France

October 2025 News

by Richard Zimmermann

First of all, we have to thank Kenneth Sequeira, Dubai, who discovered a China PR-Indonesia joint issue from August 30, 2025, that we completely missed. This twin issue celebrates the 75th anniversary of relationship between both countries and is illustrated with landscapes of lakes and pagodas: the West Lake with Jingzi Tempel in Hangzhou, China PR and Lake Bratan with the Pura Ulun Danu Beratan, Hindu tempel in Bali, Indonesia.

The Bosnia Herzegovina (Bosnia) – Indonesia joint issue was finally relased on October 3, 2025. This issue was originally scheduled to be released on October 4, 2024, but was finally postponed by more than one year. The stamps issued in miniature sheets of two se-tenant stamps represent the Istiklal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the Istiklal Mosque in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The Indonesian souvenir sheet is available perforated and imperforate. The word “Istiklal” in Arabic stands for ‘Independence’. The Jakarta Mosque was opened in 1978. The Sarajevo Mosque was a gift from the Indonesian people and Government of Indonesia for Bosnia and Herzegovina as a token of solidarity and friendship between the two nations. This Mosque was opened in 2001 (Information provided by Kenneth Sequeira, Dubai)

On October 7, 2025, France and Japan celebrated the Week of Letter Writing with a twin issue depicting gardens. On one side the French Vaux-le-Vicomte castle and gardens were represented, on the other one, the Gingaku-ji tempel or Silver Pavilion near Kyoto, Japan, was shown. France issued the stamps in two miniature sheets of 10, while Japan produced a single miniature sheet with 5 se-tenant pairs. Mixed official first day documents and a mixed folder with all four stamps, mint, became also available (This information was first provided by Dominique Josse, France).

Mongolia and India celebrated on October 14, 2025, the 70th anniversary of their diplomatic relationship with identical souvenir sheets containing two stamps showing the Mongolian Biyelgee dance and the Ramlila theatrical performance (India). The margins show both national flags, the anniversary logo, national animals (horse and elephant), folk arts, Mongolian ger (yurt) and the blue sky (information provided by Kenneth Sequeira, Dubai, and Robert Schrijvers, Mongolia).

China (PR) and Monaco are celebrating the 30 years of diplomatic relations (1995-2025) on October 15, 2025, with two stamps showing identical flowers, i.e., Canterbury bells, Campanula medium and an orchid, Cymbidium.

The Cat stamps related to the Laos – Russia joint issue from October 15, 2025, were presented in the previous page. Kenneth Sequeira was able to provide the illustration from Laos which is producing both perforated and imperforate stamps and souvenir sheets. The stamps show the Marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) and the East Siberian lynx (Lynx lynx wrangeli). Russian stamps are self-adhesive, sold in miniature sheets of 4 pairs, chessboard ordered. Laos stamps are available as perforated or imperforate souvenir sheets containing the pair of stamps.

The Gibraltar – Liechtenstein issue announced for December 2025 will in fact be released on November 10, 2025. It design is already available on the Liechtenstein postal administration web site (information provided by Kenneth Sequeira). Surprisingly this issue will be available in form of two souvenir sheets containing each a stamp from each country (different stamp designs), which defines this issue as Se-tenant joint issue [S2]. Stamps show falcons and are dedicated to the migration of these birds. Stamps are also available in sheetlets, and mixed FDCs are available.

Catalogues Vol 1 and Vol 16 have been updated with all this information covering the months of September and October 2025.

Arab Post Day update and more to come

by Richard Zimmermann

Both previous blog pages triggered attention from collectors and resulted in additional information that help complete the catalogue:

Regarding the Arab Postal Day issue [T20250803], two additional countries have to be added to the already reported list (Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates) namely, Egypt and Oman which issued their stamps respectively on August 3, 2025 and August 10, 2025 (Information provided by Mohamed Achour Ali Ahmed, Algeria and Ali Allawati, Oman).

The 80th Arab League anniversary issue from March 22, 2025 [T20250322] was also completed by two stamps issued in miniature sheets of 3 pairs from the United Arab Emirates. These stamps were issued on August 18, 2025 (Information provided by Kenneth Sequeira, Singapore).

The previous blog page was also missing the image of the Russian stamp jointly issued with North Korea on August 15, 2025. Illustration was provided by Kenneth Sequeira, Singapore, confirming the twin character.

I also made a comment earlier that embroided stamps are never used postally. Henri Aronis (France) provided a proof that this can happen with a Swiss stamp (year 2000), although not part of a joint issue. As expected, the thickness of the ‘stamp’ makes cancellation illegible. This cover was sent from Switzerland to Niger. Thanks Henri.

Jaap Sarelse (the Netherlands) reacted on the comments provided earlier about the July 5, 2025 Cape Verde – Portugal joint issue and at the same time provided information about Angola, a third country joining this issue, with the following:

“The text suggests that it is a joint issue in which only Cape Verde and Portugal are involved. However, Angola is also involved with an identical stamp. Not to commemorate Angolan independence, but purely focused on the independence of Cape Verde. Some evidence:

  • In the leaflet of the Portuguese Post (6 pages) the text on page 5, 7th and 8th line from the bottom reads: ‘To help consolidate the historic memory of the founding of the Republic of Cabo Verde, a joint stamp issue is being released by Angola, Cabo Verde and Portugal’.
  • On page 5, one can find the stamps of Angola on the top row. Cabo Verde is also mentioned on this stamp at the bottom right.
  • Finally, only Cabo Verde is mentioned in the logo on page 1. I suspect that in the context of ’50 anos Independência Nacional’ Angola will get its own joint issue and that the name Angola will then adorn below the stars in the logo“

Thanks, Jaap for this complement. Catalogue will be updated. Here are the additional illustrations (Angola stamp illustrations provided by Kenneth Sequeira):

Additional information relative to issues to come include the following:

  • The Oman – Russia originally scheduled for April 22, 2025, is now postponed to September 26, 2025 (Oman source) or October 15, 2025 (Russian source), not clear at this stage. It will show maps and honour Omani explorer Ahmed bin Majid and the Russian traveler Afanasy Nikitin
  • Kenneth Sequeira reported also two modifications in the Russian philatelic programme for 2025: a) the RCC stamps will be issued on August 23, 2025, but over the past years these stamps involving all CIS countries were not anymore considered as joint and there is no hint that this will change this year; b) the anniversary of the liberation of Korea will be celebrated by overprinting the August 15, 2025 joint issue with North Korea. These stamps will be issued on September 2, 2025
  • On October 7, 2025, the France – Japan is also confirmed. Japan stamp designs became available (information provided by Dominique Josse, France)

  • On August 15, 2025, Argentina issued a stamp to celebrate 60 years of immigration from Korea. No stamps related to the same topic was seen so far in the South Korea philatelic program. This issue may remain unilateral (information provided by Enzo Cafaro, Italy)

  • Our friend Luis Alejandro Malanco Reyes (Mexico) is working on a Mexican stamp catalogue (which of course includes also joint issues involving Mexico) and brought on line the first part of his work (years 2001-2025) with free access: Catálogo Filatélico México . Congratulations Luis and keep doing the good job.

Finally, some information about the next joint crypto-stamps issue (not recommanded to include in the joint issue collection as explained earlier): This will be the fourth crypto joint issue after the 2022 Austria-Netherlands (Ox), 2023 Austria-Luxembourg-Netherlands (Lion) and 2024 Austria-Belgium-Luxembourg-Netherlands (dragon) issues. The theme for this fourth issue is the Greek world of the gods. Five countries will participate and they made the following choice: Portugal – Poseidon, Austria – Zeus and Hera (2 stamps), Belgium – Athena, Luxembourg – Artemis and the Netherlands – Hermes.

Jaap Sarelse has succesfully created joint stamp covers with the previous crypto stamps and will try again this year with the six stamps. He provided the picture of the copy from year 2024. Such documents are close to unique.

The catalogue was update with all above new data. See updated Vol 1, Vol 15 and Vol 16

Euromed 2025

by Richard Zimmermann

The 2025 EUROMED issue is dedicated this year to European resources. Almost full freedom was given to the postal administrations to design their stamps, and, as a consequence, individual stamps describe very different topics including national parks, natural (local) or energy resources (wind and sun), landscapes, food, crafts or access to raw material (e.g., salt), with Türkiye showing in a souvenir sheet all possible country resources. So far, 14 countries have released their stamps with the most ciommon date on July 14, 2025. Those countries include: Bosnia Herzegovina (July 10, 2025), strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) derived products, preserves, jam; Croatia (July 14), the Neretva Delta; Cyprus (July 9), wind turbine; Egypt (July 14), energy, oil, sea resources; France (July 11), sea and shore; Greece (July 7), sea sponge (Spongia mollissima) and boat; Malta (July 9), sculptor and building; Montenegro (July 14), Ulcinjska Solana (Ulcinj saltworks); Morocco (July ?), natural resources, “Cap des Trois Fourches” (Cape of the Three Forks), Ramsar wetland; Portugal (July 10), carob collecting and salt harvesting; Slovenia (July 11), karst edge; Spain (July 8), flower (Paeonia cambessedesii), Balearic peony; Tunisia (July 7), Galite and Zembra national parks; Türkiye (Turkey) (July 7), landscape with different resources.

The Euromed association includes also Albania, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine. With the exception of Albania which always issues their Euromed stamp with a delay of one year, there is limited chances that one of these other countries will participate this year, but who knows?

Information was mainly provided by Med Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria) and Enzo Cafaro (Italy). Thanks to both of them.

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).

News November 2024

by Richard Zimmermann

We missed to report the China (PR) – France joint issue released on October 18, 2024 at the occasion of the 60th anniversary of their relationship . Stamps are identical and represent the Mont Saint-Michel (Saint Michael’s Mount) in France and the Mount Tai (Taishan) in China. The Chinese stamps were released in miniature sheets of 12 stamps 2x[3×4], while the French stamps became available in miniature sheets of 15 stamps 2x[3×5]. A mixed ‘pochette’ with all four stamps became available from the French postal administration, and as usual with China, mixed FDCs will probably be easy to find.

On November 14, 2024, Italy and the Vatican State celebrated the 25th anniversary of Venice Foundation for the Search for Peace through a twin issue. The identical stamps are reproducing the logo of the Foundation highlighted on an ancient map called “Perspective map of the city of Venice and the lagoons“, published by Benedetto Bordone in 1534. A large figure “25” and a dove, logo of the Foundation, complete the illustration. Italian stamps were printed in panes of 50, while Vatican stamps became available as miniature sheets of 10.

On November 29, 2024, a series of Arab states will issue a common stamp in solidarity with Gaza. So far, countries that have committed to participate include Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine and Qatar. This list is not complete. On October 7, 2024, Syria had already issued a stamp and a souvenir sheet with the common design. Stamps in panes of 50 units [5×10] were printed at 5,000 samples and souvenir sheets at 1,500 samples, among which 500 units of each were already used to prepare FDCs. The information was provided by Med Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria).

Eventually, since beginning of the year, we still have to report missing counterparts of the following stamps that were initially announced as joint:

  • Israel, missing India: 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, date at which the Israel stamp was unilaterally put on sale, but the Indian stamp was not released and information is still missing since. There are great chances that this issue will remain unilateral.
  • Russia, released on August 24, 2024, missing China (PR): Russian stamp release moved to August 24 from originally August 4, 2024, but Chinese stamp were not issued yet. There are also great chances that this issue will remain unilateral.
  • Uruguay, released on September 10, 2024, a stamp related to the 60th anniversary of relationship with Korea (South). Uruguay made two se-tenant stamps available , printed in miniature sheets of ten pairs [2px5] (printed 2,500 pairs). No information from South Korea is available at this stage and this issue may remain unilateral as well.
  • On September 30, 2024, Kazakhstan and Morocco were supposed to release jointly a stamp at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of their relationship, illustrated with the topic Gastronomy. The Kazakh stamp became available on that date, but despite the fact that the it bears the words “Joint issue Kazakhstan – Morocco”, no information is available so far from the Moroccan side. We still have open that it could become a concerted issue.
  • Bosnia Herzegovina (Bosnia) and Indonesia were supposed to release stamps on October 4, 2024, at the occasion of the 25 years of the Istiklal Mosque in Sarajevo. The issue disappeared from the Bosnia Herzegovina philatelic program for 2024, while no information is available from Indonesia. This issue could be postponed to 2025.
  • On November 4, 2024, Serbia issued a stamp at the occasion of the 70th anniversary of relationship with Indonesia. We are missing any information from Indonesia on that topic. Actually we are missing a lot of information about the real program of Indonesia, and we have no idea which country will be really involved in a joint issue with this country.
  • The Belarus – Russia joint issue initially scheduled for November 15, 2024 is now postponed to December 6, 2024.

Any additional information is welcome. In absence of information regarding the issues already reported as potential unilateral series, these entries will be removed from the catalogue by end of the year. The catalogue pages have been updated with all these information.

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.

Euromed 2024

by Richard Zimmermann

The 2024 Euromed issues were released for most of them on July 8, 2024. The following countries have so far released their stamps: Bosnia Herzegovina (July 10, 2024) – Croatia – Cyprus (July 10) – Egypt () – France – Greece – Malta – Montenegro – Morocco – Portugal (July 10) – Slovenia – Spain (July 10) – Tunisia (July 9) and Turkey (July 7). We are expecting other issues from Albania and Jordan. Jordan stamps have not been seen so far, while Albania stamps are always delayed by one year. Topic is Mediterranean sports and illustrations are different. Thanks to Ali Ahmed Med Achour (Algeria), Don Birschel (USA), Jeff Courtright (USA) for having provided details.

In this series, Ali Ahmed Med Achour pointed also to a printing mistake (error on stamp) on the Egyptian souvenir sheet: The text in Arabic which is supposed to tell “Sports in Mediterranean” and which is correct on the Tunisia and Morocco stamps, is wrong in the Egyptian souvenir sheet. In this case, it has to be translated in “Sport in Euro-Mediterranean”. Below are reproduced the Egyptian souvenir sheet text above the Moroccan stamp text.

As a complement to the Euromed 2023 issue, it is to note that Albania indeed issued its stamps in 2024, exactly on June 6, 2024. Catalogue will be completed accordingly.

December 2023 update

by Richard Zimmermann

Over the past weeks a series of new information could be gathered. Let us start first with the announcement of issues that could be released during the year 2024 out of different national philatelic programs. In most of the cases, there is not yet a confirmation from the counterpart country (Most information provided by Kenneth Sequeira, Singapore):

  • Croatia and Germany on October 10, 2024
  • Romania will issue together with Israel (April), Morocco (May) and India (September 2024). Note that the expected issue related to the anniversary of the death of Eugene Ionescu (1909-1994) involving France, Moldova and Monaco, does not appear in this official Romanian list for 2024
  • The 2024 UPU anniversary omnibus series (scheduled October 9, 2024) is growing every week and the present list of countries that have announced their participation includes already: Belarus – Belgium – Bosnia Herzegovina (Bosnia) – Croatia – Czech Republic – Germany – Greece – Guernsey – Hungary – Latvia – Lithuania – Moldova – Slovakia – Slovenia
  • At the same time, the South Korea India joint issue initially scheduled to be released on June 28, 2023, then rescheduled for December 8, 2023, was cancelled.

The Guatemala – Israel joint issue announced in a previous blog page was completed with the issue of the Guatemala stamp. Uri Barlev (Israel) could provide the images of the Guatemala stamps also released on the same day of December 12, 2023 with mixed documents, covers and Israel Souvenir Leaf. Apparently, the tab of the Guatemala stamp is provided with each stamp (miniature sheets of 15 stamps with 15 tabs, produced at only 800 samples/12,000 stamps+tabs) while Israel produced stamps in sheetlets of 15 stamps [3×5] with only 3 tabs at the bottom of the sheetlet – printing run unknown).

Also, as a surprise (discovered by Eric Contesse, France), the Australia Vietnam joint issue related to the 50 years of diplomatic relationship, which was removed from the catalogue because considered as a Vietnam unilateral issue, has to be reintegrated. In fact, Australia issued on September 6, 2023 a postal stationery (cover – Postage Paid Envelope PPE) with an indicium corresponding to the Vietnamese stamp. The Vietnamese stamps had been issued on August 27, 2023. The pair of products will be reported as a Concerted issue under the heading [C20230827] as the gap between the two issue dates is higher than one week.

In a same way, the unexpected counterpart from Poland of the Peru stamps (released on December 14, 2023) relative to 100 years of relationships came out as a postal stationery as early as September 27, 2023 (information provided by Jaap Sarelse, the Netherlands). Following a mail exchange with the Polish philatelic department, Jaap received an answer stating that this office does not recognize this issue as a joint issue with Peru. Indeed, the designs of the stamp/indicium are different and only margins, cachet and cancellations show identical design fragments. Unfortunately, on this basis, we cannot consider these two products as part of a joint issue, but only a commemorative issue using common logo. However, one has to admit that by using the same logo and the same illustrated topics, there must have been a start of discussions and collaboration between the two administrations which eventually did not finalize in a common product and event. To avoid recurring questioning, this issue will be described in the catalogue, but in gray color, italic characters under the entry code [N20230927] (non-approved joint issue).

Sri Lanka and Egypt came also together for a joint issue released on December 8, 2023, at the occasion of 66 (!) years of diplomatic relations (first information provided by Med Achour Ali Ahmed, Algeria). Stamps are different, however showing two identical historical monuments, but date of issue is the same.

Correction to be updated in the catalogue: Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) provided a copy of the first day cover from Qatar with the stamp issued jointly with Georgia. The official issue date for Qatar is August 27, 2023, which is by far different from the date of issue of Georgia (June 18, 2023), and therefore needs for this issue to be reconsidered as Concerted [C] and not Twin [T] as described up to now in the catalogue.

Jorge Semprun (1923-2011) was honored by two stamps released by France and Spain respectively on November 20, 2023 and November 22, 2023. Both stamps look very similar as rtaken during the same photo shooting session. However none of the two postal administrations consider this issue as joint and no common event, common FDC was organized. The issue will be described in the catalogue but as Not-approved issue, in italics and gray color [N20231120].

Finally, the official issue of the Panama stamp joint with SMOM is December 4, 2023, not December 6 as erroneously reported in the catalogue (Information confirmed by Enzo Cafaro, Italy)

The catalogue pages will be updated with all this information by beginning of 2024.

Euromed 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

The yearly Euromed issue was released on July 10, 2023 with the common topic “Festivals”. So far, all participating countries have issued their stamps on this same date, with the exception of Tunisia which released its stamps on July 11, 2023. There are 13 countries participating, including Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Tunisia. Other potential countries, having participated to Euromed issues in the past years, could also include Albania, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Turkey, but no information is available from these countries at this stage.

The scope of festival is quite large and each country selected one specific topic including film, dance, theater, music or photography festivals, but also food, fireworks or even the very specific Moreska Sword Dance Festival.

Euromed stamps 2022 now available

by Richard Zimmermann

Don Birschel (USA) collected all information relative to the Euromed 2022 stamps, topic submarine archeology, which started to appear at different countries’ post offices since July 8, 2022. The collection is not complete yet, but he was able to provide most of the illustrations of the following countries:

Croatia (July 11 – 1 stamp, issued 30,000; ancient city of Pula-Pola, amphitheater) – Cyprus (July 11 – 1 stamp) – France (July 8 – 1 stamp, [5×3], 495,000; West Giraglia 2, submarine excavations, Cap Corse) – Greece (July 11 – 2 se-tenant stamps and souvenir sheet with 2 pairs of stamps, as well as a booklet with two pairs; [2px4], [1px2] and [2px1]) – Malta (July 11 – 2 stamps, 100,000 and 30,000; Citadella Victoria, Gozo and Phoenician shipwreck site, Xiendi Bay, Gozo) – Montenegro (July 12 – 1 stamp printed 40,000, in miniature sheet of 8 stamps [3×3] with central label; coin of King Ballaios (2nd century BC) – Morocco (July 11 – 1 stamp; view of Titwan) – Portugal (July 11 – 2 stamps; 2x[5×4], 2×75,000) – Slovenia (July 11 – 1 stamp, ancient city of Ajdovscina; [5×5]) – Spain (July 11 – 1 stamp; [4×4]; 134,000) – Tunisia (July 11 – 2 stamps; [5×4] and [4×5]; child paintings of Tastur and Takruma) – Turkey (July 9).

Although normally issued at time of printing this page, we are still missing detailed information from Cyprus , Morocco, Spain and Turkey. We know that Bosnia Herzegovina will issue its stamp only on November 15, 2022. Eventually, compared to previous years, we could also expect participation from the following countries: Albania, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine.

On top of this, the Albania Euromed 2021 stamps were issued on May 11, 2022. (block of four, issued 4,000, [b4x2]). Albania Euromed 2022 may become available only in 2023.

Mid-year review

by Richard Zimmermann

The release of joint stamps is still affected by the coronavirus pandemic situation and, additionally, more recently, by the Ukrainian-Russian war. The situation of the specific program involving Russia was already reported here. How about the other joint issues?

The Japan – Mongolia issue, 50 years of diplomatic relations, eventually proved not to be a true joint issue. Mongolia released a souvenir sheet on May 19, 2022. For Japan, the date of issue was shifted from originally February 14, 2022 to June 15, 2022 and a souvenir sheet with 10 stamps in a different design was released (information provided by Robert Schrijvers, Mongolia).

The Bosnia Herzegovina stamps related to Family Remittances was issued as planned on June 16, 2022 with a design identical to stamps produced earlier and in miniature sheets of 10 stamps (printing run 1,000 miniature sheets). This stamp will simply be added to the original series [B20200716] which was already filed as a Borrowed Design [B], so not a true joint issue. 2020 Catalogue section has been updated with this information. There is no indication of the issuance this year by another country of other stamps related to this topic so far.

We are still missing information from Turkmenistan related to the Turkmenistan-India joint issue. The Indian stamps were released on April 2, 2022.

The commemorative Brazilian stamp featuring the 100th anniversary of James Joyce’s work ‘Ulysses’ was issued within the Brazilian ‘Diplomatic Relations Series’ and dedicated to Ireland. The stamp was issued as scheduled on June 16, 2022, but not as a joint issue. There is no counterpart produced by Ireland at the same date and this issue can be removed from the catalogue.

In the same way, the Italian – Mexico issue initially planned for July 23, 2022 to celebrate diplomatic relations between both countries will probably not take place. On June 28, 2022, Mexico issued a stamp dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the building of the Mexican embassy in Italy. There are no counterparts reported in the Italian philatelic program and there is a great doubt that Italy will change its program within the next weeks.

The Ecuador-Mexico joint issue in honor of the heroes of independency Leona Vicario and Manuela Saenz was not issued on June 1, 2022, as scheduled. It seems the issue of these stamps will again be delayed, as the date had already been changed twice this year. Any information is welcome.

The Cyprus-Israel joint issue that was once listed on the Israel program has disappeared from this list. No stamp was issued on the originally scheduled date of June 28, 2022.

On the positive side, names of countries involved in the next Euromed issue are now accumulating. The present list of countries having guaranteed participation to this issue include: Bosnia Herzegovina (November 15) – Croatia (July 11) – France (July 8) – Greece (July 11) – Portugal (July 11) – Slovenia (July 11) – Tunisia (July 11) – Turkey (July 9). More are to come and, compared to last year, we could expect participation from the following countries as well: Albania, Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco and Spain. The complete list will be published in Volume 15 of the catalogue, after July 11, 2022, the most common and new reference date for this issue. In the meantime, some pictures of the already disclosed projects.

Finally, take a look at this web link of interest, the site of Mark Joseph Jochim, Philatelic Pursuits, which provides information about the stamp issue programs of all countries. It needs to be updated, but it represents a unique and very interesting starting point.

Failed opportunities

by Richard Zimmermann

The programme of new stamps from Belarus included a potential joint issue with China and another with Vietnam, both expected to be released during the month of January at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relationships. The Belarus stamps were issued respectively on January 12, 2022 and January 24, 2022, but there is absolutely no news from either China PR nor Vietnam for event-associated stamps. There are great chances that these issues will remain unilateral and that the entries will have to be removed from the list described in the catalogue (Vol 15). At least, here are the pictures of the Belarus stamps.

An other opportunity was mentioned by Cesar Ittman (The Netherlands). During the year 2022, France celebrates the 200th anniversary of the death of the famous author Moliere. France issued a first stamp on January 17, 2022, at the same time as Monaco, while Czech Republic issued a stamp on January 20, 2022. There is absolutely no claim from one of these countries for a joint issue. These are just stamps issued at the occasion of an anniversary and it would not be surprising to see much more other stamps released to honor Moliere during this year without any joint character.

The first true joint issue to be released this year is scheduled for February 14, 2022, not earlier. This is quite late compared to previous years.

Don Birschel (USA) explored older issues and asked about the relevance of some 2006 China-Africa Forum stamps as joint. Indeed, some of these stamps show the same design, but this is a logo and none of the countries have claimed a joint issue character. So again, this is an exemple of a non-approved joint issue. Here are the pictures of the stamps from countries that celebrated this event: Algeria (November 6, 2006), China (November 3), Egypt (November 5), Eritrea (November 3) and Ivory Coast (November 28).