Palestine

Albania, Barbados and Palestine

by Richard Zimmermann

One just needs to be patient to get the information from several countries we have been missing. Eric Contesse (France) was the first one to provide the proof that the Barbados embroidery stamp associated to the [T20250919] issue. He transferred the copy of the first day cancellation from December 8, 2025 of the Barbados stamp, while a good quality picture of thee stamp became available through dealers. This series seems now to be complete.

Albania finally also issued the 2024 Euromed stamps with a first day cancellation from January 23, 2026 (!) (information and pictures provided by Enzo Cafaro, Italy). We can now expect to see the 2025 Euromed stamps as well as the 2025 Europa or even the UPU anniversary stamps. There are still no explanations for the more than one year regular delays for all these stamps from this country.

Palestine is the third country that made available older stamps belonging to joint issue series. At the beginning of February 2026 (exact date still unknown), two Palestinian stamps appeared on the market, the first one related to the UPU 150th anniversary [T20241009] and the other related to Gaza [T20241129], with designs identical to the basic forms. Information was provided by Enzo Cafaro (Italy). Unfortunately, we are missing high quality images for the time being. One has also to take in account that these new stamps are supposed to come from a country that is completely locked, on which there is an embargo and in a war situation. It is highly probable that these stamps may never have reached the country itself, and may have been brought on the market directly by dealers not living in this territory. Further explanations are needed.

Among more recent issues, Dominique Josse (France) succeeded in creating, not without difficulties, private mixed first day cancellations of the Japan – France joint issue [T20251007]. Thanks a lot, Dominique.

Finally, Fabio Bonacina pointed at a very recent Great Britain souvenir sheet celebrating on January 21, 2026, the 50th anniversary of the first commercial flight of the Concorde plane. Surprisingly, these stamps are a copy of the stamps issued by Great Britain on March 3, 1969, in the frame of a joint issue with France reported under [P19690302] and related to the very first of Concorde. The first commercial flight was celebrated by a joint issue reported under [P19760121] with stamps that are different and to which Great Britain did not participate. In this new series, only the head of QEII was replaced by KCII. Obviously this is not a joint issue.

Mid Summer 2024 update

by Richard Zimmermann

On August 8, 2024, the ten ASEAN countries decided again to issue jointly stamps (previous ASEAN joint issue goes back to 2019). Don Birschel (USA) provided the images of the first released ASEAN stamps and featuring general post offices. So far, the following country stamp images became available: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The four other countries, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines are also supposed to have participated, but information is still missing at this stage.

Ali Ahmed Med Achour (Algeria) provided the following information: On the sidelines of the 45th session of the Permanent Arab Postal Commission held on July 18, 2024 at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League in Cairo (Egypt), the Commission responsible for choosing the design of the “Unified Arab Stamp” dedicated to Gaza delivered its verdict. The model presented by Jordan will illustrate this stamp to be released this year. No specific issue date was lilinked to the issue so far. The countries that participated in this competition included Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine and Qatar.

The title of this issue will be “Solidarity with Gaza”. Its issue will coincide with the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People established by the United Nations. It is generally held on November 29 of each year to mark the anniversary of Resolution 181, which is the Partition Plan for Palestine.
The 2024 philatelic program published at the beginning of the year by the Algerian postal administration has already selected this date of November 29, 2024 for the release of this joint issue. The list of countries that will participate to this issue is not known, but probably at least all countries having participated to the design competition will release a stamp. This issue will definitely become a twin omnibus series. The picture of the winning design is provided below.

The Grenada – South Korea joint stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of relationship were issued as scheduled on August 1, 2024. The identical pairs of stamp show the Marryshow House in St George’s, Grenada and the Jibokjae Hall (library) at Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul, South Korea. Se-tenant stamps were released in miniature sheets of 8 pairs, chessboard ordered.

The China (PR) – Russia joint issue scheduled for August 4, 2024 (pandas) will in fact be released on August 24, 2024.

The Japan – Turkey joint issue scheduled for August 8, 2024 was released on that date in form of a single stamp for Turkey and a miniature sheet for Japan, with different designs.

All these new data have been integrated in the catalogue. Vol 1 and Vol 15 have been updated.

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 …

Arab Postal Union unified issue

by Richard Zimmermann

Our friend, Med Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria), provided updated information about the new 2022 Arab Postal Union stamps. APU members have adopted the design proposed by Algeria for a unified issue. All countries have been given the freedom to issue their own stamp between August 3, 2022, corresponding to the annual Arab Post day and November 2, 2022, date of the closing of the Arab League Summit. We know that next to Egypt, stamp already issued on August 3, 2022, and Algeria, stamp issued on August 20, 2022, National Day of Moudjahid, Palestine and Tunisia have confirmed their participation. It is highly probable that most of the participating countries will issue their stamp during the Arab League Summit, scheduled November 1 and 2, 2022. At this stage, we need to wait probably until November before we can define the exact entry name in the catalogue of this issue. Any additional information from other Arab postal administrations is welcome.

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.