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.