2205. 🇭🇰 25th Anniversary Of Hong Kong’s Return To China.

New issues.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong Post -

1 July 2022 - 25th anniversary of the stationing of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in Hong Kong - 1 miniature sheet containing a single stamp. Designed by Ying-chi Lee and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 14.5 x 13.5. Rating:- ***.

1 July 2022 - 25th anniversary of the Return of Hong Kong to the sovereignty of The Chinese People’s Republic - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing the 4 stamps. Designed by Jason Chum and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 14 x 15. Rating:- ****.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

1 July 2022 - ‘Pride’, 50th anniversary of the first ‘Pride gathering’ in the United Kingdom - 8;stamps and 1 ‘collectors’ sheet costing £12.40p. Designed by Sofie Birkin and lithographed by International Security Printers and perforated 14. Rating:- **.

2204. 🇬🇧 Spotted:- Commonwealth Games Stamps.

 

New issues.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

 28 July 2022 - Commonwealth Games, Birmingham - 8 stamps in 2 se-tenant strips of 4. Details and better quality illustrations awaited but the illustration above depicts the presentation pack with the stamps featuring various sports but no special reference to the host city.

🇱🇹 Stamperija products inscribed Sierra Leone -

Stated date of issue, 23 June 2022 - “Glory to Ukraine” and “Glory to the Heroes”, art by Boris Groh originally used on stamps issued by the postal service of Ukraine commemorating Ukraine’s defiance of the Russian invasion and secondly of the important Russian Navy ship, the Moskva - 8 miniature sheets of various formats. Rating:- 0.

2103. 🇬🇦🇹🇬 Gabon And Togo Will Join Commonwealth At CHOGM.

 

Events.

🇬🇦🇹🇬 The Commonwealth is to have two new members - the Francophone African republics of Gabon and Togo. The decision by President Ali Bongo of Gabon to seek Commonwealth membership and it’s likely philatelic consequences for Commonwealth collectors were reported in Blog 1938. Meanwhile moves to enable Togo to become a Commonwealth member have come very recently with the country’s Parliament National Assembly passing a resolution saying that the Assembly, “expresses support for Togo’s process of joining the Commonwealth”. It appeared the President Faure Gnassingbé was moved to apply for membership by President Bongo’s declaration that he was doing so on behalf of Gabon. It is said that both countries will be formally admitted to Commonwealth membership on 24 June at the CHOGM in Kigali, having already received the nod on 12 June. 

  Togoland was a German protectorate from 5 July 1884 until 1914 when British and French forces occupied the territory at the beginning of the First World War. The Allies were interested in capturing the territory because an important German wireless transmitter linking Berlin to its west African territory was sited at Kamina, north of the capital Lomé, and because the territory neighboured both the British colony of Gold Coast and the French colony of Dahomey. In the first British military action of the war British forces landed at Lomé on 7 August with the German command setting for Kamina and on 9 August the Union Jack was flying over Lomé. British and French forces arrived at Kamina on 26 August to find that the Germans had blown up the transmitter and many of the German troops had deserted, those remaining were captured. The Germans formally surrendered on 26 August 1914 and the two allies each occupied parts of the country. The territory was ruled as a condominium until 7 December 1916 when the Condominium collapsed and Togoland was formally divided into British Togoland and French Togoland.

After the British occupation of Togoland a number of overprints were released by the British authorities. Eleven German colonial stamps (3pf - 2m) were initially overprinted  ‘TOGO/Anglo-French/Occupation’ with wide settings and issued on 1 October 1914. Halfpenny and One Penny surcharges were applied and released also on 1 October and towards the end of October 13 more overprints (3pf - 5m) were issued with narrow settings of the overprint. The two surcharges were also released with the narrower setting.

  New versions of the ‘TOGO/Anglo-French’ overprints (5 values, 3pf - 50pf) were issued on 7 January 1915 and then stamps of the neighbouring British colony of Gold Coast (12 values, 1/2d - 20s) with another new, locally printed version of TOGO/Anglo-French/Occupation were issued in May 1915. In April 1916  an issue of 12 basic Gold Coast definitives (1/2d - 20s) with a further version of the overprint applied in London was released. 

A League of Nations Mandate was granted to Great Britain over British Togoland on 20 July 1922 and subsequently British Togoland was ruled as part of The Gold Coast until the 1950s when plans were being laid for the independence of Ghana. A plebiscite was held in British Togoland which voted to join Ghana when it became independent which duly happened on 6 March 1957. Previously unoverprinted Gold Coast stamps had been used in the territory and subsequently the stamps of Ghana were used there.

  Meanwhile French Togo became an autonomous republic on 30 August 1956 and became fully independent on 23 April 1960 as the Republic of Togo - it is this rump territory which is now about to join The Commonwealth. It has never been part of the British Empire since it was occupied by French troops in 1914 and was subsequently French Togo while British Togoland is now incorporated in neighbouring Ghana.

  From a philatelic point of view, the Commonwealth collector may feel some anxiety at the accession of Togo to The Commonweath as presently its postal service is allowing all manner of products from the infernal Stamperija to be released on to the market in its name. But in theory at least we now have two more territories to add to our Commonwealth collections.

Togo’s present definitive series depicting Bella Bellow, Togolese singer:-

Togo’s presidents since Independence featured on 2010 issue commemorating 50th anniversary of Independence:-

Stamperija product inscribed ‘Togo’ depicting Queen Elizabeth II, Head of The Commonwealth:-

New issues.

🇸🇭 Ascension Island  - 

22 June 2022 - 40th anniversary of the liberation of the Falkland Islands from Argentinian occupation by British forces - 4 stamps. Designed by Andrew Robinson and lithographed by Cartor and perforated 13.5. Production coordinated by Creative Direction. Thanks to Juliet Warner of Pobjoy Stamps for information about this issue. Rating:- *****.

2102. 🇵🇳 Pitcairn Commemorates Prince William’s 40th Birthday.

 

New issues.

🇵🇳 Pitcairn Islands -

21 June 2022 - 40th Birthday of the Duke of Cambridge - 4 stamps. Rating:- **.

🇹🇿🇴🇲 Tanzania Post Corporation and Oman Post -

2022 - Joint issue by Oman and Tanzania, Omani architectural contribution to East Africa - possibly 2 stamps - details awaited, due for release later in 2022.

🇯🇲 Jamaica Post -

2022 - 60th anniversary of the Independence - 2 stamps. Date of issue and  further details awaited.

🇲🇺 Mauritius Post - 

2022 - 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Mauritius and The Chinese Peoples’ Republic - 1 stamp. Further details awaited including the date of issue.

2101. 🇷🇼 CHOGM To Open In Rwanda But No Philatelic Commemoration?

 

Events.

  The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting opens in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, on 20 June 2022, bringing together senior politicians from the Commonwealth’s 54 member states. The meeting was originally due to take place in June 2020 but was delayed until June 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and then delayed again to this year for the same reason.  In Blog 1617, I related the history of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings and the stamps which were issued over the years by various postal administrations to commemorate the events. The most recent meeting held in London in 2018 was not associated with an accompanying commemorative stamp issue though Royal Mail grudgingly produced a slogan postmark for use on ordinary mail at the time (commonwealthstampsopinion.blogspot.com/2020/03/1617-commonwealth-day-2020.html).

 It seems unlikely also that there will be any postage stamps released by I Posta, the Rwandan postal service, because it has not issued any postage stamps since 15 November 2010 - almost 12 years, the longest period in modern times of not issuing a postage stamp of any country in the Commonwealth - and looking at the company’s internet site I could not find any reference to postal rates for ordinary mail in the country with the only postal services getting any mention being EMS (Express mail service) and parcel post. This is the case in a number of countries. The postal service of Samoa (expected to be the next CHOGM host country) for instance rarely releases stamps now after an unfortunate experience in dealing with a United States-based ‘philatelic agency’ and when it does the issue is usually a series of surcharges, some with high face values for use on parcels and express post.

  The Meeting’s chair will be Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s fourth President in office since 2000, who takes over the chair from the current holder of the position, Boris Johnson, the British prime minister. The theme of the meeting is ‘Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming’. The Prince of Wales will represent the current Head of The Commonwealth,  96 year old Queen Elizabeth II, at the meeting: the Prince himself has been elected previously by Commonwealth leaders to succeed his mother as the next Head of The Commonwealth.

  Ali Bongo, the President of Gabon, has made a number of announcements in the past year or so saying that he expects his country to be admitted to membership of The Commonwealth during the Kigali meeting and the government of Zimbabwe will be hoping to hear of progress in its application to rejoin the organisation after the downfall of Robert Mugabe who withdrew the country from Commonwealth membership.

  As it seems unlikely that there will be any philatelic commemoration of the event I have put a stamp design together on my I pad (in about 5 minutes, stamp design really isn’t that hard) (see the head of this Blog) and the Meeting’s emblem is featured along with a small cameo of President Kagame. And by the way, if you want a rare error, the ‘stamp’ below has an error of date. 

2100. 🇳🇿 New Zealand Commemorates Art Prize Winners

 

New issues.

🇳🇿 New Zealand Post -

6 July 2022 - IHC Art Awards, previous winners of the L’affare People’s Choice Award - 4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing all 4 stamps. Designed by Neil Jarvis and lithographed by Southern Colour Print and perforated 14.

🇦🇺 Australia Post -

5 July 2022 - Commemoration of Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls - 1 gummed stamp issued in sheetlets of 10. Designed by Jo Muré and lithographed by EGO and perforated 14 x 14.5. Rating:- ***.

11 July 2022 - Budgerigars - 3 gummed stamps, I miniature sheet containing all 3 stamps and 3 self-adhesive stamps each from individual booklets of 10. Rating:- *.

19 July 2022 - Centenary of the Australian Men’s National Football Team - 2 gummed stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Designed by Jason Watts and lithographed by EGO and perforated 14.5 x 14. Rating:- ***.

2022 - Victory of the Adelaide Crows in the AFLW Grand Final 2022 - 1 sheetlet of 8 gummed Map of Australia stamps sold for $15.95c. Rating:- *

2 August 2022 - Cicadas - 3 gummed stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Designed by Owen Bell and Jo Muré and lithographed by RA Printing and perforated 14 x 14.5. Rating:- *.

🇦🇺 issue inscribed Australian Antarctic Territory =

9 August 2022 - 75th anniversary of the Australian Antarctic programme - 4 gummed stamps and 1 miniature sheet. Rating:- ***.

23 August 2022 - 150th anniversary of Australian overland telegraph - 1 gummed stamp issued in sheetlets of 10. Designed by Jonathan Chong and lithographed by RA Printing and perforated 14 x 14.5. Rating:- ***.

2022 - ‘Stamp packs’ - 

July 2022 - Thor Love And Thunder - cost $ 16.50 - 12 different stamps in a sheetlet.

July 2022 - 30th anniversary of the Disney film Aladdin - 12 different stamps in a sheetlet costing $15.50c

July 2022 - 40th anniversary of Care Bears - 12 different stamps in a sheetlet plus a sheetlet of 10 identical Greetings stamps (hearts and crosses) with attached labels $27.50c.

August 2022 - 40th anniversary of the ET movie - 1 sheetlet containing 12 different stamps costing $15.50c

August 2022 - 60th anniversary of Spiderman- 12 different stamps in a sheetlet costing $16.50c

August 2022 - 75th anniversary of Tonka toys - 12 different stamps in a sheetlet costing $15.50c

August 2022 - Star Wars: I am your father - 12 different stamps in a sheetlet costing $16.50c

This adds a further 89 stamps and 6 miniature sheets/sheetlets to Australia Post’s 2022 total. 

🇨🇦 Canada Post - 

21 June 2022 - Commemoration of Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier (indigenous people’s leader) - 1 self-adhesive stamp issued in booklets of 6. Designed by Lime Design and lithographed by Lowe Martin. Rating:- ****.