Author: Richard Zimmermann

Railway opening anniversary 2022

by Richard Zimmermann

The history of Košice–Bohumín Railway track dates back to as early as the 19th century when the only railway lines within the Kingdom of Hungary were the steam-powered Vienna–Pest–Debrecen railway and the horse-drawn Bratislava–Trnava railway. As early as 1839 the Diet of Hungary debated an Act which may be considered to be the foundations of Hungarian traffic policy. The project of the construction of a track that would connect Silesia via Jablunkov, Žilina, Liptovský Mikuláš, Poprad, Spišská Nová Ves, and Košice, led to a first real design to be implemented that dates back to 1864. The railway was intended to speed up the transport of iron ore from deposits in Spiš and Gemer to the Třinec ironworks, to make it more effective. It was also expected to provide the same benefits to the transportation of coal from the Silesian mines to northern and eastern Hungary. The initial works finally began on October 15, 1867. However, the construction was suspended or postponed several times due to financial problems, until the situation finally improved with the involvement of a new investor, the Anglo-Austrian Bank.  The Košice–Kysak–Prešov section was completed first and put into operation on September 1, 1870.  Further sections followed in 1871, and the last section, Spišská Nová Ves – Kysak, was put into service on March 12, 1972. The entire line from Bohuním to Košice went into regular operation, with a single pair of mixed trains, on March 18, 1872.

On March 18, 2022, so 150 years later, Czech Republic and Slovakia celebrate this date with a souvenir sheet showing nicelly designed steam machines (twin issue with one stamp and two labels).  The background of the souvenir sheet shows an older map depicting the railway line.   

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton

by Richard Zimmermann

On January 5, 2022, the British Antarctic Territory, the Falkland Islands and the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands have issued a series of stamps in honor of Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton at the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death. Shackleton is well known for several Antarctica expeditions including an heroic behavior to save his team stuck in the ice. He died on January 5, 1922 at age 47 from a heart attack while starting a new Antarctic expedition and he is buried on the South Georgia Island. The twelve pictures used for these stamps are based on black and white or colorized photographs of Shackleton taken at different ages, with team, with ship or map, including also some pictures of his grave. This issue is considered as a territorial parallel issue [D/PD].

Adam Paish (UK) mentioned very recently that these three countries associated to Ascension, Bahamas and Tristan da Cunha will issue four stamps each and a souvenir sheet to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elisabeth II. Exact dates of issue are not known yet, but Bahamas seems to be the first and plans to issue stamps on March 17, 2022. This issue will be considered as an omnibus parallel issue [O/OP].

Moroccan and Serbian bridges

by Richard Zimmermann

Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Kingdom of Morocco were established on March 2, 1957. So, 65 years later, why not celebrating this anniversary with joint issue illustrated with bridges? The two architectural structures shown on the stamps represent the new Road-Railway Bridge over the Danube in Novi Sad, built in 2018 (474 m long and 31.60 m wide) and the cable-stayed Mohammed VI Bridge in Rabat, opened in 2016 (947 m long) which is the largest cable-stayed bridge in Africa, with the tallest concrete and steel viaduct in the world. The stamps were issued on March 1, 2022.

Unexpected UAE – India relationship issue

by Richard Zimmermann

Discovered by Don Birschel (USA) and confirmed by Kenneth Sequeira (Dubai), here is an unexpected joint issue linking the United Arab Emirates with India and released on February 18, 2022 at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of their relationship. Both countries offer a nice souvenir sheet with flags, but also governmental buildings. Actually, this souvenir sheet refers to the celebration of the Year 2022 of the 50th anniversary of the UAE’s formation and the 75th anniversary of the independence of India.

This was also the occasion to update Catalogue 15 – 2022-2024 V3.04.

Gibraltar – Israel 2022: finally

by Richard Zimmermann

This issue was expected to be released on February 26, 2022 and surprisingly came out two weeks earlier, on February 15, 2022. Uri Barlev (Israel) could confirm that Gibraltar and Israel released on the same day identical stamps showing interiors of churches. Stamps depict the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth and the Nefosut Yehuda Synagogue in Gibraltar. Mixed covers as well as the usual Israel mixed Souvenir Leaf became also available. We are still waiting for additional data from Gibraltar.

This Gibraltar – Israel joint issue eventually reaches the market after a first attempt made during the year 2011, more precisely for an issue planned to be released on June 27, 2011, when a first common design was proposed. In Israel, the stamps reached even the printing stage. Despite agreement from both countries, Gibraltar forgot to get in time approval of the design from the British Authorities. Not a recommendation, but a request came from the British Foreign Office to remove the illustration of the Jerusalem’s David Citadel and to substitute it with a landmark from Tel-Aviv. When this request came, it was too late, and the whole print run was destroyed while Gibraltar accepted to reimburse all costs. So, finally, ten years later, we can welcome a now politically acceptable Gibraltar – Israel joint issue. But why having waited so long ?

China – Mexico 2022 architecture

by Richard Zimmermann

At the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and the United States of Mexico, both countries have issued a set of two commemorative stamps on February 14, 2022. The first stamp represents the Star Observatory located in Gaocheng Town, Dengfeng City, Henan Province. It was founded in the early Yuan Dynasty by astronomer Guo Shoujing. It is the oldest existing and well-protected astronomical observatory in China. The second stamp represents the Kukulcan Pyramid located in the northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, the ancient city of Chichen Itza. Both sites were included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. 

The stamps have a design showing the buildings in the dark and are quite difficult to represent on the screen. In fact, with the Chinese stamps, the design is improved by combining the pictures with light effects. The text of the stamp “Star Observatory” is made of extra-bright silver ink, the background halo and stars use colorless white fluorescence to highlight the night scene effect. In the “Chichen Itza temple” stamp, the text is made of extra-bright gold ink, and the background light is colorless orange fluorescence, which highlights the radiant effect of the sun. Additionally, both stamps are perforated on both sides with special star- or sun-shaped holes.

200 years Colombia – Mexico relations

by Richard Zimmermann

On January 25, 2022, Colombia issued the stamps identical to those released on December 20, 2021 by Mexico to celebrate 200 years of relationship (1821-2021). This joint issue, first reported by Don Birschel (USA), became actually a concerted issue [C] for which not all information is available. Both countries issued a se-tenant pair of symmetrical design stamps showing the figure “200” and a stylized butterfly with the colors of the countries’ flags. While Mexico announced the issue of 50,000 pairs of stamps in panes of 25, the stamps of Colombia apparently produced in panes (size unknown) at 14,000 samples (probably 7,000 pairs), have been seen already in souvenir sheets of [1px2] and [1px3], but also in blocs of [2px2]. The Mexico stamp is self-adhesive. Additional information is needed here, but the catalogue (Volume 14) has already been updated with these first data.

Do joint coin issues exist ?

by Richard Zimmermann

This is an unusual question for a philatelist, but almost obvious for a numismatist with an answer that sounds yes. We are stamp collectors, with for most of us limited or even no interest for coins. Therefore, coin collectors will definitely be able to provide a better description of joint coin issues. Over the past 20 years, while looking for joint stamps, it happened that we encountered some surprising joint coin issues. We came to the idea that a page for this type of products should be opened in our catalogue, just to trigger the attention about the similarities with joint stamp issues. A first, absolutely not exhaustive list, with limited description, but including all illustrations, was made available as a new chapter at the end of Vol 1 of the catalogue. If some collectors answer to this mail by providing additional joint coin examples, we may consider extending the section. Actually, so far, less than a dozen of common issues have been found, but the search was not made in an extensive way and most of them were found per pure chance. Also, as it is not our core interest, this chapter may stay at this level for a long period. However, for the purpose of coherence, we already introduced the new category [K] (a letter staying obviously for ‘coins’). If this article triggered your attention, have also fun with this treasure search!

On the basis of this first short list, it became interesting to discover that with coins, we can encounter the same type of sub-categories as with stamps. Twin coins (same design, same date of issue) [TK] do exist, such as in 2005 with Australia and New Zealand (ANZAC) or in 1999 with the Marshall Islands and Zambia (Elephant). As exact issue dates are difficult to find (no first day cancellations 😉 ), Concerted coin issues [CK] have not been identified, but parallel coin issues (same date of issue, actually both countries’ coins sold together in a folder, but different designs) [PK] have been see for example recently (2021), involving Canada and UK. More surprisingly, we could create the sub-group of Unique issue; i.e., a coin used by two different countries with names of both countries on the same coin [UK] such as the Dubai – Qatar currency used between the years 1966 and 1973, while Se-tenant coins (coins split in two halves, each one for one country) [SK], have been seen with Kiribati and Samoa in 1997 or Poland and Ukraine in 2012.

You will find below some examples of joint coins, and we would like to welcome any information from numismatists who could help update our information level.

Failed opportunities

by Richard Zimmermann

The programme of new stamps from Belarus included a potential joint issue with China and another with Vietnam, both expected to be released during the month of January at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relationships. The Belarus stamps were issued respectively on January 12, 2022 and January 24, 2022, but there is absolutely no news from either China PR nor Vietnam for event-associated stamps. There are great chances that these issues will remain unilateral and that the entries will have to be removed from the list described in the catalogue (Vol 15). At least, here are the pictures of the Belarus stamps.

An other opportunity was mentioned by Cesar Ittman (The Netherlands). During the year 2022, France celebrates the 200th anniversary of the death of the famous author Moliere. France issued a first stamp on January 17, 2022, at the same time as Monaco, while Czech Republic issued a stamp on January 20, 2022. There is absolutely no claim from one of these countries for a joint issue. These are just stamps issued at the occasion of an anniversary and it would not be surprising to see much more other stamps released to honor Moliere during this year without any joint character.

The first true joint issue to be released this year is scheduled for February 14, 2022, not earlier. This is quite late compared to previous years.

Don Birschel (USA) explored older issues and asked about the relevance of some 2006 China-Africa Forum stamps as joint. Indeed, some of these stamps show the same design, but this is a logo and none of the countries have claimed a joint issue character. So again, this is an exemple of a non-approved joint issue. Here are the pictures of the stamps from countries that celebrated this event: Algeria (November 6, 2006), China (November 3), Egypt (November 5), Eritrea (November 3) and Ivory Coast (November 28).

Czechia – Slovakia – 150th train anniversary

by Richard Zimmermann

On March 18, 2022, a joint issue of stamps between Slovakia and the Czech Republic will be released on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the opening of the railway line between the cities of Košice (Slovakia) and Bohumín (Czechia). The document on the construction of the railway was published in 1864 in Vienna (during the Austro-Hungarian Rise). Construction began in 1869 and ended in 1872. Approximately 95% of the line runs through present-day Slovakia and 5% through Czechia.

Milan Csaplar (Slovakia) pointed to the first information published by the Slovakia postal administration which is also one of the rare postal entity providing designs of stamps much ahead of issue date. Slovakia will issue a souvenir sheet with one stamp representing a train and two labels. This souvenir sheet will be available at 50,000 units. There is little information available about the Czech stamps but the joint character is confirmed and it is confirmed that the Czech item will also be a souvenir sheet with one stamp and two labels.

Faroe Island – Greenland 2022

by Richard Zimmermann

The date of January 14, 2022 corresponds to the 50th anniversary of the death of King Frederick IX of Denmark and at the same time to the date of accession to the Danish throne of Queen Margrethe II. At the occasion of this Golden Jubilee, both Faroe and Greenland issue a souvenir sheet. The Faroe souvenir sheet shows the Queen in national Faroese costume in front of the ruins of Magnus Cathedral, while Greenland issues a souvenir sheet showing the Queen in Greenlandic costume in front of icebergs. Unfortunately none of the postal administrations claim these products being joint. Also, there is no common product available for sale (e.g. mixed FDC or mixed folder). Therefore these souvenir sheets cannot be considered as joint, but simply as a parallel anniversary issue [PA/N]. On top of this, the main country, Denmark, is not issuing stamps at this January 14, 2022 anniversary date and prefers concentrating on different products related to this jubilee released over the year, with the first one which became available already on January 3.

Iran – China 2021

by Richard Zimmermann

Kazem Alamdari (Iran) was able to provide information about and pictures of the Iranian stamps issued on December 11, 2021 jointly with China PR [T20211211]. The Iranian stamps were issued as se-tenant pairs with a printing run of 60,000 pairs.

This modification led to the change of version of Vol 14 (to V3.02). At the same time Vol 15 was also updated with the description of the first joint issue of the year (China – Macau Tiger year issue).