Peru

September 2025 update

by Richard Zimmermann

Sorry for this long time of silence. A lot of new information was gathered over this past month, in addition to the “Dove of Peace” series described in the previous page. The data are summarized hereunder, thanks to Kenneth Sequeira (Dubai), Ali Allawati (Oman), Adam Paish (UK), Enzo Cafaro (Italy), Dominique Josse (France), Sim Tng Kwang (Singapore), Mohamed Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria), and Marci Jarvis (USA).

The official day of issue of the Oman stamp related to the Arab Postal Day from August 3, 2025, initially announced as being released on August 10, 2025 for this country, has to be corrected to August 3, 2025, according to FDC images provided by Ali Allawati.

The Oman stamps from the Oman Iran issue initially scheduled to be released on May 27, 2025, became available only on August 26, 2025 (date shown on the Oman FDC cover). However, information from Iran is still missing and we do not know if it will become a real joint issue, despite the clear indication on the stamp itself.

The Maldives-Singapore joint issue which design was revealed on June 30, 2025, was finally released on September 5, 2025. This issue includes two stamps featuring fishes, turtle, corals, the Lazarus Island (Singapore) and Hulhudhoo (Maldives), which were also included in a souvenir sheet (Singapore). Good quality images and final product description from the Maldives are still missing.

Singapore was involved a second time this month, on September 19, 2025, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Thailand-Singapore diplomatic relations. As previously, Singapore issued also both stamps in a form of a souvenir sheet. The Thai stamps has been printed in se-tenant checkerboard-formatted sheets of ten stamps.

On September 16, 2025, the 640 years of the crowning of Sigmund of Luxembourg in Hungary was supposed to be celebrated by Luxembourg and Slovakia with a common stamp which design was released earlier this year by the Slovak Post. It happened that this issue disappeared from both postal administration philatelic programs. Explanations are needed here.

The Mythical heroes crypto-stamps series was issued on September 18, 2025 (see detailed description under previous page). The final illustrations given below show small changes compared to initial illustrations provided earlier (e.g., new denomination for Luxembourg). The series includes Austria (2 units, Zeus and Hera, 2×150,000), Belgium (Athena, 20,000), Luxembourg (Artemis, 15,000), Netherlands (Hermes, 25,000) and Portugal (Poseidon, 25,000). The digital twins are stored in the blockchain in five different colors. The likelihood of getting a particular color depends on the color: for Luxembourg stamps, there are 150 red, 1,005 yellow, 1,995 blue, 4,005 green and 7,845 black stamps; for the other countries the exact number of colored subtypes has not been published but the figures remain probably close to the same ratio, i.e., 1% (red), 6.7% (yellow), 13.3% (blue), 26.7% (green) and 52.3% (black). The digital twin of the crypto stamp is randomly generated. By scanning the QR code on the stamp with a smartphone, one will find out which color is linked to the crypto stamp.

As an example, the Luxembourg stamp digital twins in the blockchain look as follow:

On September 25, 2025, the Embassy of the Republic of Peru in Kuwait hosted an event to present a commemorative postage stamp marking the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Kuwait and Peru. The postage stamps are featuring Kuwait’s Red Palace and Peru’s Real Felipe Fortress. Unfortunately, to our knowledge, this Peruvian stamp will remain unilateral.

The Oman-Russia joint issue, originally scheduled for April 22, 2025, postponed to September 26, 2025 (Oman source), then, a few weeks ago to October 15, is now scheduled for November 14, 2025. The date of October 15, 2025 remains unchanged for the issue of the joint stamps involving Laos and Russia and the first illustration of the Russian stamps became available recently.

June 2025 news

by Richard Zimmermann

Complementary information came from diverse collectors over the past three weeks. They are reported here, without any sense of priority.

Wayne Chen (USA) came across a vast number of se-tenant sheets fabricated and sold by Stampera. The full list is available through the companies’ site using the search tool and the word ‘siamese’ (reminder: in the joint issues definition, this word has to be replaced by ‘se-tenant’) https://stampera.eu/stamps?search=Siamese&page=1. As mentioned several times in the past in these pages, products released by this company are true stamps, but produced only for collectors in small amounts, without topic related to the country, and at a very high number of sub-types (souvenir sheets, miniature sheets, perforated and not) also with very high denomination. They are not called cinderellas, just because they show a denomination. A collector who wants to buy the complete set of these ‘se-tenant’ products (35 different products have been identified so far) will have to spend at least € 1,900 (souvenir sheets, perforated and non-perforated, both mint or FDC, without taking in account individual isolated stamps). All these products are simply made to fool collectors and cannot be approved as true joint issue. With the new printing technologies, they are also suspected to be printed upon demand only, i.e., sheet by sheet, so there is no limitation in terms of printing runs. In this case, they will not be reported in the catalogue, but we wanted to bring this information to your attention.

All described products have been printed by associating in a same miniature sheet, stamps from up to 6 different countries, available normally in panes. Some examples are provided below.

Robert Schrijvers (Mongolia) talked with Mongol Post about the potential joint issue between India and Mongolia intended to celebrate the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations (December 1955 ?). These relations were initiated on December 24, 1955. Robert has seen the Mongolian version, but was not allowed to take a picture. It depicts Mongolian (biyelgee) and Indian dances. Decision to release and date of issue are pending upon Indian Post agreement.  

Milan Csaplár (Slovakia) provided the design of the joint issue to be released in August 2025, by the Slovak Post and the Luxembourg Post, which is dedicated to King Sigismund of Luxembourg (640 years of the crowning of Sigmund of Luxembourg in Hungary).

Ali Allawati (Oman) points to an error in the catalogue regarding the image of the Oman stamp from the Oman–Singapore joint issue [T20250221]. This mistake appears in both the blog and the catalogue.
The image of the stamp currently shown is taken from the souvenir sheet, which does not display a denomination. The actual stamp is priced at 500 Baisa. The stamp on the souvenir sheet does not display a price. The souvenir sheet price can be seen in the bottom left corner of the souvenir sheet. Below, in the reproduction, you can see the differences between the two stamps, the second one taken from the souvenir sheet, next to the complete souvenir sheet with denomination in the margin. This mistake was corrected in the catalogue. Thanks Ali. 

Ali provided additionally, a corrected version of the image used for the Oman–Iran joint issue from May 27, 2025. In the previous blog page, the illustration contains an error at the level of the title at bottom right, in which ‘Grand’ was mistakenly spelled ‘Ground’. This is corrected in the final version and to our knowledge, no stamp with the mistake was released. Both souvenir sheets (design left with mistake and final, corrected, right) are reproduced below.  We are still missing information from Iran.

On the other hand, we are also waiting information about the Oman – Russia joint issue announced in the press for a release on April 22, 2025.

Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore) found the design of the next Peru –Türkiye joint issue to be released in the second half of 2025, to commemorate the 75 years of relationship. No idea if both stamps will show the same design.

The issues involving Bosnia Herzegovina (Croatia) and Bosnia Herzegovina (Serbia) commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Herzegovina uprising, translated in two different stamps, issued at two different dates respectively June 15 and June 19, 2025, but above all, without any joint character, i.e. not claimed as joint by the two postal authorities. These stamps are to be considered as a simple anniversary commemoration, around the same date, and will not be included in the catalogue.

The catalogues Vol 1 and Vol 16 have been updated accordingly.

Unilateral issues 2024 – Conclusion

by Richard Zimmermann

In the previous 2024 Unilateral Issues page, there was a mention of an Indonesian – Serbia potential issue. The Serbian stamp was issued on November 4, 2024 at the occasion of the 70th anniversary of relationship between both countries (1954-2024). Serbia produced one stamp showing the Yugoslavian ambassador Pavlič handing over letters of credit to President Sukarno in 1954.

The Indonesian stamps eventually were released on December 17, 2024. The two se-tenant stamps show, on the first one, the presidents Sukarno and Tito shaking hands, with a drum, on the second one, flags of both countries. Even if the structure of the miniature sheets are quite similar, the designs and content are completely different. There is no claim of a joint character by either of the postal administrations. From the explanations provided by the Serbian post, there was clearly a collaboration between them and the embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Belgrade. Also, the postal administrations seems to have found an agreement about general content, selection and distribution of objects, size of stamps and form of the miniature sheet. However, the final items as well as the different dates of issue lead to define these stamps as non-joint and they will be reported in the catalogue under the name [N20241104].

Finally, there is now a very good reason to consider the Italy – Peru stamps as a joint issue. We had to wait until the day of issue of the Italian stamps on January 30, 2025, to confirm that the stamps were identical. The Peruvian stamps had been issued as early as August 29, 2024. without clear information from the Italian post side. This information helped to complete the catalogue, and to file this issue as concerted under the entry name C20240829.

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.

UPU 150th anniversary

by Richard Zimmermann

The Universal Postal Union (UPU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It comprises 192 member states and is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland. It was established on October 9, 1874, exactly 150 years ago.

Since more than one year, we know that this anniversary will be celebrated with a stamp which common design was proposed by UPU. In the past, the 75th (1949) UPU anniversary was celebrated, but in a non-coordinated way, mainly by colonial entities (British, Dutch and French – D19490704, D19491001, D19491010, D19491018) and the 100th (1974) anniversary with stamps that remained different for all participating countries (N19741009). The same situation happened in 1999, with absence of concertation for the 125th anniversary celebration (N19991009). Eventually, so far, only the 145th anniversary in 2019 (T20191009b) could be considered as a Twin issue.

During this year of 2024, a very large number of countries are participating. In the strict sense, this has to be considered as a true joint issue, even if there was no real cooperation between countries, but a proposal of a design accepted by most of them and translated in a locally adapted stamp, for a large part of them issued at the anniversary date. It is not an Omnibus series, as Omnibus is defined by a central printing, not by the large number of participating countries. The 2024 stamps will be reported in the catalogue as a Twin issue under [T20241009]. It is easily understandable that some joint issues collectors do not integrate such large series in their collection, in the same way Europa-CEPT stamps are not acceptable for them. Each individual collector has to decide on the basis of the following.

In the catalogue, the countries will be divided in subgroups:

  • A: the countries which take the exact original design proposed by UPU and issue the stamp(s) on October 9, 2024 (or actually around this date, plus or minus a week, roughly between October 1 and October 17, 2024), according to the definition of a twin issue [T]
  • B: the countries which take the exact original design but issue the stamp at a different date. It should not be surprising if some countries may issue their stamp in 2025 or even 2026. This is the equivalent of a Concerted issue [C]
  • C: the countries which use only a part of the design, actually integrating only the “150” logo and add some other illustrations. This logo can appear within the stamp, or on the margin of a souvenir sheet or within a label. Those stamps are also considered as twin or concerted issues of Type [T2] or [C2]
  • D: the countries which use a completely different design, but still issue their stamp(s) around October 9, 2024. This is the equivalent of a Parallel issue [P]. In this case, the original logo may appear on the stamp, but at a size that remains smaller than the half of the surface of the stamp
  • E: finally the countries that do not want to stick to design and date, and work on their own, just referring to the UPU anniversary. These countries are simply listed, without details, as they cannot be considered as joint [N].

We will have again to take care of stamps that are created by agencies that are producing stamps for certain countries but which have been given the freedom to issue stamps without a real control from the reference countries. These stamps are easily recognized by the number of stamps issued in a series and they are produced to fool collectors. In order to better identify these stamps and because they remain real stamps but never reach the originating country, they will be reported in the catalogue, but in italics. In the same way, some other stamps such as the French stamp with a full common logo are of private origin (personalized stamp) that cannot be considered as part of this joint issue either. This will be true for any other privately produced stamp from other countries, if any, and also described in italic characters.

The countries for which we already have information are reported below. If a date between brackets is missing behind the country name, this means that this stamp(s) was issued on October 9, 2024. If the content of the brackets remains empty, this means that the exact issue date is not known yet. A large number of images were provided by Enzo Cafaro (Italy). The following list is of course not yet complete.

Countries of type A (Twin [T1]): Algeria – Andorra (French) (October 10) – Andorra (Spanish) – Armenia – Bangladesh – Belarus – Bosnia Herzegovina (Bosnia) – Brazil – China (PR) – Croatia – Cyprus – Dominican Republic – Greece – Guernsey – India – Indonesia – Ivory Coast – Jordan – Latvia – Lithuania (October 4) – Mauritius – Moldova – Myanmar – Paraguay – Peru – Romania – Sri Lanka – Thailand – Turkmenistan (October 8) – Ukraine – United Arab Emirates

Countries of type B (Concerted [C1]): Argentina (August 28) – Azerbaijan (February 1) – Burundi (September) – Central Africa (September) – Djibouti (September) – Georgia (June 1) – Guinea (September) – Guinea-Bissau (September) – Liberia (September) – Mali (September) – Monaco (May 30) – Mongolia (September 25) – Sierra Leone (September) – Togo (September)

Countries of type C (Twin or concerted [T2] or [C2]): Bosnia (Serbia) – Egypt () – France (October 14) – Hong Kong – Hungary (July 24) – Isle of Man (August 30) – Japan – Kyrgyzstan (October) – Luxembourg (September 10) – Macau – Malaysia – Morocco – Pakistan – Portugal – San Marino – Saudi Arabia () – Singapore – Slovenia – Spain – Syria – Tunisia – Türkiye – Uruguay – Uzbekistan () – Vietnam

Countries of type D (Parallel issue [P]): Australia (October 1) – Austria (October 4) – Brunei Darussalam () – Bulgaria – Czech Republic – French Polynesia – Germany (October 10) – Macedonia (North) – Mexico – Montenegro – Qatar () – Russia – Slovakia – Switzerland (September 5) – Tajikistan (May) – Vatican (September 16) – Wallis and Futuna

Countries of type E (not considered as joint): Belgium (June 10) – Serbia (May 25) – United Nations – Geneva (May 30) – United Nations – New York (May 30) – United Nations – Vienna (May 30).

So far, 86 countries are listed above to which one has to add 2 postal authorities that have issued stamps that cannot be considered as joint (Type E – United Nations offices are not taken in account as countries, UPU being a sub-unit of the United Nations). The UPU counts presently 192 members, which means information from 106 countries (!) is missing. Obviously there will be an update of this page. A great help is needed here to recover information from other participating countries. We are also missing better quality images for stamps from Ivory Coast and Ukraine. Thanks a lot in advance for providing name of missing countries, exact dates of issue, and when possible illustrations, printing runs, sizes of panels and by-product lists.

The catalogue pages should be updated within the next week.

Re-exploring Colombia

by Richard Zimmermann

On July 29, 2024, Argentina issued a pair of stamps depicting whales (Southern right whale – Eubalena australis and Humpback whale – Megaptera novaangliae) and entitled ‘200 years of Argentina – Colombia relationship’. Indeed, these stamps are the counterpart of the Colombia pair issued on December 29, 2023, based on the same design. As a consequence, this issue must be considered as a concerted issue that was recently completed and it will be described in the catalogue under the entry code [C20231229], added to the year 2023 section. Colombia issued 25,000 stamps in miniature sheets of two se-tenant pairs. Argentina issued stamps in panels of 12 stamps.

In parallel, Don Birschel (USA) provided an additional information about a Colombia – Peru issue that was missed so far. On May 27, 2022, Colombia issued at the occasion of 200 years of relationship with Peru, a miniature sheet with 4 different stamps showing a) the archeological site of Moray, Cusco, Peru, b) the Caño Cristales, river in the the Macarena mountains, Meta, Colombia, c) a llama and d) a sloth. It appears that Peru issued at the same occasion, but only on November 30, 2022, two se-tenant stamps with the same designs as the two first Colombian stamps (a and b). Of course, these stamps must be considered as a concerted issue and will be added to the catalogue under the entry [C20220527] in the year 2022 section.

By further exploring the “4-72” Colombia web site, it appeared that Colombia issued in 2022 and 2023, on top of the Argentina-Colombia joint issue, a series of relationship stamps that in theory could have led to additional concerted issues. These stamps celebrate relationship anniversaries between Colombia and Egypt (February 23, 2022), the United States (May 2, 2022), South Korea (May 6, 2022), Germany (May 8, 2022), Chile (December 29, 2022), Barbados (December 18, 2023) and Canada (December 22, 2023). To our knowledge, no counterpart stamps have been issued, but information from some remote countries such as Egypst of Barbados is often difficult to find.

In the same way, Peru issued, over the past years, stamps related to different relationship anniversaries with India (August 26, 2022), Guatemala (2022), Ecuador (October 23, 2023), Japan (November 13, 2023), and South Korea (November 13, 2023), but none resulted (so far and to our knowledge) in a joint issue (except the Peru-Poland issue already described in the catalogue as N20230927). Uruguay issued stamps in honor of relationship with Japan (July 27, 2021), Czech and Slovak Republic (November 17, 2021), Vietnam (April 27, 2023) and Chile (November 1, 2023). Paraguay issued stamps for relations with South Korea (June 28, 2022) and Mexico (October 3, 2023).

When doing such a screening with Chilean recently issued stamps, it appears that this country celebrated relationship anniversaries with Canada (November 18, 2021), Peru (December 2022), and the United States (January 27, 2023) without counterpart. All these stamps must be considered as unilateral issues and should not be reported in the catalogue unless a counterpart is found. This counterpart is not necessarily a stamp but could be postal stationery, like in the Peru-Poland N20230927 issues, even much more difficult to find. Any additional information from all these countries is welcome.

December 2023 update

by Richard Zimmermann

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.