Oman

Update: January 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

Without specific priority, the following descriptions collects information provided by friends since beginning of the year. Many thanks to Enzo Cafaro – Italy, Don Birchel – USA, Wayne Chen – USA, Jaap Sarelse – the Netherlands, Roland Montagne – France, David Dubin – USA, Souvik Ghatak – India, Milan Csaplar – Slovakia and Kenneth Sequeira – Singapore.

In the continuation of the production of Arab countries stamps celebrating the 2022 FIFA soccer worldcup, next to Jordan and Oman (stamps issued on December 18, 2022), we learned that the exact date of issue of the Qatar souvenir sheet was January 17, 2023. Obviously this series is not yet complete.

During the official visit of President of Egypt, Mr. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to India, a joint stamp on the “75th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations” (1948-2023) was released in form of a souvenir sheet which theme is rivers, The Ganges (India) and The Nile (Egypt) are represented on the stamps. Release date was January 25, 2023. However, so far, there are no information from the Egyptian side about a similar product. Actually, Egypt had issued on August 18, 2022 and unilateraly, a stamp celebrating this anniversary. Unfortunately, there are great chances that this Indian souvenir sheet remains unilateral as well and just corresponds to the counterpart of the 2022 Egyptian stamp. Therefore, these two items cannot be considered as joint (yet).

Poland issued on January 29, 2023 a stamp dedicated to the 550th birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus. This celebration is still reported in the Vatican philatelic program as joint stamp with Poland, but Vatican State has not released anything so far. So, we need to wait for news from this state before adding this issue in the catalogue. Due to the difference in time for issuing their stamps, this pair can now only become a concerted issue, providing also the design remains the same. If the design is different, then it does not even have a joint character.

Wayne Chen (USA) could announce the publication of his newest article on Crypto stamps, published in Linn’s Stamp News on line on February 4, 2023 (printed form publication date February 20, 2023), which also made the cover story for the monthly version of the magazine. At the end of the article, a list of the stamps mentioned in the article that were issued 2018-2022 is provided for those interested in this new (and expensive) collection. regarding our interests, the mixed cover of the first joint crypto issue (Austria – Netherlands [T20220922] is reproduced. It was provided by Jaap Sarelse (the Netherlands).

A new item from Ecuador associated to the 2022 Ecuador – Mexico joint issue [T20220728] appeared as well, late after the official issue date. A souvenir sheet, vertical form size 65x185mm, without gum and stamp with same denomination ($0.75), numbered at the bottom, but priced $5.00 was released by Ecuador. Exact printing run is unknown, but it seems that 5,000 stamps and 3,500 souvenir sheets became available. This item has been added in the catalogue. Also, it is told that the first day cancellation of the stamp exists only at 30 samples. Ecuador post offices are still under reorganization.

The designs of the 100th anniversary of custom treaty stamps involving Liechtenstein and Switzerland were released. These stamps will be sold from March 29, 2023 on.

In terms of new issues to be added in the list of stamps expected to be released during the years 2023 and 2024, we can mention the following:

  • During the year 2023, Morocco plans an exceptionnally large number of joint issues with Oman (May), Romania (August), UAE (November), Kazakhstan (December) on top of its participation to the Euromed series (July)
  • The Cyprus – Israel joint issue will be released on April 4, 2023 and not in February as earlier mentionned
  • Austria – Germany – Slovakia : May 24, 2024 – Limes Romanus of the Upper Danube

Arab League countries latest issues

by Richard Zimmermann

Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore) was the first to discover and provide all pictures from the most recent GCC Arab countries stamps. Starting on December 12, the six countries Bahrain (), Kuwait (December 21), Oman (December 13), Qatar, Saudi Arabia () and the United Arab Emirates (December 12) issued the same souvenir sheet portraying the 6 Heads of States and a stamp showing the flags and one building from these states. These stamps were issued to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

In a previous blog, we announced the issue of a common stamp created by the Arab Postal Union on the basis of a Qatar model to celebrate the FIFA Soccer World Championcup organized in Qatar. Only little information came through so far, but Mohamed Essawy (Egypt) and Ali Ahmed Med Achour (Algeria) could provide the first pictures of stamps from Jordan and Oman, apparently issued on December 18, 2022. We have to continue looking for similar stamps issued by other countries belonging to the Arab Postal Union, as this series is definitely not complete.

Algiers Summit 2022 (2)

by Richard Zimmermann

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

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

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

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

Algiers Summit 2022

by Richard Zimmermann

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

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

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

Oman Tanzania 2022

by Richard Zimmermann

On October 9, 2022, Oman Post and Tanzania Posts Corporation launched a Joint Stamp Issue that commemorates the long-standing historical ties between both countries. The stamp illustrates the cultural and architectural contributions of the Sultanate of Oman in the United Republic of Tanzania as it depicts the Zanzibar shoreline with some governmental buildings facing the shore, including the Corniche in Zanzibar and the House of Wonders, the largest and tallest building of Stone Town, which is one of six palaces built in 1883 by Barghash bin Said, the second Sultan of Zanzibar. Both countries issued also a souvenir sheet each. This information was provided by our friend Saravanan from India.