This is a long time announced joint issue, postponed several times, but only recently proven to be part of a twin issue, when the Italian stamps’ designs became available. The stamps involving Slovenia and Italy were originally planned to be issued on April 28, 2024, then postponed to January 25, 2025, before finally being issued on February 6, 2025.
Nova Gorica is a town in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy, created through the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty that established a new border between Yugoslavia and Italy, leaving nearby Gorizia outside the borders of Yugoslavia. Hence, Gorizia is the older part of the city, located now in Italy. Both cities have been designed Capital City of the Culture 2025, celebrated by this joint issue. Both countries have issued a souvenir sheet with two stamps showing each one city with, for Gorizia, an aerial view of the Castle, a fortification dating back to the 9th century, built on the hill overlooking the city, and, for Nova Gorica, the facade of the Palazzo della Stazione, the oldest public building in the city that stands out on Piazza Europa, built in 1906 for military purposes on the Vienna-Trieste railway line.
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).
Over the past weeks, two new joint issues became available:
The 40th anniversary of the Peace treaty between Argentina and Chile “1984-2024”, was celebrated by identical stamps issued on November 25, 2024 by Chile and November 29, 2024 by Argentina. Stamps represent the figure “40” with the colors of the national flags. In 1984, the Vatican State played the role of mediator during the process that led to the signature of this treaty. This is the reason why Vatican is also involved in this joint issue, but with a different stamp issued on November 25, 2024. The Vatican stamp represents Pope John-Paul II signing the treaty on November 29, 1984.
On December 6, 2024, Belarus and Russia commemorated the 25th anniversary of the signature of the Union State Foundation Treaty with an identical stamp showing both flags. For each country, stamps were produced in miniature sheets of 8 stamps and one label [3×3] and one souvenir sheet containing a single stamp.
Among the issues that were postponed, we have to note the Bosnia Herzegovina (Bosnia) – Indonesia stamps celebrating the 25 years of the Istiklal Mosque in Sarajevo, originally scheduled for October 4, 2024, now expected to be released on October 3, 2025.
Additionally, I would like to share with you that, during the Chicagopex Exhibition 2024 (November 23), this blog obtained the Large Vermeil medal in the Literature Palmares (category Digital). In the same category, the on line Joint Stamp Issues Catalogue obtained another Large Vermeil medal. This result was achieved also thanks to all the remote contributors and joint issue enthusiasts who participated to the collection of information.
This week, a mail from Eric Zoet (Portugal) dropped in my mail box with the simple question: “Could not find this 7/15 November 2017 Belarus – Uruguay joint issue in your catalogue?”. Me neither, of course, but a careful exploration of my older files led me to re-discover both series of stamps and their images in the list of pending issues, that were not considered as joint so far.
On September 7, 2017, Uruguay issued a miniature sheet with three triplets of two different stamps and a central label, with stamps chessboard ordered. These stamps were issued at the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the relationship with Belarus. During this year of 2017, Belarus issued several stamps celebrating the same 25th anniversary of relationships with other countries, including China, Poland, Latvia, India, Kazakhstan, Russia, Romania and Moldova, among which two translated in true joint issues: India [T20170912] and Kazakhstan |T20170916]. During the year 2018, Belarus issued at similar occasion three additional joint stamps with Kyrgyzstan [T20181018], Azerbaijan [T20181119] and Uzbekistan [T20181123a].
Among all these different products, the anniversary involving Uruguay was initially considered as unilateral, also because at that time it was difficult to retrieve information from Uruguay on the net (which was solved in the meantime, Uruguay Post does have a very nice web site describing all their products) . Now, upon this request, it appeared not only that there was more than a common anniversary, but also that the illustrations were close to identical. The stamps of both countries reproduce the Bolchoi Theater of Belarus in Minsk and the Solis Theater in Montevideo, Uruguay. This clearly demonstrates that the two postal administrations have worked together to agree on the topic and the final pictures. They just did not agree on the same date of issue, Belarus issuing its stamps on November 15, 2017, so that thestamps are now filed as a Concerted issue under the entry [C20170907]. The catalogue Year 2017 has been updated accordingly (Vol 13 – page 1528-1529). Thanks again Eric.
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.
During the month of August 2024 a few joint issues were supposed to take place and did not as expected. Also some additional information was provided for existing issues. Several collectors provided interesting information that are now described in this post.
The ASEAN series of August 8, 2024 was not completely described in the first blog page. Here are some additional pictures that were not shown so far. Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines stamp pictures became available in the meantime.
On August 24, 2024, Russia and China (PR) were supposed to release joint stamps representing pandas. The date had already been postponed from originally August 4, 2024. Indeed, Russian stamps were released on that new date, but so far there are no news from China, the last Chinese stamps having been released on August 22, 2024. Any information is welcome.
When the Japan Turkish joint issue from August 6, 2024was released, another miniature sheet containing five different stamps became available from the Turkish Post. This item was part of a limited edition folder that was printed only at 4,000 samples. Of course, this item needs to be described as complementary material in the catalogue, but this is not the kind of items we like, as, even if those stamps are to be considered a true postage material, due to the limited availability and probably their absence of use on mail, they are closer to expensive cinderellas than to true stamps.
Enzo Cafaro (Italy) contacted the Turkish postal administration, which answered that this issue is not considered by them as joint, despite same date and common logo. In fact, some postal administrations do consider an issue to be really joint only if they organize a common booth in both countries on the first day of issue and/or if they produce official mixed FDC. If that would be the criteria for defining joint issues, then half of the catalogue should be discarded. But in this case we still have a real proof of collaboration during the preparation phase, which eventually led to the conclusion that each country would work by its own, following just to an agreement about the content. Some exchange of material did take place (e.g., the logo). This issue will be considered and maintained in the catalogue as a parallel joint issue. Note that over the past 30 years, Türkiye (Turkey) and Japan issued at several occasions stamps with the common topic of relationship (1988, 1990, 2010, 2019, 2021 and now 2024), some of them being considered as joint and described in the catalogue. Up to you to decide if you want to add those to your collection. In the catalogue, the stamps will be considered as a true parallel issue, but the additional Turkish miniature sheet will be described in italics and gray color.
On a completely different aspect, note also that the Turkish government has recommended and requested that the English spelling of the country name should now be ‘Türkiye‘ instead of ‘Turkey’, while the adjective Turkish can continue to be used. Starting 2024, we will use in the catalogue the new spelling ‘Türkiye’ but keep the older spelling between brackets i.e. ‘Türkiye (Turkey)’, in order to avoid the loss of some information when using e.g. the ‘Search’ tool.
Very recently, we heard about an Uruguay – Korea (South) joint issue and got, through Enzo Cafaro (Italy), information from the Uruguayan side. The stamps were issued on September 10, 2024, but no information is available so far from South Korea. Help is also needed here.
A joint issue celebrating the 75th anniversary of relationship between Egypt and Pakistan (1948-2023) was announced as early as beginning of 2023 and was supposed to be released during the year 2023. Actually, the relationship’s origin can be traced back to 1947 when Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, made a farewell visit to Egypt in response to a special invitation from King Fuad II, shortly after independence of Pakistan on August 14, 1947. Unfortunately, in absence of information, the issue had to be removed from the 2023 issue plan. Very recently, Ehsan Mahmood (Pakistan) provided information that Pakistan had released a stamp at this occasion (August 21, 2024) and at the same time confirmed that Egypt did the same, about a week earlier (August 14, 2024). Both stamps are different, but represent mosques and the flags of both countries. The Egyptian stamp shows the King Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan and the Muhammad Ali Mosque in Cairo, Egypt. Pakistan stamp represents also the King Faisal Mosque in Islamabad but the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Egypt. This issue will be considered as parallel [P20240814]. Egypt issued stamps in panes of 30 stamps [5×6] while Pakistan issued a miniature sheet of 8 stamps [2×4].
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.
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.
At the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Villa Madama agreement between Italy and the Vatican State, both postal administrations issued on February 13, 2024 an identical stamp. This agreement, also known as the New Concordat, was a political agreement signed on 18 February 1984 with the aim of updating the contents of the Concordat signed, within the framework of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy. The stamp represents the place where the agreement was signed (the Villa Madama), the signatures of the Vatican Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli (1914-1998) and of the Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi (1934-2000) and both coats of arms of involved states. Vatican issued stamps in sheetlets of 10 stamps [2×5] and official mixed first day covers became also available.
On February 13, 2024, Barid Al-Maghrib and Oman Post launched in Muscat, on the sidelines of the Postal Leaders Forum, a joint issue of a souvenir sheet of two postage stamps celebrating deep fraternal ties and history common cultural which unites the Kingdom of Morocco and the Sultanate of Oman. The designs highlight the first place where the sun rises in the Arab world in the Sultanate of Oman and the last place where the sun sets in the Kingdom of Morocco. The Oman design shows the main gate of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, the historic Sohar Ship, the sunrise view at Ras Al Hadd, as well as the ancient Sohar Castle and the Royal Opera House Muscat. The Moroccan design includes, in addition to the Al-Khair Mosque located in the locality of El Guergrat, which represents the last sunset viewpoint in Morocco, the exquisite architectural style, evident in the models of Moroccan doors.
Morocco issued 5,000 pairs of stamps and 3,000 souvenir sheets, while Morocco issued 10,000 pairs of stamps and as many souvenir sheets. The stamps are produced in miniature sheets of 4 pairs of stamps [2px2]. Details of this information was provided first by Ali Ahmed Med Achour (Algeria).
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.
Joint Stamp Issues 
You must be logged in to post a comment.