S13 - Washington 2006 & the King

As we end 2007, it might be appropriate to take a look at two United Nations personalized sheets that might cause some confusion. When I first starting collecting these sheets, I kept seeing ads for Elvis Presley-Washington 2006 sheets from many different dealers. I did not know if they were an official UNPA release, or some other creation.

As it turns out, during Washington 2006, a stamp dealer ordered two different versions of personalized Elvis sheets. One report says 600 sheets were ordered, and another report says 1,000 sheets were ordered. These sheets are not official UNPA releases and are akin to you or I personalizing one or more sheets. While these might appeal to Elvis collectors, and everyone is free to collect whatever they want, they are not necessary to complete a United Nations personalized sheet collection.

Happy New Year to everyone!

S13 - Washington 2006

After a respite for the holidays, we resume our look at United Nations personalized stamp sheets with S13, which was released on 28 May 2006 during the World Philatelic Exposition in Washington, D.C This was an International FIP-sanctioned Stamp show, which is held in the United States only once approximately every ten years. It quickly sold out, with the last date of sale being 7 June 2006. About 4,500 sheets were produced, with the stamps based on the S11 84 cent generic sheet. The other characteristics of the stamps are consistent between the two sheets, with 13.2 perforations and a 30 mm x 30 mm stamp size The U.S. Capitol dome is the most often repeated design in the tabs, along with other Washington, D.C. sites: Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and the White House. Information on the designer(s) is still being sought.

S21 - World Space Week First Day and S6.1 Auction

Jim received confirmation from UNPA New York (who checked with UNPA Vienna!) that the first day of issue of S21 is 4 October 2007. UNPA has offered to replace his personalized sheets when they return from the holidays. I'm not quite sure how they intend to do this, since we heard all the sheets have been sold and sent out.

A new January 9-10, 2008, Cherrystone Auction features one of the rarest personalized United Nations stamp sheets, S6.1, which has the two 37¢ stamp errors and Vereinte Nationene error in the selvage. The estimate for lot #1347 is $3,500. This seems high to me, but I don't know how many collectors there are of United Nations stamp errors. The sheet is listed, but unpriced, in Scott as 884b. There are certainly plenty of UN stamp errors to choose from, but perhaps because of its unique status, the sheet may attain a high realization. I will report on that after the auction. The auction link can be found here: http://www.stampcircuit.com/Search/. Search on "United Nations" or the lot number. If you search on United Nations, be sure to also select "All the Words."

The Scott numbering for the United Nations personalized stamps is inconsistent at best. Normally, they list the stamps individually. For example: 880-884. A strip of the five different stamps is listed as the last stamp, but with a letter suffix. In this example, the strip of five is 884a for the stamps in the normal sheet. There are no listings for the sheets currently. However, for this sheet only, the sheet is listed as 884b, not for the strip of five. We already know that at least one sheet was broken up into two strips of 5, so this strip with the four normal stamps 880-883 plus the 37 cent 884 should be 884b, not the sheet. This is the only sheet that actually has a Scott number. And, this is one of the reasons we decided to renumber the sheets the way we have; inconsistency within the Scott numbering system.

S21 - World Space Week First Day - The Big Mistake

Thanks to our European correspondent, we now know that UNPA New York made a big mistake. The first day of the S21 United Nations personalized sheet is 4 October 2007. The sheets sent to Jim Matyasovich by UNPA New York have a 25 October 2007 (see my 13 December 2007) post. Unfortunately, while this may be the first day of the "Space for Humanity - 50th Anniversary of the Space Age" stamps, it is not the first day for the World Space Week personalized stamps.

So to summarize; October 1st was originally projected in a press release about one month earlier, as the first day of release. October 4th was the opening date of the Space Week Conference and official first day of release in Vienna. Our correspondent picked up his sheets at the Vienna UNPA counter in the afternoon of October 5th and the cancelled sheets had the date 4.10.2007. October 25th was the first day of issue of the "Space for Humanity - 5oth Anniversay of the Space Age" stamps and souvenir sheets.

Needless to say, Jim is returning the the personalized sheets with the 25.10.2007 Vienna working day cancel, and has asked to have them replaced by sheets with a 4.10.2007 Vienna working day cancel. If anyone else has received these sheets with the wrong first day cancel, they should be returned to UNPA for immediate replacement. They are nothing more than used stamps dated three weeks after release.

S21 - World Space Week First Day

Thanks to Jim Matyasovich, who recently received his standing order from UNPA, we now know that the true first day of the World Space Week United Nations personalized stamp sheet is 25 October 2007. On the UNPA website, 4 October 2007 is stated as the "issued on" date and in other published sources, such as Scott's online and Linn's, 1 October 2007, was stated as the release date. Obviously, this has caused considerable confusion. It took a while for Jim to receive his standing order as these had to be sent over to Vienna for the "working day" first day cancel, and then back to New York for processing. Jim has confirmed the first day with UNPA. These sheets sold out in just over two weeks!

The decision to change these sheets from the announced 41¢ stamps to 0.65 stamps was made very late in the production cycle. This may have caused delays in release, since the sheet is commemorating an event that occurred several weeks earlier.

Michel to Scott Conversion

Thanks to Klaus Guhl, who's superb article on United Nations personalized stamps recently appeared in the 4-2007 issue of UNOPost (the informative publication of the German UNOP United Nation study group), we have the information needed to convert Michel catalog numbers to Scott catalog numbers. Given the deadlines for their publication, Mr. Guhl was unaware of the recent discoveries involving S6.2 and S9. However, he still provides a detailed overview of all the other issued sheets. Here is the conversion table, which I will continue to update as the new catalog numbers are released:

UNPI#	Scott #	Michel #
S1	853-857	941-945
S2	853-857	941-945
S3	853-857	941-945
S4	853-857	941-945
S5	unlisted	unlisted
S5.1	unlisted	unlisted
S6	880-884	977-981
S6.1	884b
S6.2	880-884	977-981
S7	853-857	941-945
S7.1	853-857	941-945
S7.2	853-857	941-945
S8	880-884	977-981
S9	853-857	941-945
S10	898-902	1005-1009
S11	903-907	1010A-1014A
S12	912	1019
S13	903-907	1010A-1014A
S14	903a-907b	1010B-1014B
S15	929	1040
S16	V393-397	V497-V501
S17	934-938	1059-1063
S18	939	1064
S19	931	1065
S20	939	1064

S12 - War/Peace

The next United Nations personalized stamp issue sheet, is somewhat of a misnomer. The sheet was never actually made available to be personalized. So, like several other sheets, including S9 and S19, these were non-personalizable personalized sheets.

The 10 basic stamps are all the same and listed as Scott #912. In an upcoming post, I will be publishing a Scott to Michel conversion. They remain the standard 30mm x 30mm, with 13.2 perforations. When this sheet was issued, it paid the 75¢ United States international postcard rate during this rate period.

The sheet was released on 10 April 2006, and was designed by Armando Milani. Beyond that, we don't have any additional information that has been release by UNPA.

S11 - Greetings from the United Nations 84¢ Generic

This United Nations personalized stamp sheet was released on the same day as its counterpart, S10, on 6 March 2006. The stamps could be used to pay the United States international letter rate, which was 84¢ at this time.

The five different designs are repeated each twice and are the same stamp designs as those on sheet S6 (80¢ Generic) and S8 (Riccione), except of course, the value and a tiny year under the value, which is 2005 for S6 and S8, and 2006 for S11. The Scott numbers are 903-907.

The stamps themselves conform to the 30 mm x 30 mm with 13.2 perforation format, but nothing has been released by UNPA regarding the printer, printing quantities, quantities sold, etc. Some this this information is supposed to be available in the first quarter of 2008.

S10 - Greetings from the United Nations 39¢ Generic

Interestingly, this is the only 39¢ United Nations personalized stamp sheet. The stamps could be used to pay the United States domestic first class letter rate. The sheet was issued on 6 March 2006, to comply with the increase in postal rates of the United States first class letter on 8 January 2006. This rate period lasted until 13 May 2007, afterward the first class letter rate increased to 41 cents.

Once again we know nothing about the number of sheets printed, the number of sheets sold, or the printer. The stamps themselves remain in the 30mm x 30mm size with 13.2 perforations. The 20 stamps repeat four times each, so their are five different designs, which are designated Scott #898-902. If anyone can add any additional information, it would be sincerely appreciated by all UN personalized sheet collectors.

S6.2 - Greetings from the United Nations with Vereinte Nationen Error

Thanks to Greg Galletti, we now confirm the latest addition to the United Nations personalized stamp sheets. This variation of S6 has the two normal 80 cent Scott #884 stamps, however, it still has "United Nations" in seven languages, instead of the official six found on the normal sheet. These sheets were sold at Napex in 2005, so if you were there and bought a sheet, you should check your sheets carefully. This sheet differs from the pre-release version of the S6 personalized sheet (see the S6 entry from 27 October 2007) and published on the back page wrapper enclosing the Vol. 29, issue #2 of the UNP Journal, because it has the normal "Greetings from the United Nations" as opposed to "Greeting from the United Nations". Once these errors sheets were noticed at the show, Robert Gray ordered them to be immediately withdrawn. It is estimated that about 10 of these error sheets were sold prior to their ordered withdrawel.

S9 - International Year of Microcredit 2005

Finally, we come to the last Scott #853-7 United Nations personalized stamp sheet. This is by far the strangest sheet, and the one that is the least well known. The H. Gitner ad of 17 September 2007 in Linn's Stamp News did not mention this sheet, and then in the 5 November 2007 Linn's Stamp News advertisement, the sheet is first listed for sale. Presumably, the sheet was discovered by Henry and Debbie, sometime between these two dates.

The sheet can still be found (at least as of this posting) on the website: http://www.yearofmicrocredit.org/pages/getinvolved/getinvolved_shopmarketplace.asp, where both a 37¢ and an 80 cent sheet are listed. Nothing on the website can be purchased, no matter how one tries. Whatever happened to the sheets, how many were printed, how many were sold is a complete mystery. According to Debbie Gitner, the 80 cent sheet was never produced, so only the 37¢ sheet was available.

We're estimating the release date as 7 November 2005, because that is the date of the International Microcredit conference. For those of you who are wondering what Microcredit is, it's a tiny loan, as small as few hundred dollars, to an individual or small group to start a small business in a developing country. They've funded bakeries, pottery makers and other artists, and many other types of businesses. Typically, the people that are helped are poor, and cannot get credit through a banking institution. The majority are women, and the repayment rate is quite high. There are many opportunities for individuals to get involved in a program of this type.

The pictures in the tabs are credited to Adam Rogers, who is a traveling photographer and has his own website showing his work from throughout the world. All other printing characteristics are consistent with the other Scott #853-7 sheets.

More on the World Space Week Sheet, 2008 Sheets, and Naposta 2005 Sheet

At the 4 November Stockerau bourse, UNPA had some Space Week sheets and sold them just on special request - they had to be asked for - none were on display. UNPA also sold a very restricted quantity the following weekend in Paris - then UNPA declared the Space Week "sold out" as they had many more orders than sheets available, and N.Y. wants all sheets sent back in order to deliver their standing orders.

We also learned that the Essen 2008 & ROMEX 2008 will be denominated in € and UNPA intends to do both with five different stamp designs.

On the subject of released designs, but never issued sheets: the original Space Week 2007 was denominated in U.S. dollars and with N.Y. generic designs. This original design was announced and pictured on UNPA's website together with the regular space issues in the forthcoming issue section, and was still shown online until the beginning of November.

The NAPOSTA 2005 sheet was officially announced and pictured in Faszination 3/2005 (with an order number) but never issued. The printing quantity was announced as 3,500 sheets, along with the price € 19,95. It was to contain12 stamps of € 0,55 and 8 stamps of € 1.10.

S21 - World Space Week Sold Out

The UNPA website informs us that the World Space Week personalized sheet has sold out after a little over a month on sale. This quick sell out confirms the increasing popularity of the United Nations personalized sheets, and perhaps the popularity of space-themed philatelic items. According to UNPA the last day of sale was 12 November 2007. The Climate Change or Peaceful Visions sheets may soon follow, however, the 0.65 euro stamps in this sheet will have unique Scott numbers - so this may have led to the early sell out.

S8 - Riccione 1981-2005

The next United Nations personalized sheet was issued for the 25th annual Fiera del Francobollo (Stamp Fair) in Riccione, Italy on 27 August 2005. It quickly sold out, but there is no information available on the number of sheets issued as of this posting. It is the same sets of stamps, Scott #880-884, as the generic S6 sheet. It has the same 13.2 perforations as all the previous sheets, but we still do not have any information on the printer. If anyone has any additional information, it would be sincerely appreciated by the United Nations Philatelists (UNPI).

S7 - EXPO 2005 Aichi Japan

Next we come to one of the most interesting of the United Nations personalized sheets, the EXPO 2005 Aichi Japan sheet. This is primarily because of all the known and unknown varieties. The sheet was issued on 25 March 2005, still using the base stamps of Scott 853-857. Only 1,500 sheets were printed, and we know that there was 7 different printings. These frequent reprints resulted in at least 3 distinct varieties, and there may be others that have not been identified.

The most common sheet, which was probably the last one printed, is shown above. In the lower right hand selvage it has the words "Printed by the United Nations. © Japan Association for the 2005 World Exposition" printed directly on the sheet. It also has a caution in Japanese that reads, "Caution. These stamps are permitted for use only in the United Nations Pavilion at Expo 2005 and are not valid in Japan" also printed directly on the sheet.

The sheets did not start out this way. The first 100 sheets that were sold did not contain the licensed product seal and the warning was pasted on by a separate printed piece of paper that may not have been applied to all sheets. Only one of these sheets with neither the licensed product seal or pasted on warning is known in collector's hands, but others may exist. This sheet is shown below:


According to an article published in the United Nations Philatelist's Journal Vol 31 #4 by Ken Saski and also crediting Jim Matyasovich:

"The reason for this awkward change in text is as follows: The licensee of the sheet in Japan feared when they saw the first batch of 500 sheets from the UNPA, that the product might cause some confusion among the buyers in Japan. As the first day of issue was fast approaching and the licensee had no time to immediately reorder revised sheets, they decided to past the warning to the sheets. The sheets with the pasted warning (see below) were used for the first day of issue. By the time about 100 sheets had been sold, the revised sheets (very top scan) arrived and immediately replaced the (first) sheets on sale."

About 360 of the first 500 sheets were returned to the UNPA, including about 20 defective sheets. Presumably, this means only 140 are circulating. We also know that 55 of these first sheets were bought by the Japan Philatelic Agency (a stamp dealer) and some of these were canceled with their own rubber device.

Thus, we have at least 3 know varieties of this sheet, designated from top to bottom as S7, S7.1 and S7.2. It is possible that others might exist, so check your sheets and please report any new varieties so that they may be listed.

2008 Personalized Sheet Schedule

Now that the UNPA web site is back up, after being down all weekend, I got a chance to review the envisioned 2008 UN personalized stamp sheet schedule. Thankfully, there are no new generic sheets on the horizon - as long as postage rates remain stable. Also, the schedule has being changing frequently, so the schedule and emissions are subject to change.

Here is what UNPA has planned in 2008:

1. 8 May 2008 - Another personalized sheet for Essen. Presumably, this will once again be Euro denominated.
2. 8 May 2008 - A special personalized sheet for the World Stamp Championship Exhibition in Israel.
3. 6 June 2008 - A special personalized sheet for ROMEX in Bukarest.
   
4. 8 August 2008 - A Beijing personalized stamp sheet - probably around the theme of Sport for Peace. This will coincide with the XXIX Olympiad.

So next summer looks like the busy time for United Nations personalized sheets.

On another note, I just returned from last weekend's SACAPEX in Sacramento, California. I met with the UNPA representatives there, and was able to purchase the World Space Week personalized sheet. Unfortunately, they had not received any Climate Change sheets, but hoped to have them by PENPEX in early December. Both of these sheets are now available on the UNPA web site.

S21 - World Space Week

Thanks to Helmut Joerg, we now have a good image of the World Space Week United Nations personalized sheet. He believes 6,000 sheets were printed, although UNPA Vienna told him only 4,500 sheets were printed. There are two strips of five stamps, and each stamp is denominated 0.65 euros. Even though this sheet was issued on 4 October 2007, no sheets have been delivered by UNPA Vienna or UNPA New York as of this posting - over a month later.

S6 - Greetings from the United Nations (60th Anniversay of UN)

The 60th Anniversary of UN Generic sheet was the first United Nations personalized stamp sheet issued to pay the 80¢ international air mail rate in effect at the time. The sheet was issued on 3 March 2005 (the same date the Student sheet was issued). The 30mm x 30mm stamps are listed as Scott 880-884 and pin perforated 13.2. It is possible that these sheets were also printed by the Banknote Corporation of America using offset lithography, but that has not yet been confirmed by UNPA.

During the release of these sheets at the ASDA show in New York City, it was discovered that some contained a rather startling error - one stamp (884 "Sphere within a Sphere") in the sheet was actually denominated 37¢. This occurs twice with in each sheet and is the bottom stamp in the first row, and the 4th stamp in the second row:

Once this error was discovered, the sheets were quickly withdrawn from sale for inspection. UNPA estimated that about 50 sheets with the error had been sold, before resuming sales of the normal sheet. These sheets are designated S6.1. They also contain another rather remarkable error. There are six official languages for the United Nations, and German is not one of them. Shown on the sheet are the words "United Nations" in seven different languages, including the German "Vereinte Nationen." Note that this has been removed in the top personalized sheet.

Some confusion over a possible third variety of this sheet was raised when the following sheet pre-release scan was issued by UNPA and published in Vol. 29, issue #2 of the UNP Journal:

Apparently, this sheet also contained the Vereinte Nationen error, but has normal 80¢ Scott 884 stamps. It also has another error; instead of the word "Greetings", is the word "Greeting". After a lot of research, this sheet does not seem to exist in collector's hands and was withdrawn from sale at Napex 2005 (where it was first discovered) before any were actually sold. About 10 sheets were destroyed.

S5 - My Visit to the United Nations (Student Sheet)

The next United Nations personalized stamp sheet was placed on sale on 3 March 2005. Its purpose was to provide an inexpensive souvenir for the thousands of school children that visit the United Nations every year. The sheet could be purchased for $4.95 at the time. Only 1,600 sheets were produced. There is one caveat for the low price, it was only available in canceled condition. The sheet sold out on 31 May 2007, after being added to the UNPA Bulletin and web site.

This sheet is not Scott listed, even though the stamps are different from the Scott 853-857 stamps. Each has the year 2005 below the 37c, as opposed to the year 2003 on Scott 853-857. As can be seen in the detail below, the UN Security Council image shows the ceiling in the photograph, the UN Emblem is a different blue, UN General Assembly is completely reversed, the UN Nations Flags and UN NY Headquarters also have significant color differences. Other printing characteristics, such as print method, perforations, stamps size, and printer are the same as Scott 853-857.

The reason these stamps are not Scott listed is that they do not conform to all of the listing criteria established by Scott. Among other things, the stamps must be available in uncanceled condition to be postally used on outgoing mail. Since the Student sheet was only available with a printed cancel, they could never be used to send cards, letters or packages from the United Nations headquarters in New York City.


On 11 June 2007 Linn's reported approximately 1 or 2 of these sheets were sold imperforated. For the United Nations personalized stamp sheet listings, these sheets are designated S5.1.

S4 - The Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) Earthquake Sheet

Whereas at least a few of the S3 - Essen 2004 United Nations personalized sheets were made available by UNPA to collectors, and most of the S2- Hong Kong Stamp Expo were purchased directly by collectors, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake sheet was primarily given out to dignitaries attending the 10th anniversary event. Thus, the only way to obtain a sheet was to purchase it on the secondary market from a non-collector. Needless to say, this has been difficult due to the dispersion of the sheets, and since only 1,000 sheets were printed.

All of the same print characteristics, other than the labels and selvage, are identical to the previous three sheets and the basic stamps are still Scott 853-857. The sheet was initially released on 17 January 2005. Photo credit is stated on the sheet itself: Luminarie photo credit: Valerio Festi/I & F, Inc./Kobe Luminarie O.C. The beautifully lit Kobe Luminarie has been held every year to symbolize the ongoing restoration and reconstruction of Kobe following the devastation of 1995's Great Hanshin Earthquake. It is a cultural event encompassing art, music, etc.

S3 - Internationalen Briefmarken-Messe Essen (2004) Stamp Show

As we continue our tour of Scott 853-857, the next UNO personalized sheet appeared at the Essen 2004 stamp show. This surprise sheet was issued on 3 June 2004, and only 2,500 sheets were printed. It completely sold out, but I do not know the date of sell out. If anyone has that information, I'm hoping they'll share it with everyone else.

Interestingly, there are some mock-up scans floating around on the Internet that show different stamps than the "as issued" sheet. The image is shown below for reference purposes:

Note the revered image of the General Assembly stamp. At first, collector's were wondering if this was some type of strange error. However, this is just a pre-production mock-up and no sheets were issued with this configuration (at least until the Student sheet was issued!). There are other differences in the other stamps as well.

S20 - New Climate Change and World Space Week Sheets Released

My friend Dick Powers, the editor of the United Nations Philatelists Journal, recently returned from Sescal 2007 and emailed me that he'd purchased the new Climate Change sheet. This sheet has been designated S20. It has a release date of 24 September 2007, and it's based on the generic sheet, S18, released on 14 May 2007. It has the same 10 x 90c format as the S18 sheet with different selvage and labels.

Another new sheet, tentatively designated S21 was released on 4 October 2007. It contains 10 x 0.65 euro stamps and was released for World Space Week. There are some bad scans available, but we'll wait until we have a good one to post it. The sheet was designed by Donato Giancola and printed by Joh. Enschede (Netherlands).

S2 - Hong Kong Stamp Expo

The second United Nations personalized sheet was something unexpected, and caused quite a sensation among collectors and in the philatelic press. Only 1,000 sheets were prepared for the Hong Kong Stamp Expo which took place from 30 January to 3 February 2004, and they quickly sold out. Charges of creating an artificial rarity were leveled against UNPA by many collectors and writers.

The sheet was not considered a separate entity by UNPA, because the stamps, Scott 853-857, had not changed. Only the selvage and labels changed. Scott does not list the sheets separately when only the selvage (or labels) have changes, because they publish a stamp catalog - not a selvage catalog. UNPA felt it did not create any stamp rarities and the Hong Kong Stamp Expo show souvenirs, these personalizes sheets, were comparable to other show souvenirs, such as the White and Blue cards that were frequently available at European shows.

Many collectors found this not to their liking, and since this was an official UNPA release, they began looking for the sheets. Very quickly the sheets reached a price of $150, before settling into the $125 range. I am not sure of the exact date of sell out, but presumably it was on or just before 3 February 2004.

S1 - Greetings from the United Nations New York City (Generic)

On 26 Nov 2003 the UNPA launched the first sheet of United Nations personalized stamps. The product was developed to provide a special sheet of souvenir stamps for the many thousands of tourists that visit the United Nations in New York.

The product consisted of a gummed stamp sheet 11 1/2" X 8" containing twenty 30mm x 30mm UN 37¢ stamps pin-perforated 13.2 with with blank tabs next to each stamp. The blank tab was to be used to capture your photo image, therefore allowing you to post a letter with your own personal image. Sheets were also available with generic UN images on the tabs. The gum is shiny, white and with medium florescence.

The five images on the stamps include the UN Security Council, UN Emblem, UN General Assembly, UN Nations Flags and UN NY Headquarters. The sheets sold for $14.95 with personalized or generic labels. The Scott numbers are 853-857.

The 100,000 sheets were printed using offset lithography by the Banknote Corporation of America (USA). The designer was Rorie Katz of the United Nations. Currently, I do not know how many of the 100,000 sheets were sold, or the date the sheet went off sale. Once that information becomes available, it will be added to this commentary.

I am indebted to Jim Matyasovich for has invaluable assistance with this post, and working with me to standardize the sheet listing numbers. Dealers were using a variety of designations for various sheets, and this became confusing. There is no copyright for these sheet designations, we want everyone to use them freely.

Naposta 2005

While searching the web today, I ran across an interesting scan of an unissued United Nations personalized sheet from Naposta 2005. If anyone has any additional information, or if one of these has found its way into private hands, we'd love to hear about it.

While this is not the best scan (it's all I have), the two stamps appear to be the 2005 Vienna United Nations Horse and Rider and the Soccer Player from the International Year of Sport issue. The Berne, Switzerland based graphic designer Roland Hirter was chosen to design these stamps. He had won a 2004 competition for his designs. The set of six stamps (two each for New York, Geneva and Vienna) was issued June 3, 2005. The values of the stamps are each 0.55 euros.

First Post

This blog is an attempt to aggregate information on UN Personalized stamp sheets. I have searched the web and could not find anything very much. Therefore, I am asking all faithful readers to please contribute to this blog. The UNPA has been less than forthcoming to share information on this topic. Here is the word for word reply to my inquiry on the names of designers, number of sheets printed/sold and dates of availability:

Mr Wallace,

UNPA is in the process of planning the development and launch of a Personalized Stamp Album which would feature all the UN issued sheets as well as printing specifications. Therefore, UNPA will retain the information to be published in this product until its official release to the collector market which is planned for early 2008.

Regards,

UNPA

So it's all a big secret - until you run out and buy their collector's album. Given their current ties to Davo, this might be who is preparing this album.