This page is the archived News Page from the October to December 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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December 20, 2011
The German philatelic journal just issued its last 2011 edition with a special issue about the 2012 stamp new issues program for 2012. Our page "Upcoming stamps " with the 2012 philatelic program has been updated accordingly. The first 2012 joint issues to be released are expected as early as January 4, 2012 (China - Denmark and Denmark - Faeroe - Greenland), while we are still waiting for a joint issue on December 31, 2011 (French Austral and Antarctic Territory - Mayotte).

December 16, 2011
Rabia Zafar and Ehsan Mehmood (both from Pakistan) provided at the same time the information about the most recent Pakistan - Thailand joint stamp issue dated December 13, 2011. The identical stamp was issued at the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the relationship between both countries and shows the Victory Monument in Bangkok, Thailand (left) and the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore, Pakistan.

December 11, 2011
Bruno Mazzini (Italy) made an interesting discovery by looking back in 1948-1950 at the stamps issued by German areas ruled by French administration just after the war. These occupied areas include Baden, Rheinland-Pfalz and Württemberg-Hohenzollern. These three territories issued their own stamps during a couple of years and some of them were identical and issued at the same date. We report here only the commemorative ones that can be considered as territorial twin issues (same category as Germany/Berlin stamps or Germany/Sarre stamps).

1949 (August 12) - Baden (French Zone) - Rheinland Pfalz (French Zone) - Württemberg-Hohenzollern (French Zone)
200th anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). Territorial twin issue [TD].
Identical stamps. Bas-relief portrait (1775) from Johann Peter Melchior (1742-1825); painting (1791) from Heinrich Lips (1758-1817) and bas-relief portrait (1820) from Angelika Facius based on a bust from Christian Rauch. One color per stamp; green, red or blue.

1949 (September 17) - Baden (French Zone) - Rheinland Pfalz (French Zone) - Württemberg-Hohenzollern (French Zone)
100th anniversary of the first German stamp. Territorial twin issue [TD].
Identical stamps. Horse pulled mail coach; post omnibus and plane. Two colors per stamp; green and dark green or red and dark red.

1949 (October 4) - Baden (French Zone) - Rheinland Pfalz (French Zone) - Württemberg-Hohenzollern (French Zone)
75th anniversary of the UPU. Territorial twin issue [TD].
Identical stamps. Symbols of the Universal Postal Union: post horn, world globus, peace branch. One color per stamp, brown or blue.

Several other stamps with identical designs have been produced by the three entities over the same period (1947-1950). However all these stamps are definitive stamps and cannot be considered as joint issue, not even territorial.

More information on these stamps can be found on the German Wikipedia pages under: French Zone Baden, French Zone Rheinland-Pfalz and French Zone Württemberg-Hohenzollern.

December 10, 2011
Italy and Russia have issued each a stamp on December 10, 2011 to celebrate the "Year of Italian language in Russia and the Year of Russian language in Italy. Stamps are similar and the information have been provided by Fabio Bonacina (Italy). If you want to know more you can take a look at his site under http://www.vaccarinews.it/index.php?_id=11316 and http://www.vaccarinews.it/index.php?_id=11312. The Italian stamp was not on the 2011 philatelic program.

December 10, 2011
The French Austral and Antarctic Territory stamp to be issued in 2012 jointly with Mayotte, is actually expected on December 31, 2011. Mayotte is planned to issue the stamp on the same date.
This is quite unusual as Mayotte which had postal autonomy since January 1997, became the 101th department of France on April 1, 2011. From January 1, 2012 on, Mayotte is supposed to use the French metropole stamps again, so the first day cancellation of the Mayotte joint issue will also be the last day of cancellation as a country with postal autonomy. No image have been seen so far.

December 10, 2011
Hamid Reza Ebrahimi (Iran) provided the image of the Iran souvenir sheet released in parallel with Belarus. this item was available at the Iranian post during the first week of December, but the official date of issue remains September 28, 2011 (FDC with this date have been produced).

December 10, 2011
Belgium and Monaco will issue a joint stamp in 2012. This information was provided by Fabio Bonacina (Italy) and a specimen sheet is provided as illustration. Date of issue could be on June 25, 2012 (to be confirmed). We are looking for more information.

December 10, 2011
Michael Rehling (Germany) provided some information about a new product he considered himself as a marketing gag.

The four Post Offices of the German speaking countries Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein and Germany issued a Christmas-set called 'Multilaterale 2011'. It consists of the actual Christmas stamps of the mentioned four countries, arranged in a folder in vertical order: 3 stamps of Liechtenstein, 2 stamps of Germany, 3 stamps of Switzerland and 3 stamps of Austria.
The offical advertisement reads as follows:
"Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein and Germany surprised with a joint Christmas-set, in which each country presents its official Christmas-stamps 2011. The exclusive collectible combines the total 11 mint editions and inspires with nice details as delicate title press-cut as well as superb special colours in gold and respectively silver. This special joint issue shall be available in the four German speaking countries! Format: 21,0 x 23,0 cm. EUR 12,95. Order-No. 017700."
The internet link of Deutsche Post is www.deutschepost.de/philatelie 

Of course this is not a true joint issue, but the product will be mentionned in the catalogue under [B] folder because it is sold by the postal administrations and not a private initiative (although most of these postal administrations are now privately owned).

November 27, 2011
Fabio Bonacina (Italy) provided all the information about the Hong-Kong Romania joint issue (November 24, 2011). Hong Kong stamp images had already been provided earlier, and here are now the images of the Romanian miniature sheet. As usually the number of product generated by Romania is high. This times it includes also a special philatelic album containing a special block of two stamps with graphic elements imprinted in gold and silver foiling, and available at 800 samples only.

November 27, 2011
I had this week a nice mail from Dominique Josse (France) who succeded to get a first day cover from the Saint Pierre and Miquelon issue also signed by the designer and the engraver. Here is this item. Thanks a lot Dominique. This is a joint issue with the French Austral and Antarctic Territories (FAAT). At the same time informed us that the FAAT is planning another joint issue with Mayotte before end of the year and with Monaco in 2012.

November 27, 2011
Jürgen Lübke (Germany) provided a complementary information about the philatelic program of the German Post for 2012. Now this country will be involved in three joint issues:
- with the Vatican on March 1st, 2012 with stamps depicting the paintings
- with Liechtenstein on June 14, 2012: "Pfälzer Hutte", mountain stamps
- with Poland on July 12, 2012: Park Muzakowski, in the frame of the UNESCO world Heritage series.

November 27, 2011
Kandalu G. Saravanan (India) and Michael Lantz (USA) provided the images of the most recent stamps from the joint issue linking Sweden to Poland issued on November 17, 2011 at the occasion of the Year of the Chemistry and depicting Marie Curie. Here are the images of the two miniature sheets and the mixed first day cover.

November 27, 2011
Each year, New Zealand issues the best stamps in miniature sheets that are distributed to customers. Finding those items can happen only per chance, so it is difficult to get information about them and even more difficult to find these items. One of such item is reported in the catalogue page 232 under T19980318 01b (Dardanelles' war - joint issue with Turkey). One of the stamps from these series was also selected in a miniature sheet entitled "Best of 1998". Note also that these stamps can have different perforation.
Now the "Best of 2004" was also discovered and we can provide an illustration:

November 27, 2011
In the catalogue on page 541 you will find the territorial joint issue D19530530 between Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia. The same stamp was used by these three territories to commemorate the Central African Rhodes centenary exhibition organized at Bulawayo. Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) (re-)discovered that at this occasion Southern Rhodesia also issued an aerogramme on the same day (May 30, 1953) at this occasion. In fact, this postal stationery was known to us, forgotten in the catalogue, mentionned in a newsletter but never depicted. Here is the missing illustration that will appear in the next update of the catalogue.

Among the interesting stories about these stamps and aerogramme, note that these were the first stamps issued showing the Queen Elisabeth II with crown, as the crowning took place only 4 days later on June 3, 1953. This aerogram exists with or without watermark.

November 27, 2011
Mike Lantz (USA) and Jürgen Klein (Germany) provided the following information posted on the Turkish Post web site: "Turkey-Iran Joint Issue in 2011 Emission Program which will be issued on 08/11/2011 have been canceled".

November 27, 2011
Laszlo Kallai (Czech Republic) pointed on a Spanish stamp issued on November 10, 2011 and refering to the cooperation between Spain and Russia. Unfortunately, to our knowledge and up to know Russia did not issue a stamp related to Spain (latest known Russian issue is dated November 25, 2011). Any hint is welcome. By the way, take a look at StampLand, Laszlo's web site that gives a lot of information about the most recent stamps.

November 27, 2011
Anthony Raynaud (France) discovered the Bosnia Herzegovina (October 25, 2011) - Bosnia Serbia (October 10, 2011) joint (concerted) issue celebrating the 150th birthday of the Northpole explorer Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930). Nansen was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his role in favor of refugees during WWI. In fact Bosnia Herzegovina (Croatia) also issued a similar stamp on October 10, 2011. Here are the three pictures.

In parallel to these two identical stamps, other countries issued stamps with different designs in honour of F. Nansen. None of these countries claim a relation with one of the other countries in issuing their stamps: Armenia (1 stamp); Bulgaria (1 miniature sheet, October 10, 2011 - issued 15,000); Chad (miniature sheets); Guinea (miniature sheets); Mali (miniature sheets); Mozambique (miniature sheets); Norway (1 stamp, April 13, 2011); Romania (post card); Russia (1 stamp). The exact date of birth of F. Nansen is October 10, 1861, explaining the coincidence of issues commemorating on that date the explorer

November 27, 2011
It is Christmas season and Australia did also sent its catalogue of special products. I noticed the following:
- the miniature sheet of the Australian Joint Territories issue celebrating the 50 Years of the WWF with a special cancellation featuring a gold foiled WWF logo and a special gold-foiled postmark. Edition is limited to 500 and price is AU$10.95 i.e. about €8.00 or US$10.60)
- a set of 2 commemorative Australian stamps multisheets (all stamps from 2011 on two sheets) including one of the Australian Joint Territories stamp (Kangaroo). Stamps are described as cinderellas, but are in fact mint and with normal denomination. This product issued at 500 samples and sold at AU$ 89.95 (US$ 87.30, € 66.00) will be considered as an abusive product following our new policy.

November 27, 2011
I just received the yearly stamp catalogue of South Africa Post and surprisingly you can find older joint issues for sale. Here is the list, with prices indicated in Rands (1 R is about US$ 0.12 or € 0.09). Some items are even sold at discounted prices. All these items are however cancelled to order (CTO), usually on first day (cancellation is red).
- T19981023b: whales, FDC with souvenir sheet (R3.50) or first day cancelled miniature sheet (R2.80). The miniature sheet - which is not for sale as a denomination of R5.00!
- B19990319: the Celebration of the Seas folder with 17 stamps from 13 countries at R11.20
- T20010512: wild animals with Botswana, 4 stamps, first day cancelled (R5.85), FDC (R6.95), control block set with 6 stamps each, first day cancelled (R34.95), set of 4 miniature sheets with 10 stamps each, first day cancelled R58.25), souvenir sheet first day cancelled (R3.05) and FDC with souvenir sheet (R4.15)
- C20010807: world conference against racism (all items first day cancelled), miniature sheet of 10 different languages (R7.85), 2 FDCs with 2x5 stamps (R10.10), post card (R1.40), second stamp (R1.20), miniature sheet (R11.75), FDC (R2.30)
- T20041011: SAPOA issue, miniature sheet with birds, cancelled first day (R54.00)

Items can be obtained via the Philatelic services, Private Bag X505, Pretoria 0001 South Africa, and information is available on the web site www.virtualpostoffice.co.za and mail sa.stamps@postoffice.co.za

November 6, 2011
Roland Montagne (France) provided the information that the baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) are preparing a joint issue for 2012 with the topic Railways bridges.

November 6, 2011
Steven Vandeweghe (Belgium) provided the link and the first images of the Brazil Serbia joint issue from October 26, 2011. The Serbian post is not up to date but images of the Serbian stamps could already be found on eBay.

November 6, 2011
Gabriele Gatti (Italy) discovered also that Slovakia and Serbia are preparing a joint issue celebrating Jan Koniarek (1878-1952) that should be released on March 9, 2012. So far nothing from Serbian Post.

November 6, 2011
Gabriele Gatti (Italy) found the information about the next joint issue involving Poland and Sweden. Both countries will issue on November 17, 2011 a stamp celebrating Marie Curie at the occasion of the Year of Chemistry. This stamp was not on the official programs of both countries. So far information is only available in the Swedish November stamp bulletin and nothing on the web yet.

October 27, 2011
Australia and South Korea have organized a joint issue to be released on October 28, 2011 (for South Korea, and October 31 for Australia), at the occasion of the Australia - Korea Year of Friendship. Two identical stamps will be released by both countries representing haegeum and didgeridoo musicians.

October 27, 2011
New discovery from Anthony Raynaud (France). The stamp below from Timor Leste has to be added to the 2010 AICEP series. This stamp was issued on February 14, 2011. So far the only other known date for stamp issued in this series is for Portugal on October 25, 2010 and we learned recently that Angola issued its stamp in November 2010. Design is the same for all countries. If the series has to be completed, then we are still missing Brazil, Guinea Bissau, Macao and Sao Tome which are also members of the AICEP. Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Portugal stamps have already been seen.

October 27, 2011
The page describing all joint issues released during the third quarter of 2011 has been created and the pages describing the stamps issued during the two previous quarters have been updated.

October 24, 2011
In the newly released philatelic program for 2013 (not 2012), France postal administration announces two new joint issues with Germany and Singapore.

October 24, 2011
Also, between November 3rd and November 6th 2011, the 65th autumn philatelic fair will be organized in Paris (Porte Champerret). In the program a joint issue involving the French Antarctic and Austral Territories (TAAF) and Saint Pierre and Miquelon (SPM) will be available for sale with the possibility to get the signatures of the engraver. This isssue is to be considered as a territorial twin issue [TD] so it will be listed as [D20111103].

October 24, 2011
Following Belize (October 10, 2006), Gambia (December 10, 2007), Grenada (December 11, 2007), Hungary (September 29, 2005), Jordan (August 25, 2009), Kenya (October 28, 2007), Kosovo (October 15, 2008), Macedonia (March 2, 2009), Micronesia (March 12, 2008) and the original stamp issued by the United States (July 29, 1998), Austria has now also released, on October 1, 2011, a stamp for the Breast Cancer Research for collecting funds and based on the same design. This series of stamps cannot be considered as joint in absence of agreement between postal administrations, and remains classified as [N19980729] in the category Borrowed Design. We are still waiting for further similar issues from the Philippines, Romania, Albania, Serbia, Croatia and Israel which have announced years ago they would participate to this action.

October 22, 2011
Anthony Raynaud (France) discovered a completely new joint issue involving Indonesia and South Africa. On the South African post web site the South African stamp is announced to be issued on October 3, 2011, but on the stamp margin it is printed October 15, 2011 the same date as the official issue date for the Indonesian stamps. So we will keep this date for the time being, but both dates have to be validated. Both countries issued a strip of five different stamps, but only one is common to both countries. Therefore this issue will be classified as twin [T1] under [T20111015].

October 21, 2011
Some pictures of the Germany - Romania stamps issued on September 15, 2011, as a reminder for this already older issue.

October 21, 2011
The Moldova-Romania joint issue was finally released by both countries on October 11, 2011 (20 years of diplomatic relations). As usually, Romania is issuing a large number of stamp combination, souvenir sheets and FDCs. Here is an excerpt. More to find on the web site of the Romanian postal administration under: http://www.romfilatelia.ro/

October 21, 2011
The Brazilian stamp issued on August 24, 2011 and entitled Diplomatic Relations between Brazil and Ukraine was finally paired to an Ukrainian stamp with a different design, but issued at the same date. Both stamps are also reminding to the 120 years of Ukrainian immigration in Brazil. These stamps must therefore be considered as a parallel issue [P1].

October 21, 2011
2011 is the 20th anniversary of the division of the Soviet Union with the creation of the CIS (Commonwealth of the Independent States) countries. A joint issue could have been expected at this occasion like 10 years ago but the participating countries have so far issued stamps with different designs and at different dates. Therefore these stamps will not be considered as a joint issue. So far, the following countries have been seen: Azerbaijan (September 23), Kyrgyzstan (October 8), Tadjikistan (August 26).

In 2011, the 20th anniversary of the RCC (Regional Community for Communication) could have been honored. Almost all involved countries have issued at least one stamp on this topic. But like for the CIS 20th anniversary commemoration, these stamps have a different design and were issued at different dates. Only the presence of the official RCC logo could make think about a common topic. These stamps are also not to be considered as a part of a joint issue. So far the following countries have been seen: Armenia (June 1), Azerbaijan (September 23), Belarus (September 20), Kazakhstan (September 22), Kyrgyzstan (October 1), Tadjikistan (September 22).

October 21, 2011
Mike Lantz (USA) discovered a series of three similar miniature sheets issued on August 8, 2011 by Azerbaijan, on August 15, 2011 by Kyrgystan and at an unknown date by Turkmenistan. For the time being we are just looking for information confirming this could be a joint issue. Dates are similar, topic is the same, design is similar but not identical. As there is a full absence of claims from postal administration, it looks more that these are products from the same designer (Khasay Mirzoyev ?) who worked for three different customers. Therefore this issue will not be considered as joint.

October 21, 2011
Mike Lantz (USA) provided the images of the Hong Kong-Romania handicrafts issue set for November 24, 2011.

October 21, 2011
Both Steven Vandeweghe (Belgium) and Michael Lantz (USA) pointed to the October 10, 2011 issue involving China (PR), Macau and Hong Kong commemorating the Centenary of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution which could be considered as a joint issue (same date, different designs). All three postal offices offer a folder containing all mint stamps and miniature sheets. Following the rules that were used in similar Chinese issues in previous years, this issue will be considered as a territorial parallel issue [PD].

October 21, 2011
New information about the 2012 philatelic programs. Both Fabio Bonacina (Italy) and Michael Lantz (USA) provided information about official joint issues to be released next year:
- The Vatican State confirmed the joint issue with Germany (Raffael, Durer and Grunewald paint the Madonna) and speaks now about two other joint issues in 2012 with France (600th anniversary of Joan of Arc) and Italy (1700th anniversary of the battle of the Milvio bridge).
- San Marino is under discussion for a joint issue with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) for 2012
- Hong Kong confirmed joint issue with France and announced date of May 3, 2012. Topics will be vintage landscape painting and contemporary sculpture.

October 13, 2011
By looking closely at the Brazilian philatelic program one discovers two new potential joint issues:

One stamp with Paraguay was issued on May 6, 2011 with first day cancellation in Anuncion, Paraguay which seems to confirm that this could have been a joint issue. Brazil is issue several stamps per year in their series "Diplomatic relations" and honoring one country. But usually it is easy to anticipate these stamps would not becoming joint issues just because all the announced towns for the first cancellation are located in Brazil only. This is not the case for Paraguay, but we have no access yet to information on the Paraguay stamps from that period.

Another stamp is supposed to be issued on October 26, 2011 in relation with Serbia (Belgrade as site of first day cancellation is announced). No information from Serbia available so far.

At the same time the initially planned series with Mexico for September 27, 2011 disappeared from the Brazilian philatelic program while it is still on the Mexican philatelic program, but was not issued in September either.

October 13, 2011
Steven Vandeweghe (Belgium) was the first one to provide the official information about the Brazil-Belgium Europalia issue. earlier we were asked if this issue could become a joint issue based on the information we got from Brazil. Belgium is organizing Europalia every year and frequently in the past it resulted in the issue of stamps in honor of the host country. sometimes this issue translated in a joint issue and in very rare case, it was even a twin issue.
Brazil announced about two month ago that they would issue a pair of stamps that finally were released on July 1st 2011.

So far we did know about an ATM stamp that would be released by Belgium on November 5, 2011.

The official Belgium program says now that the following items will be available for sale in Belgium on November 2, 2011:
- a miniature sheet showing faces of indigenous brazilians with reference to Europalia
- a first day cover with the stamps extracted from the miniature sheet. first day cancellation is November 2, 2011 but there is also another cancellation available with the date October 29, 2011 corresponding to the pre-sale cancellation date
- an official mixed card with the two Belgium stamps and the two Brazilian stamps both first day cancelled from October 29, 2011. This card bears the text "Emissao commun Brasil-Belgica" which should conclude that we are in the presence of a joint issue.
There is a possibility to buy the two mint Brazilian stamps appearing on the mixed card via the Belgium philatelic office (at a price of € 11.00 !!! while the mixed card is sold at € 5.15). There is absolutely no mention of the Brazilian souvenir sheet with the Europalia logo.

In fact it is not that simple. First of all, the stamps have a completely different design. then the Brazilian stamps do not bear any reference to Europalia. And finally, by looking closely at the Brazilian postal web site we cannot confirm if the Brazilian stamps have been issued. They have not been issued as initially expected on July 1st, 2011, nor on October 4, which is date now appearing on the Brazilian philatelic program. So, it might be possible that they will be issued at the same time as the Belgium stamps. in this case they would be defined as a parallel issue. In any case, as both postal administration claim this is a joint issue, if the date remain separated by more than a week, we will have at least to file it in the special category "Delayed (Retarded) Joint Issue" [R1] that will be filed in the Parallel [P] section.

Note also that the initially announced Japan-Belgium joint issue does not appear anymore in the Belgium philatelic program.

October 10, 2011
Other news from Anthony Raynaud: he could acquire a first day cover from the Iranian stamp issued as a parallel (in fact concerted) issue with Pakistan. While we discovered that the Pakistan stamps were only released on August 29, 2011, it appears that the earlier announced first day issue date for the Iran stamps is not January 10, 2011, but July 28, 2010, i.e. more than one year apart for both series.

October 10, 2011
Anthony Raynaud (France) discovered a surprise joint issue between Singapore and Egypt, confirmed a few days later by Steven Vandeweghe (Belgium). Issue date is planned to be October 17, 2011. Topic is "Significant Rivers" comparing the Nile River with the Singapore River (? - definitely significant for Singapore). Issues as stamps and miniature sheets. Same design for both countries, therefore a twin issue.

October 7, 2011
On October 5, 2011, the Auction House Cherrystone at www.cherrystoneauctions.com brought on sale a block of four of the inverted Saint Lawrence issue from June 26, 1959. The expected estimated price of USD 64,000 was by far not reached. With a starting price of USD 24,000 it finally reached only USD 27,000. The cancelled cover bearing an inverted stamp also proposed for sale at a starting price of USD 9,500 was sold for USD 10,000 estimation was USD 25,000).

In the same area, Anthony Raynaud (France) discovered that the 2004 non-issued Angola SAPOA birds souvenir sheet has been sold on eBay on September 18, 2011 at a final price of USD 2,605 with 11 bids by 6 different bidders from a starting price of USD 590. I am just wondering if the final buyer was interested because it was a joint issue, an Angola stamp or a bird series.

October 1, 2011
The News from the period July to September 2011 have been archived.

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