Armenia

Dove of Peace embroidery

by Richard Zimmermann

The ‘Dove of Peace’ stamps were issued as expected on September 19, 2025 (except for Greenland and Switzerland). The final list includes Aland – Armenia – Austria – Barbados () – Cyprus – Faroe Islands – Greenland (September 12) – Liechtenstein – Luxembourg – Switzerland (September 4) – United Nations (Geneva) – United Nations (New York) – United Nations (Vienna). These embroideries have a size of about 55×42 mm. Barbados was mentioned in the advertisement of the UNPA, but without illustration, on the contrary to all others, and so far no detailed information is available. If this information is confirmed, then it would not be surprising that other countries could also join over the next months. This has to be watched closely (details provided by Jaap Sarelse, the Netherlands, and Enzo Cafaro, Italy).

The denominations on the stamps are quite high (5 to 10 €uros) and the printing runs remained low. The first data we had access to are related to the following postal administrations: Aland [13,000] – Armenia [5,000] – Austria [90,000] – Liechtenstein [18,000] – Luxembourg [30,000] – UN Geneva [12,300] – UN New York [10,800] – UN Vienna [13,900]. The stamps from the countries with lower printing runs were sold out on the first day. Stamps really used on mail will be exceptions, while quality of the cancellation, even on first day covers, will remain bad, consequence of the thickness of the embroidery. The three stamps from the UPU administrations became available as a mixed FDC. Eventually, these stamps are just products for collectors.

UPU release also a label with the same shape, showing only the word “PAIX” and without denomination (so not considered as a stamp). This label attached to postal cards, without cancellation, was distributed to UPU VIPs, and some of them became available during the 2025 PhilaKorea philatelic exhibition. The printing number is unknown and the first items seen on Delcampe are sold above €200.

Enzo provided also a link to a very nice short video ‘Stitch by Stitch‘ created by Liechtenstein Post, showing the production steps of these specific stamps.

August 2025 News

by Richard Zimmermann

Enzo Cafaro (Italy) completed the information about the dove issue described in a previous post and enhanced the list of participating countries. He provided also the picture of all to be produced items. The country list includes now : Aland, Armenia, Austria, Cyprus, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland and United Nations (offices of Geneva, New York and Vienna, as well as UPU). By adding all the denominations we reach a total of about 75 Euros for 13 stamps that will never be used on real covers ! Our friend Jaap Sarelse (the Netherlands) will try to create some mixed FDC covers when stamps will be available. We wish him good luck as even the cancellation on such thick stamps (embroidery) may be tricky. If he succeeds, we promise to show results in these pages 😉

Luis Malanco (Mexico) provided some additional information regarding the Ecuador stamps issued on July 28, 2022, together with Mexico [T20220728] and honoring Leona Vicario and Manuela Saenz. The Ecuadorian stamps were issued at a much lower number than initially announced. The stamp was produced at only 2,000 samples, while the souvenir sheet only at 450 units. Those are the figures appearing in the official leaflet published by the “Servicios Postales del Ecuador”.

By coincidence, a forgotten issue was discovered recently by comparing data in the Michel Rundschau Catalogue. On December 29, 2022, Cambodia and Colombia issued twin stamps at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between both countries. The stamps show a view of Ankor Wat and the Grave in the Archeological National Park of Tierradentro. This issue has not been reported so far and will of course be integrated in the catalogue. The difficulty will now be to find the stamps and not only reproductions.

During the year 2021, Colombia celebrated the 200th anniversary of its independence. Numerous stamps related to this event were issued during this year, which correspoded also to the first recognition of Colombia by other countries. By end of 2022, a first joint issue with Mexico was released (December 20, 2021). Surprisingly, during the following year of 2022, Colombia created a series of different stamps celebrating diplomatic relationships with different countries (not necessarily based on 200 years, but at least on rounded numbers): Egypt (February 23, 2022), USA (May 2), South Korea (May 6), Peru (May 27), Germany (August 5), Cambodia (December 29) and Chile (December 29. This type of issues continued the following year with Barbados (December 18, 2023), Canada December 22) and Argentina (December 23). During the year 2024, only stamps celebrating relationships with Sweden were released (exact issue date is unknown). Among all these stamps, and to our knowledge, only four translated in true joint issues, including Mexico [20211220], Peru (T20220527], Cambodia [C20221229], and Argentina [T20231223]

The design of the North Korean stamps to be released jointly with Russia on August 15, 2025 has been released. We have not seen yet the Russian stamps, but this country confirmed stamp issue in this honour at the same date. Design could be similar.

Last minute information: Kenneth Sequeira just provided information about stamps released by the Philippines on August 5, 2025, jointly with India, celebrating the 75th anniversary of their relationship. Each country issued a pair of identical stamps showing flowers. Note that despite being issued in 2025, the stamps celebrate an anniversary that took place in 2024.

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.

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.

Armenia – Belarus 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

The joint issue between Armenia and Belarus scheduled for quarter IV 2023 was officially issued on October 30, 2023. Stamps represent folk dances, respectively ‘Berd’ dance from Armenia and ‘Liavonikha’ dance from Belarus. Both countries issued two stamps in miniature sheets of 4 stamps and in a miniature sheet containing se-tenant pairs of stamps. Armenia issued 2×20,000 stamps while Belarus produced 2×40,000 stamps, i.e., respectively 5,000 and 10,000 miniature sheets of each stamp. The number of mixed miniature sheets is unknown.

Update April 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

Don Birschel (USA) confirmed the existence of the Albania – Kosovo joint issue by providing the first picture of the Albania souvenir sheet. Unfortunately, so far no official information is available from the Albanian side. By exploring further, we found out that a cover looking like a first day and dated April 27, 2023 became also available on eBay. The Kosovo stamp was issued in miniature sheets of 4 on February 17, 2023. Even if this cover does not bear the words ‘First Day’, it could at least confirm that this issue must be considered as Concerted and not Twin [C20230217]. Any additional information is welcome.

Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) continues to create mixed FDCs and recently he was able to provide a mixed cover from the [C20221207] Georgia – Italy mixed first day cover and the one involving Armenia and Russia corresponding to the issue [T20220830].

We learned also that in 2024, at the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the UPU, a joint issue will be produced with an identical design (competition is open) and the date of this issue will probably be centered around October 9, 2024. Knowing the number of member countries of the UPU (192 so far), this could become the largest joint issue ever. Call to participant countries was launched.

Still waiting for news from the India – Vietnam joint issue supposed to be released on April 23, 2023 (local fighting sports. We just had access to the design of the Vietnamese stamps. Any additional information is welcome.

Unexpected Armenia – Romania issue

by Richard Zimmermann

On April 3, 2023, Armenia and Romania honored Prof Ana Aslan (1897-1988) with a joint issue showing two portraits of the Romanian biologist and physician of Armenian descent, specialist of gerontology and founder of the first Geriatrics Institute. She is known for the invention of the drug Gerovital also called “The Elixir of Youth”, words appearing on the margins of the miniature sheets (Information first provided by Don Birschel, USA).

Both countries issued two identical stamps each. Armenia produced two miniature sheets of 10 stamps (2x[2×5]) and a miniature sheet containing two blocks of 4 of both designs. Printing run of the two stamps is 20,000 but it is not clear how this is distributed between the two miniature sheets. Romania produced panes of 32 stamps (2x[4×8]) at the level of 2×300 panes, together with miniature sheets of 5 stamps linked to a label representing the portrait used in the other design. The number of printed miniature sheets was limited to 2×865. Romania produced also official mixed first day covers bearing all four stamps, but only at 161 samples!

Update February 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

On February 28, 2023, the joint issue between Armenia and Slovakia was released as scheduled. It celebrates the 30th anniversary of relationship and the stamps depict the Tatev Monastery, in Syunik region (Armenia) built during the ninth century, included now in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list and the St George’s Church, in Nitrianska Blatnica (Slovakia) also from the ninth century. The particularityy of this issue comes from the way the stamps are produced. The stamps are printed in a pane size [5×9] containing both stamps, type A in the top half, type B in the bottom half, together with 5 central labels forming a central cross. The overall structure looks the following: 3 rows of 5 stamps A, a row containing 2 pairs of stamp A separated by a label, then a row with one stamp A, three labels and one stamp B, and a row containing 2 pairs of stamp B separated by a label, and at the bottom 3 rows of 5 stamps B. This structure leads to a sheet containing 20 stamps A, 20 stamps B and 5 labels. Each sheet can contain vertical pairs of se-tenant A-B stamps, but limited to two units per pane. Knowing that the total printing of stamps is 2×20,000 for Armenia and 2×100,000 for Slovakia, only respectively 1,000 and 5,000 panes have been printed containing a maximum of 2,000 and 10,000 vertical pairs respectively.

These miniature sheets could be cut a different way, by keeping in one piece the five central labels with the 2 stamps A and 2 stamps B in the four corners. Only a maximum of 1,000 units for Armenia and 5,000 for Slovakia of these cut outs of printed panels can theoretically exist. The central labels represent the flags of both countries, and the coat of arms of Armenia, respectively Slovakia. The two other labels contain the words ‘Armenia – Slovakia joint issue’ in English and Armenian for Armenia, in Slovak and Armenian for Slovakia.

Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) provided some information about the potential Cambodia-South Korea joint issue that was supposed to be released on February 10, 2023. The original source was the South Korean Philatelic Service. However, Jaap learned from two Cambodian sellers that no such an issue is mentioned in the 2023 list of Cambodian stamps. Also a seller from South Korea confirmed this is not a joint issue. The top margin of the souvenir sheet printed by South Korea is entitled “Protecting Endangered Species in Korea – Cambodia REDD+ Joint Project Area”, meaning the ‘joint’ character is refering to an area between both countries, and a common project, but not to this stamp issue. This entry is removed from the catalogue.

Don Birschel (USA) reports also about stamps released at the occasion of the Kuwait 62nd national day by both Kuwait (February 22, 2023) and the United Arab Emirates (February 25, 2023). Even if the Kuwait 62nd national day is celebrated by the UAE, there are no hints of collaboration between both countries and stamps are different. These cannot be considered as a joint issue.

A surprising joint issue between India and Luxembourg will be released on March 14, 2023. The information was first provided by Souvik Ghatak (India) and Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore). The Luxembourg post made the announcement as early as March 2, 2023, but it took some time for India to confirm, despite the fact that the designer of the miniature sheet is of Indian origin. The stamps relate to the 75th anniversary of the relationship between both countries and is illustrated by sculptures by Amar Nath Sehgal (1922-2007), an Indian sculptor, painter and poet who spent a large part of his life in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Up to now, there are no news from the Israel-India issue supposed to be released in the course of the month of February. In the meantime, however, the first image of the Israel stamp to be realeased on April 4, 2023 jointly with Cyprus was released. Topic is aerial firefighting. The Cyprus stamps has not been seen so far.

The following information has been added to or modified in the new version of Volume 15 (Vol 15 V4.03):

  • The above mentioned Armenia – Slovakia issue [T20230228] as well as the Poland – Slovenia [T20230306], the Poland – Vatican [T20230227] and the Ascension – British Antarctic Territories – Falkland Islands – South Georgia – Tristan da Cunha [D20230215] stamps have been integrated in the catalogue
  • Confirmation of the existence of mixed FDCs for the 2022 Argentina – Spain Juan Domingo Peron issue [C20220914]
  • Update of the list of new issues including Pakistan – Sri Lanka (2023), Japan – Peru (August 21, 2023), Japan – Vietnam (September 21, 2023)

The information related to complete descriptions of new sets of joint issues is also dispatched in Vol 1. Note that the page “Philatelic resources” is constantly updated to maintain the most accurate level (which is not easy, corrections and additions welcome) and changes will not be reported here.

Miscellaneous from October 2022

by Richard Zimmermann

Marci Jarvis (USA) could provide additional information related to the Tiger Forum joint issue from September 5, 2022. Indeed, Laos issued two stamps representing felines (Clouded leopard and Asian golden cat) but no tiger, however with the forum logo. These two stamps became also available in a special souvenir sheet which is illustrated with a tiger and a cub. Stamps in panes and souvenir sheets are available as perforated and imperforated. The date of issue of the Laos stamps is September 1, 2022. In the meantime, we are still missing information from Nepal stamps related to the Tiger forum.

Don Birschel (USA) provided the illustrations of the stamps issued by Cambodia, which, on the contrary to what was reported so far, bear the logo of the forum, in both stamps and souvenir sheet, . These stamps were issued on September 22, 2022.

Med Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria) reported that the Algeria Post, next to the UPU World Post Day stamp from October 9, 2022 created also a Postage Meter Imprint with the same topic. However, he noticed that the design contains two hashtag addresses that are erroneous. Hashtags are reference words that allow to find all the information that was exchanged using this specific word. However, to be usable, they need to follow precise rules in particular no white space is allowed. In order to separate words, if this is needed, at least a dash or underscore dash has to be used. This rule applies for latin and arabic characters and both hashtags represented in the meter print are wrong and unusable. Corrected hastags are represented here, below the imprint.

Rindert Paalman (The Netherlands) reported the decision taken during the PostEurop General Assembly in Dublin on 5 October 2022. A common design will be used on all 2023 Europa stamps (probably to be released in May 2023) on the theme “PEACE – the highest value of humanity”. 29 entries were submitted for the design competition and 44 postal companies participated in the voting. The winning motif is the one submitted by Luxembourg : “The New Peace Symbol”.

From Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore), a question related to stamps issued by Mongolia on May 19, 2022 and Japan, souvenir sheet with 10 stamps released on June 15, 2022. The topic refers to the 50th anniversary of relationship. As dates of issue are different, design are different and none of the postal administrations are refering to any collaboration in producing these items, we have to consider that these stamps are just celebrating the same event, but these stamps cannot be considered as joint.

From Cesar Ittmann (the Netherlands), reporting about the stamps celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Eurasian Economic Commission. EAU began its operations on February 2, 2012, but the treaty was signed only on May 29, 2014. The five involved countries participated to this issue with different designs, but four of them were released on the same date of issue: Armenia (August 25, 2022), Belarus (August 26, 2022), Kazakhstan (August 26, 2022), Kyrgyzstan (August 26, 2022) and Russia (July 29, 2022). On this basis, this issue has to be reported as a parallel joint issue [P1] under the entry code [P20220826]. The 5th anniversary of the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty (and not operation initiation) was celebrated by the same five countries on August 9, 2019 with identical stamps showing the flags of the countries . It was described in the catalogue under [T20190809].

Armenia Russia Churches

by Richard Zimmermann

Armenia and Russia celebrated on August 30, 2022 both the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and the 25th anniversary of the treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual assistance. This is a parallel issue scheduled from long date and dedicated to architecture, focusing on churches from both countries.

Stamps are different and represent for Armenia, the Church of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg, Russia and the Saint Michael the Archangel’s Church in Gyumri, Armenia. Russia issued stamps representing the Holy Cross Church in Samara, Russia and the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vanadzor, Armenia. Both countries have issued their stamps in miniature sheets of 4 pairs of stamps [2px2] in chess board order.

Armenia – Egypt missed JI?

by Richard Zimmermann

Both Don Birschel (USA) and Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore) provided the same information about a potential joint issue that was released a couple of months ago by Armenia and Egypt, but two weeks apart. Stamps are celebrating the 30th anniversary of relationship. Armenia issued its stamp on April 12, 2022 while Egypt released its stamp on March 22, 2022.

The design is different but features the same items: pyramids, Cheops sphinx and the statue “Mother of Armenia”. They also bear almost the same text relative to the anniversary of relationship establishment. For these reasons, we can deduce that both postal administrations communicated to create this pair of stamps. Even if the dates of issue eventually differed slightly and the design is not quite the same, we have to consider these stamps as joint, more precisely as Concerted [C] with the sub-type C3 (see Catalogue Vol 1 page 14 for detailed explanations). Catalogue Volume 15 will be updated accordingly with a new entry numbered [C20220322]. Thanks Don and Kenneth for this discovery.