This page is the archived News Page from the July to September 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.

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September 21, 2011
On October 5, 2011, the Auction House Cherrystone at www.cherrystoneauctions.com brings on sale a block of four of the inverted Saint Lawrence issue from June 26, 1959. The issue is to be seen on the British Commonwealth Canada page and the starting price is fixed at USD 24,000. Estimated price is USD 64,000. In parallel a cover bearing an inverted stamp is also proposed for sale at a starting price of USD 9,500. The page describing the bloc of four provides following explanations:

"BRITISH COMMONWEALTH CANADA 1959 St. Lawrence Seaway, 5c red & blue center inverted, top right corner sheet-margin block of four, plate block position, bright fresh colors on pristine white paper, never hinged, usual post office pad staple holes in top selvage, v.f. A showpiece with 1983 PFC, approximately 400 copies exist, making this plate block a premier Canadian rarity. As was the policy of the Canadian Post Office during this time period, sheets of stamps supplied to the various post offices had the selvage inscriptions (and plate numbers) trimmed off to reduce the number of broken panes in post office stocks (caused by collector requests). The only way collectors could obtain plate number blocks were from sheets that were supplied through the Philatelic Service of the post office. The famous Seaway Invert found its way to the public through purchases by customers at regular post office windows, so no traditional inscription plate blocks."

We will let you know what will be the final price.

September 18, 2011
Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) found an interesting item on the Delcampe auction web site and raised the interesting question: is this item missing in your catalogue? The answer is "Yes, Sir. You found an old stationery that has not been reported so far. Congratulations".

This item from the Republic of Guinea Bissau was released on May 17, 1979 and reproduces the design of the stamp also released on the same day at the occasion of the World Day of Telecommunications. The stamp is reported in the catalogue under the entry [T19790517a] on page 136, together with Kuwait, Qatar and Spain. A few other countries issued the same stamp at different days (Iraq, Sao Tome and Yemen). On the same day a second design stamp was also released to which Guinea Bissau participated as well. It is reported under [T19790517b] on page 137, and Benin, Mali and Upper Volta released stamps with exactly this same second design. Also at different dates Germany, North Korea and the Philippines used this second design in a stamp issue. Surprisingly, Guinea Bissau was the only country having released stamps with the two designs. Therefore it would not be a surprise if one discovers stationery from Guinea Bissau with this second design as well.
In any case, a new line has already to be added to this catalogue page.

September 18, 2011
The Belarus web site is now providing the picture (thanks to Michael Lantz) of the stamp to be released at the occasion of the Belarus - Iran Joint issue on September 28, 2011 (and not September 18 as initially stated). Of course it is too early to expect information from Iran and not even confirmation of the release of stamps by this country at the announced date. we have to watch for this information.

September 18, 2011
The joint issue between Germany and Romania was released as scheduled on September 15, 2011. Stamps are identical and therefore this issues will be classified as twin [T]. Mike Lantz (USA) provided a series of different pictures linked to this issue (single stamps, Romanian souvenir sheet, mixed FDC).

September 18, 2011
Thanks to Mike Lantz (USA) we got the images of the Croatian stamp released on September 13, 2011, in parallel to Vatican.

September 18, 2011
In the catalogue Supplement V 2011 on page 47 we mentioned as a last minute information the issue of a pair of stamps from Iran (issued on January 10, 2011 but bearing the imprint of the year 2010) that claimed to be a joint issue with Pakistan. Ehsan Mehmood provided us with the information about the Pakistanese stamps that were finally released on August 29, 2011. They have the same design, so these series will be considered as Concerted [C].

September 18, 2011
Thanks to Mike Lantz (USA) who provided the images of both miniature sheets issued by Iceland and Malta. Jürgen Klein (Germany) shortly after provided some complementary data. The designs are different, although painted by the same artist, but the date of issue, September 15, 2011 the same, therefore it is to be considered as a parallel issue [P].

September 18, 2011
At the occasion of the opening on September 29, 2011, of the art exhibition "Horizont Schweiz" in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, both postal administrations of Liechtenstein and Switzerland have decided to propose a common cancellation dated September 29, 2011, of covers bearing the two joint stamps issued since September 9, 2011. This event will take place at the museum, between 6 and 9 pm on September 29, 2011. It is not yet clear if the two postal administrations will propose the cancelled items for sale after the event.
The exhibition will take place until Januar 15, 2012 and shows works from Sophie Täuber Arp, Max Bill, Roman Signer, Fischli/Weiss, Thomas Hirchhorn and Shirana Shahbazi.

September 18, 2011
Ehsan Mehmood (Pakistan) mentionned the issue of a Pakistanese stamp relative to cooperation with Russia. He is expecting that Russia issues (or has already has issued) a parallel stamp, but so far we haven't seen anything, nor in the issued stamps, nor in the remaining Russian issuing program. If someone is aware about any recent Russian stamp or stationery related to Pakistan, please advice. Thanks.

Andrei Ochmat (Brazil) is asking the same type of question concerning the July 1, 2011 stamps and souvenir sheet to be released by Brazil to celebrate Europalia 2011 in Belgium. In some previous years, we considered as joint issues the stamps released by Belgium in connection with Europalia when the host country released a stamp either at the same date or with the same design (sometimes both). So far we have not heard about a Belgium stamp, except a special ATM stamp that will be issued on November 5, 2011 (different design, different date of issue) and we are wondering if some reader has seen something else. The present Belgium philatelic issues program for 2011 does not mention any stamp related to Europalia or Brazil.
Andrei is collecting this type of information on his blog under http://www.seloshow.com:80/belgium---europalia-festival

September 3, 2011
Kandalhu G. Saravanan was the first one to provide new information about the next Iceland Malta joint issue to be released on September 15, 2011. Unfortunately the link Saravanan provided was active only a few days. However images could be found on the Iceland postal web site. Malta stamp images have not been seen so far.

September 3, 2011
Fabio Bonacina (Italy) provided the images of the August 30, 2011 joint issue between Australia, Australian Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Compared to the similar territorial twin stamps issued last year by the same group of countries (excluding Norfolk), the miniature sheets of this year [D20110830] show the four same stamps in a rotating country name attribution.

Australia



Australian Antarctic Territory



Christmas Island



Cocos (Keeling) Islands

August 18, 2011
For those who are following these News at regular intervals, remember the one from March 15, 2011 in which we called for help for getting some information about some Romanian and Albanian false Europa CEPT issues:

Anne Sophie and Pierre Sonveaux (Belgium) who asked for more information got today an answer from Gérard Le Moal (France). Gerard tells us that some of the information about these stamps was published in the French philatelic journal Timbres Magazine n°45 from April 2004 at page 120.
The origin of the Romanian stamps came from an organization of Romanians exiled in Spain who claimed that "Europe cannot live without the Eastern countries" (written in Romanian on the stamps). All three stamps (cinderellas?) were issued in 1957. Printing was 100,000 perforated samples and 80,000 non perforated. FDC were apparently available as well. The new Maury catalogue describes these items.

We probably will find a similar explanation for the Albanian stamps/cinderellas.

Thanks for this information Gérard. We keep looking for information about the Albanian stamps.

August 15, 2011
Some news from Anthony Raynaud (France): remember he is chasing the new issues for our members. When he learned that the Namibia post re-issued the 2007 (October 9) SAPOA stamps on September 18, 2010, but in miniature sheets with personalized labels (see Catalogue Supplement V, page 8), he started looking hiow to get samples of these stamps directly from Namibia Post (those items have been seen first at eBay). He not only succeeded finding the stamps with labels from Namibia Post, but managed to convince them to create a personalized label refering to our Society. Look at the result!!

August 15, 2011
Several mails (Michael Lantz, USA - Jürgen Klein, Germany, Fabio Bonacina, Italy) provided information and links with data describing the new Indonesia-Malaysia joint issue from August 8, 2011. In fact we did not publish this information earlier because we had difficulties finding detailed descriptions. Finally the most complete description came from Ahmad Omar bin Arbain (Malaysia) who writes the following:

August 3, 2011
The Michel Rundschau 7/2011 monthly catalogue was recently released. On page 97 it reports on the Palestinian Day of the Arab Post block from 2008. The official release date is March 17, 2011 while a note explains that the original first day covers are dated August 3, 2008. On that day, identical stamps or blocks from Egypt, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Tunesia were also released. Other countries provided later identical items: Bahrein (August 3, 2009), Morocco August 28, 2008), Oman (December 31, 2008), United Arab Emirates (October 23, 2008) and Yemen (May 22, 2009).

All this information was reported in the JI Catalogue Supplement IV (page 8) together with the explanation of the issue with the Palestinian stamps. In fact, these stamps were printed in Singapore like some others of the Arabic countries stamps (e.g. Qatar), but stamps did not reach Palestine immediately and were seized for a long time by Israeli authorities (apparently until March 17, 2011). We preferred not to give a quote for this stamp up to now.

The Michel catalogue provides now a catalogue quote of 10 Euros for this Palestinian block which is consistent with the price Anthony Raynaud is charging (6.80 Euros) to the members that are acquiring the new JI stamps through his channel. But remember that this block was available for sale on eBay at up to US$240 in January 2010. I checked on eBay and Delcampe and found out that most of the dealers are now proposing this block at less than €10 and even less than US$10 on eBay, but some others continue to propose it at prices up to US$75. More surprisingly FDC with date from August 3, 2008 or even with both cancellations (August 3, 2008 and March 17, 2011) are offered at prices below € 15.00.

August 3, 2011
From Mike Lantz (USA): This image of the Malaysia - Indonesia issue due out 8/8/2011 was leaked to the Pos Malaysia Facebook page.

Fabio Bonacina (Italy) provided also this link (http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=606015) that gives further information on the Malaysian stamps.

August 2, 2011
Among the joint issues that were expected in July 2011 we are still missing news about the Philippines - Cuba and the Gibraltar - Israel stamps. Any information is welcome.

August 2, 2011
Philatelie Liechtenstein issued its booklet for the annoucement of stamp issues during the third quarter 2011. This booklet includes a full description of the next joint issue between Liechtenstein and Switzerland called "Horizon Switzerland" and to be released on September 9, 2011. Mixed covers and mixed maxi cards will be available as well.

This booklet confirms also the participation of Liechtenstein to the third SEPAC issue (including 12 countries on September 28, 2011. A folder containing the stamps from the 12 countries and entitled "Beautiful corners of Europe" will be available as well.

Details can be found under www.philatelie.li

August 1, 2011
In today's Vaccari information written by Fabio Bonacina (Italy), one can find the first representation of the Vatican stamp that is supposed to be issued on September 13, 2011 in conjunction with Croatia. This stamp pair will be dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of Rugerius Boscovich (1711 - 1787), physicist, astronomist, mathematician, architect and philosoph working for the Pope Benedikt XIV, and from Croatian origin.
The original text in Italian is to be found under http://www.vaccarinews.it/index.php?_id=10693.

August 1, 2011
Fabio Bonacina (Italy) provided the images of the stamps issued on July 26, 2011, by the Dutch postal administration and related to South Africa. This issue belongs to the annual series "Grenzeloos Nederlands - Netherlands without frontiers" issued each year during the Summer since 2008, also in the same style (3 different miniature sheets with each 6 different stamps). In the past, Brazil (2009) and the Dutch Antilles/Aruba (2008) participated to such joint issue, but 2010 with Suriname was not a joint issue.
We do not have at this stage information about any link with South Africa. Any information is welcome.

August 1, 2011
Anthony Raynaud (France) was wondering about the real status of the stamps issued in 2011 at the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of composer Franz Liszt (see comments under Note June 30, 2011). Apparently the Serbia and Hungary stamps could have been a joint issue, because of the mention of "Joint Issue" in the margin of the Serbian pane. The Serbian stamp was issued on June 14, 2011. Since that date, the Hungarian stamp was regularly postponed.

Anthony contacted directly the Hungarian Post and received from István Szegedi from the Hungarian philatelic center the following astonishing answer: "... We inform you that releasing date of our Liszt issue is delayed, the new date is 19 August 2011. We would not say that this issue is a joint issue with Serbian Post - of course we are really happy that Serbian Post issued Franz Liszt stamp, but there was not any negotiation between the two postal administrations in this topic."
At least this message is clear: this is not a joint issue. But why then the mention in the margin? Story to follow...

August 1 , 2011
Among older issues Anthony Raynaud (France) noticed the similarity between the stamp issued by Austria on July 23, 2010 and the one issued by the Czech Republic on May 26, 2010 at the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the designer Alfons Maria Mucha. These stamps have never been claimed as joint issues and are not.

August 1, 2011
As a complement to the information about the Gagarin issue (that is not a joint issue - see below News June 28, 2011), Anthony Raynaud (France) provided other examples of stamps issued at this occasion and using the common picture:

Ecuador (May 6, 2011):

Bosnia Herzegovina (May 26, 2011):

Russia issued also a postal stationery item (April 12, 2011 if issued on same day as souvenir sheet):

August 1 , 2011
Ahmad Omar bin Arbain provided information about the next joint issue between Malaysia and Indonesia. Original source data can be found under http://www.pos.com.my/pos/personal/stamp/stamp_issue_2011.aspx for Pos Malaysia and under http://www.e-fila.com/content/7-penerbitan-perangko for Pos Indonesia.
This issue which has not been reported so far will be released on August 8, 2011 (Date to be confirmed for Indonesia). More probably after August 8.

August 1 , 2011
Mike Lantz (USA) provided also the first good images of the Portugal - Thailand joint issue released on July 20, 2011. For the Thailand stamps, there are slight changes (e.g. color of the denomination) compared to the first design we were proposed (see below News from July 2, 2011).
Note however that the printed information "Provided by Thailand Post | brought to you by SiamStamp.com", is an overprint on the stamp image to define the original source and is not supposed be found on the stamp. If you have some further interest in Thailand stamps do not hesitate to visit this informative site www.siamstamp.com

August 1 , 2011
From Mike Lantz (USA) who found images for the Belarus - Venezuela commemorating Venezuela's Bicentenario: Belarus doesn't actually claim this as a joint issue (and there's no mention of Belarus on the Venezuelan issue) but rather it commemorates the "15th Anniversary of Friendship and Cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela".  The selvage of the Belarus souvenir sheet though has the 200 Centenario logo that appears on the Venezuelan stamp.  Interestingly, the logo appears on the Belarus stamp only as invisible protective tagging and not as part of the stamp design. 
Russia has also released a stamp commemorating Venezuela's Bicentennial without the 200 centenario logo (definitely is not a joint issue). 
Belarus date of release is July 5, 2011, and Venezuela's ones was on February 21, 2011. These stamps cannot be considered as a joint issue.

July 6, 2011
Surprising information in the Australian Stamp Bulletin 311 from July - August 2011: On August 30, 2011 Australia will issue a series of stamps in a similar manner as the ones that were issued in 2009 [S20090804] together with Australian Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Norfolk will not participate to the joint issue this time and only 4 stamps will be issued. The series will be dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the WWF and display Australian mammals (Quokka, Christmas Island Shrew, Dugong and Southern Elephant Seal). Four miniature sheets with four stamps each will be issued (one per territory), but there will be no mixed siamese sheet. In absence of Norfolk, all participants being only dependencies of Australia, this issue must be considered as a territorial joint issue under the denomination [D20110830].

July 6, 2011
The July 1st, 2011 issue of the German philatelic newspaper DBZ announces that the Lithuanian stamp issued on June 18, 2011 at the occasion of the 100th birthday of Czeslaw Milosz, a Polish poet, from Lithuanian origin, 1980 Literatur Nobel Prize winner, is a joint issue with Poland. In fact Poland issued also a stamp at this occasion two weeks later, on June 30, 2011, but with a completely different design.
None of the two postal administration web sites claim these stamps are joint issues. So unless someone sees an official mixed FDC, we cannot consider these stamps as joint.

Also this same journal provides the image of the Israel stamp issued on June 27, 2011, supposed to be a joint issue with Gibraltar. June 27 is still the date announced in the (unchanged) philatelic program of the Israelian philatelic administration, but today, neither Israel nor Gibraltar have posted information on the web about this issue.

July 2, 2011
The Vatican announces in their 2011 program a joint issue with Croatia relative to the 300th birthday anniversary of Ruder Josip Boskovic without providing a specific date. Such an issue does not exist in the 2011 Croatian philatelic program. On the other hand Bosnia Herzegovina Croatian Post Mostar (and not Croatia) issued a stamp honoring the 300th anniversary of Josip Ruder Boscovic on May 18, 2011. There is no mention about any relation with Vatican for this stamp. Vatican did not issue any stamp so far on that topic.

July 2, 2011
The New issues section Quarter 2 (April to June 2011) was updated.

July 1, 2011
The first SEPAC stamps from a series normally centered around September 28, 2011 [P20110928] were issued by Malta (one out of a series of 3) on March 9, 2011 and by Guernsey (1 stamp) which re-issued on June 18, 2011 the 2010 SEPAC stamp with a higher denomination. It might be possible that Guernsey intends to issue a 2011 Sepac stamp on September 28. Iceland and Gibraltar will issue their stamps on September 15, Faeroe on September 16 and Luxemburg on September 27. All remaining countries Faeroe, Jersey, Greenland, Isle of Man, Liechtenstein and Monaco will issue their stamps at the common earlier announced date. Only San Marino will not issue a SEPAC stamp this year.

July 1, 2011
I went recently taking a look at the web site of the French philatelic Timbres Magazine http://www.timbresmag.com . It happens that from time to time they provide access to full texts of interesting articles. Presently there are two papers available on the web related to joint issues: one on the French Flemish joint issue from 2010 http://www.timbresmag.com /pdfs/117flam_042-043.pdf and one on Australian joint issues http://www.timbresmag.com/pdfs/102Australiea.pdf. These articles are well illustrated but unfortunately only available in French.

July 1, 2011
The News from the period April to June 2011 have been archived.

All previous information reported in this section is to be found in the News Archives.