This page is the archived News Page from the January to March 2013 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 currently open News page.

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March 13, 2013
Grzegorz Omelanczuk (Poland) found the picture of the Russian stamp to be issued at the occasion of the anniversary of the relationship with Algeria on April 1st, 2013. The design is different from the Algerian stamp issued by end of 2012 (December 16, 2012), which leads to the conclusion that it cannot be considered as a joint issue.

The same type of information was sent by Enzo Cafaro (Italy) about the Belarus souvenir sheet that was supposed to be issued jointly with Czech Republic, Slovakia (and may be Vatican or Russia). The design is different s shown below, the date of issue also (April 24, 2013 instead of June 12, 2013) which excludes already Belarus from this joint issue.

March 13, 2013
Peter Pouya Yaghmaie (USA) was successful in finding some information about the Peruvian philatelic program and could provide the pictures of the 2013 joint issues involving Peru and Australia, India and South Korea. So far only the exact issue date for the Peru - South Korea joint issue is known (April 1, 2013). The existence of a joint issue with Australia is a new information.

April 7, 2013: Apparently the Australian - Peru joint issue is an unilateral issue. The Peruvian stamp were released during March 2013 (exact date not yet known, an official ceremony took place with the embassy of Australia in Lima, but all pictures show only covers with the Peruvian stamps and there is no supplementary information on the Australian philatelic web site. This series will probably have to be considered as a unilateral issue (information provided by Grzegorz Omelanczuk)

The Peruvian stamps related to the Indian stamps have been issued, but no information from the Indian side was seen so far (Kasinath R., India; blog: http://shipthemegallery.blogspot.com/)

March 13, 2013
South Korea has revealed the design of the stamps to be released on April 1, 2013 jointly with Peru (Korea - Peru 50th anniversary of relationship). This information was provided by Grzegorz Omelanczuk (Poland).

March 13, 2013
This is a request from Peter Yaghmaie (USA, pdogparang@gmail.com). Peter is looking for completing his collection of SAPOA issues. He is offering also other SAPOA stamps as well as some joint issues. If you have duplicates of SAPOA issues or there is any interest in some joint stamps, just drop him directly a mail. He will send you his wish list and what he has to offer.

March 13, 2013
Enzo Cafaro (Italy) could provide the first pictures of the souvenir sheet that will be released by the Czech Republic jointly with Slovakia (see below) on June 12, 2013. Below re represented the miniature sheet and the first day cancellation.

Enzo found also the confirmation from the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) of the issues to be released during 2013 together with San Marino and Croatia.

Finally Enzo pointed also about the specific items that were issued by Romania at the occasion of the joint issue with the SMOM on December 14, 2012. This issue is reported in the catalogue update VII-2013 but is incomplete. One should read the following in the list of products issued by Romania:
- one stamps in miniature sheets of 8 stamps plus one central label [3x3] printed at 38,000 samples (4750 miniature sheets) - 42,500 were mentioned in the update
- same stamp issued in panels of 32 stamps [4x8] printed at 4,800 samples (only 150 sheets!) - not mentioned in the update
- same stamp in a souvenir sheet (121x93mm) containing to stamps printed at 1,000 samples (2,000 stamps) - unchanged
SMOM issued in parallel 20,000 stamps in miniature sheets of 10 stamps [4x5] (unchanged).
If separated in isolated stamps, there is no difference any more beteen Romanian stamps issued from souvenir sheets, miniature sheets or panels. Therefore stamps from panels should be kept as block of four.
If you are interested in the non-mentioned sheets and in blocks of four taken out from these sheets, you can just follow the links for eBay.

March 4, 2013
Fabio Bonacina (Italy) received an interesting request from the postal administration of Papua New Guinea. The text is as follow:
"JOINT STAMP ISSUE Invitation:
We are inviting interested Postal Agents to partner with us in jointly releasing stamp issues on subject of relevance. Subjects to choose are many. Apart from bilateral relations enjoyed with loyal friends within and outside the region, we have the rich cultures, traditions, terrains and flora & fauna to match with. Further information can be obtained at this e-mail address... "

May be some other postal authorities are reading this web site and could be interested. This is an interesting situation to watch for the next years. I am pretty sure that a lot of smaller postal administrations will answer. And this official request will trigger the same type of call from other postal administrations.

March 4, 2013
Information provided by Javier Vazquez (Spain):
The latest update of the Spanish Post philatelic plan confirms the joint issue to be released between Spain and Belgium on October 28, 2013. The stamp topic is "150 anniversary of the Red Cross".

March 4, 2013
Some point of interest to mention: if we look at the philtelic program of Russia one discoveres that this country may probably break a record in terms of number of joint issues to be released during 2013. Here is the list of guaranteed issues:
- with Bulgaria (March 5)
- Liechtenstein (July 19)
- Aland (August 1)
- Monaco (September 20)
To which one has to add the Europa CEPT issue (May 6) and the RCC issue.
And there are some question marks about potential other joint stamps:
- with Slovakia and Czech Republic (May 20) and probably Vatican
- with Belarus and Ukraine in October
- with Austria (October 19)
and finally a reprint of a joint issue with Algeria (April 1) in form of a postal stationery item.
We will keep you informed, but any complementary information about the four last lines is welcome.

March 4, 2013
Fabio Bonacina (Italy) reported in Vaccari News the information about stamps released the same day (February 23, 2013) with the the same topic by Italy and Malta: the italian painter Mattia Preti, born in Taverna (Catanzaro) on February 24, 1613, and who died in Valetta (Malta) in 1699 is celebrated for the fourth centenary of his birth. Stamps are identical and one of them reproduces a self portrait. So far we have not received any indication that these stamps were issue jointly. A mixed FDC cover would do. Direct information from one of the postal administration would be even better. In the meantime we must consider this issue as "accidental" joint issue.
Note that the date of issue of February 23, 2012 for both postal administration, which does not correspond to the real anniversary date hich is February 24th, is of no way an indication that both postal administrations have cooperated. In fact the 24th of February was a Sunday...

March 4, 2013
Some news from stamps to be released within the next weeks or months (Grzegorz Omelanczuk)

- The image of the Bulgarian souvenir sheet issued jointly on March 5, 2013 was made available:

- The design of the Austrian stamp to be issued jointly with Slovenia on April 4, 2013 was also released:

And also here is the first image of the Belarus stamp to be issued jointly with Azerbaijan on April 23, 2013:

- South Korea released the pictures of the stamps and sheets they will release respectively on May 31, 2013 with Slovakia and on June 5, 2013 with Germany:

- Spain will release on November 14, 2013, two stamps on the occasion of 400 years of diplomatic relations with Japan. The current version of the plan does not classify this issue as a joint one but there is still plenty of time for a change.

February 21, 2013
Latest news from Grzegorz Omelanczuk (Poland):

The Russian postal administration displayed the first image of the souvenir sheet that will be issued on March 5, 2013 together with Bulgaria at the occasion of the 135th anniversary of the Russian-Turkish war (1877-1878) that decided about the autonomy of Bulgaria. So far Bulgaria has not announced the exact date of issue on their side, nor the design, but we know it will also be a souvenir sheet.

The Czech Republic - Slovakia issue planned for June 16, 2013 (Czech Republic) and July 4, 2013 (Slovakia) - The 1150th Anniversary of the Arrival of St. Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia is now scheduled for June 12, 2013, at least based on the latest Slovakian postal administration information which displays also the design of the stamp. Apparently this will be a souvenir sheet. We still do not have detailed information about the participation of the Vatican State to this issue.

February 21, 2013
The catalogue update VII - 2013 is ready and available. It is a 48 pages booklet that contains all the information about the issues discovered last year and not reported in previous catalogues with the full illustrated description (with cotation) of all joint issues produced during 2012.

Price € 5.00/ US$ 7.00+ postage (+€2.00 for sending to France or EU, or +€2.50/ US$ 4.00 to the rest of the world). For ordering please send a mail to contact.

February 19, 2013
The New Issues page for Quarter IV 2012 has been created.

February 19, 2013
While completing the catalogue update, I found a few new items that had not been reported so far:

The September 4, 2012 twin issue [T20120904] between Israel and Nepal consists in two identical stamps. Israel stamps were produced in sheets of 15 stamps with 5 tabs and Nepal produced sheets of 20 stamps without rtabs. It appears that Nepal released also a souvenir sheet bearing a same stamp with a different denomination (50Rps instead of 35Rps). Also mixed first day covers are available as well as the mixed Souvenir Leaf from the Istarl postal administration.

Moldova issued a special cover on May 28, 2012 at the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the relationship with Azerbaijan and another cover on July 10, 2012 at the occasion of the 20th anniversary of relationship with Lithuania. Both postal stationeries are similar to the one issued on September 10, 2012 at the occasion of the 20th anniversary of relationship with Hungary. The Hungarian postal administration issued also a cover with similar imprinted stamp, transforming this pair of covers in a true joint issue. Lithuania issued an illustrated cover without stamp but created a specific first day cancellation dated July 10, 2012 which is not sufficient to consider it as a joint issue. Information about similar items released by Azerbaijan was not found so far.

End of 2011, PR China issued a pair of stamps that were common with a Denmark pair that came out on beginning of 2012. On all official mixed documents, we find Chinese stamps cancelled from December 10, 2012 and Danish stamps cancelled from January 4, 2012. We came to the conclusion that this series had to be considered as Concerted [C] under the code [C20111210]. Very recently we looked more closer at certain mixed documents that came from China and discovered that on the Denmark stamp the cancellation was not as usual "UDGIVELSEDAG - 4.1.2012 - KOBENHAVN E" (which means "First day of issue - 4.1.2012 - Copenhagen") but with the same design cancellation and this text replaced by "URANIENBORG - 10.12.2011 - ISLE OF HVEN". This is not a first cancellation, but a kind of pre-cancellation (one month earlier) at a specific place, that was probably initiated by the Chinese postal administration, a cancellation stamp that was added in China and not in Uranienborg. Any further explanation is welcome.

February 10, 2013
This is an ad, but that could maybe interest someone of you: Martin Lindauer (USA) is selling his collection of joint issue covers linked to USA. If some one is interested please send me a mail, and I will bring you directly in contact with Martin.

February 10, 2013
Pierre Sonveaux provided some information about the 2011 Belgium stamp related to the year of chemistry and for which a special mixed cover with Slovakia was created. (Reported under [P20110117], see details in the News Archives 2012_Q1). In one year the value of the Belgium stamp went from €1.30 to €8.00. The miniature sheet value (10 stamps) went from €13 to €200. This stamp is not anymore available from the Belgian Post, except as part of the full 2011 stamps year set. It seems that the Belgium company Solvay acquired the entire printed set (251,050 samples minus the ones sent to the yearly stamp subscribers and those needed to create the yearly set and the mixed cards) for their own usage. Story to be followed...

(February 15, 2013) The explanation of the interest of the company Solvay is quite simple: by looking closer at the miniature sheet, one discovers that on the top margin of the miniature sheet there is a picture of the 1911 Solvay conference (2011 is then its 100th anniversary) that was chaired by Ernest Solvay and that gathered half a dozen of Nobel prize winners including Einstein, Curie, Langevin, Planck, Rutherford … So it is more the miniature sheet itself than the stamp that was of interest to Solvay, and of course, these miniature sheets will remain untouched, with, as a consequence, that the stamps used on mail will be as rare as mint stamp.

February 10, 2013
Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) just discovered on eBay an Egyptian aerogramme that was issued in 1970 and obviously linked to the [T19700322]. This is a stationery that was missing in the description of this series. And as usually, postal stationeries are always more difficult to find as illustrated catalogues are not that common. So we will probably make some new discoveries in the near future.

February 10, 2013
On the news page of November 22, 2012 - see below - we mentioned the existence of a possible joint issue between Algeria and Russia at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations. Later, on December 16, 2012, we concluded that there is no joint character between the items related so far. Grzegorz Omelanczuk discovered very recently in the 2013 Russian philatelic program that Russia will release again, on April 1, 2013, a stamp at this occasion. We have no information about its design, but if it appears that it is common with the Algerian stamp released on December 16, 2012, we may have to reconsider this pair as concerted [C]. We have no other solution as to wait until April.

February 10, 2013
Information collected by Grzegorz Omelanczuk (Poland) in the past three weeks:

Belarus plans a joint issue with Azerbaijan in April 2013, topic traditional dances. There is another 20th anniversary diplomatic relation stamp planned with Azerbaijan in June in the 2013 Belarus philatelic program, but so far it seems this issue will be without counterpart from Azerbaijan.

There was a doubt about the joint issue of French Andorra and Monaco or San Marino. Finally it will be with both and both stamps will be released on the same day, November 8, 2013. On the same web page, one finds the first image of one of the French stamps that will be relased on September 23, 2013 with Vietnam to honor the physician Alexandre Yersin.

Slovakia is planning to release on April 12, 2013 the "Breast Cancer Research" stamp with identical design to the ones issued previously which includes up to now Austria (October 1, 2011), 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). As these stamps were not issued on the basis of a cooperation between postal administrations, and only on a borrowing of the same design, they cannot be considered as joint. So they continue to be filed as [N] stamps.

The Ukraine philatelic program for 2013 contains three joint issues:
- the issue already reported with Romania: according to the Romanian Post the topic will be UNESCO World heritage sites, according to the Ukrainian side it should depict churches. No stamp was released in the past weeks as initially expected. The Ukraine program says now release during 4th quarter
- with Morocco during the second quarter of 2013
- with Belarus and Russia: 1025th Anniversary of Christening of Kyiv Rus. The Belarus Post plan informs already about the stamps to be released at this occasion in October but without connecting it with other countries. The Russia Post has no such issue in the plan at the moment. Release date is scheduled third quarter of 2013 (Ukrainian plan) or October (Belarussian plan)

The Indonesia philatelic program includes:
- a joint issue with Mexico, with a release date of April 6, 2013. This series is confirmed by Mexico and should include 4 stamps commemorating diplomatic relations
- a joint issue with Suriname on August 8, 2013 which looks like a second attempt as this issue was already listed in the 2012 plan
- with South Korea on September 17, 2013, which is already confirmed by Korea
Note however, that this information was not provided by an official source.

Turkey Post's official plan for 2013 includes one joint issue in 2013 and the partner country will be Palestine. The release date will be December 12, 2013. Additionaly, on August 28, 2013 there will be a release celebrating the 135th year of diplomatic relations with Romania but Romania has no such issue in the current version of the schedule.

The China - Mexico joint issue that was planned for 2012 and expected to be postponed to 2013, does not appear in the Mexico 2013 philatelic program and the project has probably been dropped.

January 21, 2013
Bruno Mazzini (Italy) discovered an older pair of miniature sheets with the same topic and the same stamp released by Micronesia (October 6, 2010) and Palau (September 8, 2010) at the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the Penny Black. As these stamps were not issued on the same day, they will be filed as Concerted [C].

January 20, 2013
Very recently a seller proposed via Delcampe a set of souvenir sheets from the [T20111117] Poland - Sweden issue from November 17, 2011 with a series of combination of imprints showing plate numbers and 6-digit control numbers. These same varieties had been described on the Swedish souvenir sheets from the September 23, 2005 Greta Garbo Sweden - USA joint issue [T20050923]. These black figures are common with all Swedish booklets or miniature sheets. The difference here is that the Polish stamps had been printed by the Swedish printing house and bear as well these printing figures.
All miniature sheets (Polish, Swedish, including black prints) can bear on the right side, reading up, a printing control number (PCN) with 6 digits and/or a cylinder control number "1" or "2" (CCN1 or CCN2) that appears in the bottom right corner, reading normal. Apparently the cylinder control numbers were printed every 5 sheets and the printing control number every 10 sheets. All combinations of PCN and CCN (or without any number) are possible making a total of 6 varieties possible for each country (no imprint, PCN alone, CCN1 alone, CCN2 alone, CCN1 and PCN or CCN2 and PCN). The number of samples from each type can be deduced from the overall printing run.
We know that the total number of Polish souvenir sheets was 500,000 and the Polish black print was 40,000. If someone provides the printing run of the Swedish souvenir sheet, it becomes easy to deduce the number of each sub-group. This will probably not influence that much the value of this stamp, on contrary to the Greta Garbo. At that time the Swedish souvenir sheet was printed only at 30,000 samples (present sale's price is now around €120) and it had not been announced in the official philatelic program.

January 19, 2013
The France Germany joint issue was released as planned on January 2, 2013. Here are the pictures showing an original design from Tomy Ungerer. FDCs, mixed covers, ETB, philatelic documents, folder with int stamps have been made available by both administrations.

January 19, 2013
Constantine Mengoulis (Greece) provided information about the Christmas issues released on one hand by Aitutaki, Cook Islands and Penrhyn on November 11, 2012 and on the other hand by Tonga and Niuafo'ou on November 21, 2012. The topic and the design are similar but all stamps are different. As this issues are not commemorative, and anyway territorial, they cannot be considered as joint. Here are the pictures. Paintings are from Giotto di Bondone, except for the Tonga stamps showing Sandro Botticelli's paintings.

January 18, 2013
Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) discovered on eBay a postcard sold by an Indian collector with the picture of Mahatma Gandhi (eBay 130822083828). The seller claimed that the post card was part of the joint issue India - Republic of South Africa [T19951002]. At Jaap's request he sent me a scan of the reverse side. The card is issued by the RSA post, but has no imprinted stamp and there is no proof that the card was issued in relation of the joint issue. A tiny proof may be that on the front side for the name Mahatma Gandhi a similar fond is used as on the RSA stamps and on the official FDC. And that to the left and right of 1868-1948 the design is identical to that on the RSA stamps. May be the card was issued for collectors of MC’s. A lot of uncertainty… Does someone have additional information?

April 7, 2013: Kenneth Sequeira (Dubai) found an item using this postcard as a background for a 1995 South Africa first day card. In other words, this card was simply sold with and without stamp in 1995 and there is a relation with the South African joint issue.

January 18, 2013
Within the past 4 weeks, a few new items have been discovered and reported by our regular pen pals I would like to thank here for their great help during the past year: Grzegorz Omelanczuk (Poland), Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands), Dominique Josse (France), Don Birschel (USA), Anthony Raynaud (France), Fabio Bonacina (Italy), Enzo Cafaro (Italy), Kenneth Sequeira (Dubai), Ehsan Mehmood (Pakistan), Rindert Paalman (The Netherlands), Constantinos Mengoulis (Greece), Andrei Ochmat (Brazil). Thanks also to all other collectors who provided timely single information.

Let us start with the latest December issues. Next to the stamps, as part of the Bulgaria - Kazakhstan joint issue from December 12, 2012, Bulgaria also issued a postal stationery as a cover with imprint of one of the two common stamps. The image of the Kazakhstan stamps were also made available in the meantime.

In the philatelic programs of 2013 numerous new issues have been added in the list to be seen on the "Latest Issues" page. These new issues involve Greenland, South Korea, Israel, Vatican, Macao, Perus, Slovakia, Germany, Indonesia, Australia, Uruguay.

January 1, 2013
The News from the period October to December 2012 have been archived.

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