This page is the archived News Page from the October to December 2015 period. All contents have been dispatched in the respective stamp description pages. However there may still be open questions. Any complementary information remains welcome. As soon as an information is archived, the text will not be changed anymore. So if additional information are linked to the below, this will be displayed as a new heading in the currently open News page.

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December 13, 2015
Another series of stamps related to the 800th Anniversary of Magna Carta was released by Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands respectively on July 21, July 20 and July 15, 2015. The stamps have commemorative character and one stamp among the four issued by each country (the top-left corner) has the same design. This series is complementary to the one already reported earlier and will be included as well as an omnibus series [O20150715], but differentiated from the previous one [O20150615] involving Ascension Island, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Falkland Islands and Tristan da Cunha. Information provided by Grzgorz Omelanczuck (Poland).

December 13, 2015
Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) explored the once expected to become a Christmas joint issue between Belgium and the Vatican State. Both countries issued stamps, but following the announcement of the Vatican State that their stamps are not part of a joint issue, we will maintain the initial classification as non-approved [N]. However it is interesting to note that the original common project which was related to medieval art and book enluminures representing Christmas resulted in the release of stamps based on the same painting. Vatican issued two stamps, the second being a detail from the first one, which were released on November 19, 2015. The same picture appears in the Belgium souvenir sheet which was issued on October 26, 2015 and is taken from the same medieval manuscript. We have not found yet the reason for the cancellation of this issue.

Mansoor Moazzeni (Iran) provided the information about three stamps and a souvenir sheet from Palestine issued October 2, 2015 that reproduces stamps with the same design as the 2009 common stamps between arabic states (Al Quds - Permanent Capital of Arab Culture). Unfortunately this case is just taking the same logo and there is no link with any present or past issue nor any country, so this is not a joint issue.

December 13, 2015
News collected in the past two weeks:

From Niket Bubna (USA) about the Singapore - India joint issue from November 24, 2015: the two countries indeed released a Siamese twin issue with the '1st local Istana' Singapore stamp but a 'Rupees 25 Rashtrapati Bhavan' India stamp, not a 5 Rupees as depicted earlier. Details can be found on this web site.

From Enzo Cafaro (Italy) who provided the image of the Ecuador stamp issued on November 25, 2015 together with El Salvador, Dominica, Guatemala and Venezuela.

From Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) about the joint issue Thailand - Sri Lanka released on November 2, 2015: One of the two stamps from this issue shows the Phrapathomchedi Pagoda in Nakhon Pathon (the other stamp is dedicated to the Jethavana Stupa in Anuradhaputra, Sri Lanka). This year (2015) the 100st anniversary of the Thailand pagoda is celebrated. For that reason a special souvenir sheet was brought in circulation in Nakton Pathon only. This special souvenir sheet differs only slightly from the regular sheet from the joint issue: the regular sheet is numbered, the special sheet shows the fixed number 100, on the right side the price on the regular sheet has disappeared and fonts are printed in gold. See the illustrations below in comparison to the souvenir sheet reported earlier.

From Eric Chan (Hong Kong) about the Thailand - Singapore joint issue from September 18, 2015: At the occasion of the 31st Asian International Stamp Exhibition in Hong Kong which took place between November 20 and November 23, 2015, Thailand Post issued a set of two souvenir sheet based on the 'mango stamp'. The set with the shape of a mango was sold at HK$26 (about €3.00) at the venue. The difference between both items can only be seen at the level of the imprinted price, and the additional logo of the exhibition. These items were not available from the Philatelic Bureau after the show. They can only be bought at the exhibition or from Thai dealers afterwards.

From Peter Ruznak (Germany) who provided the first pictures of the Mexican stamps from the joint issue with Russia issued on October 19, 2015.

Amad Omar bin Arbain (Malaysia) could provide the first images of the Laos stamps from the Laos - Russia joint issue released on November 11, 2015. Laos issued two stamps, and two souvenir sheets containing both stamps, one perforated, one imperforated. The joint issue celebrates the 55th anniverasry of diplomatic relationship. Russia issued only two self-adhesive stamps provided as a miniature sheet of eight stamps i.e. four pairs ([3x3] with central label).

Don Birschel (USA) provided first the picture of the Azerbaijan souvenir sheet, counterpart of the joint issue with Belarus issued on December 3, 2015.

Grzegorz Omelanczuk (Poland) could provide information about the Poland - Ukraine joint issue to be released on December 18, 2015 (topic: wooden churches). Some information is available on this site. Poland will issue a stamp in miniature sheets of four [2x2], at 400,000 samples or 100,000 miniature sheets together with 10,000 samples of miniature sheets in black print. Saravanan V. from India could provide the first picture of the Ukraine stamp. Ukrainian stamps are produced in miniature sheets of 8 stamps.

Jaap sarelse (The Netherlands) has been informed through the 5-2015 Journal from PostNord that on January 4, 2016, Denmark will issue a reprint of the Danish stamps from the joint issue with Sweden (May 7, 2015). The reprint will have a new denomination, 8 Kr+1.00 instead of 10 Kr+1.00, and will be for sale in strips of 5 stamps (previous booklet contained 2 rows of 5 stamps).

November 28, 2015
Don Birschel (USA) could provide the first images of the Indian stamps from the Singapore and India joint series issued on November 24, 2015, ...

... Fabio Bonacina and Enzo Cafaro (Italy) found the picture of the SMOM souvenir sheet issued on November 27, 2015 with Italy, ...

... as well as the first image of the Belarus souvenir sheet from the Azerbaijan - Belarus joint issue with topic "Space for IT Technologies" to be released on December 3, 2015, ...

... while Grzegorz Omelanczuk (Poland) discovered a new joint issue released on November 25, 2015 involving Ecuador, Venezuela, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador with the common topic and design "International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women". The name of the five countries appear on all stamps. So far we haven't seen Ecuador and Guatemala stamps.

November 28, 2015
Dominique Josse (France) came accross a joint issue that remained hidden almost until its day of issue. At the occasion of the 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21 that will take place in Paris from November 30 to December 13, 2015, the French postal administration decided to issue a specific stamp which design had been provided by students from the Saint Etienne School of Design, France. This France stamp design has been known for a while because it was submitted for selection on the web during this summer. This week we learned that the United Nations (UNPA) took over this same design, together with two other stamps designed by two other students from the same school and released them on November 24, 2015. These stamps are claimed being issued jointly with the French stamp. The common stamp is issued by the New York United Nations offices. On the day of the official ceremony in Paris, November 24, 2015, a mixed document with both first day cancelled common stamps and a dry imprint of the design has been proposed to the philatelists (€ 10). This document has been produced at 450 samples only. Other standard mixed first day documents are available. As the information about this ceremony was provided very shortly before it took place, very few philatelists were aware about this joint issue and associated products.

November 28, 2015
Found on eBay, silver coins that reproduce the ANZAC Australia and New Zealand stamps from April 7, 2015. Apparently only 2,500 sets have been produced. The two coins, one for Australia and the other for new Zealand were available in a special box that contains also the two stamps. The item is not anymore available at the Australian Post office, but the eBay price is around € 130. This item is displayed here only for information and will not be considered as part of joint issues. It is intended for coin collectors rather than philatelists.

In the same order, the Vatican State issued stamps based on the same design as the Poland - Vatican joint issue from 2014, April 21. In particular notice the aureola around the Pope's head which contains excerpts from his speeches. This design was created for the purpose of the joint stamp issue and the coin was produced on 2015, April 2, at the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II. Again, this is only of interest for nusmismatists (Information found by Grzgegorz Omelanczuk, Poland).

November 28, 2015
There will be no joint issue between Monaco and Russia as already announced. At the occasion of this special year, Russia issued on November 11, 2015 a postal stationery (cover) bearing the logo of the event that appeared also on the already issued Monaco stamps (January 7, 2015). This confirms it is not a joint issue as none of the two postal administrations claim a common participation in the production of these philatelic items (Information provided by Grzegorz Omelanczuk, Poland).

Also Grzegorz could provide the information that the 2015 planned Argentina - Russia joint issue was not cancelled but postponed to 2016 and appears now on the Russian 2016 philatelic program.

November 24, 2015
The following product discovered by Grzegorz Omelanczuk (Poland) is amazing. Honestly I do not like this kind of philatelic product as it is only directed to collectors, but as it is a true omnibus siamese item it has to be reported in the catalogue. This is a very special world first sheet that brings together stamps from 27 Commonwealth nations, marks the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Commonwealth Secretariat and also celebrates 2015 as the year in which Her Majesty The Queen became Britain's longest reigning monarch.

The following text is an excerpt from the blog: http://commonwealthstampsopinion.blogspot.fr/ published at the date of Friday 20, 2015 (No 672 - White Knight) .

"Actually only 16 out of 53 full Commonwealth members are represented - Antigua And Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, St. Kitts Nevis, St Vincent And The Grenadines, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda and Zambia - the remainder are dependent territories including one or two with no resident population - Ascension Island, British Antarctic Territory, Cook Islands, Falkland Islands, Isle Of Man, Niue, South Georgia And The South Sandwich Islands, Tokelau, Tristan Da Cunha and Turks And Caicos Islands. The miniature sheet contains a previously issued stamp from each of the above Commonwealth territories with an additional label attached to the Isle of Man stamp. Each stamp depicts a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, The Head of The Commonwealth. The publicity for the item does not say whether the miniature sheet is postally valid in every territory which has a stamp included in it. I guess that it must be postally valid in Isle Of Man to the value of £1.73 which is the face value of the stamp which represents it in the miniature sheet.

The stamps included in the sheet are from 9 Queen's Realms (one, St. Kitts-Nevis, is represented twice), 2 other monarchies and 5 republics. One of the most interesting featured stamps is that of Kenya which depicts one of the stamps it issued as long ago as 1977 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee- the design portrays the young Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, looking down from their window in Treetops Hotel in Kenya which is where the young princess was staying when King George VI died and she succeeded him to the throne.

The territories represented in the sheet are normally clients of various philatelic agencies and post offices - New Zealand Post, IGPC (including Sierra Leone which had a contract with IGPC for a long time but is currently allowing Stamperija to produce philatelic products with its name inscribed on them (...), Philatelic Collector Inc and Pobjoy Stamps but none of the territories, except Barbados, which are clients of the moribund CASCO, such as BIOT and St Helena, have a stamp in the sheet. Perhaps surprisingly, neither do the other British offshore islands or Gibraltar while British Virgin Islands is the only Pobjoy territory not to be included.

Sadly, there's also no involvement here from Royal Mail, Canada Post nor Australia Post. The flags depicted around the edge of the sheet remind us which are the full member territories of The Commonwealth as well as the dependent territories:- Anguilla, Antigua And Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Botswana, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Ghana, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey, Guyana, Isle Of Man, India (...), Jamaica, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Montserrat, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Island, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Georgia And The South Sandwich Islands, Sri Lanka, St Helena, St. Kitts Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent And The Grenadines, Swaziland, Tonga, Trinidad And Tobago, Turks And Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland, United Republic Of Tanzania, Vanuatu and Zambia.

For some reason Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau are not included in the flag line up along with Norfolk Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island (although the latter two are really part of Australia) and although the British Antarctic Territory is represented the Ross Dependency and Australian Antarctic Territory are not. (...)

The miniature sheet's date of issue will be November 27, 2015 - the opening day of CHOGM, the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting, to be held in Malta, which will be visited by Queen Elizabeth II. The price of the item is rather high - £20 - but it is a collection of stamps from 27 Commonwealth territories so I guess the total actually represents quite good value to obtain such a collection. A reprint of the original Isle Of Man stamp which is included in the sheet with its attached label is also available to buy separately."

At the same time Grzegorz could also provide the first design of the upcoming joint issue between Poland, Slovakia and  the Czech Republic to be issued on July 22, 2016.

November 23, 2015
The "Upcoming Issues" page needed a drasting cleaning. In a first step, we checked all as such announced joint issues that did not translate in a real partnership and we erased all those for which we did not see any chance to discover the existence of such stamps. In order to keep this information somewhere, we list here the series that were removed from the "Upcoming Issues" page together with the explanation of their elimination. If you want to challenge this list, please go ahead and come back with proof of the existence of such items:

2015 (February 4) - Bolivia issued two stamps at the occasion of the ALBA-TCP 10th anniversary issue. We expected the other ALBA countries to participate and this series could have included Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Saint Lucia and Venezuela. Nothing happened since February and we have to conclude that the Bolivian stamps will remain unilateral.

2015 (Quarter II) - At the beginning of the year, Armenia announced several issues celebrating the 100th anniversary of Armenian genocide, among which two joint issues with Cyprus and Argentina. The joint issue with Cyprus took place, but we have not seen anything involving Argentina. The Argentina philatelic program does not mention any stamp linked to this event either.

2015 (April 23) - The joint issue between Algeria and Mexico, initially scheduled October 2, 2014, was apparently postponed to 2015 and the Algerian stamp was issued on April 23, 2015. Topic relates to the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between both countries. Despite having been announced in both Mexican and Algerian philatelic programs, this issue never took place in Mexico and disappeared from all Mexican lists.

2015 (May 17) - The ITU 150th anniversary could have led to at least a common issue. Countries such as Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Moldova, Monaco, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Thailand and Vatican have issued stamps on this topic. Unfortunately these stamps cannot be considered as a joint issue, nor an onmibus series as their release was not based on a common decision from all these countries to cooperate. All the stamps have just in common to bear the ITU anniversary logo. This conclusion was also supported by a direct answer from UPU upon specific request.

2015 (May 22) - In the same vein as the above described ITU issue, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) anniversary issue cannot be considered as a joint issue (only use of the same logo, no postal cooperation) even if we have obsereved that Armenia, Belarus (May 13), Kazakhstan (May 22), Kyrghyzstan and Russia (May 21) have issued stamps at this occasion.

2015 (June 22) - Japan issued a stamp at the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the normalization of the relationship with South Korea. Anniversary does not necessary mean that at the time of the anniversary political relations are really good, and apparently South Korea seems to think that it is still not the right time to celebrate this anniversary. Indeed the Japanese stamp remained an unilateral issue.

On August 23, 2015, China (PR) issued a series of stamps illustrated with Yellow River landscapes. Macao announced that on December 10, 2015 it will issue the same stamps as well and already showed these stamps which will indeed be identical. Despite the great similarity these stamps cannot be considered as a joint issue.

2015 (August 30) - Brazil is used to issue stamps commemorating anniversaries of relationship with other countries (up to half a dozen a year). Within the yearly Brazilian philatelic program it is always difficult to predict if one of those issues will be released jointly with the partner country or not. Brazil issued on May 27, 2015 two stamps related to the relationship with Azerbaijan. In this case a joint issue was also scheduled for August 30, 2015 in the Azerbaijan philatelic program. Unfortunately Azerbaijan cancelled this issue (information obtained from the Azerbaijan postal administration) and this Brazilian issue will remain unilateral.

2015 (September 10) - China (PR) - Jersey (September 22) - Both China and Jersey released stamps at the occasion of the 10th China International Garden Exhibition. Dates of issue of both stamp sets are different, designs are different and there was no collaboration between both countries announced on this topic. This issue will not be considered as joint.

2015 (September 29) - The announced issue involving Macedonia and Russia was recently removed from the Russian philatelic program. Topic was supposed to describe attractions of major cities, Saint Petersburg and Ohrid. As a consequence we have to remove also this entry from our list. No idea if the issue is postponed to a later date.

2015 (Quarter IV) - The Belgium - Vatican joint issue dedicated to Christmas has recently been cancelled. This is a decision from the Vatican State as the Belgium souvenir sheet representing a painting taken from the Vatican Museum has already been released on October 26, 2015.

2015 (October) - The Austria - Belgium joint issue supposed to represent the Ghent altarpiece disappeared from the Austrian philatelic program and was never listed on the Belgium philatelic program. No idea if the issue is postponed to a later date.

2015 (October 6) - The announced issue involving Argentina and Russia was recently removed from the Russian philatelic program. It was supposed to celebrate 130 years of diplomatic relations illustrated with the tea ceremony. As a consequence we have to remove also this entry from our list. No idea if the issue is postponed to a later date.

2015 (November 20) - The Latvia - Turkey joint issue dedicated to National treasures is not mentioned anymore in the updated Turkish philatelic program and disappeared from the Latvian philatelic program.

On top of this, the Mexican program was actually only a kind of wish list and the real joint issues that took place (with France and with Russia) were not even in the original list. Therefore we can consider that the issues under discussion between Mexico and either Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey or the Philippines will not take place in 2015. Switzerland is not anymore on the Mexican program. The Philippines have disclosed the list of last releases for this end of year and there is no joint issue in it. Same for Turkey which stamp was supposed to be released in September. We will simply add these countries is the potential 2016 joint issues.
Pakistan is used to produce unilateral issues, so expected issues without exact date of issue scheduled with Germany and Saudi Arabia can be removed from our list as well.
Finally, the Bulgaria Portugal joint issue disappeared also from the 2015 Portuguese philatelic program and therefor was removed from our "Upcoming Issues" list.

November 23, 2015
The stamps from the Sri Lanka - Thailand joint issue scheduled for November 20, 2015 and commemorating 60 years of diplomatic relations have actually been released on November 2, 2015, in form of se-tenant pair [1px5] and a souvenir sheet for Thailand, in panes of isolated stamps (2x[4x5], miniature sheet of se-tenant stamps (4 pairs and two isolated stamps [2px3] with central double label = [2p+A+2l+B+2p]) and a souvenir sheet with an artistic cut for Sri Lanka.

November 21, 2015
During my past four weeks of silence, a series of information came in in my mail box. Here is a summary of all the information related to recently issued stamps:

The United Arab Emirates - Kazhakstan joint issue has finally been released on October 28, 2015 (information provided by Enzo Cafaro, Italy and Kenneth Sequeira, Dubai). Stamps are identical and represent the heads of government, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nayan. Kazhakstan stamps have been produced at 10,000 samples. Stamps from both countries have been issued in miniature sheets of four se-tenant pairs [2px2].

Ivan Tangl (Serbia) provided information about the Serbia - Slovenia stamps issued respectively on November 9, 2015 and November 6, 2015. Topic features the Slovene and Serbian composer Davorin Jenko (1835 - 1914) and stamps are identical (design by a Serbian artist, probably printed in Belgrade). The stamps are available as miniature sheet of 8 stamps ([3x3] with central label showing another portrait of the composer).

Grzegorz Omelanczuk (Poland) confirmed the issue of stamps in the Laos - Russia joint issue from November 11, 2015 (55 years of relationship). Russian stamps are issued in miniature sheets of four pairs ([3x3] with central label featuring the flags of both countries) and these miniature sheets will be printed at 45,000 samples i.e. printing number is 2x 180,000 stamps. Stamps are self-adhesive and depict the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on the Nerl River and the Buddhist stupa of Pha That Luang in Vientiane. So far Laos stamps have not been seen.

Up to now we have not been able to show a picture of the September 25, 2015 Mauritius stamp issued jointly with France. Anthony Raynaud (France) provided a copy of the mixed first day cover:

The joint issue involving India and Singapore and announced several month ago without a precise date will be released on November 24, 2015. Niket Bubna (USA) provided both the information and the first pictures from the Singapore stamps. The stamp designs are based on the official residences of the Presidents of India and Singapore. These are called Rashtrapati Bhavan and Istana. The release date coincides with a bilateral visit from India's Prime Minister to Singapore. It looks like the miniature sheet contains both Indian and Singapore stamps. If this is confirmed we are in presence of a new siamese joint issue for this year, which means that Singapore entered in a process of producing a siamese issue for each of its joint issues. Story continuation to follow.

In Vaccari News from November 18, 2015, Fabio Bonacina describes the next to come Italian stamps from the Italy-SMOM (Sovereign Military Order of Malta) joint issue to be released on November 27, 2015. Italy will only issue (and probably SMOM too) souvenir sheets containing two different stamps (and no stamps in panes).
Reminder: we are reporting the SMOM stamps in our catalogue for information purpose only as the SMOM is still not recognized by the UPU. As a consequence joint issues involving SMOM will continue to be considered in the [N] category (= non-recognized joint issue) with each collector deciding by himself if he wants to include these series in his own collection.

November 21, 2015
During the same period we got also some news related to so far undisclosed joint issues that are supposed to be released before end of the year or in 2016. Of course all this information has been integrated in the section "upcoming issues":

On September 5, 2016, there will be a joint issue involving Liechtenstein and the Czech Republic (probably September 7 for Czech Republic - information provided by Rindert Paalman, the Netherlands). The topic will be a painting from Gerard (Gerrit) Dou : "Young woman on a balcony". The Czech Republic 2016 philatelic program provided by Grzegorz Omelanczuk (Poland) shows also some other joint issues planned for next year: next to the Europa common stamp to be issued on May 4, 2016, another joint issue is planned on September 7, 2016, with Slovakia and Poland, topic Jan Jesensky and potentially there could be a special issue with Slovakia on May 5, 2015 in the frame of a common philatelic exhibition (need confirmation from Slovakia side).

Fabio Bonacina (Italy) found out that Belgium and the Vatican did not reach an agreement and the joint issue planned for end of the year is cancelled.

Israel plans a few new joint issues in the course of the year 2016: with Greece, on February 9, 2016 (topic: Ports), on April 19, 2016 with Spain (topic: The Bridge of Strings, Jerusalem) and with Bulgaria on September 13, 2016 (topic: migrating birds) (information provided by Enzo Cafaro, Italy).

November 21, 2015
I had a chance to attend the Paris Fall Philatelic Fair (Salon Philatélique d'Automne 2015 - November 6-8, 2015) where several postal administrations were present among which the Bulgarian Post which displayed, next to stamps, all postal stationaries still for sale and that are usually difficult to find. Of course I found the covers related to three recent joint issues and which have been reported previously: the T20121212 issue (with Kazakhstan), the T20130612b issue (with Czech Republic, Slovakia and Vatican) and the most recent T20140707 issue (with Russia). In these three cases Bulgaria produced an illustrated cover with the imprint of the Bulgarian stamp (only one stamp in the case of the T20121212 issue). Surprisingly I could find a fourth cover of the same type that had not been reported so far. This cover refers to the T20130305 issue (with Russia) and dedicated to the 135th anniversary of the Russian Turkish war (1877-1878) illustrated with a painting from N.D. Dmitriev-Orenburg showing General M.D. Skobelev on a horse. The official stamp (in fact souvenir sheets with a single stamp) issued by Bulgaria on March 5, 2013 with a denomination of '1.40' had already been reissued at the occasion of a philatelic exhibition on October 25, 2013 with a different denomination of '0.65' and only at 5,100 samples. This new postal stationery discovery refers to a cover with a style similar to the three previous ones but bearing only the '0.65' stamp imprint (not entire souvenir sheet design). We have no idea when this cover was issued, but it definitely belongs to the products related to this Bulgaria-Russia joint issue (only the issue year of 2013 is known).

October 26, 2015
Often I receive mails from collectors with questions about older issues that I try to answer individually. As I do not feel a priority for replying, sometimes it can take months before I find time to answer to these philatelists, but I am not forgetting them. It is just that some questions require a true search and answers are not always obvious. When questions could be of interest for everyone, I try to share the result in these pages.

Among the mails in my incoming mail box that were still waiting for an answer, I digged first the one from Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) who raised several questions:

1. "The description of [O20080916] in the Catalogue Supplement III seems to be confusing. The sheets (and the stamp in the sheet) from BIOT, Tristan da Cunha and Virgin Island are identical. The sheets from Isle of Man, Nauru and St. Helena are indeed different from one country to another."
The catalogue describes the following:

2008 (September 16)
British Indian Ocean Territory - Isle of Man (October 1) - Nauru - Saint Helena - Tristan da Cunha - Virgin Islands
"Lest we forget": 90^th anniversary of the end of World war I. Omnibus series. Six different stamps and one souvenir sheet containing also one stamp, different from one country to another, but with the frame identical throughout the series (Memorial at St Johns, Tynwald Hill). Multicolored.
One miniature sheet per country - FDCs

Here are the images of the two other countries with identical design:

Indeed the designs are identical. Just let us take a look at two of the souvenir sheets that are different:

As a consequence, the description will have to be amended, but the type of joint issue will remain "omnibus" [O] as we are still missing a link between these six countries that have just printed their stamp at the same private printing house.

2. "Andorra (French) and Andorra (Spanish) issued a Christmas stamp in 2004. The picture on the stamps is more or less identical. I don’t believe that this issue can be found in the catalogue".
Here are the two stamps mentioned in this question:

Indeed, both postal administrations have used the same picture to illustrate their stamp. This is however not sufficient as a criteria. We have never taken a yearly repeated event such as Christmas (or Hannukah, or Easter, or any other anniversary ...) as a topic to characterize a joint issue unless both countries claim having worked together to create this issue (in the case of Christmas, often involving the Vatican State). Moreover the stamps represented here have been issued at different dates (December 4, 2004 for French Andorra and November 22, 2004 for Spanish Andorra). Therefore this pair will not be considered as joint but will be reported as Non-approved in the category [N] (to avoid this question and request repeated indefinitely ;-) ).

3. "Sieger Verlag speaks about a ‘Gemeinschaftsausgabe’ concerning the stamps from Peru and French Polynesia: 50 years Kon Tiki-Expedition (1997) ‘würdigten die Postverwaltungen von Peru und Französisch-Polynesien mit einer Gemeinschaftsausgabe.‘ which means 'the Postal administrations from both countries aknowledged these stamps as joint'. Stamps are different and I think – but didn’t inquire it – that more countries issued stamps for this occasion. Nevertheless the use of the word Gemeinschaftsausgabe by Sieger intrigues me".

Sieger Verlag is used to create mixed documents with stamps celebrating the same event or related to the same topic and usually call them "Gemeinschaftsausgaben" (Joint issue in German) which in their mind really means 'stamps issued at the same occasion'. In most of the cases, this remains beyond the definition of true joint issue in which the first characteristic is that the two postal administrations have cooperated (and at minima exchanged their design if not approved a common celebration day with exchange of cancellations and stamps on the same day. These mixed Sieger products are mainly intended for topical collectors, not for joint issue collectors. This Kon Tiki expedition could indeed be such a 'false' joint issue.

The Peruvian stamp was issued April 28, 1997, the French Polynesia stamp was issued on August 7, 1997. The Kon-Tiki was a raft built and led by the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl who demonstrated that South American individuals could have settled the Polynesian islands using this transport mean. The Kon-Tiki left the Peruvian coast on April 28, 1947 and reached the Tuamotu Island on August 7, 1947. For details on this story see Wikipedia.
The stamps are different. There is a priori no joint character, although it could have been a nice parallel issue with date of issue exactly matching with the real dates of the event. Unfortunately we have not seen so far press releases from both involved countries stating a joint character. We are ready to change our mind on this issue (and consider it as a shifted parallel issue - Type R2) if someone comes back with the story of the creation of these stamps and the proof that the two postal administrations have cooperated.
However these two stamps were sufficiently separated in time to allow the creation on a private basis of nice mixed documents that even could have really traveled from Peru to French Polynesia. And this is the basis of the statement of Sieger Verlag.
The other Kon Tiki stamps we could identify had been issued in 1972 (French Polynesia, August 18, 1972), in 1992 (Cambodia, August 1, 1992) and in 2007 (French Polynesia, August 7, 2007) but did not result either in the issue of stamps with joint character.

4. Mansoor Moazzeni (Iran) asked also some information about gold stamps of Elvis Presley issued in 2013. So far he found stamps from the following countries (we could add more precise dates of issue): Gambia (July 22), Grenada (January 3), Guyana (), Liberia (), Micronesia (August 12), Nevis (April 29), Palau (October 1), St Vincent (), Saint Vincent and Grenadines (June 25), Sierra Leone ().

Another series of miniature sheets related to Elvis Presley have been issued the year before by the same countries (plus some others such as Tuvalu, ...) and represent un portrait of the star and a recording plate. As we consider these recent issues as only food for collectors (actually not necessary intended for stamp collectors, but more for star fans), we report these omnibus series only when collectors are asking questions about specific stamps. We do not recommand to include these stamps in the joint issue collection. For example in this specific case of Elvis Presley stamps, the web site Stamp World (www.stampworld.com) reports 1,711 stamps related to this topic and issued since 1987. More than 80% of these stamps have been issued in the frame of such omnibus series (no link between countries, just same printing house). We expect in 2017 an avalanche of stamps dedicated to Elvis at the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his death, but so far none has been declared as joint.

In a very old mail I had not answered so far, Anthony Raynaud (France) requested some attention about older Egyptian stamps. These questions were more tricky and needed extensive search:

5.: "First let me challenge you with the following stamps with intriguing designs. Joint or not joint?"

All these stamps have in common that they have been issued to report on the UNESCO Nubian Monument Preservation campaign. The first series has been issued by Kuwait on March 8, 1964. The following series were respectively issued by Jordan (August 1, 1964), Syria (March 21, 1965) and, Sharjah (September 6, 1965). The last pair was again issued by Kuwait on April 17, 1967 at the occasion of the Arab week on Nubian Monument Preservation. Despite the presence of the two different designs on all stamps, this series cannot be considered as joint. All stamps have been issued with a common topic using designs provided by UNESCO, but were not produced commonly. By looking closer at this topic, we could discover that over this period of 4 years, more than hundred and fifty stamps have been issued, all over the world, and additionally to the stamps depicted above, the two common designs had also been used by Algeria (June 28, 1964), Chad (March 9, 1964) and the Dominican Republic (March 8, 1964). Here is another example of a Palestinian stamps that could have been part of such a series (issue date October 1, 1963) and which representations have been taken also by other countries.

6.: Also "How about these Egypt and Yemen stamps which seems to have at least a common topic, even common design?"

The Egypt (UAR) stamp was issued on November 15, 1961. The Yemen (North) stamps were issued on March 1, 1962 in both perforated and non-perforated forms, as well as in souvenir sheets. The Yemen stamps were later overprinted several times: on September 30, 1962 and in 1963 (Yemen Republic), on November 7, 1962 and in 1964 (Yemen Kingdom). They are refering to the UNESCO program for saving the Nubian temples and for this reason reproduce the same monument. In this case also dozen of stamps have been issued by several countries in the years 1961-1963 and these stamps cannot be recognized as joint, for the same reason as in the previous example.

7.: And finally, still from Anthony "Have you seen this Egyptian stamp?"

This stamp was issued on March 22, 2010 and refers to an official joint issue issued 50 years earlier on March 22, 1960. Of course it is not part of this older joint issue as it is a standalone piece issued only by Egypt to celebrate the anniversary of Cairo University. However, it will be reported (it actually was already reported in these news) as a note at the bottom of the original issue entry [T19600407] which reports in the catalogue the original joint issue involving Egypt (UAR), Jordan, Lebanon (March 23), Morocco (June 28), Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria (UAR) and Yemen North (Kingdom).

October 22, 2015
Nirlay Kundu (USA) is an artist painting on first day covers, and also interested in joint stamp issues. Just for our eyes and pleasure, I could not resist showing some of Nirlay's latest creation based on recent joint issues involving the USA. This suggests to me that we should create on this site a gallery of nice artwork related to joint issue. Please show me what you have created. If enough material comes in, I promise to create this special page on this web site. Actually I already found a few other mixed covers painted by Nirlay Kundu under www.stampcenter.com/index.php and his site http://nirlay.com/gallery.html

October 22, 2015
News about issues to come (the following information was provided by Grzegorz Omelanczuk - Poland, Enzo Cafaro - Italy, Ivan Tangl - Serbia):

The Azerbaijan - Belarus joint issue initially scheduled for May 2016 will apparently be released earlier in December 2015. The first image of the Belarus souvenir sheet became recently available.

The Kazakhstan - Romania joint issue announced since 2014 by the Romanian Post was finally cancelled (confirmation from the Kazakhstan Post).

The Kazakhstan - UAE joint issue was confirmed, but in the past three weeks the date of issue was shifted twice and now the new date of issue has been fixed to October 28, 2015 upon common agreement. Let us see if it stays to this new date.

There is also an upcoming joint issue of the Serbian and Slovenian posts. So far only the Serbian post provides information for stamps to be released on November 9, 2015. The stamps will celebrate the 180th anniversary of the birth of Davorin Jenko, the Slovenian 19th century composer, who was the author of music for the current Serbian and former Slovenian national anthems. Design was not revealed yet and the Slovenian web site has not yet been updated.

October 22, 2015
News about recent issues (this information was provided by Enzo Cafaro - Italy, Don Birschel - USA, Jaap Sarelse - The Netherlands):

The Azerbaijan - Moldova joint issue was released on October 16, 2015, one month earlier than expected.

Don Birschel, USA, found a the information about a stamp that could be part of the next Pakistan - Turkey joint issue and celebrating "100 years of Urdu in Turkey - A new milestone ". He provided already an image of the Pakistanese stamp but we need to confirm this issue with information from the Turkish side. And of course the date of issue is also needed.

October 4, 2015
This week a series a news concerning joint issues to be released in 2015 landed in our mail box. The following information can be forwarded thanks to Grzegorz Omelanczuk (Poland), Enzo Cafaro (Italy), Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands).

The Russia-Mexico joint issue will be released on October 19, 2015. It celebrates 125 years of diplomatic relations with stamps representing architecture: The Peter and Paul Fortress (Petropavlovskaya Krepost) in St. Petersburg and the Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City.

It looks that the Jersey flower stamps mentionned earlier and issued on September 22, 2015 at the occasion of the 10th China international Garden Exhibition will remain unilateral. PR China issued stamps on September 10, 2015 a series of stamps on this same topic with completely different designs.

The previously announced Russian joint issues involving either Argentina or Macedonia have been removed from the 2015 issue program. On the other hand, the Russia joint issue with Laos (November 11, 2015) has been confirmed. The Year of Russia in Monaco will be celevrated with the release of a pre-stamped envelope (potential counterpart of the already released Monaco stamp), to be issued in December. At this stage the joint character remains doubtful.

The Kazakhstan postal administration confirmed recently that the date of issue of the Kazakhstan - United Arab Emirates joint issue will be released by October 15, 2015.

On September 18, 2015, Thailand issued stamps jointly with Singapore in form of a souvenir sheet containing two stamps and a miniature sheet of the same 5 pairs of se-tenant stamps. Recently it was discovered that Thailand issued also a miniature sheet containing only two pairs of stamps. Here is a first low quality picture of this smaller miniature sheet.

The picture of the Thailand stamps to be released on November 20, 2015, jointly with Sri Lanka, became available. There is still no confirmation from the Sri Lanka side. Thailand will issue two stamps (probably as miniature sheets of 5 se-tenant pairs and may be as miniature sheets of two se-tenant pairs) and a souvenir sheet with these two same stamps.

Additionnally the learned that the Poland Ukraine joint issue has been postponed until December 2015.

October 1, 2015
The News from the period July to September 2015 have been archived.

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