸🇭 The postal service of Tristan Da Cunha will issue a second set of 4 stamps on the theme of Vagrant species on 9 November 2020. This excellent set was designed by Andrew Robinson and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13.5 x 13. The production of the issue was coordinated by Creative Direction. Rating:- *****.

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

🇹🇴 The US-based Philatelic Collector Inc. churns out numerous excruciatingly expensive philatelic products in the name of the postal services of Tonga and Cook Islands and few of them are worth collecting even if the collector can afford to buy the stuff.

 Sometimes however the agency has to supply the postal services with stamps that can actually be used on real mail to keep the local postal services going. One such issue appears to have been released by Tonga Post in the form of a series of 24 stamps titled Tourism. The stamps are small, self-adhesive, practicable and in values that actually represent real postage rates as well as being on a subject of relevance to the country whose name is printed on them. The stated date of issue is 7 October 2020. It’s questionable whether or not as many as 24 stamps were necessary but I think these stamps are of more interest and relevance than most of the products that appear with the name of Tonga printed on them. Rate:- ***.

 

🇬🇧 In addition to the great flood of philatelic products mentioned in Blogs 1757-58, Royal Mail intends to issue yet another of its tedious Collectors sheets (cost £8.80p) on 3 November 2020 on the subject of the James Bond movie series and centred on the yet-to-be-released latest movie No Time To Die. The item is made up of 10 identical stamps featuring the present actor playing the role, Daniel Craig, and 10 attached labels. Collectors of Royal Mail stamps - have they bankrupted you yet? Rating:- 0.

1758. 🇬🇭 🇬🇧 Ghana And China, Royal Mail And Star Trek. Malta And Pope John Paul II.

🇬🇭 The postal service of Ghana issued 1 miniature sheet containing 5 different stamps on 20 October 2020 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the country’s establishment of diplomatic relations with The People’s Republic of China. This issue was launched jointly by officials of the Chinese embassy in Accra and “their Ghanaian counterparts”. The stamps “were designed through collaboration between Ghanaian and Chinese experts” and “bear multiple photos including development projects in Ghana with Chinese support”. I assume that this miniature sheet is a gift from the Chinese Government to the Ghanaian postal service. This is the first known new issue of 2020 from the Ghanaian postal service.

  Many thanks to super for their comment on this Blog which kindly drew my attention to this issue reported in an article on Xinhuanet.

🇸🇭 Juliet Warner of Pobjoy Stamps has passed on the news that the date of issue of the new Tristan Da Cunha definitive series has been postponed for a short period to allow for the addition of another stamp to the series. This stamp will depict the island’s main fishing and factory freezer vessel MFV Geo Searcher to be included in the set after it recently sank after hitting a rock off Gough Island. It had 62 crew members on board including 2 Tristan islanders who were there as Fisheries Observers. Fortunately everyone managed to make it safely to Gough Island where there is a small South African weather station and the SA Agulhas is sailing from Capetown to rescue them.

The tragedy is a great loss for Tristan Da Cunha as the ship had capacity for passenger and cargo transport and it regularly transported mail to and from the island. It was therefore felt appropriate to include a design featuring it in the new definitive series which depicts Mail ships of the island.

The previously published illustrations of the intended stamps may now be incorrect as revisions may be carried out to enable the new stamp to be included in the issue.

Thanks to Juliet Warner for this information.

🇬🇧 The decision by those who plan Royal Mail’s annual new stamp issue programme to include subjects in it which are seen as being potentially powerful sources of income for Royal Mail, which in this era of knowing “the price of everything but the value of nothing” is commercially understandable, but highly regrettable. For decades it was a signal honour to be commemorated on a ‘British stamp’, to be accorded to those whose contribution to the life and history of the people of The United Kingdom was of the highest possible level. Great literature, Art of the greatest significance, Philanthropy of the utmost generosity, Science and technology of the highest degree of achievement, Extraordinary bravery and valour and Politics which changed the nation’s future in the most significant and beneficial way - nation-changing achievements to the benefit of the British and often to the whole world.

Now we have a Royal Mail stamp issue commemorating Star Trek, a North American television programme and movie series which has enjoyed, and probably continues to enjoy, significant popularity but which has little to do with the story of Britain apart from the participation of a few British actors (usually because they accepted lower fees for their performances than would Americans) including the distinguished Shakespearean actor, Sir Patrick Stewart - already featured on a stamp released in 2011 which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Royal Shakespeare Company, based at Stratford upon Avon.

The designs of this lamentable issue seem to be strangely garish and, unless the potential buyer is a Star Trek enthusiast, the stamps are of minimal interest to a collector of ‘British’ stamps except as an illustration of how low the planners of Royal Mail’s new issue programme have sunk to make a quick buck. I assume that Royal Mail has attempted to make the issue relevant to Britain by including a number of characters played by British actors though some of them are unrecognisable because of the makeup or masks they are depicted as wearing. This particular collection of products has a precedent in the form of the 2019 release of numerous items featuring cartoon characters which appear in the American Marvel Comics which have very little to do with Britain. It is distressing to see what Royal Mail is doing to the pleasant hobby of collecting British stamps. No end appears to be in sight alas. Rating:- 0.

  The following products are among the items to be issued on 15 November 2020 as part of this tiresome issue:- 12 stamps, 1 miniature sheet, 1 Prestige booklet (cost £18.80) (the Machin Head definitives in the fourth and final pane look particularly out of place), 1 limited edition Deluxe Prestige booklet (cost £75), 1 counter booklet containing 6 x 1st Class stamps and 1 Collectors sheet depicting Starship captains.

  The issue was designed by Interabang and lithographed by International Security Printers and the stamps are perforated 14.5.

Sir Patrick Stewart strangely lacking his legs was depicted on a Royal Mail 2011 stamp showing him playing Mark Anthony in the 2006 RSC production of Anthony and Cleopatra. 

 🇲🇹 MaltaPost will issue 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp on 22 October 2020 to commemorate the Centenary of the birth of Pope John Paul II who was canonised on 27 April 2015 (along with Pope John XXIII) and is now known as St John Paul. The item was designed by Miguel Farrugia and printed in lithography by Printex and is perforated 14. Rating:- ***. 

  Two days later on 24 October 2020 MaltaPost will then issue 2 different stamps as a joint issue with the postal service of Slovakia featuring the subject of Viticulture. The issue was designed by Miguel Farrugia and Adrian Ferda using photography by Ta’ Betta Wine Estates and Turecek Winery. The issue was lithographed by Printex and is perforated 14. Rating:- **.

🇬🇧 Moving from the Roman Catholic to Anglian Church, this year’s Royal Mail Christmas issue offers an opportunity to add to my list of philatelic items relevant to the subject of Archbishops of Canterbury (see Blog 333). Buckingham Covers has prepared a first day cover for the stained glass windows stamps (See Blog 1757) which centres on Canterbury Cathedral and notes the 850th anniversary of the murder of Archbishop Thomas a Becket in the cathedral by 4 knights carrying out what they believed to be the wishes of King Henry II. The stamps on the cover are cancelled by a special postmark, dated 3 November 2020, and the inscription “St Thomas á Becket 850 Canterbury”. An attractive and interesting item cleverly identifying a notable anniversary of English history.

🇨🇦 I like this item which was featured recently on Stampboards. It illustrates nicely the dangers of postal services allowing individuals to organise My Stamps. Canada Post was recently somewhat put out and embarrassed by a personalised stamp it allowed a customer, one James Bone, to have produced which showed the decapitated head of the statue of the former Canadian prime minister John A Macdonald which had been toppled in Montreal during the generalised civil disorder which accompanied the Black Lives Matter campaign. Macdonald, according to present historical fashion, is now held responsible for “widespread mistreatment, displacement and forced assimilation of indigenous peoples during Canada’s founding”. He is in contrast also credited with “securing Canada’s unity, including overseeing the completion of the Pacific railway that connected the country from coast to coast”. This item was clearly a bone of contention for Canada Post. And an interesting philatelic product reflecting the events of this turbulent year.

Macdonald going ....

Going ...

Gone ....

Yes, definitely gone ....