Kazakhstan

AICEP, UPU and dolls

by Richard Zimmermann

Upon a proposal from Portugal, the five lusophone countries Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Macau and Portugal came together to celebrate with a twin issue the 35th anniversary of AICEP (Associação Internacional das Communicaçóes de Expressão Portuguesa – International Association of Portuguese Expression Communications). Stamps with the same design were all released on May 13, 2025, during the XXXII AICEP forum.

This AICEP anniversary issue could include the other countries members of the association, namely Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe and Timor, but so far no information is available from these countries (images provided by Enzo Cafaro, Italy and Kenneth Sequeira, Singapore – Image from Angola is still missing, although participation is confirmed).

In the previous blog page, we described souvenir sheets released on April 25, 2025 by Belarus and Russia to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). Kenneth Sequeira, Singapore, reported stamps issued by Kazakhstan and Mongolia at the same occasion. The Kazakhstan souvenir sheet including a round stamp was issued also at the same date of April 25, 2025 and must be added to the previous countries. This souvenir sheet, printed only at 2,500 samples, became also available with a “PCC/RSS” overprint (Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communication) within the stamp, not related to this joint issue. Mongolia produced a completely different stamp in sheetlets of 4 [2×2] released on April 30, 2025. It is not clear if this fourth country participated to a joint effort with the three other countries, and for the time being these stamps will only be described as a footnote in the same entry.

Enzo Cafaro, Italy, was able to provide the preliminary sketches of the joint issue between the Russian Federation and the Dominican Republic planned for July 17, 2025. The final design may still change slightly but illustrations show that it will be almost identical for both countries.

Some surprising self-named joint issues appeared over the past months. The first one is related to the 90th anniversary of the relationship between Egypt and Switzerland. Egypt issued a stamp, but nothing was produced on the Swiss side. This Egyptian stamp will definitely remain an unilateral issue.

Also, Cambodia and Cyprus revealed by mid May (19 or 20) a so-called joint issue commemorating the 25th anniversary of their relationship. This information appeared on a UPU Facebook blog page (confirming a kind of postal commemoration), but the design that is shown looks like a stamp only through the perforations: there is no identified single country mentionned on the stamp, nor a denomination. As additional information from both countries is missing, it may be possible that this picture is just the symbolic design of the anniversary framed with perforations, and not a stamp, or at least not the final design. More information is needed here.

Ali Allawati, Oman, provided information from his country: next to the recently issued joint issue between Oman and Singapore reported under T20250221, Ali describes first an Iran-Oman issue (see illustration below), announced on May 27, 2025, issued in honour of the official Visit of His Excellency Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to the Sultanate of Oman. The Oman stamp is not yet available for purchase, and information is missing from the Iranian side.

On April 22, 2025, Oman Post had also annnounced the issuance of a joint stamp celebrating the enduring relations between the Russian Federation and Oman, coinciding with the state visit of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik to Russia. At this stage this is the only information available.

To the already very large October 9, 2024 UPU joint issue, one has also to add Aruba as a new country, which released a souvenir sheet containing a triangular shaped stamp, showing the UPU 150th anniversary logo in the margin. The souvenir sheet was issued on October 9, 2024, but was discovered only recently.

For those interested in the 2025 Europa stamps, this is the status of the issuing programme. The stamps with common topic National archeological discoveries (which topic was postponed to 2025 from originally 2024), were issued with a date centered around May 9, 2025. This year, these stamps are not considered as joint and will be reported under a simple list entitled [N20250509]. In the following list, empty bracket represent countries that announced their participation but from which data and in particular issue date are still missing, while absence of date means that those stamps were issued on May 9, 2025: Aland – Albania () – Andorra (French) (May 11) – Andorra (Spanish) – Armenia (April 29) – Artsakh (Armenia) () – Austria (May 1) – Azerbaijan (May 5) – Azores – Belgium (April 7) – Bosnia Herzegovina – Bosnia Herzegovina (Croatia) (April 5) – Bosnia Herzegovina (Serbia) (April 24) – Bulgaria – Croatia – Cyprus – Cyprus (Turkish) (May 8) – Czech Republic (May 7) – Denmark (May 28) – Estonia – Faroe (May 26) – Finland (May 7) – France – Georgia – Germany (May 8) – Gibraltar (May 8) – Greece (May 7) – Greenland (May 26) – Guernsey (May 1) – Hungary – Ireland (May 8) – Isle of Man (April 8) – Italy – Jersey (May 5) – Kazakhstan () – Latvia – Liechtenstein (April 1) – Lithuania (April 25) – Luxembourg (May 6) – Macedonia (North) (May 7) – Madeira – Malta – Moldova (April 11) – Monaco – Montenegro – Netherlands – Norway (April 24) – Poland (April 28) – Portugal – Romania (April 29) – San Marino (February 11) – Serbia (May 6) – Slovakia (April 30) – Slovenia – Spain – Sweden (April 24) – Switzerland (May 8) – Türkiye (Turkey) – Ukraine (August) – Vatican (May 27)

Eventually, we learned also that a new crypto-stamp joint issue involving Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal. Details will be known during the summer.

Unilateral issues update

by Richard Zimmermann

The previous page on Unilateral Issues triggered a lot of answers leading to some new joint issues to be confirmed for the end of the year 2024.

Let us first start with the Kazakhstan – Morocco issue. A Kazakhstan stamp, in miniature sheets of 8 units, was released as early as September 30, 2024 with a topic related to the 30th anniversary of relationship depicting local Gastronomy (camel milk, kumis, dates), but above all with a stamp bearing the words “Joint issue Kazakhstan – Morocco”. Eventually, the Moroccan stamp was released on December 25, 2024, in sheetlet of 10 stamps. This issue can now be reported in the catalogue as a Concerted issue with the entry code [C20240930].

Similarly, the Egyptian counterpart for the Hungarian souvenir sheet issued on November 28, 2024, was discovered. We can therefore confirm that these two sheets from Egypt and Hungary form a joint issue that is described in the catalogue under the heading [T20241128]. The Egyptian souvenir sheet was issued at only 7,000 samples from which 700 were taken to prepare first day covers.

There is an interesting on-going discussion about a potential Italy – Peru joint issue related to the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between both countries. On August 28, 2024, Peru issued two stamps, so far without counterpart from Italy. In the 2025 Italian philatelic program, we discover now that Italy intends to issue stamps on January 30, 2025, celebrating the same event, but even claiming it should be joint. Italian Post just informed that there was a delay as they were not ready by the time of issue of the Peruvian stamps. As Peru issued their stamps unilateraly (without joint character claim), this announcement looks surprising. We have not seen the design of the Italian stamp and we will probably have to wait until January 30, 2025 to define the real characters of this stamp and decide afterwards how to consider them. There is one important point however to take in account: there should be no confusion between joint stamps and a joint event. So, decision to integrate these stamps in the catalogue, is still on hold.

The situation is clearer with the Peruvian – Dominican Republic issue. On November 13, 2024, Peru also issued stamps at the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the relationship between both countries. It appears that Dominican Republic issued a single stamp the same day, reproducing the buildings that are reproduced on the Peruvian stamps. In this case we are in presence of a real twin issue that will be described in the catalogue under entry number [T20241113]

In the meantime, a Mauritius – India mixed FDC became available. This item is based on an illustrated Mauritius first day cover celebrating the 200th anniversary of Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati (1824-2024), on which was added an India stamp with exactly the same design itself cancelled from December 12, 2024. By further inquiries about this document, Jaap Sarelse could confirm that this stamp release is not a joint issue. The design was made available by the Organization supporting the anniversary events, which any post office could use to issue a stamp. It happens that both countries used the logo alone to fill the space within the stamp which resulted to very similar items. Collectors created mixed FDCs only on the basis of the stamp similarities, but postal administrations never collaborated. Suriname issued also stamps at this occasion, using only the same portrait but not the full logo.


During this search activity, a new joint issue appeared that has been forgotten so far: Morocco and the United Arab Emirates celebrated historical relationship through identical stamps and souvenir sheets. These stamps were released on November 13, 2024. they represent symbols, flags of both countries, the “Hassan II” Mosque in Casablanca and the “Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque” in Abu Dhabi.

For all this information, thanks to Ali Ahmed Med Achour (Algeria), Don Birschel (USA), Tolga Caglayankaya (the Netherlands), Enzo Cafaro (Italy), Fabio Bonacina (Italy), Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore), Jaap Sarelse (the Netherlands), Cesar Ittmann (The Netherlands), Eric Chan (Hong Kong) and Eric Contesse (France) through his Facebook blog Joint Stamp Issues (and of course all the collectors participating to this blog).

Unilateral issues 2024

by Richard Zimmermann

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Any additional information or change to this list is welcome.

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: a first update

by Richard Zimmermann

As anticipated, the list of stamps issued at the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union and described in an earlier page was not complete. Very quickly after publication, several collectors provided additional information. Here I have to thank Ali Ahmed Med Achour (Algeria), Enzo Cafaro (Italy), and Tolga Caglayankaya (Netherlands) for some of these additional data.

This complementary list is divided using the same structure as the one provided earlier:

Countries of Type A (Twin [T1], same date, same design), additional countries: Cambodia – Guatemala – Kazakhstan (October 15) – Libya – Nigeria.

Also we have to report an additional product for Indonesia (souvenir sheet, illustration above). Already reported Ukrainian stamps available so far are provided in form of either isolated stamps or miniature sheets of 5 stamps made of a top part with the design and a label with the letter “U” which stands in place of the denomination. In these products, this letter “U” is located on the left side. It appears that in some FDCs, the label bears the letter “U” on the right side. FDCs with left-side positionned letter “U” do exist as well. Mint stamps or miniature sheets with “U” on the right side have not been seen so far. In fact, these Ukrainian products are from private production (personalized stamps), but approved by Ukrainian Post. Also, looking closer to the background of the illustrated part of each stamp, it appears that the miniature sheet shows 6 different designs background, which are different from the stamps in panes or used on FDCs.

New country of Type B (Concerted [C1], different dates, same design): Malta (October 31)

In this series it was also discovered that Mali stamps produced with denomination 200F and 1000F, do exist as miniature sheets of 6 and panes of 20 (French language), also as a postal card, but the 1000F value became also available in 5 additional languages in panes, in souvenir sheet of 6 different stamps, with two different formats ([2×3] and [3×2]), perforated or imperforated. This is obviously expensive material to fool collectors (even if reported as ‘official’, they will never reach postal offices) and as such, they will be reported in italic characters in the catalogue with the mention ‘not recommended to buy’. Just as an additional note, the denomination of 1000 Malian Francs (FCFA) is equivalent today to about € 1.50. Right now, as these stamps are still supposed to be available from the Malian post office (if true), one should not pay more than twice this amount. Otherwise, the terms of “official” or “proof” are just artificial and shortage/rarity is organized by the printer.

New countries of Type C (modified design – only logo [T2], [C2]): Botswana (September 29) – Iraq – Liechtenstein – Netherlands. The information about Liechtenstein and Netherlands stamps is still uncomplete. It seems that these stamps were produced last minute and they are not described with details in the official channel).

Regarding Botswana, the country issued on September 29, 2024 four different zebra stamps in panes and together in a miniature sheet with the four stamps. A fifth stamp became available as part of a souvenir sheet with the UPU logo in the margin. Only this souvenir sheet can be considered as being part of the joint issue.

New country of Type D (different design, but same date [P1]): Seychelles

New country of Type E (different design, different date [N]): Poland (1 stamp, October 30, 2024)

This is a first update, because it is quite clear that more stamps related to this anniversary will be released (or simply discovered), probably even during the year 2025.

Latest News September – October 2024 (2)

by Richard Zimmermann

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) involves five countries from the post-sovietic era. The EAEU Treaty was signed on May 29, 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, and came into force on January 1, 2015. Armenia and Kyrgyzstan joined respectively on October 9, 2014 and December 23, 2014. Therefore, the year 2024 corresponds to the 10th anniversary of the treaty. On May 29, 2024, only Russia issued a stamp, but the joint character (Parallel issue [P]) of a common issue was confirmed with the issue of Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan stamps on October 1, 2024. Additionally, the design of the Kazakhstan stamp (only 5,000 samples available) is identical to the Russian stamp, giving a Concerted character [C] to this series. Kyrgyzstan issued also a stamp in the course of the month of September (exact release date still unknown). All these stamps have in common the presence of the EAEU logo and the five flags of the participating countries. This issue will be reported in the catalogue under the entry code [C20241001].

For the third time in less than a month, Portugal participates to a joint issue. On October 7, 2024, Portugal joined Morocco to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Peace Treaty (1774) and the 30th anniversary of the Friendship Treaty (1994) between both countries, with a pair of stamps representing the equestrian statue of King José I showing in the background the triumphal arch of Augusta Street in Lisbon, Portugal on one stamp, and the defense tower of the port of Essaouira, Morocco on the other one. Morocco issued the pair as se-tenant stamps in miniature sheets of 5 pairs. Portugal issued stamps in panes of 50 individual stamps. ?Most of the information was provided by Ali Ahmed Med Achour (Algeria). Thanks to him.

On October 10, 2024, Croatia and Germany celebrated relationship with a common stamp symbolizing the common river, the Danube.

Finally, we are still missing the counterpart stamps to the September 10, 2024 issued Uruguayan pairs of stamps showing a panther and a tiger, together with an Uruguyan flag and a South Korean flag, and announced to become a joint issue with South Korea. Eventually this issue will remain unilateral. Any help from South Korea is welcome to confirm that there will be (or not) Korean associated stamps, before we remove this issue from the catalogue.

Update February 2024

by Richard Zimmermann

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

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

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

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

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

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

Update June 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) informed us that the country Chad added stamps with the same design to the series of 2019 (October 9) stamps dedicated to Jerusalem – Al-Quds capital city of Palestine. Chad issued two stamps with denomination 150F and 400 F, but also a golden larger size stamp at denomination 1000F. These stamps were issued on November 30, 2022. 150F stamps were issued in sheets of 15 stamps, 400F stamps in sheets of 10 and golden stamps in miniature sheet of 4 stamps. All three stamps are available as imperforate and as postal stationery (postal cards). In the catalogue, only the three basic stamps are considered as real collectables, other products being just items to fool collectors. But everyone is free to add any product to his own collection.

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) was involved in the past weeks in two joint issues. The first one was issued on May 16, 2023, and involves the Vatican City. It celebrates the 825th anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta in Spoleto. The second one was released on June 23, 2023, together with Slovakia and is dedicated to the humanitarian activities to welcome Ukrainian refugees. As SMOM is still not recognized by UPU, and as these two series are not involving a third country, these two joint issues are reported in the catalogue, but with heading Non-approved [N]. Again, collectors have to decide if they want to include these stamps in their collection. Catalogue are just there to indicate their existence.

By end of last year, regarding the philatelic year 2023, there was a high number of announcements of joint issues involving India. These issues should involve Israel (February, no news), Luxembourg (March 14, issued at the expected date), Hungary (2023), Vietnam (April 23, apparently stamps were printed, but only partly released in Vietnam and not seen yet in India), Mauritius (August 15), and South Korea (December 8). So this totaling up to 6 joint issues, but with only one released so far and all the others remaining questionable. Any help in getting information from India is highly welcome.

Don Birschel (USA) discovered this joint issue between Egypt and Kazakhstan, released June 4, 2023, and dedicated to the 850th birthday of Sultan Al Zahir Baybars (1223-1277). The common stamp represents a coin, a dinar minted during Baybars’ reign, bearing his blazon, the lion/panther. Kazakhstan issued a second stamp with the portrait of the ruler, in a diamond shaped miniature sheet including two se-tenant pairs.

The EuropaCEPT series issued on May 9, 2023 with common stamp “Peace” was completed with following countries: Kazakhstan (June 1, 2023), Georgia (June 16, 2023) and Isle of Man (July 5, 2023). The Isle of Man stamp with identical design is part of a series of 7 stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Isle of Man postal administration. Only one stamp bears the PostEurop 30th anniversary logo, which is the one to be taken in account as part of this year series. The six other stamps show earlier stamps (stamps on stamp) among which some of them featuring Europa Cept and PostEurop stamps from years 1976, 1980, 1987, 1995, 2004 and 2023. The only stamp on stamp part of an earlier joint issue is the one representing the common design from 2023, together with three other stamps issued in 2023, probably the first example of a stamp on stamp issued the same day as the original stamp. Albania, Armenia and Azerbaijan remain on the waiting list and should be issued within the next months.

On June 18, 2023, Qatar and Georgia have released a joint (twin) issue at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between both countries. The stamps feature landmarks (buildings, towers, sculptures) of the capital cities of Georgia (Tbilissi) and Qatar (Doha) (issue discovered by Enzo Cafaro, Italy). High quality image of the Qatar stamp is not yet available.

Miscellaneous from October 2022

by Richard Zimmermann

Marci Jarvis (USA) could provide additional information related to the Tiger Forum joint issue from September 5, 2022. Indeed, Laos issued two stamps representing felines (Clouded leopard and Asian golden cat) but no tiger, however with the forum logo. These two stamps became also available in a special souvenir sheet which is illustrated with a tiger and a cub. Stamps in panes and souvenir sheets are available as perforated and imperforated. The date of issue of the Laos stamps is September 1, 2022. In the meantime, we are still missing information from Nepal stamps related to the Tiger forum.

Don Birschel (USA) provided the illustrations of the stamps issued by Cambodia, which, on the contrary to what was reported so far, bear the logo of the forum, in both stamps and souvenir sheet, . These stamps were issued on September 22, 2022.

Med Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria) reported that the Algeria Post, next to the UPU World Post Day stamp from October 9, 2022 created also a Postage Meter Imprint with the same topic. However, he noticed that the design contains two hashtag addresses that are erroneous. Hashtags are reference words that allow to find all the information that was exchanged using this specific word. However, to be usable, they need to follow precise rules in particular no white space is allowed. In order to separate words, if this is needed, at least a dash or underscore dash has to be used. This rule applies for latin and arabic characters and both hashtags represented in the meter print are wrong and unusable. Corrected hastags are represented here, below the imprint.

Rindert Paalman (The Netherlands) reported the decision taken during the PostEurop General Assembly in Dublin on 5 October 2022. A common design will be used on all 2023 Europa stamps (probably to be released in May 2023) on the theme “PEACE – the highest value of humanity”. 29 entries were submitted for the design competition and 44 postal companies participated in the voting. The winning motif is the one submitted by Luxembourg : “The New Peace Symbol”.

From Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore), a question related to stamps issued by Mongolia on May 19, 2022 and Japan, souvenir sheet with 10 stamps released on June 15, 2022. The topic refers to the 50th anniversary of relationship. As dates of issue are different, design are different and none of the postal administrations are refering to any collaboration in producing these items, we have to consider that these stamps are just celebrating the same event, but these stamps cannot be considered as joint.

From Cesar Ittmann (the Netherlands), reporting about the stamps celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Eurasian Economic Commission. EAU began its operations on February 2, 2012, but the treaty was signed only on May 29, 2014. The five involved countries participated to this issue with different designs, but four of them were released on the same date of issue: Armenia (August 25, 2022), Belarus (August 26, 2022), Kazakhstan (August 26, 2022), Kyrgyzstan (August 26, 2022) and Russia (July 29, 2022). On this basis, this issue has to be reported as a parallel joint issue [P1] under the entry code [P20220826]. The 5th anniversary of the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty (and not operation initiation) was celebrated by the same five countries on August 9, 2019 with identical stamps showing the flags of the countries . It was described in the catalogue under [T20190809].

Unilateral issues 2021 ?

by Richard Zimmermann

On December 10, 2021, Serbia issued an unexpected souvenir sheet at the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the relationship with Kazakhstan. Stamps represent the two capital cities, Nursultan and Belgrade, and the souvenir sheet has a shape ideal to be produced as a joint issue. Unfortunately, no information is available from Kazakhstan so far. There is a high risk that this issue, probably initially planned as joint, will remain an unilateral product.

A similar situation may take place with Austria, which issued on December 6, 2021 a souvenir sheet also designed like a joint issue. This product initially planned to be released in June 2021 was somehow announced as potential joint issue with Greenland. As for the previous product, this souvenir sheet may remain unilateral, as no information is available from Greenland so far.