Humanitarian

Solidarity with Gaza stamps

by Richard Zimmermann

During the 27th session of the Council of Arab Ministers of Communications and Information, held on January 18, 2024 in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), the postal administrations of the Arab countries were invited to dedicate the common postage stamp, planned for the year 2024, to the expression of solidarity of the Arab countries with the Palestinian cause.
Thus, the project of this common postage stamp was the subject of a competition in which several Arab countries participated through proposals for models, at the end of which the creation of the Jordanian post office was selected to be reproduced in this common postage stamp, under the theme “With Gaza”. The selected work illustrates a gap of hope showing a flag and doves in the midst of the destruction and devastation recorded in Gaza.
Its launch was scheduled to take place on November 29, 2024 on the occasion of the international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The first stamp of this series was already issued on October 7, 2024 by Syria. Jordan and Qatar released their stamp on November 28, 2029. The other countries including Algeria, Morocco, Oman and Tunisia did release their stamps at the expected date. A few other countries including Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Palestine were supposed to participate as well, but no information is available to date. Any additional information from these countries is welcome.

Products released so far include stamps in panes or miniature sheets (from 4 to 20 stamps), souvenir sheets, all with one single stamp and of course first day covers. Jordan stamps are also available as non-perforated. Surprisingly, Djibouti has now to be added to this series. The country issued three stamps (among which two se-tenant) and a souvenir sheet. Djibouti stamps were released on November 11, 2024. However, these Djibouti stamps were released in very small amounts (maximum of 1,500 stamps from the smallest denomination, 800 from the highest denomination), as perforated but also all as imperforated, in miniature sheets, souvenir sheets (also perforated and non-perforated) and even proofs and postal cards. Indeed this is a very opportunistic issue from a country that was initially not involved and that tries to make money out of collectors. These products will be described in the catalogue, but in italic characters (each one to decide if interested or not – note that a complete set including all perforated and non perforated products as well as FDCs, will cost for this country the total of at least €550 (!) without counting full panes, based on prices displayed on Delcampe).

All these stamps will be reported in the catalogue under the entry [T20241129]. Thanks to Med Achour Ali Ahmed, Algeria, and Enzo Cafaro, Italy, for providing details for some of these issues.

The Jordan stamp with the denomination “50” that is available on the net is a design that was finally adapted with a denomination “100”. Thanks to Fabio Bonacina, Italy, for pointing to this difference.


Update June 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) informed us that the country Chad added stamps with the same design to the series of 2019 (October 9) stamps dedicated to Jerusalem – Al-Quds capital city of Palestine. Chad issued two stamps with denomination 150F and 400 F, but also a golden larger size stamp at denomination 1000F. These stamps were issued on November 30, 2022. 150F stamps were issued in sheets of 15 stamps, 400F stamps in sheets of 10 and golden stamps in miniature sheet of 4 stamps. All three stamps are available as imperforate and as postal stationery (postal cards). In the catalogue, only the three basic stamps are considered as real collectables, other products being just items to fool collectors. But everyone is free to add any product to his own collection.

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) was involved in the past weeks in two joint issues. The first one was issued on May 16, 2023, and involves the Vatican City. It celebrates the 825th anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta in Spoleto. The second one was released on June 23, 2023, together with Slovakia and is dedicated to the humanitarian activities to welcome Ukrainian refugees. As SMOM is still not recognized by UPU, and as these two series are not involving a third country, these two joint issues are reported in the catalogue, but with heading Non-approved [N]. Again, collectors have to decide if they want to include these stamps in their collection. Catalogue are just there to indicate their existence.

By end of last year, regarding the philatelic year 2023, there was a high number of announcements of joint issues involving India. These issues should involve Israel (February, no news), Luxembourg (March 14, issued at the expected date), Hungary (2023), Vietnam (April 23, apparently stamps were printed, but only partly released in Vietnam and not seen yet in India), Mauritius (August 15), and South Korea (December 8). So this totaling up to 6 joint issues, but with only one released so far and all the others remaining questionable. Any help in getting information from India is highly welcome.

Don Birschel (USA) discovered this joint issue between Egypt and Kazakhstan, released June 4, 2023, and dedicated to the 850th birthday of Sultan Al Zahir Baybars (1223-1277). The common stamp represents a coin, a dinar minted during Baybars’ reign, bearing his blazon, the lion/panther. Kazakhstan issued a second stamp with the portrait of the ruler, in a diamond shaped miniature sheet including two se-tenant pairs.

The EuropaCEPT series issued on May 9, 2023 with common stamp “Peace” was completed with following countries: Kazakhstan (June 1, 2023), Georgia (June 16, 2023) and Isle of Man (July 5, 2023). The Isle of Man stamp with identical design is part of a series of 7 stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Isle of Man postal administration. Only one stamp bears the PostEurop 30th anniversary logo, which is the one to be taken in account as part of this year series. The six other stamps show earlier stamps (stamps on stamp) among which some of them featuring Europa Cept and PostEurop stamps from years 1976, 1980, 1987, 1995, 2004 and 2023. The only stamp on stamp part of an earlier joint issue is the one representing the common design from 2023, together with three other stamps issued in 2023, probably the first example of a stamp on stamp issued the same day as the original stamp. Albania, Armenia and Azerbaijan remain on the waiting list and should be issued within the next months.

On June 18, 2023, Qatar and Georgia have released a joint (twin) issue at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between both countries. The stamps feature landmarks (buildings, towers, sculptures) of the capital cities of Georgia (Tbilissi) and Qatar (Doha) (issue discovered by Enzo Cafaro, Italy). High quality image of the Qatar stamp is not yet available.

Romania – SMOM 2022

by Richard Zimmermann

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.