S22 - Essen 2008 off Sale

Today, 22 May, the Essen 2008 sheet was announced by UNPA as being sold out. So 21 May 2008 would be the last day of sale. We have also learned from our friend Helmut that an initial supply of 5,000 sheets was sent to Vienna, and that this personalized sheet was sold in Essen for € 9.50 (exact price based on UNPA rate of exchange would have been € 9.48, which what was charged on postal orders). The sheet was designed by Mrs. Mazdia of UNPA Vienna.

Missing UN Personalized Sheet

According to UNPA's Bulletin #86, on page 26, a new United Nations personalized stamp sheet was to be issued for the World Stamp Championship in Israel. There was no place to order this sheet in the Bulletin, even though it was to be issued on 8 May 2008, the same day as the Essen 2008 personalized sheet. Nor is it listed on the UNPA website. Does anyone have any additional information? Was a sheet placed on sale at the World Stamp Championship on 8 May? The show ends 21 May 2008. Please let us know if you attended this exhibition and visited the UNPA booth.

S22 - Internationalalen Breifmarken-Messe Essen 2008

The next United Nations personalized sheet was issued on 8 May 2008, at the International Stamp Exhibition in Essen, Germany. The design in the background depicts the mineshaft in "Bauhaus" style, the last colliery (a workplace consisting of a coal mine plus all the buildings and equipment connected with it) that was shut down in Essen. The colliery and the coking plant of the "Zollverein" (German customs union) belong to the more remarkable industrial monuments in Europe and are a UNESCO world cultural heritage site since 14 December 2001. The personalized sheet was issued to commemorate UNPA Europe's 18th participation at this fair.

The stamps, which have not yet been assigned Scott or Michel numbers, consist of 2 x 5 stamps, each being € 0.65. The UN logo and the 2008 Essen show cachet are featured on the tabs of the stamps. The photos of the stamps represent the following, reading from left top to bottom:

1. United Nations Headquarters—Vienna International Centre
2. Flags on the “Memorial Plaza”—Vienna International Centre
3. “Woman Free” sculpture by Edwina Sandys, 1989—Vienna International Centre
4. AQA—Water with a Human Face—drinking fountain as a living piece of art; designed by Hansi Dietrich of Unitas Humana
5. Japanese Peace Bell on the “Memorial Plaza”—Vienna International Centre

When the sheet was first announced, it was to be sold for € 12.95, which would have equated to $20.43. On the afternoon before the sheet was to go on sale, the price was changed at the UNPA online site to the standard $14.95. I wonder what they were sold for at the Essen show?

I don't have any information on the designer or quantities printed. If someone could share that with us, I'd be happy to pass the information on to everyone.

S18 - Generic International and UNPA's Pope Benedict Cover the Final Word

As we saw with sheet S5, the "My Visit to the United Nations" student sheet, one of the criterion for listing a stamp in a commercial catalog, is that is must be available for postal use. Since these Pope Benedict covers are souvenirs; one cannot obtain stamps and post his or her own cover using this stamp, they will NOT be listed in any catalog. Yes, they are different from the S18 stamp and were produced in personalized sheet format. However, since no sheets were ever made available to the public (mint or precanceled), UNPI has decided NOT to give this sheet a separate Snn number. The next sheet, Essen 2008, will be assigned S22. We will cover this personalized sheet in the next blog entry. Your comments on this decision are welcome.

S18 - Generic International and UNPA's Pope Benedict Cover Update

Well, here we go again. In my previous post, I stated that the new 90¢ generic "...stamp is only available used; currently there are no mint sheets or singles available to collectors." While this is true, there is this single sheet that was given to Pope Benedict XVI. The UNPA publication Philatelic Bulletin No. 86 (May - June 2008) states:

"In honour of the visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to the United Nations on 18 April 2008, UNPA is issuing a special commemorative cover. The cover consists of the standard UN official cachet affixed with a 90¢ stamp and a tab with a dove. It has a special cancellation with the outline of a dove and the following text: “His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI Visits the United Nations 18 April 2008”.

The special cover, which is in limited supply, will automatically be provided to customers who maintain a standing order account for New York miscellaneous products.

Subject to availability, all other customers can order this special cover by using the order form attached to this Bulletin.

The United Nations is presenting a special gift to Pope Benedict XVI in honour of his visit. The gift contains a unique (one of a kind) Personalized sheet encased in acrylic, the special souvenir cover produced by UNPA, and a special plaque with a statement by the Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon..."

Thus, one sheet does exit. We'll see if anymore of these sheets "walk" out the door and become available to collectors. If you hear of one, please let me know. My thanks to Ken Sasaki for referring me to the Bulletin. Also, I completely agree with him; that this sheet should be made available by UNPA to the general public.

S18 - Generic International and UNPA's Pope Benedict Cover

Recently, UNPA has begun selling an official cover that commemorates the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Nations. This cover appears to be a single and a tab from the S18 - 90c generic International United Nations personalized sheet. If the scan is not all that clear to you, it says "His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI / Visits the United Nations / 18 April 2008."

What is strange, is that the stamp and tab are on the United Nations Headquarters First Day of Issue Official Cachet. That is, until we realized that the stamps are very different. Please look closely at the detail provided in the next scan:


Here you can see, that the colors are significantly different, the lettering is thicker, and the spacing between the "U" and "N" of "UN" is also very different. Thus, we have a completely new stamp issued on 18 April 2008. This stamp is only available used; currently there are no mint sheets or singles available to collectors. If you want a complete United Nations stamp collection, you'll need to purchase this cover, unless UNPA has a change of heart.

According to Jim Matyasovich, who spoke directly with an official at UNPA, a completely new file was created for this stamp, and a completely new printing was made for this stamp. While this stamp does have a tab attached, we cannot give it a sheet listing (Snn) number, because no sheets were ever sold to the public. However, I would expect it to receive official catalog status once what you've read here is confirmed by the catalog companies.

We have no other information on the number of sheets produced. This is NOT a case where UNPA was using up non-personalized S18 sheets, and just printed the dove tab onto existing sheets. Again, this is a completely new issue.

I would like to publicly thank Helmut for the scans and first pointing out the differences between the two stamps.