Belarus

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.

Unilateral issues 2024

by Richard Zimmermann

By end of this year 2024, we have to come to the conclusion that some originally announced joint issues will probably remain unilateral, meaning that the partner country dropped from the collaboration. Here is the list:

  • India – Israel : 2024 (May 7) – Purim Festival -This stamp was originally scheduled to be released on February 13, 2024, but India was not ready to participate. The new date of May 7, 2024 was set, but the Indian stamp was still not available and information about the final decision from India is missing
  • China (PR) – Russia : 2024 (August 24) – Diplomatic relations – Panda. The issue was moved to August 24 from originally August 4, 2024, but no associated Chinese stamp was issued
  • Korea (South) – Uruguay : 2024 (September 10) – Uruguay issued two se-tenant stamps; [2px5] printed at 2,500 pairs, but no information is since available from South Korea
  • Kazakhstan – Morocco : 2024 (September 30) – Topic: 30th anniversary of relationship – Gastronomy. Despite the fact that the Kazakh stamp bears the words “Joint issue Kazakhstan – Morocco”, no information is available so far from the Moroccan side
  • Indonesia – Serbia : 2024 (November 4) – Topic: 70th anniversary of relationship – The Serbian stamp was issued, but no news from Indonesia

These stamps will remain in the catalogue with short description, with limited details and under the category ‘Unilateral – Not approved [N]’. THis is to avoid further questions in the future, but also as space-keeper in the case these issues transform into Delayed Concerted [C] issues during the year 2025.

An interesting story is linked to the expected Oman – Switzerland joint issue: On November 30, 2023, Oman and Switzerland were supposed to issue joint stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relationship. The Omani stamps were issued as expected, but Switzerland never made their stamps available, despite one existing copy in Oman Post Office archives, documented by the picture provided below and entitled “Celebrating 50 years of diplomatic ties between the Sultanate of Oman and the Swiss Confederation, we are pleased to announce the launch of the joint stamp. The stamp was launched under the patronage of Dr. Alain Berset, President of the Swiss Confederation, during his visit to the Sultanate of Oman.”(Information and pictures were provided by Tariq Al Lawati, Oman).

Through direct contact with the Swiss Post customer service, we received recently the following explanations : “I am pleased to inform you about the joint issue Switzerland-Oman. Unfortunately, the request from Oman for a joint issue arrived too late. Swiss Post nevertheless wished to support and pay tribute to this 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship. Therefore, Swiss Post has informed the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). A meeting with the Omani Embassy and Swiss Post regarding this matter has taken place, during which it was stated that an official stamp issue was no longer possible, but that we could offer a corporate stamp instead. The FDFA has expressly renounced any official issuing of the stamp.” Thanks to Ylenia Minesso, Swiss Post Customer Advisor, for this extensive answer. This issue will be reported in the catalogue, as mentioned above, with a short description and under the category unilateral.

A souvenir sheet from Iran appeared on the net. This item showing the Minsk City Gate and the Azadi Tower, dated 2023 (but issued August 22, 2024), includes the word “I.R. Iran – Belarus Joint Stamp”. No information is available from Belarus.

Two stamps from Laos, bearing the Laos and India flags were supposed also to introduce a joint issue, celebrating common cultural heritage. The Laos stamps and souvenir sheet were issued on August 15, 2024, but no information is available from the Indian side..

Peru released on August 29, 2024 a pair of stamp related to diplomatic links with Italy, and on November 13, 2024, a similar pair related to links with the Dominican Republic. No counterpart stamps have been seen so far from Italy or the Dominican Republic..

We are also waiting for the Egyptian counterpart of the Hungarian souvenir sheet (130×100 mm) issued on November 28, 2024 and clearly entitled “Hungary-Egypt Joint Stamp Issue”. Knowing the difficulty in obtaining information from Egypt, it may be possible that this souvenir sheet translates in a true joint issue. We still have to wait.

Same situation for the Serbian stamp, entitled “Serbia – Russia” and dedicated to Colonel Nicolay Raevsky, issued on November 18, 2024, without Russian counterpart so far. However Russian Post web site is usually up to date and we should have the information. This stamp may remain unilateral.

Any additional information or change to this list is welcome.

Update December 2024

by Richard Zimmermann

Over the past weeks, two new joint issues became available:

The 40th anniversary of the Peace treaty between Argentina and Chile “1984-2024”, was celebrated by identical stamps issued on November 25, 2024 by Chile and November 29, 2024 by Argentina. Stamps represent the figure “40” with the colors of the national flags. In 1984, the Vatican State played the role of mediator during the process that led to the signature of this treaty. This is the reason why Vatican is also involved in this joint issue, but with a different stamp issued on November 25, 2024. The Vatican stamp represents Pope John-Paul II signing the treaty on November 29, 1984.

On December 6, 2024, Belarus and Russia commemorated the 25th anniversary of the signature of the Union State Foundation Treaty with an identical stamp showing both flags. For each country, stamps were produced in miniature sheets of 8 stamps and one label [3×3] and one souvenir sheet containing a single stamp.

Among the issues that were postponed, we have to note the Bosnia Herzegovina (Bosnia) – Indonesia stamps celebrating the 25 years of the Istiklal Mosque in Sarajevo, originally scheduled for October 4, 2024, now expected to be released on October 3, 2025.

Additionally, I would like to share with you that, during the Chicagopex Exhibition 2024 (November 23), this blog obtained the Large Vermeil medal in the Literature Palmares (category Digital). In the same category, the on line Joint Stamp Issues Catalogue obtained another Large Vermeil medal. This result was achieved also thanks to all the remote contributors and joint issue enthusiasts who participated to the collection of information.

Discovery: Belarus – Uruguay 2017

by Richard Zimmermann

This week, a mail from Eric Zoet (Portugal) dropped in my mail box with the simple question: “Could not find this 7/15 November 2017 Belarus – Uruguay joint issue in your catalogue?”. Me neither, of course, but a careful exploration of my older files led me to re-discover both series of stamps and their images in the list of pending issues, that were not considered as joint so far.

On September 7, 2017, Uruguay issued a miniature sheet with three triplets of two different stamps and a central label, with stamps chessboard ordered. These stamps were issued at the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the relationship with Belarus. During this year of 2017, Belarus issued several stamps celebrating the same 25th anniversary of relationships with other countries, including China, Poland, Latvia, India, Kazakhstan, Russia, Romania and Moldova, among which two translated in true joint issues: India [T20170912] and Kazakhstan |T20170916]. During the year 2018, Belarus issued at similar occasion three additional joint stamps with Kyrgyzstan [T20181018], Azerbaijan [T20181119] and Uzbekistan [T20181123a].

Among all these different products, the anniversary involving Uruguay was initially considered as unilateral, also because at that time it was difficult to retrieve information from Uruguay on the net (which was solved in the meantime, Uruguay Post does have a very nice web site describing all their products) . Now, upon this request, it appeared not only that there was more than a common anniversary, but also that the illustrations were close to identical. The stamps of both countries reproduce the Bolchoi Theater of Belarus in Minsk and the Solis Theater in Montevideo, Uruguay. This clearly demonstrates that the two postal administrations have worked together to agree on the topic and the final pictures. They just did not agree on the same date of issue, Belarus issuing its stamps on November 15, 2017, so that thestamps are now filed as a Concerted issue under the entry [C20170907]. The catalogue Year 2017 has been updated accordingly (Vol 13 – page 1528-1529). Thanks again Eric.

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.

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].

Update June 2024

by Richard Zimmermann

On June 6, 2024, Belarus and Russia celebrated the 225th birthday of Alexander S. Pushkin (1799-1837) with a stamp each. The stamps are different, hence this issue being considered as parallel [P20240606], and represent the Russian poet and some scenes of his main works (e.g., Eugene Onegin). Belarus issued 40,000 stamps in miniature sheets of 5, Russia produced 18,000 miniature sheets of 8 stamps, i.e., 144,000 stamps.

Four countries, Italy, San Marino, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Vatican State, came together on June 15, 2024 to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the Italian Red Cross. All stamps are identical and became available as miniature sheets of 4 stamps printed at respectively 150,000, 40,000, 35,000 and 55,000 samples.

The designs of the stamps related to the 100th anniversary of the Johor-Singapore Causeway were presented as early as May 28, 2024, but were officially released on June 28, 2024. Malaysia and Singapore released each four stamps with the same designs. Malaysia produced strips of 4 se-tenant stamps in a miniature sheet of 5 strips. Singapore produced isolated stamps in 4 miniature sheets of 10 stamps each.

Update March 2024

by Richard Zimmermann

Several new information reached us during this month. Next to the two official twin issues released during the month of March (Hungary – Luxembourg March 12, 2023, and Angola – Cape Verde – Portugal March 28, 2024) and described in specific pages, one has to take account of the following news:

  • from Enzo Cafaro (Italy): several news about future issues involving Italy, e.g., on April 18, 2024 with San Marino (Vespa fan Club), on June 15, 2024, with San Marino, SMOM and Vatican (Red Cross 160th anniversary), and on January 25, 2025, with Slovenia (Gorizia and Nova Gorizia, European Capital of Culture). Regarding this last issue, the Italian stamp scheduled to be released on April 28, 2024, and related to the Fall of Gorizia wall, will not involve Slovenia and will remain unilateral. Also, in the 2024 philatelic program, a joint issue between Belarus and the Vatican is under preparation.
  • from Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore): Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan will issue joint stamps related to UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, telling tradition of Nasreddin Hodja anecdotes. Exact date of issue is unknown, but the stamps should be released during Quarter IV, 2024.
  • From Jürgen Luebke (Germany): It seems that Greenland and the Faeroe Islands (may be also Denmark) will issue respectively on May 24 and on May 27, 2024, identical souvenir sheets created by Martin Mörck at the occasion of accession of Frederic X to the Danish thron. At least, in the official documents from the Faeroe Islands, this item is described as a joint issue. Information about the participation of Denmark is still awaited.
  • From Robert Schrijvers (Mongolia): Robert found the following official statement “Swiss development agency is cooperating with the Mongolian Post Company’s Mark Office to create a joint stamp within the framework of the 60th anniversary of Mongolian–Switzerland diplomatic relations. The joint stamp will be introduced to the public in May this year.” Joint issues involving Mongolia are very rare, so more information is needed at this stage, in particular from the Swiss side.

The first 2024 UPU 150th anniversary stamps with common design have been seen. Azerbaijan released a souvenir sheet including two stamps with the common design on February 1, 2024 (size 122×83 mm, printing run 4,000). This souvenir sheet is also available as non-perforated. The full series of stamps related to this issue will be described under [T20241009] as most of the stamps will be released around October 9, 2024.

The catalogue pages have been updated accordingly (Volume 1 and Volume 15).

Update February 2024

by Richard Zimmermann

Several new information have been reported over the month of February 2024, some of them even contradicting previously announced issues:

The first and most intriguing is related to the India – Israel joint issue initially scheduled for issue on February 13, 2024. From Uri Barlev (Israel), we learned that everything was prepared by Israel Post Philatelic Service, including printing and cancelling FDCs for release on that date. For some mysterious reason, there was a dispute between Israel and India postal services concerning the date of issue. India Post announced that the issue date would be in the third week of March. Hence, Israel Post withdrew the issue and recalled all distributed material. The Israeli material will be distributed on a new issue date, apparently May 7, 2024, and it is not clear yet if new FDCs will be prepared or the precancelled February ones will be used. No additional information is available from the Indian side.

The April 25th 1974 event was the overthrow of the Estado Novo government in Portugal.  It led to the independence of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe.  All those countries could have been part of the joint issue announced by Portugal. Very recently, it was confirmed that only Angola and Cape Verde will join Portugal in this new issue scheduled for April 2024. Exact date is not known yet, but it could indeed be the anniversary date of April 25, 2024.

Stefan Kepic, Slovakia discovered an additional 2022 October 9 World Post Day stamp with identical design issued by Guatemala on February 28, 2023 in miniature sheets of 10 stamps (now reported under [T20221009]).

Ehsan Mehmood (Pakistan) reported information about products linking Belarus and Pakistan celebrating the 30th anniversary of their relationship. Pakistan issued a stamp on February 3, 2024 while Belarus issued a postal stationery (cover) on March 1, 2024 with first day cancellation on March 4, 2024. Designs are different and there is no hint from both postal administrations that these products have been created jointly. Therefore and unfortunately we cannot recognize them as joint.

During the year 2023, PostEurop celebrated its 30th anniversary. Some countries had issued during the year stamps using an identical logo provided by PostEurop. Information was collected about such issues but we had to come to the conclusion that the countries having celebrated with stamps this anniversary have not done it in a coordinated way and therefore all these stamps cannot be considered as joint. For those still interested in these stamps, here is a list of countries having participated during the year 2023: Azerbaijan (July 10), Bulgaria (September 12), the Faroe Islands (October 23, logo on a stamp showing waterlilies), Kazakhstan (November 20), Moldova (May 20) and Serbia (September 5). The Isle of Man (July 5) added this logo on a their 2023 Europa stamp, while Poland (December 1) and Romania (August 31) have both issued a postal stationary. This list may not be complete and any additional information is welcome.

Azerbaijan Belarus folk crafts

by Richard Zimmermann

On November 28, 2023, Azerbaijan and Belarus issued nice stamps related to local crafts. On one side, stamps show straw weaving with pieces made in 1979, on the other side, pieces of copper crafts from the 19th century are displayed. The particularity of this issue is the diamond shape of the stamps which are sold in miniature sheets of 4, also with a larger diamond-shaped sheet containing a pair of both stamps and illustrated with other pieces of local crafts.