The Holi (India) and Purim (Israel) Festivals’ stamps involving India and Israel were originally scheduled to be released on February 13, 2024, but India was not ready to participate at that time. The new date of May 7, 2024 was set as second possibility, but the Indian stamp was still not released and the Israel sheetlet remained an unilateral issue, described as such in the catalogue under the entry [N20240507]. Surprisingly, on this February 11, 2025, we learned from several sources (Souvik Ghatak, India; Kenneth Sequeira, Singapore; Dov Lask, Israel – thanks to all of them) that finally, the two souvenir sheets became available, proven through first day covers bearing both the same issue date of February 11, 2025. The Israel souvenir sheet described so far was printed and ready since February 2024. It appeared on different blogs, but was not available for sale. No Israel cancelled cover dated before February 2025 has been seen so far, and therefore this new date of February 11, 2025 becomes the official day of first issue, leading this issue to be identified as Twin. Obviously, this issue deserves now a full description in the catalogue under the entry [T20250211].
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.
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.
On April 17, 2024, Israel and Romania celebrated their 75 years of uninterrupted diplomatic relationship through a joint issue representing dancers. The Hora Dance is a type of circle dance originating in Romania and surrounding communities and culturally adopted by Europeans minorities. The Israeli Hora Dance, born in Romania, played a foundational Role in modern Israeli Folk Dancing. The Dancers on the stamps are dressed in clothes colored as same as the national flags. Images are just mirroring in the stamp from the other country defining this twin issue as [T3] and not [T1]. On the Romanian stamp appear the flags of the two countries and on tabs as well, while on the Israeli stamps the flags appear on the stamp tab only (first information about this new issue provided by Dov Lask, Israel).
Israel issued stamps in miniature sheets of 15 stamps with 5 of them bearing tabs. Romania issued stamps in panes of 32 (only 7,296 stamps, so 228 panes) and miniature sheets of 6 stamps with 2 tabs (only 4,260 stamps, i.e., 710 miniature sheets and a maximum of 1,420 stamps with tabs). Officially, Romania post created also 211 numbered mixed souvenir sheets with stamps from both countries, but of course more will be available as private production of mixed first day covers remains possible. However, each time Romania is recently involved in a joint issue, the number of combined products remains very limited.
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.
Several friends provided interesting information over the past weeks:
Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore) discovered an item based on an older Indonesia souvenir sheet, originally part of the Indonesia – Thailand joint issue from May 5, 2016, overprinted at the occasion of the Philatelic Exhibition “Thailand 2023”, that took place between November 27 and December 2, 2023. This is not part of a joint issue, but as material from a previous joint issue was used, the item needs to be described under this heading [T20160505].
The 60th anniversary of the relationship between Tunisia and The People’s Republic of China was celebrated by Tunisia with a dedicated stamp showing a panda with a text in both Chinese and Arabic characters. Unfortunately China did not issue any counterpart philatelic material and this unilateral stamp will not be reported in the catalogue (information received from Med Achour Ali Ahmed, Algeria).
During its 44th session in Cairo (Egypt) on January 11, 2024, the Permanent Arab Postal Commission decided to issue by Arab member countries a postage stamp in solidarity with Gaza. A commission was set up to discuss its design. No release date has been brought forward (information received from Med Achour Ali Ahmed, Algeria).
The UPU has launched the campaign of its 150th anniversary, announcing a possibility for all voluntary postal administrations to participate on October 9, 2024 with a common stamp. The suggestion is to use the logo of the anniversary which has been shown at the end of last year. So far, more than 20 countries have confirmed their participation, but eventually about 200 countries could participate. As this issue is created upon a kind of central invitation, not printed centrally and as there is some freedom to adapt the logo, but with the suggestion to release them at the same date, this issue has to be considered as a true twin issue. It looks like a future omnibus series. There will be hundreds of products available and it could be understandable that some collectors will not consider integrating these stamps in their collection. The design of the proposed common stamp became available.
Enzo Cafaro, Italy, found information about the next India – Israel joint issue dedicated to Purim Festival to be released on February 13, 2024 and he could already provide the design.
All catalogue volumes have been updated and are available on line. The list of additional issues expected to be released during the year 2024 has been integrated in the catalogue Volume 15.
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.
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.
About three weeks ago, information was provided from Israel (Dov Lask and Uri Barlev) about a planned joint issue involving Cyprus and Israel. Actually, it took some time to get detailed information and better quality images from the Cyprus side and we still not have complete data yet. Eventually, we gathered the following information. Both countries issued an identical stamp honoring the firefighters illustrated with a plane dropping water to put out a forest fire. Stamps were issued on April 4, 2023 and were produced in miniature sheets of 8 stamps [4×2] for Cyprus and 9 stamps [3×3] for Israel. In both cases the bottom margins are illustrated with flags of both countries, leading to the possibility to create out of a single miniature sheet, 4, respectively 3 stamps attached to tabs. Cyprus stamps were printed at 90,000 samples among which 4,000 were used to create FDCs.
Surprisingly, in the Cyprus miniature sheet, the top of the flag design from the tabs is overlapping the bottom of the stamps from the lower row of the miniature sheet. These parts of flags do not appear at the bottom of the upper row of stamps leading to the existence of two different stamps, the one of the top row (Type I – without parts of the flags) and the one of the bottom row (Type II – with parts of the flags), this one available of course with or without tab.
On February 28, 2023, the joint issue between Armenia and Slovakia was released as scheduled. It celebrates the 30th anniversary of relationship and the stamps depict the Tatev Monastery, in Syunik region (Armenia) built during the ninth century, included now in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list and the St George’s Church, in Nitrianska Blatnica (Slovakia) also from the ninth century. The particularityy of this issue comes from the way the stamps are produced. The stamps are printed in a pane size [5×9] containing both stamps, type A in the top half, type B in the bottom half, together with 5 central labels forming a central cross. The overall structure looks the following: 3 rows of 5 stamps A, a row containing 2 pairs of stamp A separated by a label, then a row with one stamp A, three labels and one stamp B, and a row containing 2 pairs of stamp B separated by a label, and at the bottom 3 rows of 5 stamps B. This structure leads to a sheet containing 20 stamps A, 20 stamps B and 5 labels. Each sheet can contain vertical pairs of se-tenant A-B stamps, but limited to two units per pane. Knowing that the total printing of stamps is 2×20,000 for Armenia and 2×100,000 for Slovakia, only respectively 1,000 and 5,000 panes have been printed containing a maximum of 2,000 and 10,000 vertical pairs respectively.
These miniature sheets could be cut a different way, by keeping in one piece the five central labels with the 2 stamps A and 2 stamps B in the four corners. Only a maximum of 1,000 units for Armenia and 5,000 for Slovakia of these cut outs of printed panels can theoretically exist. The central labels represent the flags of both countries, and the coat of arms of Armenia, respectively Slovakia. The two other labels contain the words ‘Armenia – Slovakia joint issue’ in English and Armenian for Armenia, in Slovak and Armenian for Slovakia.
Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) provided some information about the potential Cambodia-South Korea joint issue that was supposed to be released on February 10, 2023. The original source was the South Korean Philatelic Service. However, Jaap learned from two Cambodian sellers that no such an issue is mentioned in the 2023 list of Cambodian stamps. Also a seller from South Korea confirmed this is not a joint issue. The top margin of the souvenir sheet printed by South Korea is entitled “Protecting Endangered Species in Korea – Cambodia REDD+ Joint Project Area”, meaning the ‘joint’ character is refering to an area between both countries, and a common project, but not to this stamp issue. This entry is removed from the catalogue.
Don Birschel (USA) reports also about stamps released at the occasion of the Kuwait 62nd national day by both Kuwait (February 22, 2023) and the United Arab Emirates (February 25, 2023). Even if the Kuwait 62nd national day is celebrated by the UAE, there are no hints of collaboration between both countries and stamps are different. These cannot be considered as a joint issue.
A surprising joint issue between India and Luxembourg will be released on March 14, 2023. The information was first provided by Souvik Ghatak (India) and Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore). The Luxembourg post made the announcement as early as March 2, 2023, but it took some time for India to confirm, despite the fact that the designer of the miniature sheet is of Indian origin. The stamps relate to the 75th anniversary of the relationship between both countries and is illustrated by sculptures by Amar Nath Sehgal (1922-2007), an Indian sculptor, painter and poet who spent a large part of his life in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Up to now, there are no news from the Israel-India issue supposed to be released in the course of the month of February. In the meantime, however, the first image of the Israel stamp to be realeased on April 4, 2023 jointly with Cyprus was released. Topic is aerial firefighting. The Cyprus stamps has not been seen so far.
The following information has been added to or modified in the new version of Volume 15 (Vol 15 V4.03):
The above mentioned Armenia – Slovakia issue [T20230228] as well as the Poland – Slovenia [T20230306], the Poland – Vatican [T20230227] and the Ascension – British Antarctic Territories – Falkland Islands – South Georgia – Tristan da Cunha [D20230215] stamps have been integrated in the catalogue
Confirmation of the existence of mixed FDCs for the 2022 Argentina – Spain Juan Domingo Peron issue [C20220914]
Update of the list of new issues including Pakistan – Sri Lanka (2023), Japan – Peru (August 21, 2023), Japan – Vietnam (September 21, 2023)
The information related to complete descriptions of new sets of joint issues is also dispatched in Vol 1. Note that the page “Philatelic resources” is constantly updated to maintain the most accurate level (which is not easy, corrections and additions welcome) and changes will not be reported here.
Georgia issued already stamps at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of its diplomatic relationship with different countries, first on December 7, 2022 with Azerbaijan, then on December 20, 2022, with Israel.
More recently, we learned from Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore) and Enzo Cafaro (Italy) that Georgia issued also one stamp identical to the Italy stamp itself issued on December 7, 2022. Date of issue of the Georgian stamp is apparently December 27, 2022, leading to a Concerted issue [C]. The only problem here is that despite the fact that the stamps are identical, Italian Post does not consider this issue as joint (???), at least it was not defined originally by an official decree. Fabio Bonacina (Italy) in Vaccari News, tries to give some explanations (https://www.vaccarinews.it/news/Dentello_pure_da_Tbilisi/33994). It is possible that Georgia produced their stamp on the basis of the Italian model once the Italian stamp was released, but up to the point to officially present pictures of both stamps, in a same room, on December 27, in presence of the Italian ambassador. In our case, it is clear that with such a similar design, the stamps must have been created on the basis of at least a limited initial collaboration between both postal administrations. Therefore, we will report this pair in the catalogue and I am sure, collector will be glad to have a funny story to tell behind these two stamps, despite the non-recognition of the joint character by one part. If we discover in a near future, another example of such (unilateral) twin stamps, we will probably have to create a new sub-type in our classification system.
Another astonishing point relates to the illustration. It represents the construction of the cathedral of Bichvinta, based on a design of Father Cristoforo Castelli (1597-1659). Bichvinta (also called Pitsunda) is located in Abkhazia, a territory that is under Russian control since 2008…
A Joint stamp was issued between Israel and Georgia in honor of 30 years of diplomatic relations on December 20, 2022 (information provided by Varda Lask, Israel, and Don Birschel, USA). The issue of the stamp is described in the Israeli brochure as follows: ” The Umm Leisun inscription appears on an ancient Georgian tombstone made of limestone and is written in Georgian Asomtavruli script. It was discovered in 2002 during the excavation of a Byzantine-period Georgian monastery in the Umm Leisun neighborhood in southern Zur Baher, 4.5 kilometers south of the Old City of Jerusalem. The tombstone was found in an underground crypt beneath a colorful mosaic floor. The crypt contained 24 skeletons, all adult men, as would be expected in a monastery. The most important tomb has an inscription identifying it as that of “Georgian bishop Iohane”, the oldest monk, with the highest status. This inscription is the earliest known example of Georgian script found on any archeological artifact, both in the Holy Land and in Georgia. The inscription is engraved on the tombstone and measures 81 cm X 49 cm. It dates back to the late fifth or first half of the 6th century and is on display in the Knesset Archeological Garden. The full inscription reads: “This is the grave of Iohane, Bishop of Purtavi, a Georgian”.
Joint Stamp Issues 
You must be logged in to post a comment.