January not only was the start of a new year but it signaled a new focus to my stamp blogging. When attempting to cover the vast number of stamps issued in any given year, it is quite easy to become overwhelmed. Witness my failed attempts in 2020, 2021 and 2022. I made numerous but different mistakes in each of those years which ultimately led to my abandoning the year’s project. What makes 2023 different? I think, in a word, organization. I believe that I am much better organized than I was before and that I can maintain that organization even when work and life threaten to intrude.
In January, I published 33 articles on the Stamps of 2023 each focusing on the stamps released this month by a particular entity. These followed the first four articles in this series published at the end of December. In alphabetical order, here are the stamp issuers covered thus far (with the date of the original article):
I aim to do a better job at updating the articles, if needed. For example, I have just updated the article about Belgium’s January issues — adding images of the stamp, sheet and FDC for the Queen’s 50th Birthday issue that were unavailable at the time I wrote the article in late December as well as information and images of the Red-Knot Sandpiper definitive stamp.
I also published two articles about the Europa 2023 common theme of “Peace — The Highest Value of Humanity” — an overview with plenty of background appeared in October while Åland’s issue was covered in mid-November. I believe that most other Europa stamps will be included in their respective country’s monthly articles rather than separate ones. However, I may create an article late in the fall listing all of them in one spot.
While there will not be an article on every stamp issue for the year, my goal is to cover every single stamp-issuing entity at least once. Last year, there were postage stamps released by 215 different countries, territories or intergovernmental organizations. This number includes some entities such as Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Transnistria, Georgia, Northern Cyprus, etc. that may not be members of the Universal Postal Union but are collectible nonetheless. Of course, to cover all of these entities I do need at least basic information as to release date and clear (preferably high-resolution) artwork. Please feel free to contact me if there is anything I fail to include.
At the moment, there are schedules on my Philatelic Pursuits site for 86 entities. Some of these schedules are complete through the entire year while others just include the most recent issues or those due to be released in the near future.
| # | Stamp Issuing Entity | Number of Issues Listed | Latest Update |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Åland | 13 | 31 January 2023 |
| 2 | Alderney | 4 | 31 January 2023 |
| 3 | Algeria | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 4 | Andorra (French administration) | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 5 | Andorra (Spanish administration) | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 6 | Aruba | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 7 | Ascension Island | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 8 | Australia | 3 | 31 January 2023 |
| 9 | Austria | 7 | 31 January 2023 |
| 10 | The Bahamas | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 11 | Bangladesh | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 12 | Belarus | 23 | 31 January 2023 |
| 13 | Belgium | 22 | 31 January 2023 |
| 14 | British Antarctic Territory | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 15 | British Virgin Islands | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 16 | Bulgaria | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 17 | Canada | 3 | 31 January 2023 |
| 18 | China, People’s Republic of | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 19 | Christmas Island | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 20 | Croatia | 19 | 31 January 2023 |
| 21 | Czech Republic | 26 | 31 January 2023 |
| 22 | Denmark | 3 | 31 January 2023 |
| 23 | Egypt | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 24 | Estonia | 21 | 31 January 2023 |
| 25 | Falkland Islands | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 26 | Faroe Islands | 12 | 31 January 2023 |
| 27 | Fiji | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 28 | Finland | 4 | 31 January 2023 |
| 29 | France | 12 | 31 January 2023 |
| 30 | French Polynesia | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 31 | French Southern and Antarctic Lands | 15 | 31 January 2023 |
| 32 | The Gambia | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 33 | Germany | 4 | 31 January 2023 |
| 34 | Great Britain | 15 | 31 January 2023 |
| 35 | Grenada | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 36 | Guernsey | 14 | 31 January 2023 |
| 37 | Guinea-Bissau | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 38 | Hong Kong | 7 | 31 January 2023 |
| 39 | Hungary | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 40 | India | 3 | 31 January 2023 |
| 41 | Iraq | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 42 | Ireland | 15 | 31 January 2023 |
| 43 | Isle of Man | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 44 | Japan | 5 | 31 January 2023 |
| 45 | Jersey | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 46 | Korea, North | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 47 | Korea, South | 23 | 31 January 2023 |
| 48 | Kyrgyzstan | 8 | 31 January 2023 |
| 49 | Latvia | 3 | 31 January 2023 |
| 50 | Lithuania | 18 | 31 January 2023 |
| 51 | Macau | 9 | 31 January 2023 |
| 52 | Moldova | 17 | 31 January 2023 |
| 53 | Monaco | 12 | 31 January 2023 |
| 54 | Mongolia | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 55 | Myanmar | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 56 | The Netherlands | 4 | 31 January 2023 |
| 57 | New Zealand | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 58 | Norfolk Island | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 59 | Norway | 10 | 31 January 2023 |
| 60 | Pakistan | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 61 | Paraguay | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 62 | The Philippines | 3 | 31 January 2023 |
| 63 | Poland | 12 | 31 January 2023 |
| 64 | Qatar | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 65 | Romania | 4 | 31 January 2023 |
| 66 | Russia | 15 | 31 January 2023 |
| 67 | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 68 | Singapore | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 69 | Slovakia | 24 | 31 January 2023 |
| 70 | Slovenia | 21 | 31 January 2023 |
| 71 | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 72 | Spain | 3 | 31 January 2023 |
| 73 | Sweden | 10 | 31 January 2023 |
| 74 | Taiwan | 8 | 31 January 2023 |
| 75 | Thailand | 18 | 31 January 2023 |
| 76 | Transnistria | 2 | 31 January 2023 |
| 77 | Tristan da Cunha | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 78 | Turkey | 15 | 31 January 2023 |
| 79 | Tuvalu | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 80 | United Arab Emirates | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 81 | United Nations (Headquarters, New York) | 11 | 31 January 2023 |
| 82 | United Nations (Offices in Geneva) | 10 | 31 January 2023 |
| 83 | United Nations (Offices in Vienna) | 10 | 31 January 2023 |
| 84 | United States | 31 | 31 January 2023 |
| 85 | Uruguay | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
| 86 | Vietnam | 1 | 31 January 2023 |
Updates to these schedule pages will be done each week, probably on Fridays or Saturdays unless something else takes precedence.
As far as releases by the various agencies such as Stamperija, IGPC, etc. are concerned, at the moment I am planning to include them only on the schedule pages for a number of reasons. For example, most of these “stamps” are print-to-order and never sent to the nations whose names are printed on them. The agencies tend to bulk release them in large (HUGE!) batches throughout the year and often do not list “official” first days of issue, although they are getting a bit better on this last point. Most are geared towards new topical collectors and are vastly overpriced. While these reasons may seem like negatives, I think that each collector should make their own decision as to whether or not they want to add them. I will not create a full-fledged article for any of these entities although I may choose to illustrate a few during the year in topical listings. An example of this would be several agency clients will be included in an article gathering “stray” Year of the Rabbit issues.
Over the course of the year, there may be blog-worthy releases by local posts or private mailing companies but they will be treated on a case-by-case basis and I don’t aim to create schedule pages for these. They will be treated as Cinderellas much the same as most customer-created personalized stamps are. Genuine postage stamps that are intended to carry the mails from one place to another either within a particular country or across international borders will always take precedence here over unofficially-created material.
I suppose that while I am making mission statements as to my planned “Stamps of 2023” coverage, I should mention that I am still contemplating a video version under the Philatelic Pursuits banner. My idea is for a bi-weekly “New Issue News” report highlighting some of my favorites released during that particular time-frame. I still have a long way to go before this dream becomes a reality but I hope to devote some time to it during the “summer school break” which in Thailand occurs from April into the first part of May.
Finally, with the “reboot” of Philatelic Pursuits, I will start to post most of the philatelic content over there sometime later this month (tomorrow is too soon!). That includes all future “Stamps of 2023” articles. Once that happens, this site — Mark Joseph Jochim.com — will revert to items of a more personal or local nature. One of my ideas is to feature the teaching materials that I create for my lessons each week (primarily kindergarten-level flashcards) as a resource for other teachers.
Stay tuned….and if you like the stamp stuff, see you on Philatelic Pursuits!
Mark Joseph Jochim 