Next to the large PostEurop series issued around May 9, 2023, a few other countries released joint issues:

The Belarus – Russia joint issue was released on May 13, 2023. They celebrate the 150th anniversary of the painter Stanislas Zhukovsky (1873-1944) under the form of a souvenir sheet from each country representing a different painting. The margin shows different portraits of the painter. As a consequence, this becomes a parallel issue [P1]. Belarus issued 10,000 souvenir sheets, but also 5,000 samples as imperforate, while Russia issued 20,000 souvenir sheets as well as 4,200 samples of a special folder containing the same souvenir sheet, imperforated.

Milan Csaplar (Slovakia) provided update about future joint issues involving Slovakia. The design of the Slovakia – SMOM issue became available and the stamps will be released on June 23, 2023. Reminder: as SMOM is not recognized by UPU and as no other country is involved in this issue, this pair will not be approved as joint, but still be reported in the catalogue for collectors of SMOM stamps. The design of the Joint Issue with the Czech Republic at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Czech Post and the Slovak Post was also released. These stamps are supposed to be released on October 2, 2023.

Enzo Cafaro (Italy) provided information about a joint issue between the Sovereign Order of Malta (SMOM) and the Vatican City issued on May 16, 2023 and commemorating the 825th anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta in Spoleto (1198). Stamps are identical and show the façade of the cathedral, also known as Duomo of Spoleto, and a fresco by Filippo Lippi dedicated to the Stories of the Virgin (15th century). However as SMOM is not recognized by UPU, this issue cannot be recognized as a true joint issue and will be reported in the catalogue for SMOM collectors but under the heading Non-accepted [N].

Vietnam appears also in two official joint issues, but information to complete these series is missing. We reported already the picture of the joint issue with India (April 23, 2023), but are still waiting for India’s counterpart. Uruguay announced and released a souvenir sheet related to the 30th anniversary of relation with Vietnam. Picture of the Uruguayan item released on April 27, 2023 is reproduced below, but no news is available from Vietnam.

Back to the 2023 PostEurop stamp issue, there is a clarification to make, following a note sent by Stewie Griffin: BeePost (actually very close link to Stamperija and Peterstamps, same office address) did not have the legal permission from PostEurop to print Europa stamps, nor to use the Europa logo and design. The BeePost stamps described in the previous Post related to Europa 2023 stamps must be considered as illegal and should not appear in a serious stamp collection. They will not be described in the catalogue either, when updated. Actually we learned also that BeePost’s website is now under “maintenance” and Stamperija removed all BeePost “stamps” from their website. Thanks for this information which details can be found under https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=100797

In the meantime additional stamps related to PostEurop Peace 2023 became available: Estonia (May 25, 2023, one stamp in miniature sheets of 10 stamps), Greenland (May 30, 2023, 2 stamps available in sheetlets of 10, but also in a booklet of blocks of 6 from each), Nagorno Karabakh now issuing stamps under the name of Republic of Artsakh (May 25, 2023, two stamps available in miniature sheets of 10, but also in a miniature sheet of 5 se-tenant pairs), and Belgium (to be released on June 12, 2023, but illustration already available; one stamp in a miniature sheet of 5 stamps). The illustrations of the stamps from Azerbaijan became also available, but the exact date of release (in June) is still not known.

In Denmark, the Europa stamp is presented in a form of a souvenir sheet including the common stamp and a second commemorating stamp representing a candle. This second Denmark stamp was originally issued in 1970 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the end of WWII. On May 4, 1945, a candle was put at all windows in Denmark, when armistice was signed, and this tradition continues since, symbolizing peace. The stamp from the souvenir sheet is an adapted reproduction of the 1970 stamp, but the isolated candle stamp issued as self-adhesive in a miniature sheet of 10, does have a different design. Only this isolated stamp bears the sentence “Sammen for fred” (Together for peace), which appears actually in the souvenir sheet only on the common stamp.

At this stage, for this 2023 Europa series, we are still missing information regarding the participation of Albania, Armenia, Georgia, the Isle of Man and Kazakhstan.

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Eventually catalogues have been updated. Of course Volume 15 contains all new data and stamps released during the past two months, but also information about some new mixed covers created by Jaap Sarelse (the Netherlands) that had not been reported so far. Volume 2 has been completed with the 1950 (April 12) Milan Trade Fair stamps. And of course, the Country and Topic pages of Volume 1 have been updated at the same time, the new sub-category [P3] is described.