Tuesday 31 May 2016

769. Stamperija:- Trump vs. Clinton. Yes, Really.


  Sri Lanka Post issued a single stamp on 27 May 2016 which commemorated Visvalingam Veerasingham (1892 - 1964) who is acknowledged as the father figure of the co-operative movement in Sri Lanka. The stamp, another unimaginative head and shoulders portrait, was designed by A Rasiah. Rating:- *


  It is interesting to see which philatelic entities are represented currently at the New York 2016 Stamp Exhibition and who is representing them. There are one or two interesting features.

Represented by IGPC - Antigua and Barbuda, Brunei, Dominica, Ghana, Gibraltar, "Grenada and The Grenadines", Guyana, Kenya, Montserrat, Nevis, Papua New Guinea, St. Kitts, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Tanzania, Turks and Caicos, Tuvalu, Uganda and Zambia.

Represented by Stamperija - Maldives, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Solomon Islands

Represented by Herrick Stamp Company - Bermuda, Ireland, Jersey and Royal Mail

Others - Australia Post, Bangladesh Post, Bhutan PostCanada Post, Gibraltar Stamps, Guernsey Post, India Post and Pitcairn Islands Philatelic Bureau.

  Interestingly, although the agency is fairly local to the exhibition, the client islands of Philatelic Collector Inc. do not appear on the exhibition's website's list of participating territories. Come to think of it, Philatelic Collector seems to be very slow in putting out new issues in 2016. I wonder what's going on there.
  I see Uganda, after its flirtation with Stamperija, is back solidly with IGPC. Gibraltar is represented by both IGPC and Gibraltar stamps. Kiribati has issued stamps to mark its participation in the exhibition but I did not see it listed with the other participating postal administrations. New Zealand Post, Singapore Post and other notable entities are not listed as participating in the exhibition but little Pitcairn Islands seems to be representing itself there. 

  Stamperija and IGPC have released philatelic items for the exhibition in the name of some of their client territories. I have mentioned some in previous blogs (see Blogs 764, 767 and 768) but further products are depicted below:-

  Ghana - 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps. See also Blog 764.


  Guyana - 1 sheetlet of 5 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet.



  Maldives - some incredibly awful products on the subject of the upcoming US Presidential elections - 1 sheetlet of 4 different "stamps" and 1 miniature sheet.



  Nevis - 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps (see also Blog 764).


  St. Kitts - 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet.



  St. Vincent And The Grenadines - 1 sheetlet of 6 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet.



  Sierra Leone - Pope Francis' visit to New York - 1 sheetlet of 4 different "stamps" and 1 miniature sheet.



  Tanzania - 1 sheetlet of 6 different stamps, 1 sheetlet of 4 different stamps and 1 miniature sheet.




  The English cricket player, Alastair Cook, recently became the 12th man in the history of the game, as well as the youngest, to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket. He also became the first Englishman to do so.
His predecessors are:- Sunil Gavaskar (1987), Allan Border (1993), Steve Waugh (2003), Brian Lara (2004), Sachin Tendulkar (2005), Rahul Dravid (2008), Ricky Ponting (2008), Jacques Kallis (2009), Mahela Jayawardene (2011), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2012) and Kumar Sangakkara (2012). A number of these batsmen have been featured on stamps though not necessarily by their own country.
  Gavaskar was depicted on a St. Vincent stamp while Allan Border appeared on a stamp from St. Vincent Grenadines (his name was spelt incorrectly as "Boarder"). Brian Lara is the player from the list who has made most appearances on a stamp, notably from Trinidad And Tobago and Guyana. Sachin Tendulkar was commemorated by India Post after his 200th Test appearance and Ricky Ponting appeared with other players on an Australian stamp which commemorated the 2006-7 Ashes victory over England.
  The scoring of 10000 runs is a notable achievement in cricket and one wonders if it is time for another one of those Royal Mail "1st Class Sporting Success" miniature sheets which started and ended with the Andy Murray Wimbledon victory miniature sheet in 2013. I'm not a great cricket enthusiast but it seems to me that Alastair Cook's achievement is notable enough to receive philatelic recognition. It's a potential big seller especially as the cricket season reaches its midsummer heights.

















Monday 30 May 2016

768. Posting And Going At New York New York.


  Post And Go collectors are probably reeling from the onslaught of new labels being issued by Royal Mail, Jersey Post and Guernsey Post dispensed at the World Stamp Show NY2016. None of the labels of course have any postal validity in New York but "first day covers" have been produced by using labels dispensed from "Back Office" machine BO01 cancelled by the mark "WORLD STAMP EXHIBITION - NEW YORK" and with an illustration of the Statue Of Liberty over  "New York" with "28.05.16.  LINCOLN" below that. 
  The 6 "New York Skyline" values from the BO01 Collectors strip" are depicted here.
 Shown below are:-
 1. Collectors strip New York Skyline B001
 2. Collectors strip New York Skyline A011
 3. Collectors strip Union Jack A011 
 4. Collectors strip Jersey Flag JE01
 5. Collectors strip Jersey Crest JE01
 6. Collectors strip Guernsey Flag GG01
 7. Collectors strip Guernsey Life GG01

  As mentioned in Blog 730, Back office-printed versions of the following have also been issued:-

 8. Collectors strip Union Jack BO01
 9. Collectors strip Jersey Flag BO02
 10. Collectors strip Jersey Crest BO02
 11. Collectors strips Guernsey Flag BO02
 12. Collectors strip Guernsey Life BO02









  The postal administration of Kiribati issued a modest set of 4 stamps on 28 May 2016 to commemorate its representation at NY2016. Pleasingly the set depicted scenes and subjects relevant to Kiribati alongside the exhibition logo. Rating:- *****.
  Mercifully, the Kiribati Post Office does not possess a "Post And Go" kiosk. It's nice to have just an old fashioned set of stamps to buy rather than all the added paraphernalia. 
  




  Collectors do not get off so lightly when it comes to Australia Post's commemoration of the New York Exhibition. Six miniature sheets are being issued, a different one being issued daily from the first to the sixth day of the exhibition. Each sheet contains one each of the 4 butterfly stamps issued earlier this year. The items are indeed colourful and attractive but clearly excessive. Rating:- *.







  Post scriptum. Also being offered for sale on an Internet auction site is a set of the same 6 miniature sheets with additional green foil overprints applied but issued in a ludicrously limited edition of just 250 of each sheet and sold only at the exhibition. Not surprisingly the set is being offered at a premium price of $199. Rating:- 0.


  Sri Lanka Post issued a single stamp on 27 May 2016 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sri Lanka Tourism which started off as the Ceylon Tourist Board on 2 May 1966 in which year 18,969 tourists arrived in the island. In contrast, there were 1,800,000 tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka in 2015.
  The stamp was designed by Ruwan Indrajith Upasena. Rating:- **.