Author: Richard Zimmermann

UPU 150th anniversary: a first update

by Richard Zimmermann

As anticipated, the list of stamps issued at the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union and described in an earlier page was not complete. Very quickly after publication, several collectors provided additional information. Here I have to thank Ali Ahmed Med Achour (Algeria), Enzo Cafaro (Italy), and Tolga Caglayankaya (Netherlands) for some of these additional data.

This complementary list is divided using the same structure as the one provided earlier:

Countries of Type A (Twin [T1], same date, same design), additional countries: Cambodia – Guatemala – Kazakhstan (October 15) – Libya – Nigeria.

Also we have to report an additional product for Indonesia (souvenir sheet, illustration above). Already reported Ukrainian stamps available so far are provided in form of either isolated stamps or miniature sheets of 5 stamps made of a top part with the design and a label with the letter “U” which stands in place of the denomination. In these products, this letter “U” is located on the left side. It appears that in some FDCs, the label bears the letter “U” on the right side. FDCs with left-side positionned letter “U” do exist as well. Mint stamps or miniature sheets with “U” on the right side have not been seen so far. In fact, these Ukrainian products are from private production (personalized stamps), but approved by Ukrainian Post. Also, looking closer to the background of the illustrated part of each stamp, it appears that the miniature sheet shows 6 different designs background, which are different from the stamps in panes or used on FDCs.

New country of Type B (Concerted [C1], different dates, same design): Malta (October 31)

In this series it was also discovered that Mali stamps produced with denomination 200F and 1000F, do exist as miniature sheets of 6 and panes of 20 (French language), also as a postal card, but the 1000F value became also available in 5 additional languages in panes, in souvenir sheet of 6 different stamps, with two different formats ([2×3] and [3×2]), perforated or imperforated. This is obviously expensive material to fool collectors (even if reported as ‘official’, they will never reach postal offices) and as such, they will be reported in italic characters in the catalogue with the mention ‘not recommended to buy’. Just as an additional note, the denomination of 1000 Malian Francs (FCFA) is equivalent today to about € 1.50. Right now, as these stamps are still supposed to be available from the Malian post office (if true), one should not pay more than twice this amount. Otherwise, the terms of “official” or “proof” are just artificial and shortage/rarity is organized by the printer.

New countries of Type C (modified design – only logo [T2], [C2]): Botswana (September 29) – Iraq – Liechtenstein – Netherlands. The information about Liechtenstein and Netherlands stamps is still uncomplete. It seems that these stamps were produced last minute and they are not described with details in the official channel).

Regarding Botswana, the country issued on September 29, 2024 four different zebra stamps in panes and together in a miniature sheet with the four stamps. A fifth stamp became available as part of a souvenir sheet with the UPU logo in the margin. Only this souvenir sheet can be considered as being part of the joint issue.

New country of Type D (different design, but same date [P1]): Seychelles

New country of Type E (different design, different date [N]): Poland (1 stamp, October 30, 2024)

This is a first update, because it is quite clear that more stamps related to this anniversary will be released (or simply discovered), probably even during the year 2025.

Endurance and Churchill

by Richard Zimmermann

The ‘Discovery of Endurance’ stamps were slated for release on March 23, 2023, but the release was cancelled without explanations. Adam Paish (UK) informed us that finally these stamps were issued on November 5, 2024: the Falkland Islands Post Office in Stanley has placed the British Antarctic Territory, Falkland Islands and South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands stamps and souvenir sheets on sale (see earlier description). 

For some inexplicable reason, the copyright holders of the images on which the designs are based would not allow any information about their release to be disseminated prior to the day of issue. The Heritage Trust holding the image rights is the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust. Its ‘Endurance22’ expedition, which successfully located Shackleton’s vessel, has licensing agreements with National Geographic (which is now controlled by the Disney organisation), as well as contractual arrangements with other media organisations. So, copyright issues remained until the stamps were finally recently released. All first day covers of this issue are dated from November 5, 2024. As a consequence, these stamps were reintroduced in the catalogue under the heading [D20241105].

Adam Paish (UK) reported also information about the Sir Winston Churchill (born on November 30, 1874) 150th birthday stamps to be released in November and December 2024. These include a United Kingdom (Royal Mail) issue on November 30, 2024. Territorial issues have been announced for the Falkland Islands (issue date: November 27, 2024), Tristan da Cunha (issue date: December 11, 2024) and Ascension Island (issue date: December 16, 2024), although the latter is in a different format. New stamp issues of all three postal administrations are coordinated by the same sales, marketing and distribution arm of Isle Of Man Stamps & Collectables, which took over operations from Pobjoy Mint (Falkland stamps) following its closure in late 2023. It may be possible that almost all Commonwealth countries may celebrate this anniversary, but unfortunately, even these first stamps cannot be considered as joint (different design, different dates). Let us see first what other countries will have to offer, before closing definitely this chapter.

Latest October 2024

by Richard Zimmermann

Eventually, the catalogue has been updated. The UPU anniversary stamps represented a lot of work and several new pages in the catalogue, even if not yet complete. Both catalogue volumes V01 and V15 were updated also with the additional information described below.

On October 21, 2024, a new joint crypto stamp series was issued involving Austria, Belgium (first Belgian crypto stamp), Luxemburg and the Netherlands, with topic dragon (2024 is Chinese year of the dragon). As representations of the dragons are different from one country to another, this issue is considered as parallel [P20241021]. Details about printing runs and colors of subtypes are provided in the catalogue. However, as for all crypto stamps, we continue to believe that these products are not real stamps (i.e. never used on mail) and closer to coins than to stamps, also with some good reasons to think they are products to fool collectors, we do not recommend to buy, except if you are an expert of crypto stamps and crypto money. Up to you to decide.

From Don Birschel (USA) who mentionned stamps issued at the occasion of the Vatican City – Panama 100 years of relationship. With Panama stamps issued on April 3, 2024 and Vatican stamp on May 21, 2024, also with different designs, they, unfortunately, cannot be considered as joint.

UPU 150th anniversary

by Richard Zimmermann

The Universal Postal Union (UPU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It comprises 192 member states and is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland. It was established on October 9, 1874, exactly 150 years ago.

Since more than one year, we know that this anniversary will be celebrated with a stamp which common design was proposed by UPU. In the past, the 75th (1949) UPU anniversary was celebrated, but in a non-coordinated way, mainly by colonial entities (British, Dutch and French – D19490704, D19491001, D19491010, D19491018) and the 100th (1974) anniversary with stamps that remained different for all participating countries (N19741009). The same situation happened in 1999, with absence of concertation for the 125th anniversary celebration (N19991009). Eventually, so far, only the 145th anniversary in 2019 (T20191009b) could be considered as a Twin issue.

During this year of 2024, a very large number of countries are participating. In the strict sense, this has to be considered as a true joint issue, even if there was no real cooperation between countries, but a proposal of a design accepted by most of them and translated in a locally adapted stamp, for a large part of them issued at the anniversary date. It is not an Omnibus series, as Omnibus is defined by a central printing, not by the large number of participating countries. The 2024 stamps will be reported in the catalogue as a Twin issue under [T20241009]. It is easily understandable that some joint issues collectors do not integrate such large series in their collection, in the same way Europa-CEPT stamps are not acceptable for them. Each individual collector has to decide on the basis of the following.

In the catalogue, the countries will be divided in subgroups:

  • A: the countries which take the exact original design proposed by UPU and issue the stamp(s) on October 9, 2024 (or actually around this date, plus or minus a week, roughly between October 1 and October 17, 2024), according to the definition of a twin issue [T]
  • B: the countries which take the exact original design but issue the stamp at a different date. It should not be surprising if some countries may issue their stamp in 2025 or even 2026. This is the equivalent of a Concerted issue [C]
  • C: the countries which use only a part of the design, actually integrating only the “150” logo and add some other illustrations. This logo can appear within the stamp, or on the margin of a souvenir sheet or within a label. Those stamps are also considered as twin or concerted issues of Type [T2] or [C2]
  • D: the countries which use a completely different design, but still issue their stamp(s) around October 9, 2024. This is the equivalent of a Parallel issue [P]. In this case, the original logo may appear on the stamp, but at a size that remains smaller than the half of the surface of the stamp
  • E: finally the countries that do not want to stick to design and date, and work on their own, just referring to the UPU anniversary. These countries are simply listed, without details, as they cannot be considered as joint [N].

We will have again to take care of stamps that are created by agencies that are producing stamps for certain countries but which have been given the freedom to issue stamps without a real control from the reference countries. These stamps are easily recognized by the number of stamps issued in a series and they are produced to fool collectors. In order to better identify these stamps and because they remain real stamps but never reach the originating country, they will be reported in the catalogue, but in italics. In the same way, some other stamps such as the French stamp with a full common logo are of private origin (personalized stamp) that cannot be considered as part of this joint issue either. This will be true for any other privately produced stamp from other countries, if any, and also described in italic characters.

The countries for which we already have information are reported below. If a date between brackets is missing behind the country name, this means that this stamp(s) was issued on October 9, 2024. If the content of the brackets remains empty, this means that the exact issue date is not known yet. A large number of images were provided by Enzo Cafaro (Italy). The following list is of course not yet complete.

Countries of type A (Twin [T1]): Algeria – Andorra (French) (October 10) – Andorra (Spanish) – Armenia – Bangladesh – Belarus – Bosnia Herzegovina (Bosnia) – Brazil – China (PR) – Croatia – Cyprus – Dominican Republic – Greece – Guernsey – India – Indonesia – Ivory Coast – Jordan – Latvia – Lithuania (October 4) – Mauritius – Moldova – Myanmar – Paraguay – Peru – Romania – Sri Lanka – Thailand – Turkmenistan (October 8) – Ukraine – United Arab Emirates

Countries of type B (Concerted [C1]): Argentina (August 28) – Azerbaijan (February 1) – Burundi (September) – Central Africa (September) – Djibouti (September) – Georgia (June 1) – Guinea (September) – Guinea-Bissau (September) – Liberia (September) – Mali (September) – Monaco (May 30) – Mongolia (September 25) – Sierra Leone (September) – Togo (September)

Countries of type C (Twin or concerted [T2] or [C2]): Bosnia (Serbia) – Egypt () – France (October 14) – Hong Kong – Hungary (July 24) – Isle of Man (August 30) – Japan – Kyrgyzstan (October) – Luxembourg (September 10) – Macau – Malaysia – Morocco – Pakistan – Portugal – San Marino – Saudi Arabia () – Singapore – Slovenia – Spain – Syria – Tunisia – Türkiye – Uruguay – Uzbekistan () – Vietnam

Countries of type D (Parallel issue [P]): Australia (October 1) – Austria (October 4) – Brunei Darussalam () – Bulgaria – Czech Republic – French Polynesia – Germany (October 10) – Macedonia (North) – Mexico – Montenegro – Qatar () – Russia – Slovakia – Switzerland (September 5) – Tajikistan (May) – Vatican (September 16) – Wallis and Futuna

Countries of type E (not considered as joint): Belgium (June 10) – Serbia (May 25) – United Nations – Geneva (May 30) – United Nations – New York (May 30) – United Nations – Vienna (May 30).

So far, 86 countries are listed above to which one has to add 2 postal authorities that have issued stamps that cannot be considered as joint (Type E – United Nations offices are not taken in account as countries, UPU being a sub-unit of the United Nations). The UPU counts presently 192 members, which means information from 106 countries (!) is missing. Obviously there will be an update of this page. A great help is needed here to recover information from other participating countries. We are also missing better quality images for stamps from Ivory Coast and Ukraine. Thanks a lot in advance for providing name of missing countries, exact dates of issue, and when possible illustrations, printing runs, sizes of panels and by-product lists.

The catalogue pages should be updated within the next week.

Latest News September – October 2024 (2)

by Richard Zimmermann

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) involves five countries from the post-sovietic era. The EAEU Treaty was signed on May 29, 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, and came into force on January 1, 2015. Armenia and Kyrgyzstan joined respectively on October 9, 2014 and December 23, 2014. Therefore, the year 2024 corresponds to the 10th anniversary of the treaty. On May 29, 2024, only Russia issued a stamp, but the joint character (Parallel issue [P]) of a common issue was confirmed with the issue of Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan stamps on October 1, 2024. Additionally, the design of the Kazakhstan stamp (only 5,000 samples available) is identical to the Russian stamp, giving a Concerted character [C] to this series. Kyrgyzstan issued also a stamp in the course of the month of September (exact release date still unknown). All these stamps have in common the presence of the EAEU logo and the five flags of the participating countries. This issue will be reported in the catalogue under the entry code [C20241001].

For the third time in less than a month, Portugal participates to a joint issue. On October 7, 2024, Portugal joined Morocco to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Peace Treaty (1774) and the 30th anniversary of the Friendship Treaty (1994) between both countries, with a pair of stamps representing the equestrian statue of King José I showing in the background the triumphal arch of Augusta Street in Lisbon, Portugal on one stamp, and the defense tower of the port of Essaouira, Morocco on the other one. Morocco issued the pair as se-tenant stamps in miniature sheets of 5 pairs. Portugal issued stamps in panes of 50 individual stamps. ?Most of the information was provided by Ali Ahmed Med Achour (Algeria). Thanks to him.

On October 10, 2024, Croatia and Germany celebrated relationship with a common stamp symbolizing the common river, the Danube.

Finally, we are still missing the counterpart stamps to the September 10, 2024 issued Uruguayan pairs of stamps showing a panther and a tiger, together with an Uruguyan flag and a South Korean flag, and announced to become a joint issue with South Korea. Eventually this issue will remain unilateral. Any help from South Korea is welcome to confirm that there will be (or not) Korean associated stamps, before we remove this issue from the catalogue.

Latest News September – October 2024 (1)

by Richard Zimmermann

Recently, several twin issues were released, but information was difficult to collect, in particular regarding countries such as Cape Verde, Brunei or Kyrgyzstan, which led to the delay of publishing details. Information is still not complete and any complement is welcome.

On September 12, 2024, Portugal and Cape Verde celebrated the centenary of the African (Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde) anticolonial activist and writer Amílcar Lopes Cabral (born on September 12, 1924, assassinated on January 20, 1973). The stamps show two portraits of the politician. Portugal issued 70,000 stamps from each type in panes of 50. Except the recent confirmation of the same design, details about the Cape Verde stamps are missing. There is also no information available about any issue at the same date of a commemorative stamp from Guinea Bissau.

The Brunei – Singapore joint issue from September 17, 2024 was discovered by Don Birschel (USA). The identical stamps show plants, on one side Ficus elastica and on the other, Dendrobium Hassanal Saleha. The orchid is named after the Brunei Sultan and Queen during the Sultan’s State Visit to Singapore in 2022 and the Ficus was planted by Singapore President Tharman on his State Visit to Brunei Darussalam in 2024. While Brunei stamps details are still missing, Singapore products include stamps produced as miniature sheets of 10 units as well as a souvenir sheet including these same stamps. Mixed FDCs became also available.

India Romania 2024

by Richard Zimmermann

On September 17, 2024, India and Romania came together to produce a twin issue at the occasion of the 75th anniversary of their relationship. The stamps are illustrated with traditional costumes from both countries. India shows the ‘Lehanga choli’ (female) and ‘Dhoti kurta’ (male) costumes, while Romanian issue represents popular costumes from the Bihor County. Information about Indian stamps remains limited so far. We just know that the stamps were issued in panes and as a miniature sheet with both se-tenant stamps. Regarding Romania, stamps were issued in two panes of 32 stamps (2x[8×4]), in two miniature sheets of 5 stamps with a label, the label representing the other stamp without denomination, and a souvenir sheet with both stamps. As usually with Romania, the number of issued stamps remains limited: only 775 pairs of miniature sheets (2×3,875 stamps) and 4,550 souvenir sheets were printed. The number of stamps issued in panes is also limited to 2×8,064 (meaning that only 252 pairs of panes were printed), from which 406 pairs were taken to create as many official FDCs.

This information was collected and provided almost at the same time by Madhukar Jhingan (www.stampsofindia.com), Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore), Souvik Ghatak (India) and Don Birschel (USA). Thanks to all of them.

Icon – Belarus Vatican

by Richard Zimmermann

On September 16, 2024, Belarus and the Vatican City issued a twin issue representing the Icon of the Student Mother of God in Grodno, Belarus. The stamps were issued at the occasion of the 360th anniversary of this icon which is a copy of the icon of Our Lady of the Snows (Salus Populi Romani, an image that arrived in Rome in 590 AD, one of the oldest representations of Our Lady Mary) from the Roman Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (Rome, Italy). Both postal administrations have issued identical stamps in miniature sheets of 6 stamps [3×2].

Summer 2024 complement

by Richard Zimmermann

During the month of August 2024 a few joint issues were supposed to take place and did not as expected. Also some additional information was provided for existing issues. Several collectors provided interesting information that are now described in this post.

The ASEAN series of August 8, 2024 was not completely described in the first blog page. Here are some additional pictures that were not shown so far. Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines stamp pictures became available in the meantime.

On August 24, 2024, Russia and China (PR) were supposed to release joint stamps representing pandas. The date had already been postponed from originally August 4, 2024. Indeed, Russian stamps were released on that new date, but so far there are no news from China, the last Chinese stamps having been released on August 22, 2024. Any information is welcome.

When the Japan Turkish joint issue from August 6, 2024 was released, another miniature sheet containing five different stamps became available from the Turkish Post. This item was part of a limited edition folder that was printed only at 4,000 samples. Of course, this item needs to be described as complementary material in the catalogue, but this is not the kind of items we like, as, even if those stamps are to be considered a true postage material, due to the limited availability and probably their absence of use on mail, they are closer to expensive cinderellas than to true stamps.

Enzo Cafaro (Italy) contacted the Turkish postal administration, which answered that this issue is not considered by them as joint, despite same date and common logo. In fact, some postal administrations do consider an issue to be really joint only if they organize a common booth in both countries on the first day of issue and/or if they produce official mixed FDC. If that would be the criteria for defining joint issues, then half of the catalogue should be discarded. But in this case we still have a real proof of collaboration during the preparation phase, which eventually led to the conclusion that each country would work by its own, following just to an agreement about the content. Some exchange of material did take place (e.g., the logo). This issue will be considered and maintained in the catalogue as a parallel joint issue. Note that over the past 30 years, Türkiye (Turkey) and Japan issued at several occasions stamps with the common topic of relationship (1988, 1990, 2010, 2019, 2021 and now 2024), some of them being considered as joint and described in the catalogue. Up to you to decide if you want to add those to your collection. In the catalogue, the stamps will be considered as a true parallel issue, but the additional Turkish miniature sheet will be described in italics and gray color.

On a completely different aspect, note also that the Turkish government has recommended and requested that the English spelling of the country name should now be ‘Türkiye‘ instead of ‘Turkey’, while the adjective Turkish can continue to be used. Starting 2024, we will use in the catalogue the new spelling ‘Türkiye’ but keep the older spelling between brackets i.e. ‘Türkiye (Turkey)’, in order to avoid the loss of some information when using e.g. the ‘Search’ tool.

Very recently, we heard about an Uruguay – Korea (South) joint issue and got, through Enzo Cafaro (Italy), information from the Uruguayan side. The stamps were issued on September 10, 2024, but no information is available so far from South Korea. Help is also needed here.

Russia – Tunisia

by Richard Zimmermann

The joint issue between Russia – Tunisia, honoring the painter Alexander Rubtzof (1884-1949) was released as expected on September 5, 2024. The French-Russian painter did spend a larger time of his life in Tusisia. Both countries issued the same self-portrait from 1919 and each a different second painting. The second Tunisian stamp represents ‘The gardens of Sidi Bousaïd” (1926), while the second Russian stamp represents a fragment of his painting ‘In the Living Room‘ (beginning of 20th century). Russian stamps are produced in miniature sheets containing 5 se-tenant pairs and two labels [4×3]. Med Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria), who provided this information, found also out that an older stamp from Tunisia from 1945 was based on a painting of the Sidi Mahrez mosque.

Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Anniversary

by Richard Zimmermann

Adam Paish (UK) reported the following information: the 40th anniversary of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) commemorating stamps, which were mentioned briefly last October, are now in circulation in the six independent ECCB member countries: Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Christopher (St Kitts) and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The IGPC philatelic agency in New York listed these on their website, claiming an issue date of July 19, 2024, for the six participating ECCB member countries, and confirming that the stamps were issued as two souvenir sheets. Each country issued two identical souvenir sheets, one bearing one stamp with a photograph of the original signature session, the other one with two stamps, on one side, the reproduction of the winner drawing of a (children) contest and, on the other side, flags with medal and portrait.

  

Egypt Pakistan, finally issued

by Richard Zimmermann

A joint issue celebrating the 75th anniversary of relationship between Egypt and Pakistan (1948-2023) was announced as early as beginning of 2023 and was supposed to be released during the year 2023. Actually, the relationship’s origin can be traced back to 1947 when Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, made a farewell visit to Egypt in response to a special invitation from King Fuad II, shortly after independence of Pakistan on August 14, 1947. Unfortunately, in absence of information, the issue had to be removed from the 2023 issue plan. Very recently, Ehsan Mahmood (Pakistan) provided information that Pakistan had released a stamp at this occasion (August 21, 2024) and at the same time confirmed that Egypt did the same, about a week earlier (August 14, 2024). Both stamps are different, but represent mosques and the flags of both countries. The Egyptian stamp shows the King Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan and the Muhammad Ali Mosque in Cairo, Egypt. Pakistan stamp represents also the King Faisal Mosque in Islamabad but the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Egypt. This issue will be considered as parallel [P20240814]. Egypt issued stamps in panes of 30 stamps [5×6] while Pakistan issued a miniature sheet of 8 stamps [2×4].