Joint Stamp Issues

This page is the archived News Page from the January to March 2011 period. All contents have been dispatched in the respective open pages. However there may still be open questions and any complementary information remains welcome. As soon as an information is archived, the text will not be changed anymore. So if news are linked to the below, this information will be displayed as a new heading in the current News page.

March 27, 2011
For those who have not seen the souvenir sheets of the March 21, 2011 Italy Vatican joint issue ...

March 27, 2011
First images of the Vatican - Poland joint issue from April 12, 2011 provided by Fabio Bonacina (Italy). The Vatican philatelic web site provides information about all items issued at this occasion (stamp, miniature sheet, stamp and coin card, folder) and refers to Poland without giving an issue date. This stamp does not appear yet on the Polish philatelic program.

March 27, 2011
We are thinking creating a new page that should help members exchanging their stamps. We could provide on line the list of joint issues stamps and FDCs that our members may have to propose to other collectors. For the time being we have only one first list, but this is a good start: Charles Feingersh (USA) has a series of FDCs to sell at very attractive prices. We thought that by posting it right now on this news page this could trigger some interest from some of our members, and may be will generate similar requests from other members. We will take all duplicate lists, but also want lists, providing these lists are exclusive joint issues.
For this first list, please contact Charles directly. All information is included in his duplicate list (pdf file).

March 27, 2011
50th anniversary of human space flight - United Nations issue (information provided by Fabio Bonacina - Italy)
On 12 April 2011, the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) will issue three stamps in the denominations of US$ 0.44, CHF 0.50 and € 0.35 in a mini-sheet format of sixteen stamps to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Human Space Flight. UNPA is also issuing one souvenir sheet with six different denominations, two from each office. The denominations are US$ 0.44, US$ 0.98, CHF 0.85, CHF 1.00, € 0.55 and € 0.65. This is the first time ever that UNPA has issued a souvenir sheet in this format.

And this is also the reason why we report it here. UNPA are usually not considered as joint issues unless their stamps are issued in parallel with another country. However in this case it will be the first time that the UNPA issues a siamese series, with six stamps from the three offices part of a same miniature sheet in three different currencies. This issue will however considered as a dependency issue under the heading [SD].

March 17, 2011
Mike Lantz (USA) is the first who found the Egyptian stamp from the Slovakia-Egypt joint issue, finally confirming that this issue is a joint issue. We still do not know what is the official date of issue for the Egyptian stamp but at least we can consider it as a concerted issue as the design is the same as the Slovenian stamp. Any further information is welcome.

March 16, 2011
Marci Javis is the web master of the site dedicated to "Cats on stamps" editor of Cat Mews, the journal of the Cats on Stamps Study Unit. She needed recently to know which joint issues displayed cats and cat family animals (lions, tigers, leopards, ...) Here is the answer:

A wildcat is represented on the September 22, 1999 issue between Ukraine and Poland.
We had a lynx on the March 1, 1995 Finland Russia issue
A caracal is shown on the "Save the Aral Sea" joint issue from April 29, 1996 involving Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
On May 12, 2001, Botswana and South Africa issued a stamp showing a leopard.
On June 1, 2005 North Korea and Russia issued stamps with a tiger.
Two different types of tigers are represented on the very recent (February 23, 2010) Malaysia and South Korea stamps.
On October 13, 2005 Canada and China PR issued stamps representing cougar and leopard.
The October 2, 1996 parallel issue (stamps are not similar) by Mexico and the United States shows some cat family wild animals such as puma, couguar, leopard, lynx, serval, wildcat, ...(not all are identified).
The only joint issue I know that shows "real" cats was proposed by Indonesia and Turkey on October 24, 2008: the Turkish Van cat and the Flat-headed cat.
In the January 10, 2006 Great Britain - United States twin issue about children's books, one UK stamp represents a cartoon of Boots, the cat, by Satoshi Kitamura, but this stamp is not common for both countries.
Finally there are a small hidden lion and leopard on the Dante stamps issued by Italy, San Marino and the Vatican State from October 21, 2009.
The first joint issue (and only one so far) related to the Lions International was issued by Australia and Norfolk on June 7, 1967. It is not considered as a true twin issue because Norfolk is a dependency of Australia. Therefore this is a territorial twin issue

March 16, 2011
Charlie Bugeya (Canada) provided some complementary information about the 2010 joint issue between Canada and Sweden on marine life [T20100513]. There are varieties in the Canadian issue. The Canadian stamps were printed in Sweden. And in Sweden, they are used to have additions on the border of their stamps for identification purposes, etc. So when these 'numbers', etc, were seen in Canada, they caused quite an 'uproar' among those people who look for 'varieties'.
These maybe summurized as:
1. All booklets have a horizontal blue line, in the centre of the left border
2. On some booklets, there is a number "1" or "2", on the centre of the right edge border. Those are cylinder control numbers.
3. On some booklet, there is also a printing control number, just below the number "1" or "2"
As a consequence there must be at least 4 varieties in this issue. That are not true varieties, but just printing run information that do not appear on all booklets. Of course, the same appears on the Swedish booklets.
The same cylinder control numbers and five digit printing control numbers appeared on the Greta Garbo Swedish stamps from 2005 [T20050923]. However in this case, this imprints were made directly on the souvenir sheets which generated really varieties, while for the Canada-Sweden issues only the margins are affected.
We know that 1,100,000 pairs of Canadian stamps were printed in booklets of 4 pairs, so 255,000 booklets. If the same process as the Greta Garbo miniature sheet was used, one can estimate that 1 out 10 booklets show the figure "1" (i.e. 25,500) and as much the number "2". A fraction of those show one of these figures together with the "printing control number". These figures are just estimates and need to be validated.

March 15, 2011
Charles Feingersh (USA) has started a process of updating the filed data of all our members. So don't be surprised if you get an e-mail (or a snail mail) from him. This initiative is supported by the JSIS. The idea is simply to get the most recent and active e-mail address for our next mailing and if you wish also a postal address. Also only upon your written approval, these data could be shared on a special page that we would create on this site, helping all collectors of this topic to know if there is another collector in their vicinity or if they could contact someone in the same country.
For those who wish to join this list, just send to the contact link your name, surname, full address (if you wish and if not just town and country), your e-mail address and the answer to the question "Am I accepting these data to become public or not?".
Thanks for your support.

March 15, 2011
"Lifetime of Service" is the titled of a new omnibus series discovered by Charlie Bugeya (Canada) and that shows the photo album of HM QE II and her husband in a series of stamps issued in panes and in a diamond shape souvenir sheet. It seems that two stamps are identical in all souvenir sheets (left and right corners of the diamond). Stamps were also issued in panes and miniature sheets. Correction: the two stamps that are identical in all miniature shets are in fact labels, not stamps.
The first stamps were issued on February 6, 2011. These series are to be considered as an omnibus twin issue. Countries involved so far include Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Cook Islands. No doubt that other Commonwealth islands will follow.

Note that due to the high number of stamps issued in this series, high costs may be associated (e.g. Gibraltar proposes the full package at £ 69.03!

March 15, 2011
Anne-Sophie and Pierre Sonveaux (Belgium) provided copies of a series of stamps they called themselves "anti-Europa stamps". Europa stamps are considered as joint issues only if design and/or date of issues are identical. The following illustrated stamps from Albania and Romania are in fact labels, but take the design of Europa stamps issued at the same period. Of course those are not joint issues. But it is interesting to report this information here with the idea that some reader could provide more information about date of issue, origin and above all reason to use the European symbol in a negative way. Any information is welcome.

March 15, 2011
Fabio Bonacina (Italy) provided the first picture of the souvenir sheet to be issued on March 21, 2011 by the Vatican in the frame of the joint issue with San Marino and Italy relative to Italian unity on March 21, 2011.

March 14, 2011
Some information about new issues collected by Rindert Paalman (The Netherlands):
Sweden and Poland will release a joint issue in the beginning of november in connection with The Year of Chemistry. Topic 100 Years Nobel Prize Winner Marie Curie (Swedish and Polish philatelic program).
French Post LaPoste announced for next year (2012) three joint issues: with Sweden, Hong Kong China and United States. Topics still unknown.
The Ministery of Finance in Germany published this week the German philatelic program 2012. A spokesman confirmed to the philatelic magazine Briefmarken Revue that there will be no joint issue next year. That's remarkable. Germany always was very active in participating in joint issues with other countries.

March 14, 2011
Rindert Paalman (the Netherlands) submitted the following advertisement from the German postal administration:

This "official (?)" document is announced as a joint souvenir card related to the two main ski events during this year, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and in Oslo respectively from February 7th to 20th and then from February 23rd to March 6th, 2011. Stamps have not been issued in common but are related to the FIS events. This is not sufficient to consider the issue as a common one and therefore, this item is just a philatelic souvenir for these two events.

March 14, 2011
Larry Dodson (USA) found a sheet of stamps related to the D20050628 Zheng He's maritime expedition, but based on the Chinese C20030805 stamps (for this stamp see more details page 6, catalogue supplement III, 2009). Of course as the illustrations are added on the personalized labels, there is no link possible with any joint issue. This is just to mention that one could create false personal joint issues by printing the same topics on labels from personalized stamps from different countries - just for fun!

March 10, 2011
Good news: the yearly update number V - 2011 from the 2006 Joint Stamp Issues Catalogue is now ready. It is a 52 pages booklet reporting all issues released during the year 2010, together with some information concerning older stamps that has not been disclosed before.
This booklet is available at a price of 5.00 Euros plus postage.
- For customers in France total price including postage is 6.50 Euros
- For European Union customers, total price is 7.00 Euros
- For the rest of the world it becomes 7.50 Euros or 10.00 US$.

Payment can take place either in cash (Euros or US$), by check (only French bank checks), by transfer within Europe (IBAN FR 76 102 7801 0470 0014 3230 4014 and BIC CMCIFR2A, bank Credit Mutuel) or via Paypal or Moneybooker/Skrill (mail address richard.zimmermann@club-internet.fr). Non European international transfers are not recommended as very expensive for such small amounts of money.

February 27, 2011
Singapore apparently intends to issue joint stamps in October 2011 with Egypt with topical "Significant Rivers". Knowing the present political situation in Egypt we have to watch carefully if this issue will take place in due time. This information was provided by Clarence Binchong Yeo (Singapore)

February 21, 2011
Kazem from Iran provided us with two very interesting news:
- First, the pending Iranian stamps from the Hungary - Iran joint issues supposed to be released on December 31, 2010, was finally brought on the market. Although it bears the date "2010", apparently the first issue date is February 10, 2011. The design is the same as the Hungarian stamp, confirming that the issue has to be filed as concerted [C].

- On the same day, February 10, 2011, Iran issued another pair of stamps clearly stating a Iran - Pakistan joint issue, also with an imprint date of "2010". So far we haved heard about any issue in Pakistan.

For both issues, any complementary details, also confirming date of issues, are welcome.

March 10, 2011: Ehsan Mehmood (Pakistan) provided the information that the parallel Pakistan stamps will be issued on March 23, 2011 at the occasion of the Pakistan Day. To his knowledge the Iranian stamp was only issued in February 2011. If the design remains the same, this series will be considered as a Concerted Issue. Still some information to check.

February 18, 2011
Egypt is a new country to be added to the [C19881009] issue celebrating the world day of the post, next to Burkina Faso, Gabon, Mexico, Wallis and Futuna with a same design showing a world map made of covers. However, this country issued its stamp one year later, on October 24, 1989. Discovered by Ehsan Mehmood (Pakistan).

February 18, 2011
On July 1, 1986, Kuwait and Qatar issued very similar stamps at the occasion of the 10th anniversary of United Arab Shipping Company. This is a twin issue [T3] discovered by Ehsan Mehmood (Pakistan). Iraq (April 24, 1987 - 4 stamps and one miniature sheet) and the United Arab Emirates (August 20, 1986 - 2 stamps) issued also stamps at the same occasion but with different designs and at different dates.

February 17, 2011
New 1981 Iraqi pilgrimage stamps were discovered by Ehsan Mehmood (Pakistan). As these stamps were issued on the same day as the Kuwait stamps with the same design, the original catalogue entry needs to be redefined from [T19801018] to [T19811007]. The same issue includes also Saudi Arabia with stamps released on October 18, 1980.

February 17, 2011
Larry Dodson (USA) found an interesting pair of stamps in relation with a Russian postal stationery:
On March 18, 1993, Russia issued a stamp celebrating the 700th anniversary of the town of Vyborg (built 1293) - printed 2,200,000. Russia issued also a cover (postal stationery) with a standard stamp but an illustration on the left side with the same topic and some similarities with the stamp. Printing date of the cover is March 10, 1993.
On May 6, 1993, Finland issued also a stamp relative to this event with a different design - printed 5,000,000.
If date of issues and designs are different, then such issues are excluded from the joint issue list, unless bth postal administrations claim a certain link. Surprisingly, the Michel catalogue states that this is a joint issue in the description of the Finnish stamp.
Can someone help solving this problem by providing e.g. a document telling that both postal administrations have cooperated?

February 17, 2011
An extensive evaluation of Soviet Union postal stationeries that could (or could not) be linked to existing joint issues was made by Larry Dodson (USA). In the 70's and 80's Soviet Union issued systematically postal cards or covers (stationery) together with stamps. The following tabulated list summarizes newly discovered postal stationeries that are linked to some stamp issues already reported in the catalogue. So each piece of information corresponds to a new line that has to be added to the corresponding entries for a new Soviet Union issue. All the items described below have in common that they are covers, with a standard stamp imprinted (so stamp not in relation with the joint stamps) with a multicolored illustration on the left front side, illustration and text in relation with the joint topic. These items show also a date that corresponds to the printing date, not the first day of issue. Usually the first day of issue is the same as the one from the Soviet Union stamp.

February 17, 2011
Sometimes there are some very old joint issues that are discovered. Charlie Bugeya (Canada) found per chance a pair of stamps from the French colonies that appeared to be part of a series involving three countries. With the design of the "Marseille" statue from Rude, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia issued in 1943 (no more precise date known) an identical stamp aiming at supporting the war efforts: "One single aim, Victory". As at that time these three countries were French dependencies, this issue will be filed as [D19430000]. Despite this, it remains a remarkable discovery of the recent years.

February 15, 2011
Fabio Bonacina (Italy) provides information about a joint issue between Italy, San Marino and Vatican that could be released on March 21, 2011. Topic would be 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy. To be confirmed.

February 15, 2011
Discovery of a 2010 joint issue that has not been reported so far, involving Bulgaria and Cuba. However this issue could be the correct issue replacing the wrongly announced Bulgaria - Turkey issue that was supposed to ne released around the same period of time:
Date of issue: 10 December 2010
Description: 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two countries
Topic: cathedrals
At this stage we are not able to tell if it will be a twin, parallel or concerted issue. The Cuban stamps have not been seen so far. Any help is welcome. Further data available on the Bulgarian Post web site (http://www.www.stamps.dir.bg/2010/2010-4962.htm).

February 14, 2011
The February issue 2/2011 of the Michel Rundschau journal gives on page 12 an interesting information concerning the issue by Namibia of a personalized self-adhesive stamp based on the Oryx design of the second SAPOA issue. Miniature sheets consisting in a row of 5 stamps and 5 empty labels with the possibility to personalize these empty labels were released by Namibia Post on September 18, 2010.
Unfortunately, since October 27, 2010, Namibia Post recalls back all these stamps because they want to control again the content of these empty labels. In fact, probably only 20 to 22 non printed miniature sheets have been sold. In total, 5,000 miniature sheets were printed.
The stamp is identical to the 2007 released stamp, except that there are no perforations separating the stamp from the label and one imprint says "2010".

February 14, 2011
Fabio Bonacina (Italy) provided the most recent information about the Visegrad group stamps. These stamps issued on February 11 finally included also the Czech Republic, next to Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. The Hungarian stamp is issued only on February 15, 2011.

January 9, 2011
Rindert Paalman (The Netherlands) provided some new information about the Dutch-Suriname potential joint issue which will remain unilateral (see below) and some new issues for 2011:
17 October 2011: Singapore-Egypt (official Singapore programme). Topic unkown.
Romanian Post says that there will be this year also joint issues with Tunesia, Moldova and Qatar. Details about dates and topics are still unknown. These issues should be produced on top of the already known joint issues involving Romania: joint issues with Germany (September) and Hong-Kong, China (November). In fact the three first have to be confirmed and are listed in the Romanian philatelic program 2011 as "under presparation" without date (http://www.romfilatelia.ro/marci/calendar.php)

January 8, 2011
By looking closer to the stamps Kazakhstan-Russia issued on October 21, 2010, it appears clearly that they are not identical: another portrait was used and the background is different. Therefore this series has to be considered as a parallel issue and not a twin and gets the number [P20101021] instead.

January 8, 2011
The Michel Rundschau 1/2011 was just released. In this issue they report the Dutch miniature sheets called "Grenzeloos Nederland (Netherland without border)" released on August 10, 2010 and devoted to Suriname. Curiously the catalogue Michel claims it is a joint issue with Suriname. We have not seen the Suriname stamps. If anyone can help to find out if this a real joint issue or only a unilateral Dutch issue, this would be welcome. In the meantime this issue will not be reported in the catalogue.

In a same way, Michel Rundschau describes the July 6, 2010 Brazilian issue honoring diplomating relations with Malawi as a joint issue with this country. Brazil issues a souvenir sheet with three stamps showing colorfull fishes from Malawi Lakes. The Brazilian postal web site does not mention that it is a joint issue. As we are still waiting for the Malawi soccer stamps from the [T20100408] issue, there is a doubt that Malawi was also involved in a joint issue with Brazil. Moreover usually a true joint issue provides information about both countries and we would expect to see also Brazilian fishes on these souvenir sheets. Any help to confirm this is welcome. In the meantime, this issue will not be reported in the catalogue.

Answer from Rindert Paalman (The Netherlands) on January 9, 2010:
There is no joint issue Netherlands-Suriname in 2010. Rindert contacted TNT Post who told him that 'Suriname is not interested in a joint issue'. End of the story, the Dutch stamps will remain an Unilateral Issue.

January 2, 2011
The images of the 2010, December 15 joint issue stamps between India and Mexico are available. It is finally a parallel issue [P1] with one souvenir sheet per country and two stamps in panes for India; see [P20101215]

January 1, 2011
Nikhil Mundra, one of our members specialized in Mahatma Gandhi Philately (he just revamped his website with a new design and all the latest issues. Have a look at: www.gandhistamps.com), reminds us that India is hosting a World Philatelic Expo between February 12 and 16, 2011 in New Delhi. Details can be found under the link: http://www.indipex2011.com . If you are around or are still looking for a holiday destination in February ...

January 1, 2011
Question from Charlie Bugeya (Toronto, Canada): "This one is about the June 14th 2010 issue for Simon Wiesenthal. In your pictures of both countries's stamps, the Israel stamp shows the star of David made up of dots and dashes. I have both stamps by Austria and Israel. I look at them and see the 'star', to be identical, i.e. made up of straight lines. So what gives?? Is my Israel stamp wrong, or is your Israel stamp taken from a 'previous proposal', and not the actual stamp?? I will be interested in knowing the 'truth'."

Answer: Stars are made of straight lines for both countries. As I am usually taking the first picture I get when I try to illustrate an issue, it happens that some times, I use a non-final design that is provided by the postal administration. In this case, this happened with the Israel stamp.

Note that this star appears also on the reverse adhesive side of the Israel stamps. As apparently the technique of printing this star was the same for both countries, the risk to lose this part of the design by washing the stamp (as noticed for the Austrian stamp) must exist as well for the Israelian stamp. I must admit I did not try myself.

March 10, 2011 - Complement of information provided by Nathan Peiss (USA): some information can also be found in the stamp explanation leaflet provided by the Israelian Post. On one of these pages there is a separate paragraph that states: "The technique used in the production of this joint issue is a world premiere! The stamps were manufactured with an innovative laser etching & lacing technology as well as philatelic laser perforation."

January 1, 2011
Anil Reddy (Chennai, India) submitted an original item he could not identify. This 2002 item looks like a siamese souvenir sheet between Guatemala and Antigua. However, there is only one denomination indicated on the stamps (expressed in Quetzals, the Guatamalan currency). In fact, the word "Antigua" printed on the sheet has no relation with the Antigua islands.

Antigua, or La Antigua, is a city in the central highlands of Guatemala, close to Guatemala-City, famous for its well-preserved Spanish Baroque architecture as well as a number of spectacular ruins of colonial churches. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the north transept of the San Francisco church of Antigua is the tomb of Santo Hermano Pedro de San José de Betancurt (1626-67), a Franciscan monk who founded a hospital for the poor in Antigua. He is Guatemala's most venerated local Christian figure, and was made a saint in 2002 when Pope John Paul II visited Guatemala.
Unless a different explanation from collectors expert in Guatemala stamps becomes available, this souvenir sheet cnnot be considered as a part of a joint issue. Also, Vatican did not issue a stamp at the occasion of this journey, in parallel to this Guatemala issue.

January 1, 2011
The publication of the Joint Issue information pages and the update of the site triggered a lot of interested and new questions. Exactly what was expected. Thanks for all the comments. Readers are now challenged to answer to some requests for which solutions are not always obvious. Comments relative to the descriptions provided earlier, have been embedded in the texts below (in purple color to identify quickly modifications).

December 30, 2010
Fabio Bonacina is providing information about Italian stamps on the web (Vaccari News) and at regular intervals speaks about joint issues. We will be reporting here the most relevant articles he is writing. Unfortunately those articles are written in Italian, so they will need some summarizing in English, that will be done here. Otherwise don't hesitate to use your prefered online Translation tools.
The most recent article refers to the Italian - Vatican Christmas joint issue. Full text can be found under http://www.vaccari.it/vnews/index.php?_id=9518.

Fabio reports about the high increase in price of the Romanian stamps that have not been issued in a printing run number corresponding to the Italian collectors demand. Of course everything is sold out and now the items are almost only available on eBay. To give you an idea about the prices here are some translated comments:
The pair of Romanian stamps is now available at € 13.50 (face value approximate € 1.00), when linked to the central lable these stamps amount € 35.00, two full sheets of eight stamps each with central label are available at € 115.00 while the folder containing stamp series of both countries, the booklets and the FDCs reaches € 350.00!

No reprint of Romanian stamps are planned, but the Vatican postal administration promised that they would take in account the real demand for joint stamp issues in Italy in the future. Romanian stamps were actually printed in approximately the same amount as usual and it was the first time that such kind of stamps were sold out so fast.
An analogue situation happened with the Marconi stamps from 1995 [T19950608], issue for which the Irish stamps became rare. It took more time for this series to increase in price, because the number of printed Irish stamps was quite high, but now the demand is still there and values of Irish stamps has been increased by more than 10 fold. This situation is mainly due to the exceptional high interest of Italian collectors for partner country stamps of joint issues.

December 30, 2010
We have to report the first case of two private postal companies issuing joint stamps, in this case at the occasion of Christmas 2010. This is very unusual and opens a completely new field in the area. Isolated identical stamps were issued on November 1, 2010, but the joint siamese souvenir sheet was released on November 28, 2010. It is not yet posted on the web sites of the two companies, but the items can be found on eBay. Note that Postmodern printed 720,000 samples of their stamp while Citykurier issued only 30,000 and the common souvenir sheet was printed only at 2,500 samples. The official price of each stamp is €0.49 and the souvenir sheet has a sale's price of €2.50.

2010 (November 1) - Germany (Citykurier) - Germany (Postmodern)
This is the first known example of a joint (siamese) issue between two private postal companies issuing their own stamps.
Christmas 2010. Siamese issue [S1].
Identical stamps (stamps are self-adhesive while souvenir sheet is moisture adhesive. Painting on tissue (1472), "Fastentuch" - velum quadragesimale - from Zittau, Adoration of the Magi. Multicolored.

December 30, 2010
The November 5, 2010 Finland - Japan twin issue trigerred some interest in an earlier Christmas issue involving Finnish stamp designers:

2009 (November 6)
Finland - Japan (November 24) - [N20091106]
Christmas 2009. Identical designs for two stamps issued by Finland and Japan.
This is a false joint issue, in other words a borrowed design issue, not endorsed as a joint issue by the two postal administrations. Actually, Finland postal administration proposed the two designs to the Japanese authorities and this triggered the idea to create a true joint issue between both countries at the occasion of Christmas 2010, however nice to report here. See [T20101108].

December 30, 2010
Following some supplementary information request from Charlie Bugeya (USA) and other collectors, the Finland Sweden separation anniversary stamps needed some explanation:
2009 (January 22)
The year 2009 was celebrated in Finland and Sweden as the 200th anniversary of the peacefully separation of both countries. Initially the stamps issued at this occasion were expected to be considered as joint issues. Unfortunately dates of issue were different (Finland: 4 stamps, "Building a new nation", January 22, 2009 - Sweden: 2 stamps, "Two countries - One Future - Sweden and Finland", March 26, 2009) and designs were completely different as well. Aland issued also one stamp at this occasion with a third design ("New borders, new times", January 22, 2009). The three postal authorities have never claimed these stamps as being joint issues. This is fully understandable as celebrating a separation means also claiming independency in terms of postal issuing program.
However Aland proposed on the market a folder (size 200x148mm) containing the stamps of the three countries, mint. This folder was issued at 3,000 samples and sold at a price of about 9.00 €uros. Unfortunately this joint document still is not sufficient to qualify this issue as joint.

December 30, 2010
Modification of issue date (and hence of numbering) from October 16 to November 19, 2008 for the Cuban stamp in the Ramsar convention concerted issue [C1]: We now know that in this issue the Cuban stamps were issued on November 19, 2008 and the Iranian stamps on July 11, 2009. New numbering becomes therefore [C20081119].

December 30, 2010
End of the story for the 2004 (October 11) SAPOA stamps.
For the 2004 (October 11) SAPOA (Southern African Postal Operators Association) twin issue [T1] involving Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Collectors were wondering how difficult it was to get the stamps and miniature sheet from Angola. The situation was clarified very recently: All stamps of these series had been printed in the Netherlands by the company "Koningklijke Joh. Enschedé". During the first day official session all souvenir sheets were presented to the press (including Angola - see picture below). Some of these sheets were even sold to public on that day, before becoming available in individual countries.
Unfortunately Angola never paid the printing of their items and, as a consequence, the Angolan miniature sheets never reached the country. After 5 years of waiting, the printer decided by end of 2009 to destroy the whole stocks of apparently 20,000 samples. It is estimated that the only surviving samples amount the approximate number of 50, the ones distributed on the first day of issue. This issue must therefore be considered as non-issued and the whole series officially limited to 7 countries.

December 30, 2010
Anthony Raynaud discovered an older Abkhasia - South Ossetia issue released in 1999 (no more precise issue date available). It shows mountain animals and was produced as two similar se-tenant stamps.
As these two countries are not recognized by the UPU, these issues must be classified as a non-accepted issue [N19990000].

December 30, 2010
René Rodrigues da Silva (Portugal - renesilva@mail.netcabo.pt) wrote recently a 6 pages article in the Boletim do Clube Filatelico de Portugal (Portuguese Philatelic Club Journal, Lisbon), N° 429, September 2010, pages 229-234, about Portuguese Joint Issues. The paper is entitled "Portugal, pioneiro das emissoes conjuntas (Portugal pionner of joint issues)". In this article he demonstrates clearly that Portugal issued the first commemorative joint issue. He is right, but because these stamps were produced for Portuguese colonies, we had already classified them as Territorial Issues, and these stamps were reported in the catalogue ([D18980401] page 497).
Please contact René directly if you want to get more details (the publication is in Portuguese).

December 30, 2010
Ehsan Mahmood (Pakistan) claimed having discovered this joint issue: On November 14, 1988 Afghanistan and India issued an identical stamp at the occasion of Nehru birth centenary. This could be a twin issue but there is still a question mark if this issue should be listed as such. In absence of proof of postal administrations' cooperation, it will be filed as accidental twin issue [TA].
The similar stamps show Jawaharial Nehru (1889-1964) 1st Prime Minister of independent India. His portrait printed in front of the Indian flag. Note that Nehru was born on November 14, 1889 and therefore this issue was produced on his 99th anniversary, which could plaid in favor of a twin issue.

December 30, 2010
Larry Dodson (USA) found that Benin (1985 April 15) and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) (1984 April 16) issued two stamps with the same designs at about one year apart. This issue was produced in the frame of the postal agreement between the two administrations. SMOM is not recognized by UPU. Therefore, even if it looks like a Concerted issue [C1], this pair will be ranged in the category of Non-approved issues [NR]. However it was interesting to report it.

December 30, 2010
Just to give you a rough idea about the evolution of joint issues by end of this year, here is a graph showing the number of joint issues with the same design released between 1960 and 2010. Clearly there is a linear trend since 1990 which makes us believe that, after extrapolation, we can expect about 55 issues to take place by 2020. There is much more to say about these statistics, as these figures do not reflect the number of stamps and miniature sheets released at the same time or the number of countries involved...

December 30, 2010
On March 24, 2010 the people's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Macao issued a post card each relative to the construction of the Zuhai Bridge. This bridge will be linking Hong Kong, Zhuhai (PRC) and Macao in the Pearl River Delta. The issue date corresponds to the 100th day of construction since commencement. Its completion is expected by 2016. This issue remained undisclosed until recently. See more...

December 30, 2010
This page is now reactivated. Please take a look at it at regular intervals as it will provide complement information to the modification pages and relay information about individual joint issues between two major site modifications. All complementary information of interest is welcome and will be posted in this section.
The first data provided above with the same date are just a summary of the most important data gathered in the past 6 months.

Previous informations reported in this section are to be found in the News Archives.