Philatelic Exhibition

FIP and ECOWAS

by Richard Zimmermann

This beginning of the year is very quiet. Next to the early Chinese New Year stamps involving China PR, Hong Kong and Macao, only two omnibus series where initiated, one related to the centenary of the FIP, the other to the 50th anniversary of the ECOWAS.

On February 6, 2026, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates issued similar stamps to celebrate the centenary of the ‘Federation Internationale de Philatélie’ (FIP – International Federation of Philately) with a design based on the FIP logo. This two first issues coincided with the Dubai 2026 World Stamp Exhibition, the first world exhibition celebrating this FIP centenary. Apparently other countries will participate – actually all countries could participate – and so far the following have already announced it: Bosnia Herzegovina (June 16, 2026), Serbia (), Brazil (June 18, 2026) and Bosnia Herzegovina (Serbia) (October 9, 2026). We do not know if these stamps will be of the same design. Romania already issued a stamp on February 26, 2026, but with a completely different design, so, not part of the joint issue (the FIP logo appears in the margin of a souvenir sheet).

On February 12, 2026, the ECOWAS countries came together to issue a commemorative stamp at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its creation (which actually took place on May 28, 1975). ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States, also known as CEDEAO in French and Portuguese) includes today 12 countries. All 12 countries participated to the issue with identical stamps bearing each a QR code to access further information. A 3×4 sheet bearing the 12 different stamps was issued at the same date, so including Benin – Cape Verde – Gambia – Ghana – Guinea – Guinea-Bissau – Ivory Coast – Liberia – Nigeria – Senegal – Sierra Leone and Togo. This information was provided by Kenneth Sequeira (Dubai). We now have to find information for all individual countries which remains always complicated for African countries.

Illustrations of the stamps to be released by Japan on April 26, 2026 in a joint issue with Singapore and of the Indonesia stamps to be relased jointly with Uruguay (date of issue still unknown) became already available thanks to Kenneth Sequeira, Dubai.

Enzo Cafaro (Italy), provided also the illustration of the future Europa stamp to be released by Armenia (exact date of release still unknown). In the meantime, some countries have already issued their 2026 Europa stamps or shown the future design: Aland (May 8, 2026), Belgium (April 13), Finland (May 6), Guernsey (April 1), Liechtenstein (March 2), Monaco (May 9) and San Marino (March 2).

Among the other interesting information, one has to note that Denmark has decided, from January 1, 2026 on, to dismantle the Post, which has for consequence that all post boxes have been removed and that this country will not issue stamps anymore. The postal services are taken over by private companies from now on (which apparently will not issue stamps, but work with labels and QR codes only).

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.

January 2024 News

by Richard Zimmermann

Several friends provided interesting information over the past weeks:

Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore) discovered an item based on an older Indonesia souvenir sheet, originally part of the Indonesia – Thailand joint issue from May 5, 2016, overprinted at the occasion of the Philatelic Exhibition “Thailand 2023”, that took place between November 27 and December 2, 2023. This is not part of a joint issue, but as material from a previous joint issue was used, the item needs to be described under this heading [T20160505].

The 60th anniversary of the relationship between Tunisia and The People’s Republic of China was celebrated by Tunisia with a dedicated stamp showing a panda with a text in both Chinese and Arabic characters. Unfortunately China did not issue any counterpart philatelic material and this unilateral stamp will not be reported in the catalogue (information received from Med Achour Ali Ahmed, Algeria).

During its 44th session in Cairo (Egypt) on January 11, 2024, the Permanent Arab Postal Commission decided to issue by Arab member countries a postage stamp in solidarity with Gaza. A commission was set up to discuss its design. No release date has been brought forward (information received from Med Achour Ali Ahmed, Algeria).

The UPU has launched the campaign of its 150th anniversary, announcing a possibility for all voluntary postal administrations to participate on October 9, 2024 with a common stamp. The suggestion is to use the logo of the anniversary which has been shown at the end of last year. So far, more than 20 countries have confirmed their participation, but eventually about 200 countries could participate. As this issue is created upon a kind of central invitation, not printed centrally and as there is some freedom to adapt the logo, but with the suggestion to release them at the same date, this issue has to be considered as a true twin issue. It looks like a future omnibus series. There will be hundreds of products available and it could be understandable that some collectors will not consider integrating these stamps in their collection. The design of the proposed common stamp became available.

Enzo Cafaro, Italy, found information about the next India – Israel joint issue dedicated to Purim Festival to be released on February 13, 2024 and he could already provide the design.

All catalogue volumes have been updated and are available on line. The list of additional issues expected to be released during the year 2024 has been integrated in the catalogue Volume 15.

Lubrapex 2012 now complete

by Richard Zimmermann

Incredible discovery from Wenchao Chen (PR China) who could provide the first images of the Timor Leste stamps issued in the frame of the AICEP Lubrapex 2012 writers series. The stamps from this series were issued in 2012 but the existence of some participating countries such as Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe or Mozambique was confirmed only years after. Now, in 2023, meaning 11 years later, we can confirm the completeness of the series reported in the catalogue under [P20121009], including also Angola, Cape Verde and Macau. Of course, the exact date of issue of the Timor Leste remains so far unknown but we can confirm that the stamps were issued in sheets of 50 units in the same style as the other stamps of the series and bears the words “Lubrapex 2012”.

The new stamp represents Francisco Borja da Costa (October 14, 1946 – December 8, 1975), an East Timorese poet and the writer of “Pátria”, the national anthem of East Timor. He was executed by Indonesian forces the day after the beginning of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

Congratulations Chen!