Sport for Peace - Beijing - 8 August 2008

Since I will be away for the next few weeks, I wanted to publish this scan of the upcoming United Nations personalized sheet. This sheet will be released on 8 August 2008 in coinciding with the XXIX Olympic Games in Beijing, China. The reason I did not want to wait until my return, is that I expect this sheet to sell out quickly. The Chinese are known to be avid collectors of postage stamps, and this issue will be in heavy demand from the Chinese community as well as topical collectors of sports and Olympic stamps.

This personalized sheet can be pre-ordered by using the mail order form in the UNPA publication: Philatelic Bulletin No. 87. As of today, the sheet is not available from the UNPA website. If you do not receive this publication, you can download it from the UNPA website and then order the sheet. Try to get your order in as soon as possible. Most likely this sheet will be assigned the cataloge number S25, but we need to wait until 8 August 2008 to offically assign that number.

S24 - United Nations New York City 94 Cent International Generic

The second United Nations personalized sheet that was released on 12 May 2008, is the 94 cent International airmail rate generic, that can be personalized by visitors to the UNPA in New York City. As with its 42 cent counterpart, this sheet was designed by Rorie Katz, who is on the UNPA staff.

The sheet features ten identical stamps, all showing the UN emblem in light blue on a white background. The generic pre-personalized sheet has five separate designs in the tabs each repeated twice. The tabs show landmark scenes from around New York City, and include the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, an evening scene of Times Square, the Chrysler Building and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Once again, we have not found any information on the printer.

S23 - United Nations New York City 42 Cent Domestic Generic

Now that the summer is heating up, and we are getting close to the Beijing Olympic Games United Nations personalized sheet release, I thought it best to get all the previous issues cataloged, and all the information we know about them published.

The first of the two personalized sheet that were released on 12 May 2008 was the 42 cent generic sheet. The stamps in this sheet pay the current United States first class mail domestic rate. This is the standard sheet available at UNPA New York for personalization by visitors. Many of the sheets that are discussed here are "pre-personalized" as they commemorate a specific event. There is no way for a collector to personalize them differently.

This sheet is in the standard twenty stamp format with five different designs repeated four times. The stamps feature photographs taken at the UN Headquarters Building in New York. The five stamps show the sculpture Single Form by Barbara Hepworth, the UN flag, an interior scene of the UN General Assembly, flags of member states, and an exterior view of the headquarters. In the tabs of the stamps is the United Nations logo with a white background. I have not found any information on the printer of this sheet.