Djibouti

UPU 150th anniversary: second update

by Richard Zimmermann

Since the publication of the original blog page related to the description of stamps linked to the 150th UPU anniversary (October 9, 2024) and the first update, as expected, additional stamps and countries have been discovered and are now described below. It seems this is still not the last update. This complementary list is divided on the basis of the same structure as the one provided earlier, in the first update:

  1. Countries of Type A (Twin [T1], same date, same design), additional country: El Salvador (October 9, 2024).

2. New country of Type B (Concerted [C1], different dates, same design): Nepal (December 17).

The Dominican Republic stamp was issued October 26, 2024 and therefore has to be moved in this sub-category. Same for Lybia which stamps were issued on October 22, 2024 instead of October 9, 2024. In Iran, two stamps appeared also, printed in miniature sheets of 4 stamps but in fact made of an illustrated label with the UPU anniversary logos, attached to a stamp with text only. It seems that these stamps correspond to (privately) personalized stamps with limited printing runs (additional information is needed here). As belonging to this sub-group, these two stamps will be described in the catalogue in italics characters.

3. New countries of Type C (modified design – only logo [T2], [C2]): Ghana (), Italy (November 21), the Philippines ().

The exact date of issue for the Uzbekistan stamp is known now to be May 17, 2024. The United Nations stamps (Geneva, New York, and Vienna) had to be re-integrated in this category as the miniature sheets of 9 stamps [3×3] bear in the top margin the logo of the 150 UPU anniversary. These stamps were issued already on May 30, 2024.

Special miniature sheets including eight different countries have been produced and should be considered as se-tenant issues [S]. These stamps were printed with two different denominations, as perforated and non-perforated miniature sheets, at very low printing runs (100 units for each of the two perforated miniature sheets and 30 for the non-perforated ones). The countries involved in these items include Burundi, Central Africa, Djibouti, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo (with stamp type B for this country). Due to the small printings runs, these miniature sheets must be considered as material to abuse collectors. They will be listed in the catalogue but in italics, just for information purpose. The printer of these countries also decided to create two postal cards per country with the same indicia (postal stationery) as pane stamps and souvenir sheet stamps, sold at very high prices, which must also be considered with the same status (abusive).

4. New country of Type D (different design, but same date [P1]): Honduras (October 9, 2024), 2 stamps

5. New country of Type E (different design, different date [N]): no new stamps

The UPU anniversary related stamp from the Netherlands is not an official Dutch post issue, but a personalized stamp, meaning it has to be filed as of private origin, in limited edition (information provided by Cesar Ittman, the Netherlands). The situation is similar for the Liechtenstein stamp, the second French stamp, Iran stamps, which are all to be considered as personalized or customized and/or private issues (all to be reported with italics characters in the catalogue).

Solidarity with Gaza stamps

by Richard Zimmermann

During the 27th session of the Council of Arab Ministers of Communications and Information, held on January 18, 2024 in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), the postal administrations of the Arab countries were invited to dedicate the common postage stamp, planned for the year 2024, to the expression of solidarity of the Arab countries with the Palestinian cause.
Thus, the project of this common postage stamp was the subject of a competition in which several Arab countries participated through proposals for models, at the end of which the creation of the Jordanian post office was selected to be reproduced in this common postage stamp, under the theme “With Gaza”. The selected work illustrates a gap of hope showing a flag and doves in the midst of the destruction and devastation recorded in Gaza.
Its launch was scheduled to take place on November 29, 2024 on the occasion of the international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The first stamp of this series was already issued on October 7, 2024 by Syria. Jordan and Qatar released their stamp on November 28, 2029. The other countries including Algeria, Morocco, Oman and Tunisia did release their stamps at the expected date. A few other countries including Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Palestine were supposed to participate as well, but no information is available to date. Any additional information from these countries is welcome.

Products released so far include stamps in panes or miniature sheets (from 4 to 20 stamps), souvenir sheets, all with one single stamp and of course first day covers. Jordan stamps are also available as non-perforated. Surprisingly, Djibouti has now to be added to this series. The country issued three stamps (among which two se-tenant) and a souvenir sheet. Djibouti stamps were released on November 11, 2024. However, these Djibouti stamps were released in very small amounts (maximum of 1,500 stamps from the smallest denomination, 800 from the highest denomination), as perforated but also all as imperforated, in miniature sheets, souvenir sheets (also perforated and non-perforated) and even proofs and postal cards. Indeed this is a very opportunistic issue from a country that was initially not involved and that tries to make money out of collectors. These products will be described in the catalogue, but in italic characters (each one to decide if interested or not – note that a complete set including all perforated and non perforated products as well as FDCs, will cost for this country the total of at least €550 (!) without counting full panes, based on prices displayed on Delcampe).

All these stamps will be reported in the catalogue under the entry [T20241129]. Thanks to Med Achour Ali Ahmed, Algeria, and Enzo Cafaro, Italy, for providing details for some of these issues.

The Jordan stamp with the denomination “50” that is available on the net is a design that was finally adapted with a denomination “100”. Thanks to Fabio Bonacina, Italy, for pointing to this difference.


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.

Update November 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

A joint issue between Panama and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) was under discussion for a long time with proposals for issue dates fluctuating over the past months. Eventually, the stamps were issued. The SMOM stamps were released on October 26, 2023, which was also given initially as first day of issue for the Panama stamp. However, the official ceremony is now scheduled to take place in Rome on December 4, 2023, which could become the official date of issue of the Panama stamp as well, even if first day cancellations from October 26, 2023 have already been seen. We will need to confirm the first date of issue for both countries within the next days or weeks. At least, in the meantime, we can provide pictures of the stamps. SMOM has take the same design but, it was divided in three vertical stamps with quite a high denomination each. Thanks to Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands), Enzo Cafaro (Italy), Eric Contesse (France) for information and exchanges over several months about this issue.

Following the large number of stamps issued at the occasion of the Tanzanian PAPU building inauguration (see previous post), almost the same countries (with stamps produced at the same central place) joined the World Post Day series issued on October 9, 2023 [B20231009]. To the original short list including Egypt and Sri Lanka, one has now to add the following countries: Central African Republic, Djibouti, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone and Togo. Each of these countries issued a stamp in miniature sheets of 8 stamps [4×2] and a souvenir sheet with a single stamp, all available as perforated and non-perforated products. On top of this, a miniature sheet of 4 pairs of se-tenant stamps including in the following order Liberia, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone was produced. In the same way described for the PAPU stamps in the previous post, the large number of products from these additional countries must also be considered as abusive, but these stamps will be reported in the catalogue for those collectors who are still interested.

From Uri Barlev (Israel): On December 12, 2023, a joint issue involving Israel and Guatemala will be released. The issue topic shows lakes, the Israeli Lake of Galilee (the Kinneret) and the Guatemalan Lake Atitlan. Uri was able to provide the first images of the Israeli stamp as well as the FDC. Thanks Uri.

At the beginning of the year 2024, China (PR), Hong Kong and Macau will celebrate the new year of the dragon with a se-tenant souvenir sheet [S] including four stamps from each postal administration (information provided by Wayne Chen, USA).

Additional news: following an exchange with the Hungarian Post, Kenneth Sequeira (Dubai) was confirmed of the cancellation of the Hungaria – India joint issue dedicated to the Art of Amrita Sher-Gil and initially scheduled to be issued during the fourth quarter of 2023.

The catalogue pages in Vol I and XV will be updated with all this new information within the next three days.

Algiers Summit 2022 (2)

by Richard Zimmermann

The 2022 Arab Postal Union Algiers Summit took place on November 1 and 2, 2022 as announced. A stamp with a common design was supposed to be released by most of the participating members. Unfortunately, the information remains difficult to obtain. Most of the below was obtained from our friend Med Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria), but the list still seems uncomplete.

So far, we had already reported about the following countries which had issued a stamp each: Egypt (August 3, 2022), Algeria (August 20, 2022), Oman (October, 2022), Djibouti (October 9, 2022) and Tunisia (October 25, 2022).

To this previous list, we can now add Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, all of them having issued stamps on November 1, 2022.

These stamps represent 10 countries out of the 22 member states of the Arab League. So, another 12 potential participants could still participate or even may already have issued stamps. These include: Bahrain, Comoros, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Story to be followed …

Algiers Summit 2022

by Richard Zimmermann

Our friend Med Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria), continues providing information about the new 2022 Arab Postal Union stamps and the Algiers Summit that is supposed to take place on November 1 and 2, 2022. A stamp with a common design is to be released by most of the participating members.

Egypt, and Algeria have already issued their stamps, respectively on August 3, 2022 and August 20, 2022. Now we can report about the release of Oman‘s stamp (October, 2022), and the Republic of Djibouti. Unfortunately, this later is not following production rules that would fit with collectors’ wishes and the country is strictly limiting the number of items at the same time providing several subtypes of non-useful material. Djibouti produced 400 (!!) numbered souvenir sheets with 1 stamp and 400 other souvenir sheets with 4 different stamps among which one common stamp, but also the same in non-perforated (50 units). 20 perforated and 5 non-perforated units (souvenir sheets) have been produced as official FDCs dated October 9, 2022. A postal stationery has also been released. With that small printing run, it is clear that these products have been made to be sold at very high prices only to collectors and should not have the status of collectibles.

In the mean time, the Tunisia stamp was released on October 25, 2022. Most of the other countries are expected to release their stamps on November 1, 2022. The Arab League consists of 22 member states.

Djibouti adds to the 2019 Al-Quds series

by Richard Zimmermann

Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) via Benjamin Busch (France) reported new products released on November 1, 2021 by Djibouti and related to the Al-Quds/Jerusalem, Capital of Palestine stamps from 2019. It was obvious that other countries would join at a later stage this twin issue as did last year Libya and Saudi Arabia. This series is described in the catalogue under the entry code T20191009a. Djibouti produced a quite large series of products including two stamps available as perforated and non-perforated and for the smaller denomination produced in a sheet of 20 stamps [4×5]. The higher denomination became available in miniature sheets of 6 stamps [2×3], while a gold souvenir sheet in a folder is also available but produced only at 100 samples each as perforated and non-perforated.

As a reminder, countries having so far participated to this series include the following ones (for details see catalogue Part XIV, year 2019, which has been updated): Algeria (October 9, 2019) – Egypt (October 9, 2019) – Iraq (July 2, 2019) – Jordan (December 24, 2019) – Lebanon (October 9, 2019) – Libya (June 27, 2021) – Morocco (October 9, 2019) – Oman (November 14, 2019) – Palestine (December 6, 2019) – Qatar (November 14, 2019) – Saudi Arabia (June 24, 2021) – Tunisia (November 20, 2019) – United Arab Emirates (November 17, 2019). Here is a selection of images.