Flower

October 2025 News

by Richard Zimmermann

First of all, we have to thank Kenneth Sequeira, Dubai, who discovered a China PR-Indonesia joint issue from August 30, 2025, that we completely missed. This twin issue celebrates the 75th anniversary of relationship between both countries and is illustrated with landscapes of lakes and pagodas: the West Lake with Jingzi Tempel in Hangzhou, China PR and Lake Bratan with the Pura Ulun Danu Beratan, Hindu tempel in Bali, Indonesia.

The Bosnia Herzegovina (Bosnia) – Indonesia joint issue was finally relased on October 3, 2025. This issue was originally scheduled to be released on October 4, 2024, but was finally postponed by more than one year. The stamps issued in miniature sheets of two se-tenant stamps represent the Istiklal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the Istiklal Mosque in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The Indonesian souvenir sheet is available perforated and imperforate. The word “Istiklal” in Arabic stands for ‘Independence’. The Jakarta Mosque was opened in 1978. The Sarajevo Mosque was a gift from the Indonesian people and Government of Indonesia for Bosnia and Herzegovina as a token of solidarity and friendship between the two nations. This Mosque was opened in 2001 (Information provided by Kenneth Sequeira, Dubai)

On October 7, 2025, France and Japan celebrated the Week of Letter Writing with a twin issue depicting gardens. On one side the French Vaux-le-Vicomte castle and gardens were represented, on the other one, the Gingaku-ji tempel or Silver Pavilion near Kyoto, Japan, was shown. France issued the stamps in two miniature sheets of 10, while Japan produced a single miniature sheet with 5 se-tenant pairs. Mixed official first day documents and a mixed folder with all four stamps, mint, became also available (This information was first provided by Dominique Josse, France).

Mongolia and India celebrated on October 14, 2025, the 70th anniversary of their diplomatic relationship with identical souvenir sheets containing two stamps showing the Mongolian Biyelgee dance and the Ramlila theatrical performance (India). The margins show both national flags, the anniversary logo, national animals (horse and elephant), folk arts, Mongolian ger (yurt) and the blue sky (information provided by Kenneth Sequeira, Dubai, and Robert Schrijvers, Mongolia).

China (PR) and Monaco are celebrating the 30 years of diplomatic relations (1995-2025) on October 15, 2025, with two stamps showing identical flowers, i.e., Canterbury bells, Campanula medium and an orchid, Cymbidium.

The Cat stamps related to the Laos – Russia joint issue from October 15, 2025, were presented in the previous page. Kenneth Sequeira was able to provide the illustration from Laos which is producing both perforated and imperforate stamps and souvenir sheets. The stamps show the Marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) and the East Siberian lynx (Lynx lynx wrangeli). Russian stamps are self-adhesive, sold in miniature sheets of 4 pairs, chessboard ordered. Laos stamps are available as perforated or imperforate souvenir sheets containing the pair of stamps.

The Gibraltar – Liechtenstein issue announced for December 2025 will in fact be released on November 10, 2025. It design is already available on the Liechtenstein postal administration web site (information provided by Kenneth Sequeira). Surprisingly this issue will be available in form of two souvenir sheets containing each a stamp from each country (different stamp designs), which defines this issue as Se-tenant joint issue [S2]. Stamps show falcons and are dedicated to the migration of these birds. Stamps are also available in sheetlets, and mixed FDCs are available.

Catalogues Vol 1 and Vol 16 have been updated with all this information covering the months of September and October 2025.

New discovery from 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

To our great surprise, George Adi reported a joint issue that was not described so far and dated back 2023. At the occasion of the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relationship, Türkiye (Turkey) and Qatar issued the same stamp representing the figure “50” and a logo (flower and sand rose). The Turkish stamp was released on September 27, 2023, while the Qatari stamp became available on November 5, 2023. Both stamps were released in form of same shape miniature sheets containing five stamps [(2×2)+1]. This new issue will be described in the catalogue under the entry code [C20230927]. Congratulations and thanks a lot, George.

It is quite difficult to find information from Qatar. On January 31, 2025, Argentina released also a stamp celebrating the 50 years of relationship with Qatar. This Argentina stamp could be one half of a joint issue, but information from Qatar is missing. Any help here is welcome. In the meantime, you will find below the picture of the Argentinian stamp. It may be possible that the Qatari stamp will be released only in a couple of months from now.

Latest News September – October 2024 (1)

by Richard Zimmermann

Recently, several twin issues were released, but information was difficult to collect, in particular regarding countries such as Cape Verde, Brunei or Kyrgyzstan, which led to the delay of publishing details. Information is still not complete and any complement is welcome.

On September 12, 2024, Portugal and Cape Verde celebrated the centenary of the African (Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde) anticolonial activist and writer Amílcar Lopes Cabral (born on September 12, 1924, assassinated on January 20, 1973). The stamps show two portraits of the politician. Portugal issued 70,000 stamps from each type in panes of 50. Except the recent confirmation of the same design, details about the Cape Verde stamps are missing. There is also no information available about any issue at the same date of a commemorative stamp from Guinea Bissau.

The Brunei – Singapore joint issue from September 17, 2024 was discovered by Don Birschel (USA). The identical stamps show plants, on one side Ficus elastica and on the other, Dendrobium Hassanal Saleha. The orchid is named after the Brunei Sultan and Queen during the Sultan’s State Visit to Singapore in 2022 and the Ficus was planted by Singapore President Tharman on his State Visit to Brunei Darussalam in 2024. While Brunei stamps details are still missing, Singapore products include stamps produced as miniature sheets of 10 units as well as a souvenir sheet including these same stamps. Mixed FDCs became also available.

Carnation Revolution

by Richard Zimmermann

The Carnation Revolution, called in Portuguese Revolução dos Cravos, also known as the 25 April (Portuguese: 25 de Abril), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo government on April 25, 1974 in Lisbon. It marked the beginning of a democratic life in Portugal and at the same time did put an end to the Portuguese colonial war.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this important day, Portugal, associated to Angola and Cape Verde, released a joint issue on March 28, 2024, representing the symbol of this peaceful revolution, a carnation flower, and obviously entitled “25 ABRIL”. Each country issued two identical stamps. The Portuguese postal administration offers also a folder containing the 6 joint stamps, mint, a dedicated Portuguese miniature sheet with 6 different stamps, the two Portuguese stamps and the souvenir sheet, mint, issued at the occasion of the 40th anniversary in 2014 (price € 15.00).

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.

Euromed 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

The yearly Euromed issue was released on July 10, 2023 with the common topic “Festivals”. So far, all participating countries have issued their stamps on this same date, with the exception of Tunisia which released its stamps on July 11, 2023. There are 13 countries participating, including Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Tunisia. Other potential countries, having participated to Euromed issues in the past years, could also include Albania, Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Turkey, but no information is available from these countries at this stage.

The scope of festival is quite large and each country selected one specific topic including film, dance, theater, music or photography festivals, but also food, fireworks or even the very specific Moreska Sword Dance Festival.

Austria – Netherlands crypto stamp

by Richard Zimmermann

On September 22, 2022, Austria and the Netherlands are issuing the first joint crypto stamps with digital twin in the blockchain as a twin issue [T1]. The stamp sheet is the size of a bank card and is made of extra strong reinforced paper. The physical stamp has been affixed to the front of the stamp sheet, in the center. The stamp can be detached along the perforated edges. The background of both the sheet and the stamp features the stripes of the Austrian or Dutch flag with an added crystal structure. Designs of stamps are similar, showing a head of a bull with small modification in the background. A pattern of edelweiss (Austria) or tulips (Netherlands) runs across the flag of each country and a ‘secret word list’ (QR code) for viewing, storing and selling the digital twin of the crypto stamp in the blockchain. The upper right-hand corner of the reverse features the unicorn logo, which has been used as a symbol for crypto stamps since the very first issue by Austria in 2019.

Now, it becomes a little more complicated when there is a need to describe the differences between the true physical stamp and stamp sheet compared to the virtual material.

Each physical postage stamp has a digital twin in the blockchain. Blockchain is a computer technology that uses distributed databases to secure the ownership of crypto money and other digital assets such as crypto art and crypto stamps. These digital items are also known as NFTs, non-fungible tokens. The digital twins can be viewed on a computer or smartphone at any time. It is also possible to store it in a digital collection or sell it using a digital wallet.

The digital twins are stored in the blockchain in five different colors. The likelihood of getting a particular color depends on the randomly generated color. For Austrian stamps, there are 1,000 red, 6,667 yellow, 13,333 blue, 26667 green and 52,333 black virtual stamps associated to the 100,000 printed physical stamps. For Dutch stamps, there are 1,400 red, 9,334 yellow, 18,666 blue, 37,334 green and 73,266 black virtual stamps for a total of 140,000 physical stamps. By scanning the QR code on the stamp with a smartphone, one will find out which color is linked to the crypto stamp.

In other words, and if we have understood the principle of this new collection, only one physical stamp per country became available, but each is linked to 5 possible different virtual stamps per country. As a consequence, the value of a physical stamp will differ depending upon the associated color of the virtual stamp. In theory, in your stamp binder, one physical stamp should be sufficient, but if you want to own the complete collection, you need to acquire the 5 color variations from each country. With a denomination above € 9.00 per stamp (more precisely € 9.90 for Austria and €9.05 for the Netherlands), this represents a minimum investment close to € 100, in the case you are very lucky. Of course, as you do not know what color you buy, the best way is to acquire the stamps from sellers who already know the associated color, but which have already adapted the sales price to the rarity. Older Austrian crypto stamps are commonly sold above € 200, and it should not be different with these stamps. In this case, a maximum of only 1,000 full combinations of 10 stamps will be possible, and said differently, it will almost be impossible, or very expensive, to reach the target of bringing together a full hand. It looks like a combination between philately and a lottery, and a new way to abuse collectors. Indeed, we cannot recommend trying to create the full combination, but up to you if you want to try. However, this pair of stamps, independently of the associated colors, will definitely be considered as a twin issue, in the form of a two physical stamp sheets.

The Dutch crypto stamp is the first crypto stamp to be issued by PostNL. This new Austrian crypto stamp is identified under the name ‘Crypto stamp 4.0’.

Israel – Mexico 2022

by Richard Zimmermann

On September 13, 2022, Israel and Mexico issued stamps at the occasion of the 70th anniversary of their relationship. The stamps are illustrated with symbols of both countries: the Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops), Israel’s national bird, the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica), the Mexican national bird, the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) and the columnar cactus (Stenocereus dumortieri or Isolatocereus dumortieri). Interestingly, Israel issued as usual its stamps in sheetlets of 15 stamps ([5×3]) together with 5 tabs at the bottom of the sheet. This tab becomes the design of the second stamp of Mexico. For the first time, this twin issue involving Israel must be considered as complete only if the pair of Mexican stamps is associated with the Israel stamp mandatorily linked with a tab, reducing by two third the possibility to create matching pairs. At the same time, this will give also a much higher value to the Israelian stamp with tab and e.g., mixed FDCs make sense only if the set is complete (with Israelian tab). Most of the information was provided by Dov Lask (Israel), thanks to him.