Author: Richard Zimmermann

Independence, kingdom and doves

by Richard Zimmermann

New information about joint stamp issues was gathered over the past weeks:

Sudan is a country to be added to the joint issue already involving Algeria, Egypt and Tunesia, celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Arab League (1945-2025) and that is described under [T20250522]. The exact date of issue of the Sudanese stamp is unknown, but probably the same as for the other countries, namely May 22, 2025 (information provided by Kenneth Sequeira, Singapore).

Same additional information regarding the AICEP issue from May 13, 2025: Guinea-Bissau is also a country to be added to Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Macau and Portugal that have issued identical stamps at the same date. Guinea-Bissau issued one stamp in miniature sheets of 8 stamps [3×3] with central label and a souvenir sheet with a single stamp. We are still waiting for information about stamps from Mozambique, Sao Tome Principe and Timor.

On May 23, 2025, the 1100th anniversary of the Kingdom of Croatia and the coronation of King Tomislav was celebrated by the issue of identical stamps involving Bosnia Herzegovina (Mostar) and Croatia. This twin issue shows a bas-relief of the King Tomislav holding a scepter. BH Mostar issued the stamps in miniature sheets of 8 units ([3×3] including a central label) at only 5,000 samples, while Croatia issued 50,000 stamps in panes of 25 stamps and 5 labels [5×6].

The Dove of Peace project is progressing. Around September 20, 2025, ten to twelve European countries will issue an identical embroidered stamp with an equivalent denomination of about 10 Euros. Confirmation of participation is reported from Aland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Faroe Islands and Greenland. These countries are all part of the SEPAC (Small European Postal Administration Cooperation – https://www.sepacstamps.eu/) which every year since 2007, issues by end of the Summer, a series of stamps with a common topic. If this embroided stamp corresponds to the 2025 SEPAC issue, this will be the first time that the SEPAC countries agree on a twin issue. Other countries including Gibraltar, Iceland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Malta, Monaco or Vatican City could in this case also participate. Over the past year, there was always at least one country not participating, so there is no guarantee that all twelve countries will be involved. However, Austria and Armenia have also already announced their participation, so, in the best case it could become an extended SEPAC issue (without mention of the SEPAC word on the stamp). We also have to wait to complete the information about this new series (information provided by Jaap Sarelse, the Netherlands).

The 50 years of independence of Cape Verde was celebrated commonly with Portugal on July 5, 2025, with the issue of two identical stamps. Only limited information is available so far from Cape Verde. The 50th anniversary of the independence of Angola will be celebrated on November 11, 2025 which could also result in an Angola – Portugal joint issue on that day.

Finally, we would like to thank Sherman Nassif (USA) for a financial donation that will help cover part of the web site fees.

All the above information was integrated in the catalogue Vol 16.

June 2025 news

by Richard Zimmermann

Complementary information came from diverse collectors over the past three weeks. They are reported here, without any sense of priority.

Wayne Chen (USA) came across a vast number of se-tenant sheets fabricated and sold by Stampera. The full list is available through the companies’ site using the search tool and the word ‘siamese’ (reminder: in the joint issues definition, this word has to be replaced by ‘se-tenant’) https://stampera.eu/stamps?search=Siamese&page=1. As mentioned several times in the past in these pages, products released by this company are true stamps, but produced only for collectors in small amounts, without topic related to the country, and at a very high number of sub-types (souvenir sheets, miniature sheets, perforated and not) also with very high denomination. They are not called cinderellas, just because they show a denomination. A collector who wants to buy the complete set of these ‘se-tenant’ products (35 different products have been identified so far) will have to spend at least € 1,900 (souvenir sheets, perforated and non-perforated, both mint or FDC, without taking in account individual isolated stamps). All these products are simply made to fool collectors and cannot be approved as true joint issue. With the new printing technologies, they are also suspected to be printed upon demand only, i.e., sheet by sheet, so there is no limitation in terms of printing runs. In this case, they will not be reported in the catalogue, but we wanted to bring this information to your attention.

All described products have been printed by associating in a same miniature sheet, stamps from up to 6 different countries, available normally in panes. Some examples are provided below.

Robert Schrijvers (Mongolia) talked with Mongol Post about the potential joint issue between India and Mongolia intended to celebrate the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations (December 1955 ?). These relations were initiated on December 24, 1955. Robert has seen the Mongolian version, but was not allowed to take a picture. It depicts Mongolian (biyelgee) and Indian dances. Decision to release and date of issue are pending upon Indian Post agreement.  

Milan Csaplár (Slovakia) provided the design of the joint issue to be released in August 2025, by the Slovak Post and the Luxembourg Post, which is dedicated to King Sigismund of Luxembourg (640 years of the crowning of Sigmund of Luxembourg in Hungary).

Ali Allawati (Oman) points to an error in the catalogue regarding the image of the Oman stamp from the Oman–Singapore joint issue [T20250221]. This mistake appears in both the blog and the catalogue.
The image of the stamp currently shown is taken from the souvenir sheet, which does not display a denomination. The actual stamp is priced at 500 Baisa. The stamp on the souvenir sheet does not display a price. The souvenir sheet price can be seen in the bottom left corner of the souvenir sheet. Below, in the reproduction, you can see the differences between the two stamps, the second one taken from the souvenir sheet, next to the complete souvenir sheet with denomination in the margin. This mistake was corrected in the catalogue. Thanks Ali. 

Ali provided additionally, a corrected version of the image used for the Oman–Iran joint issue from May 27, 2025. In the previous blog page, the illustration contains an error at the level of the title at bottom right, in which ‘Grand’ was mistakenly spelled ‘Ground’. This is corrected in the final version and to our knowledge, no stamp with the mistake was released. Both souvenir sheets (design left with mistake and final, corrected, right) are reproduced below.  We are still missing information from Iran.

On the other hand, we are also waiting information about the Oman – Russia joint issue announced in the press for a release on April 22, 2025.

Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore) found the design of the next Peru –Türkiye joint issue to be released in the second half of 2025, to commemorate the 75 years of relationship. No idea if both stamps will show the same design.

The issues involving Bosnia Herzegovina (Croatia) and Bosnia Herzegovina (Serbia) commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Herzegovina uprising, translated in two different stamps, issued at two different dates respectively June 15 and June 19, 2025, but above all, without any joint character, i.e. not claimed as joint by the two postal authorities. These stamps are to be considered as a simple anniversary commemoration, around the same date, and will not be included in the catalogue.

The catalogues Vol 1 and Vol 16 have been updated accordingly.

AICEP, UPU and dolls

by Richard Zimmermann

Upon a proposal from Portugal, the five lusophone countries Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Macau and Portugal came together to celebrate with a twin issue the 35th anniversary of AICEP (Associação Internacional das Communicaçóes de Expressão Portuguesa – International Association of Portuguese Expression Communications). Stamps with the same design were all released on May 13, 2025, during the XXXII AICEP forum.

This AICEP anniversary issue could include the other countries members of the association, namely Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe and Timor, but so far no information is available from these countries (images provided by Enzo Cafaro, Italy and Kenneth Sequeira, Singapore – Image from Angola is still missing, although participation is confirmed).

In the previous blog page, we described souvenir sheets released on April 25, 2025 by Belarus and Russia to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). Kenneth Sequeira, Singapore, reported stamps issued by Kazakhstan and Mongolia at the same occasion. The Kazakhstan souvenir sheet including a round stamp was issued also at the same date of April 25, 2025 and must be added to the previous countries. This souvenir sheet, printed only at 2,500 samples, became also available with a “PCC/RSS” overprint (Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communication) within the stamp, not related to this joint issue. Mongolia produced a completely different stamp in sheetlets of 4 [2×2] released on April 30, 2025. It is not clear if this fourth country participated to a joint effort with the three other countries, and for the time being these stamps will only be described as a footnote in the same entry.

Enzo Cafaro, Italy, was able to provide the preliminary sketches of the joint issue between the Russian Federation and the Dominican Republic planned for July 17, 2025. The final design may still change slightly but illustrations show that it will be almost identical for both countries.

Some surprising self-named joint issues appeared over the past months. The first one is related to the 90th anniversary of the relationship between Egypt and Switzerland. Egypt issued a stamp, but nothing was produced on the Swiss side. This Egyptian stamp will definitely remain an unilateral issue.

Also, Cambodia and Cyprus revealed by mid May (19 or 20) a so-called joint issue commemorating the 25th anniversary of their relationship. This information appeared on a UPU Facebook blog page (confirming a kind of postal commemoration), but the design that is shown looks like a stamp only through the perforations: there is no identified single country mentionned on the stamp, nor a denomination. As additional information from both countries is missing, it may be possible that this picture is just the symbolic design of the anniversary framed with perforations, and not a stamp, or at least not the final design. More information is needed here.

Ali Allawati, Oman, provided information from his country: next to the recently issued joint issue between Oman and Singapore reported under T20250221, Ali describes first an Iran-Oman issue (see illustration below), announced on May 27, 2025, issued in honour of the official Visit of His Excellency Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to the Sultanate of Oman. The Oman stamp is not yet available for purchase, and information is missing from the Iranian side.

On April 22, 2025, Oman Post had also annnounced the issuance of a joint stamp celebrating the enduring relations between the Russian Federation and Oman, coinciding with the state visit of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik to Russia. At this stage this is the only information available.

To the already very large October 9, 2024 UPU joint issue, one has also to add Aruba as a new country, which released a souvenir sheet containing a triangular shaped stamp, showing the UPU 150th anniversary logo in the margin. The souvenir sheet was issued on October 9, 2024, but was discovered only recently.

For those interested in the 2025 Europa stamps, this is the status of the issuing programme. The stamps with common topic National archeological discoveries (which topic was postponed to 2025 from originally 2024), were issued with a date centered around May 9, 2025. This year, these stamps are not considered as joint and will be reported under a simple list entitled [N20250509]. In the following list, empty bracket represent countries that announced their participation but from which data and in particular issue date are still missing, while absence of date means that those stamps were issued on May 9, 2025: Aland – Albania () – Andorra (French) (May 11) – Andorra (Spanish) – Armenia (April 29) – Artsakh (Armenia) () – Austria (May 1) – Azerbaijan (May 5) – Azores – Belgium (April 7) – Bosnia Herzegovina – Bosnia Herzegovina (Croatia) (April 5) – Bosnia Herzegovina (Serbia) (April 24) – Bulgaria – Croatia – Cyprus – Cyprus (Turkish) (May 8) – Czech Republic (May 7) – Denmark (May 28) – Estonia – Faroe (May 26) – Finland (May 7) – France – Georgia – Germany (May 8) – Gibraltar (May 8) – Greece (May 7) – Greenland (May 26) – Guernsey (May 1) – Hungary – Ireland (May 8) – Isle of Man (April 8) – Italy – Jersey (May 5) – Kazakhstan () – Latvia – Liechtenstein (April 1) – Lithuania (April 25) – Luxembourg (May 6) – Macedonia (North) (May 7) – Madeira – Malta – Moldova (April 11) – Monaco – Montenegro – Netherlands – Norway (April 24) – Poland (April 28) – Portugal – Romania (April 29) – San Marino (February 11) – Serbia (May 6) – Slovakia (April 30) – Slovenia – Spain – Sweden (April 24) – Switzerland (May 8) – Türkiye (Turkey) – Ukraine (August) – Vatican (May 27)

Eventually, we learned also that a new crypto-stamp joint issue involving Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal. Details will be known during the summer.

Train, medals and cows

by Richard Zimmermann

Belarus and Russia finally released the stamps celebrating the “Memory train cultural and educational project”. This issue that was announced several times with date of issue that changed from May 6 to April 17, 2025. Finally stamps became available on April 18, 2025. The identical stamps represent the train and are produced in miniature sheets of 12 [3×4] for Russia and miniature sheets of 6 [2×3] for Belarus.

‘The Memory Train is a Russian-Belarusian cultural and educational project aimed at uniting young people from different countries, forming a respectful attitude and understanding of the significance of the heroic feats of previous generations, and introducing them to the culture and traditions of neighboring countries. Participants of the Memory Train set off on a journey along a route that includes visits to hero cities, memorial complexes, museums, places of military glory and other memorable places. The Memory Train helps to preserve the connection between generations, passing the baton of memory from veterans to young people who will become the guardians of this history in the future’.

The second Belarus-Russia joint issue of April 25, 2025 is dedicated to the ‘80th Anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War’. Both souvenir sheets have a completely different design. Russia has also released the souvenir sheet in a numbered embossed version (Jaap Sarelse, the Netherlands).

On May 7, 2025, Liechtenstein and Switzerland issued a series of new crypto stamps as a joint issue (information provided by Jaap Sarelse, the Netherlands). The stamps of both countries are different but form a continuous image when placed next to each other. They represent landscapes of both countries with half a cow head each. The cow is available in 6 colors, green issued at 7,500 samples in each country among which 2,500 were used in combined mixed FDCs, blue at 3,250 samples (with 1,250 for FDCs), yellow 1,250 (250 FDCs), orange 300 (100 FDCs), pink 150 (30 in FDCs) and rainbow issued at 50 samples in each country among which 10 were taken to create mixed FDCs. Digitally, from the QR code, both stamps can later be combined into a whole that results in a moving cow on the screen. Sales prices are also proportional to the scarcity: while the official denomination is CHF 8.50 for all items, miniature sheets with green cows are sold at CHF 9.90 (about 10.60 €), blue at € 29, yellow at € 99, orange at € 199, pink at € 299 and rainbow at € 499. Mixed FDCs with the same color cows are sold between €29 for the green pair and €1,999 for the rainbow pair. A full series of mint stamps would amount to about € 2,000, and the full series of mixed FDCs would reach about € 4,200, but this is already impossible to complete as only green, blue and yellow stamps remain available for purchase, consequence of the very low printing runs.

These stamps will be reported in the catalogue for the completeness of information, but the high prices and the low levels of production exclude them from being considered as ‘normal’ items for collection, like for all previous crypto stamps issued so far. We do not recommend to buy them as they have been produced mainly for speculation purpose. They are more to be considered for coin/currency collectors than for stamp collectors, also as they will never be found on a mail that will have really circulated (for which they are normally intended). The fact that at the time of writing, all 7,500 samples of the green cow stamps have not been sold, demonstrates clearly the absence of interest of philatelists for these products which eventually should not be labelled as ‘stamps’.

Just as a reminder: one can find on the net a mixed cover with Panama (April 3, 2024) and Vatican (May 21, 2024) stamps that is presented as a mixed joint issue. While being a nice joint cover, the stamps on this item have not been accepted as joint issue and are filed under ‘non-accepted issue’ [N20240403] in the catalogue.

Enzo Cafaro (Italy) could confirm that the Argentina – Qatar issue is joint on the basis of an identical stamps., Argentina had issued its stamp on January 31, 2025 and Qatar released a souvenir sheet with one stamp on May 7, 2025. The issue is to be considered as Concerted and described in the catalogue under [C20250131].

If you are looking for updated information from India, our friend Rakhel Dash holds a blog “Indian Philately Watch – April 2025 Highlights – The Philatelist” that provides information about the latest issues from this country.

Eventually, the Philippines conterpart of the Moroccan joint issue fron April 10, 2025, was also discovered. The quality of this first image is not as good as expected, but at least it confirms that the issue can be considered as twin (or concerted, as the date of issue of the Philippines stamps needs to be confirmed). The Philippines stamps were issued as se-tenant pairs available in a miniature sheet containing two pairs. Any additional information about this pair of Philippines stamps is welcome.

A China PR – Indonesia 75th anniversary of relationship commemorative joint issue whad been announced to be issued during April 2025. The Indonesia souvenir sheet was released, but, by beginning of May 2025, China had not announced anything in relation with Indonesia. Taking in account the shape and type of the Indonesian product, there are great chances that this will not translate in a real joint issue on the Chinese side. In the meantime, here is already the picture of the Indonesian souvenir sheet that was recently released.

All the above information has been integrated in the updated version Vol XVI V6.03 of the catalogue.

April 2025 update

by Richard Zimmermann

On April 7, 2025, Portugal and India issued, as planned, a souvenir sheet each, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the re-establishment of their diplomatic relationship. The two common stamps feature the traditional costume from Viana do Castelo, Portugal, and the Kalbelia dance costumes, India (information first provided by Kenneth Sequeira, Singapore and Souvik Ghatak, India).

On April 10, 2025, Morocco issued a pair of stamps representing airports (Mectan – Cebu and Menara – Marrakech) and celebrating 50 years of relationship with the Philippines. So far, information from the Philippines is not available, although the stamps of this country have been announced, and taking in account the structure of the Moroccan issue, it could become a twin or concerted issue.

Med Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria) provided complementary information about the Arab League 80th Anniversary stamps. The Egyptian issue is not a stamp in pane, but a souvenir sheet, size 120×85 mm, issued on March 22, 2025, at 7,000 samples only among which 700 were used to prepare first day covers. The denomination is 20 Egyptian Pounds. In the meantime, no information about an additional country participating to this issue became available.

Tolga Caglayankaya (The Netherlands) provided information about a new 150th UPU Anniversary country srtamp (T20241009). South Sudan issued two stamps and one souvenir sheet containing these two stamps, displaying the basic design. Apparently only 500 samples of the souvenir sheet were printed. The exact date of issue seems to be March 27, 2025.

Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) reported also about a stamp issued by Nigeria on October 10, 2024 but bearing the design of the October 9, 2022, World Post day issue. This stamp has of course been added to the T20221009 series.

Arab League 80th anniversary

by Richard Zimmermann

The Arab League was formed in Cairo on March 22, 1945, and at the occasion of the 80th anniversary, the General Secretariat proposed a joint stamp issue based on a common design. Three countries, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia issued a stamp on March 22, 2025. The design shows the logo of the League, a large figure “80” and the building of the headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

The League was initially formed with seven members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and North Yemen. Currently, the League has 22 members, i.e., Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, which all of them could theoretically participate to this joint issue. Information from the other 19 countries is awaited, not necessarily with a date of issue of March 22, 2025. Thanks to Med Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria) and Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore) who provided the first information and pictures related to this issue.

March 2025 update

by Richard Zimmermann

Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore) provided the first illustrations of the stamps and miniature sheets issued by the Sultanate of Oman and the Republic of Singapore celebrating their relationship established on February 21, 1985. The stamp features Muscat Street in Singapore’s Kampong Glam district, reflecting both Singapore’s heritage and its connection with Oman, through architecture and wall paintings. The stamps and souvenir sheets were released on February 21, 2025.

In the meantime, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania issued similar stamps related to the integration of the Baltic States to the European electricity network. These countries disconnected their electricity grids from the old Soviet-era system (BRELL), which linked them to Russia and Belarus, and synchronized it with the European grid (ENTSO-E) on February 9, 2025. The project involved building new infrastructure, upgrading power lines, and installing synchronous condensers to stabilize the grid. The stamps were issued on March 7, 2025. The three stamps are not identical, but very similar, created by the same designer and considered as twin stamps of type [T3].

Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore) provided a series of information about new issues to be released during the year 2025. In particular, Indonesia made a series of announcements of joint issues related to diplomatic relationship with Russia (February, 2025), China PR (April), Serbia (August), and Bosnia Herzegovina (September or October 3). Knowing the broad definition by Indonesian post for joint issue, we will have to wait for announcements and even release of stamps from the partner countries before confirming existence of these issues. In particular, we are already missing information about the supposed to be released February issue with Russia (no information in the Russian philatelic program).

A Portugal – India diplomatic relations joint issue was also announced to be released on April 7, 2025. On the other hand, the long awaited UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage joint issue between Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan, telling tradition of Nasreddin Hodja anecdotes, is finally cancelled, without explanations. By beginning of March 2025, the 50th anniversary of the women’s day was also celebrated. Some countries (Algeria, China, Malaysia, Thailand, …) issued stamps at this occasion and others will probably do, but there is no joint character with all these stamps.

We are still missing information about Qatar stamps that could have been issued since January 31, 2025 in association with the (announced as joint issue) stamp from Argentina. Any help is welcome.

The Volume XVI of the catalogue has been updated accordingly.

Access to archive pages

by Richard Zimmermann

Following the creation of this blog providing on-line access to the updated Catalogue 2022+, the original web pages http://www.philarz.net became obsolete. Over time, this old web site which is not supported/updated anymore is bound to disappear. For collectors interested in understanding the origin of the information dispatched in the catalogue, a special page displaying the blog pages and the document produced over the 25 years prior to the availability of the 2022+ catalogue was created. This new section called Archives (original site) is divided in five parts:

  • The Catalogue Quarterly Reports, complement to the 1998 Catalogue of Joint Stamp Issues (Volume 1 to 15) published on a quarterly basis between 1999 and 2001, (these leaflets were never available on line before and are reproduced here in color, whenever possible)
  • The Quarterly Reports (Volume 16 to 39), only in English, improvement of the Complement, published between 2002 and 2006
  • The 2006 Catalogue of Joint issues (English) – 500 samples were printed (a few remain available if interested)
  • The Catalogue Supplements published on a yearly basis between 2007 and 2022 (English) until the 2022 Catalogue became available on line
  • The pages of information from the first web site (http://www.philarz.net) that were filed in the News Archives. These pages were updated regularly between 2010 and 2020 (English) and archived in Quarterly pages.

From 2022 on, the new catalogue became available, associated to this new web pages and blog. In total, this new section provides access to additional 3,300+ archive pages. The interest is mainly to get access to the history of the creation of some joint issues, to some monographs, to some specific articles and to some images in particular first day cancellations or non-approved joint issues. Of course, this is also the first time that the 2006 catalogue is on line.

Have a nice time exploring these older pages.

In parallel, another chapter was opened providing access to a maximum of dedicated articles that were published over the past 30 years. The list is obviously not complete, but additions are welcome. The articles are provided as pdf copies and in their original language (no translation is provided at this stage). So far, 22 articles have been posted representing 83 published pages to read. The list does not include the stamp description leaflets (notices, leaflets, press releases, …) issued by individual postal administrations.

Have a nice time exploring these Publication pages.

New discovery from 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

To our great surprise, George Adi reported a joint issue that was not described so far and dated back 2023. At the occasion of the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relationship, Türkiye (Turkey) and Qatar issued the same stamp representing the figure “50” and a logo (flower and sand rose). The Turkish stamp was released on September 27, 2023, while the Qatari stamp became available on November 5, 2023. Both stamps were released in form of same shape miniature sheets containing five stamps [(2×2)+1]. This new issue will be described in the catalogue under the entry code [C20230927]. Congratulations and thanks a lot, George.

It is quite difficult to find information from Qatar. On January 31, 2025, Argentina released also a stamp celebrating the 50 years of relationship with Qatar. This Argentina stamp could be one half of a joint issue, but information from Qatar is missing. Any help here is welcome. In the meantime, you will find below the picture of the Argentinian stamp. It may be possible that the Qatari stamp will be released only in a couple of months from now.

India – Israel, eventually

by Richard Zimmermann

The Holi (India) and Purim (Israel) Festivals’ stamps involving India and Israel were originally scheduled to be released on February 13, 2024, but India was not ready to participate at that time. The new date of May 7, 2024 was set as second possibility, but the Indian stamp was still not released and the Israel sheetlet remained an unilateral issue, described as such in the catalogue under the entry [N20240507]. Surprisingly, on this February 11, 2025, we learned from several sources (Souvik Ghatak, India; Kenneth Sequeira, Singapore; Dov Lask, Israel – thanks to all of them) that finally, the two souvenir sheets became available, proven through first day covers bearing both the same issue date of February 11, 2025. The Israel souvenir sheet described so far was printed and ready since February 2024. It appeared on different blogs, but was not available for sale. No Israel cancelled cover dated before February 2025 has been seen so far, and therefore this new date of February 11, 2025 becomes the official day of first issue, leading this issue to be identified as Twin. Obviously, this issue deserves now a full description in the catalogue under the entry [T20250211].

Gorizia and Nova Gorica

by Richard Zimmermann

This is a long time announced joint issue, postponed several times, but only recently proven to be part of a twin issue, when the Italian stamps’ designs became available. The stamps involving Slovenia and Italy were originally planned to be issued on April 28, 2024, then postponed to January 25, 2025, before finally being issued on February 6, 2025.

Nova Gorica is a town in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy, created through the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty that established a new border between Yugoslavia and Italy, leaving nearby Gorizia outside the borders of Yugoslavia. Hence, Gorizia is the older part of the city, located now in Italy. Both cities have been designed Capital City of the Culture 2025, celebrated by this joint issue. Both countries have issued a souvenir sheet with two stamps showing each one city with, for Gorizia, an aerial view of the Castle, a fortification dating back to the 9th century, built on the hill overlooking the city, and, for Nova Gorica, the facade of the Palazzo della Stazione, the oldest public building in the city that stands out on Piazza Europa, built in 1906 for military purposes on the Vienna-Trieste railway line.

Catalogue 2025 updated

by Richard Zimmermann

The new catalogue of Joint Stamp Issues 2025 is now on line with the section of the stamps issued during the year 2024 fully updated. In order to keep an average of about 100-130 pages per volume facilitating a quick downloading, the year 2024 needed to be separared from the 2022-2023 period (Volume XV) and a new volume numbered XVI, containing years 2024-2025 was created.

This new updated catalogue, the 2025 version in 16 volumes, has now reached 1,900 pages. It contains over 2,280 entries among which more than 1,580 can be considered as true joint issues (unique, se-tenant, twin, concerted or parallel). It describes in total more than 16,100 items, and it is illustrated with above 8,900 pictures, providing also more than 35,100 quotations. This upgrade allowed also to make a comparison of the evolution of the number of issues of joint stamps for statistical purpose, which leads to a graph looking as follow:

It appears that after a strong progression over the years 1980-2010, the number of new yearly issues reached a kind of plateau over the past 15 years, with an average of 40 issues per year. The progression affected only the twin joint issues while the number of parallel/concerted issues remained stable over the past 50 years. However, the number of different products for each issue such as additional souvenir sheets, booklets, miniature sheets or mixed cancelled products, or the number of total stamps per issue did progress as well. In parallel, we have also to observe that the number of abusive joint issues (issues involving a high number of countries not fully controlled by the local postal administrations, but printed centrally) has increased. We will still continue to identify those issues separately, and even if we continue to have them described in the catalogue for the sake of completeness (gray color and italics characters), it will remain up to the individual collectors to decide if they want to include and purchase them. Typically, these stamps will not gain value over time, will be difficult to resell and are usually not accepted in exhibitions.

Joint issues are a mirror of the political state of the world. The increasing number of conflict situations is not in favor of a progression of the number of joint issues. Several planned issues were cancelled during the past five years, due to political concerns. My wish for the next year(s) is to be able to report soon a first joint issue e.g., involving Israel and Iran, North and South Korea or Ukraine and Russia, which would become the best sign of a progression toward world peace.

Among the major improvements, note that at least 25 new items describing mixed FDCs have been added over the period 2021-2024. We own a huge thank to Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) for his great work and time spent over the past 30 years in providing this information, finding the items and even trying to create such mixed products whenever possible. The existence of mixed first day cancelled products remains the ultimate proof of the joint character as both postal administrations must have agreed for the production and existence of such items.

On top of the additions of new 2024 issues described in previous blog pages, one has to note the following:

On September 14, 2024, Bangladesh re-issued an older stamp from 2001 with a handstamp “DHAKAPEX”. This issue is now described in the catalogue under the original stamp heading [T20011009] together with all the other stamps of the same series. This gave the opportunity also to update the texts and images of these stamps in the catalogue as this entry was only partially illustrated. As much as 75 new images over three pages were introduced to illustrate this entry.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is celebrating during the year 2025, its 160th anniversary. The UPU did send on October 28, 2024 a circular to all its members, asking that if they want to commemorate this anniversary, they can use the new logo of the event. The way this letter is presented clearly shows that this is not a call for a joint issue. So, at this stage and in absence of further notice, stamps that will be produced during the year 2025 and bearing the below logo will not be considered as joint, as they are simply commemorative stamps based on individual initiatives.

On the contrary, the design of the 2026 PostEurop stamps to be issued at the occasion of the 70th anniversary of PostEurop, was released by beginning of January 2025. A common stamp will be used at this occasion, based on a contest that a Finnish group did win.

One has also to note a small modification regarding the December 20, 2021 issue involving Colombia and Mexico. The Mexican stamps were issued on December 20, 2021, but the Colombian stamp became only available on January 25, 2022. However, it appears that the Colombian FDC and the mixed FDC are still cancelled from December 20, 2021. This issue which was initailly considered as a Concerted one under the heading number C20211220 is now reported as the twin issue T20211220.

The same modification affected the stamps issued on October 16, 2023, involving Vietnam and India. Small amounts of Vietnam stamps became available at one post office at the original day of issue (April 28, 2023), but stamps were retrieved after sale of the first batch of 4,000 units. India announced three times the release of their stamps until they became eventually available on October 16, 2023. These delays led to consider initially this series as Concerted. However, the mixed FDC of this issue is cancelled with dates from October 16, 2023 for both countries and therefore these stamps are filed as twin [T20231016]. Covers with Vietnamese stamps cancelled before October 16, 2023 are rarities.