Stamp to Celebrate 60th Anniversary of ANZUS Treaty

Released in Canberra yesterday (16 November) this stamp shows the military representatives of the ANZUS countries gathered in Honolulu for the first meeting in 1952: Lieutenant General SF (Sydney) Rowell (left), Australian Chief of General Staff, is greeted on his arrival at the airfield by Admiral Arthur Radford, US Commander in Chief Pacific (right), and Major-General Gentry, New Zealand Chief of General Staff.

Unfortuantely, it is very concerning that Australia Post writes that the stamp has been released to celebrate the visit of US President Barack Obama, and breaks Australia Post's Stamp Policy.

Impressions 2011 Range Now Online

At last Australia Post has put its Impressions range online (see http://shop.auspost.com.au/stamps/impressions-2011).

Lots of interesting (and expensive!) items, and the first time we've seen the AFL mini-maxi cards on sale.

New Personalised Stamps for Christmas

Australia Post has surprised us with three new personalised stamps for Christmas. The two 55c designs (Christmas Ttree and presents) will be printed in the same sheet, while the 60c holly design will be printed in its own sheet. I should have stock of these by early next week.

Souvenir Stamp Sheet for Samantha Stossur's US Open Win

Australia Post was bound to celebrate Samantha Stossur's US Open Win with a souvenir stamp sheet... and here it is:

Available from today (29 September), no further technical details are yet available.

Cocos Colours Embellished Sheet Released 28/9

Australia Post finally released the Cocos Colours embellished sheet today. The $9.99 pack contains an embellished sheet of nine stamps, with nine greetings card.

New Postage Paid Envelope

Discovered a new postage paid envelope at my post office. The NSW Justices Association envelope is not mentioned in the current Bulletin.

The envelope was released on 13 September. It is designed by Lisa Christensen, and was printed by GEON Tasmania. As it is postage paid there is only a single version (i.e. no version with a first day of issue postmark, and hence a different barcode).

20th Anniversary of Wiggles Sheet

To celebrate 20 years of the Wiggles, Australia Post has released a special souvenir stamp sheet. The sheet is only released in a pack priced at $10.95. There is no on-sale date, but I have been advised by Australia Post Philatelic that these sheet were sent to post offices in mid-September, and I have been advised by Fremantle Post Office that they had these on sale from Thursday, 15 September.

The sheet contains 10 of the Balloon stamps from 2010, with tabs featuring the four Wiggles and the other cast members.

This sheet is the first source of the Balloon stamp with a tab (though the format of the sheet means that some stamps may have a tab attached to the bottom or left, rather than the usual right hand side), and the first time RA Printing has printed this stamp. The stamp itself is a very close match to the McKellar Renown printing, so I would advise leaving the tab on for identification purposes.

Collectors wanting a single stamp with tab should contact me.