Honduras

Update Septembre 2026

by Richard Zimmermann

Romania issued on September 18, 2026, the stamps related to the Kazakhstan – Romania joint issue that was initially announced to be released in June 2026.

This issue illustrates the relationship between both countries with the topic Biospheres reserves. Romania issued four different stamps in a diamond shape. These stamps represent natural species to be found in the West Altai Biosphere Reserve in Kazkhstan or the Radnei Mountain Biosphere Reserve in Romania. The stamps are illustrated with a Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), the Western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus), the Brown bear (Ursus arctos), or the Siberian pine (Pinus siberica). Again, like for most of the Romanian stamps, the number of issued stamps remains very limited. The stamps are sold either in panes of 28 units with 4 labels (only 4×152 panes were printed totalling 4,256 stamps from each type out of panes). These same stamps were also printed in miniature sheets containing 3 stamps and a label each, and 4×3,375 miniature sheets became available (so, a total of 4×10,125 additional stamps. Then, these four stamps became also available in souvenir sheets of 4 different stamps, printed at 2,300 samples. A special folder containing this same souvenir sheet in a non-perforated numbered form was also made available, but only at 251 unit !

Unfortunately, at this date we have no information at all about Kazakhstan. However, it appears that Kazhakstan issued over the past years and at regular intervals, several blocks of stamps dedicated to specific local Biosphere Reserves. It would not be surprising if the Kazakhstan post has tried to adapt this series to the joint issue. Let us wait a little bit, but any information from Kazakhstan is welcome.

On this same September 18, 2026, the Dominican Republic and Honduras have launched a joint postal issue dedicated to lakes and lagoons, an initiative that brings together four stamps on natural areas of both countries and commemorates 102 years of uninterrupted diplomatic relations. The series, called “Lakes and Lagoons”, is part of the America UPAEP 2026 theme. Two stamps will circulate in Dominican territory: one is dedicated to the Gri-Gri Lagoon, located in Río San Juan, María Trinidad Sánchez province, and another to Lake Yojoa, one of the main bodies of water in Honduras. The other two pieces will be distributed in Honduras, one portraying the Cacao Lagoon, while the remaining one is dedicated to Lake Enriquillo, the largest lake in the Dominican Republic (This is an excerpt translated from the original reporting paper published by Infobae and provided by Fabio Bonacina, Italy).

As a result this joint issue has to be considered as Parallel (same date and different design) [P20260918]. Honduras issued 2×15,000 stamps and Dominican Republic 10,000 pairs. At this stage, better quality images are needed.

Mekhitar of Sebaste was an Armenian Catholic monk, scholar and theologian who founded the Mekhitarist Order, which has been based on San Lazzaro Island near Venice since 1717. On September 28, 2026, Armenia and the Vatican State celebrated the 350th anniversary of Mekhitar’s birth with a twin issue. Armenian stamps were issued in miniature sheets of 8 stamps with two labels [(2×2)+(2×2)] and Vatican stamps became available in miniature sheets of 10 stamps [2×5].

The 400th anniversary of the birth of Francis of Assisi will be celebrated on October 4, 2026 by Italy, San Marino, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Vatican State with a souvenir sheet identical for each country. These items represnt a work by Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) taken from the “Stories of St. Francis”, detail of the painting of the “Farewell of St. Clare from the remains of St. Francis”, preserved at the Upper Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi as well as sentences from the Canticle of the Creatures.

On Facebook, Kazem Alamdari posted an interesting souvenir sheet from Iran, dated 2026, on which the words “Joint Stamp” and the country name Iraq are printed. At this stage, no more information is available and help is needed here.

Also on Facebook, Luis Alejandro (Mexico), presented a summary of all joint issues involving Mexico. A nice presentation, showing also, how, over time, international relations had an impact on philately for this country. By checking quickly in the Joint issue catalogue, starting with the Country Index on page 65 of Vol 1, there are 52 issues listed, and not 32. Actually, this list is obviously integrating also the Parallel [P], Concerted [C] and Omnibus [O] series, while the list in the document below is limited to Twin issues involving only two countries each time.

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).