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.
Following the publication from the previous blog page about the July 3, 2024 announced as unexpected Liechtenstein-Mexico joint issue, some doubts raised about the real status of this issue. Both countries issued a pair of identical se-tenant stamps showing mountains from both countries : Alpspitz (Liechtenstein, 1943m) and Mineral del Chico, Hidalgo (Mexico, 3200m).
Comments came from Luis Malanco (Mexico), Lars Kersten, Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands), Enzo Cafaro (Italy), and Philatelie Liechtenstein. Thanks to all of them.
While Mexican Post provided all details about the Mexican stamps (sheets of 25 pairs, printing 50,000 pairs, FDC available), the Liechtenstein stamps were never disclosed on the Philatelie Liechtenstein web site. These stamps are not listed in the official Liechtenstein philatelic programme, are not for sale through the web page and are not described in the June or September Liechtenstein official brochures. Official events in Liechtenstein and Mexico took place to celebrate the anniversary of this diplomatic relationship, in the presence of representatives of both postal entities (see below some illustrations of web media pages provided by Luis). All stamps were disclosed during these events.
(VIPs mentionned in these blogs: Luis Seger is Executive Director of Liechtensteinische Post; Pietro Piffaretti is the Ambassador of Switzerland in Mexico; Rocio Barcenas is a Director of Correos de Mexico; Cecilia Jaber is the Ambassador of Switzerland and Liechtenstein in Mexico; Dominique Hasler is the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Education and Sport with the Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein). Here are also two links with events organized in Liechtenstein (Link 2). All these events took place on July 2, 2024.
Lars pointed to the fact that the Liechtenstein stamps bear the name “Liechtenstein” instead of “Fürstentum Liechtenstein”. The country name alone applies apparently to personalized stamp, which are not available through the official channels. The day following the issue, the stamp was considered by Liechtenstein Post as sold out. Answers from Philatelie Liechtenstein (via Jaap): “The stamps of 30 years of diplomatic relations between Mexico & Liechtenstein have been issued as a small edition in digital printing and are unfortunately already sold out.” Later additional information came from the same source under the form: “1. The Mexico-Liechtenstein joint issue was a personal stamp under the authority of Liechtenstein Post. 2. The issue number was very low, and we are unable to provide any further information on that question. 3. There is no FDC as FDCs are only produced for official issues.“. We still are waiting for information about who gave the order for printing and who acquired all the stocks.
In conclusion, these Liechtenstein stamps must be considered as a private issue. These stamps will be described in the catalogue, but under the entry code [N20240704], ‘N’ standing for ‘Non-approved’, based on the criteria defining a true joint issue in Catalogue Vol 1. However, these Liechtenstein stamps do exist (even if in a very limited edition), can officially be used for postage and therefore have to be considered as true stamps. It is up to each collector to decide if he wants to integrate ‘N’ stamps in his own collection. We have not seen these stamps so far and do not know from where to buy them. Additional information remains welcome.
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.
For few months now, there is a discussion going on if the stamps issued in 2002 by India Post and Japan Post with the title “50th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between India and Japan” is really a joint issue or not.
Our friend Souvik Ghatak (India) filed an application to India Post under the Right to information (RTI) act of 2005. He asked them, to confirm the joint issue status and to provide a copy of memorandum of understanding signed between both postal departments.
Indian Post provided the following information about the issue presently referenced in the catalogue under [P20020412a]: 1) This is not a joint issue and 2) since it was not a joint issue they could not provide a copy of memorandum of understanding between India Post and Japan Post (see copy of answer below).
Thank Souvik for providing this information confirming this is not a joint issue. As a consequence, it will also apply to all other stamps issued on April 12, 2002 by Japan Post and involving Bangladesh [P20020411], Pakistan [P20020412a] and Sri Lanka [P20020412c].
Actually, in the catalogue, these issues appear already with the mention ‘controversial’ and the classification PX, which stands for doubtful. Accordingly, the wording in the catalogue will be modified and eventually these series will be switched from PX to N section. The stamps will remain described in the catalogue as numerous collector do own them already, but as for all the ‘N’ (non-accepted) joint issues, the collectors have to decide if they want to keep them within their Joint issue collection. The catalogue will just tell them the real status of these issues, which will now respectively be [N20020411] for Bangladesh-Japan, [N20020412a] for India – Japan, [N20020412b] for Japan – Pakistan and [N20020412c] for Japan – Sri Lanka.
Joint celebrations of diplomatic relationship does not necessarily mean that the stamps issued at this occasion are joint. The joint character comes from the will of both administrations to work together on a specific topic. Administrations define date of issue and design. However, even if discussions have started, administrations may finally decide that they will not issue the stamps jointly, resulting in absence of common stamps, no exchange of products, no common joint FDCs, etc. even if the topic remains the same.
There are several countries issuing regularly diplomatic relationship stamps without any connection with the other country. Brazil for example, is issuing several times a year, stamps related to other countries and very seldomly transforms them in a joint issue. These isolated stamps are not even to be considered as unilateral issue, as this vocabulary applies only in the case production of stamps eventually failed for any reason on one side.
With one stamp representing firefighters in action, removing snow, and the other one showing Ukrainian refugees arriving in Romania and welcomed by local volunteers, Romania and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) celebrated on September 16, 2022, 90 years of relationship. SMOM conducts diplomatic relations with 112 countries, among which Romania, and the European Union and its stamps are recognized by 57 postal administrations. However, for example, SMOM does not have bilateral diplomatic relationship with China, or the United States.
Unfortunately, as SMOM is not recognized by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), even if these stamps look like a Twin issue and the words “Joint issues” appear on all stamps, this issue will be filed in the category Non-approved [NR].
This situation is quite difficult to handle and it is not our role to decide which country have to be collected by whom. It must be a personal decision to include SMOM in ones own collection or not. After having written that, it was interesting to explore both the UPU and SMOM web sites to get more details about recognition and consequences. Interestingly, in the list of non-recognized countries, one counts also, among others, Kosovo (which mail is routed through Serbia) and Taiwan (mail routed through Japan or the USA). Palestine has an observer status with mail routed through Jordan, while a series of other smaller countries are not members of the UPU, but issue stamps, and their post is routed through an UPU member state, e.g., Andorra (through France or Spain), Marschall, Micronesia, Palau (through USA), SMOM (through Italy), Northern Cyprus (through Turkey), … A full updated list is provided by Wikipedia under the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Universal_Postal_Union.
We will continue reporting about stamps from all these countries and leave each collector define if it should belong to his own collection, but we will also continue mentioning the official situation for each country. In our particular case, we will have to update some issues and to add some comments for some of the above mentionned countries in the catalogue pages (use of grey color instead of black and itamlics characters).
There is a last point that needs to be mentionned in this specific issue. We do not have yet details about the printing runs of SMOM stamps (they should however remain small), but we got the figures for Romania. This country issued 2 stamps in sheets of 32 stamps ([8×4]) and sheetlets of 5 stamps ([3×2] including one label). Only 2×5,120 stamps were issued in sheets, meaning only 160 sheets were printed for each stamp, while only 2×530 sheetlets were printed. On top of this, Romania issued a folder containing an imperforate souvenir sheet with both stamps at only 292 samples! This is not the way to help collectors completing there collection, another reason not to recognize this issue as a true joint issue.
The Universal Postal Union (UPU) released a proposal to all their members to issue a stamp with common design at the occasion of the next World Post Day on October 9, 2022. The UPU is providing the design based on the theme ‘Post for Planet’ and all information regarding the possible associated products are provided in a full description post (stamp design in the 6 official languages – see below, templates for 6-, 8-, 9-, 10-, 12- and 20- stamps sheets, first day covers, cancellations, phone apps and even T-shirts, …).
More than 200 postal administrations could in theory participate, but with this quite short notice (earliest information is dated June 2, 2022), there are great chances that the number of participants will remain quite limited. In 2020, a similar attempt was made with the “Family Remittance” stamps [B20200716] which resulted in a single independent country participating in 2020 (Bulgaria) and another one in 2022 (Bosnia Herzegovina). A series of stamps were issued later by countries for which the philatelic program is not controled by the administration, but by a professional dealer (Stamperija). If this is again the case, this issue will also be considered as an omnibus non-approved joint issue (borrowed design). Let us wait until October 9, 2022 to see if some countries, and how many, are seriously interested.
Don Birschel (USA) submitted an interesting item looking like a se-tenant souvenir sheet containing a pair of stamps from Germany and Liechtenstein. The design of these stamps are similar to stamps issued by Germany and Liechtenstein, respectively on March 12, 2009 and March 2, 2009. Germany issued two additional stamps with similar design on May 7, 2009.
However, this item exists only with oblique bars-canceled denominations. In the margins, there are references to the Federation of German Philatelists (Bund Deutscher Philatelisten e.V.) and it is specified that the illustrations correspond to competition designs (Konkurrenzentwürfe), i.e. not-issued designs to the above mentionned stamps dedicated to the Post of both countries. In fact, each year the Federation of German Philatelists is issuing a facsimile of stamps to be distributed to their members and in 2009, they represented exceptionally stamp designs from two countries. The stamps from this item cannot be used for mail and therefore this souvenir sheet is simply a cinderella, not to be considered as a joint issue. Nevertheless, an interesting item that can be found on the web for about 4 to 5 €uros.
The programme of new stamps from Belarus included a potential joint issue with China and another with Vietnam, both expected to be released during the month of January at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relationships. The Belarus stamps were issued respectively on January 12, 2022 and January 24, 2022, but there is absolutely no news from either China PR nor Vietnam for event-associated stamps. There are great chances that these issues will remain unilateral and that the entries will have to be removed from the list described in the catalogue (Vol 15). At least, here are the pictures of the Belarus stamps.
An other opportunity was mentioned by Cesar Ittman (The Netherlands). During the year 2022, France celebrates the 200th anniversary of the death of the famous author Moliere. France issued a first stamp on January 17, 2022, at the same time as Monaco, while Czech Republic issued a stamp on January 20, 2022. There is absolutely no claim from one of these countries for a joint issue. These are just stamps issued at the occasion of an anniversary and it would not be surprising to see much more other stamps released to honor Moliere during this year without any joint character.
The first true joint issue to be released this year is scheduled for February 14, 2022, not earlier. This is quite late compared to previous years.
Don Birschel (USA) explored older issues and asked about the relevance of some 2006 China-Africa Forum stamps as joint. Indeed, some of these stamps show the same design, but this is a logo and none of the countries have claimed a joint issue character. So again, this is an exemple of a non-approved joint issue. Here are the pictures of the stamps from countries that celebrated this event: Algeria (November 6, 2006), China (November 3), Egypt (November 5), Eritrea (November 3) and Ivory Coast (November 28).
The date of January 14, 2022 corresponds to the 50th anniversary of the death of King Frederick IX of Denmark and at the same time to the date of accession to the Danish throne of Queen Margrethe II. At the occasion of this Golden Jubilee, both Faroe and Greenland issue a souvenir sheet. The Faroe souvenir sheet shows the Queen in national Faroese costume in front of the ruins of Magnus Cathedral, while Greenland issues a souvenir sheet showing the Queen in Greenlandic costume in front of icebergs. Unfortunately none of the postal administrations claim these products being joint. Also, there is no common product available for sale (e.g. mixed FDC or mixed folder). Therefore these souvenir sheets cannot be considered as joint, but simply as a parallel anniversary issue [PA/N]. On top of this, the main country, Denmark, is not issuing stamps at this January 14, 2022 anniversary date and prefers concentrating on different products related to this jubilee released over the year, with the first one which became available already on January 3.
The logo of the 100th anniversary of the funding of the Chinese Communist Party corresponds also to the design of the identical miniature sheets issued by Centrafrica, Chad, Djibouti, Guinea Bissau, Niger and Sao Tome, in which the stamps are the round centers of the zeros in figure “100”. These items are simple commemorative products created centrally (Stamperija), not related to the basic issue [D20210701] and therefore not considered as joint. Information provided by Wayne Chen (USA).
Joint Stamp Issues 
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