XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

Last month the Netherlands issued this stamp, celebrating The Bull - a famous painting by Dutch artist Paulus Potter. The Bull - sometimes called The Young Bull - is a classic work of art and the full painting can be seen below. The stamps have been designed by Frank Janse from Gouda. There are five stamps and they show sections of the original painting, placed in a strip through the middle of the painting. Design Quality - I don't understand why the designer has created

France has issued another new set today. This one is the signs of the Zodiac and looks loud, colourful and... well, fun! La Poste's website explains the design: "Colorful, pop, and resolutely contemporary, the 'Zodiac' booklet reinterprets astrology through the graphic universe of Clémence Gouy , a French illustrator and art director based in Biarritz. Committed, inclusive, and passionate about representing femininity, she creates vibrant works where diversity and freedom ar

I have already reviewed the recent Winter Olympics issue from Estonia , but in the last few days there have been several other Olympic-related issues from various countries. I have decided to review these together. The first one is this from Liechtenstein. It is a single stamp and reminds me of some of the historic Olympic posters. Design Quality  - This feels like a classic poster from history. The Olympic flame stands out boldly against a dark nighttime background. It emp

There have been a lot of new issues for Chinese New Year! I have already reviewed some of these for New Zealand, Jersey and the Isle of Man. Several other countries have also created special stamps for Chinese/Lunar New Year - the Year of the Horse - and here are four more that stand out. I am going to look at these stamps from Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Hong Kong and the USA. I will use Xanthe's six categories to score them. Design Quality  - These stamps from Switzerland ar

Here's a new stamp from Poland. It is very colourful and as you can see it shows DNA strands. So what is it all about? This is actually a charity set that celebrates the 34th finale of Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy (Grand Orchestra of Christmas). The orchestra, known as WOŚP for short, is not just about music - it raises funds for charitable causes, especially "in the field of health protection consisting in saving the lives of sick people, especially children, and ac

Belgium has issued three new sets of stamps today and I may have a look at the others later this week, but I really wanted to review this really extraordinary miniature sheet! This issue celebrates Elvis Pompilio , who is a Belgian hat designer. Mr Pompilio is 65 years old this year and is world famous. How do you begin to review a miniature sheet like this? It is so different to anything I've ever seen before. The sheet is in the shape of someone's head and shoulders (they

Yesterday Estonia released a new stamp to celebrate Team Estonia's participation in the Winter Olympics next month. There is just one stamp in this issue and it shows a figure skater, some curlers and a slalom skier. I don't know if these represent actual Estonian athletes or whether they are just generic pictures. Team Estonia has been quite successful at the Winter Olympics in the past and since 1992 it has won eight medals including four golds (in cross-country and freest

Monaco's first issue of the year celebrates opera singers. This is not the first year Monaco has done this - in fact, this is part of a series that goes way back to 2020. Below are the stamps from last year. The 2025 set featuring Lina Cavalieri and Lucien Muratore The WOPA website very helpfully gives some information on the two opera singers shown on this year's stamps: Jean-François "Francisque" Delmas (1861–1933) was a renowned French bass-baritone. Trained at the Pari

As I have reviewed two other Chinese New Year sets from New Zealand and the Isle of Man, Xanthe has said I should also take a look at this one from Jersey. It will be released next week, on 27th January. This is quite different to the other two and goes to show how different artists are inspired in different ways. The stamps are designed by Wang Huming and are inspired by traditional Chinese paper cutting and artwork from the time of the Qing Dynasty. The horse is the Fire Ho

Today Royal Mail has released its second new issue of 2026 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Concorde's first commercial flight on 21st January 1976. Before I review this new issue, I will briefly take a look at the history of Concorde. Obviously I am not an expert in engineering and Concorde was before my time. I know that there are a lot of people who admire Concorde especially people who lived through the 1970s and 1980s when Concorde really was the ultimate flying

An issue you may have missed last week is this from Finland, celebrating 100 years of the Yle. What is the Yle? It is basically the Finnish national broadcaster, a bit like the BBC in the UK. WOPA's website tells us this: "Yle will celebrate its 100th anniversary in September this year. The theme of the anniversary year is moments spent together. Posti will celebrate the event with stamps designed by Anna-Mari Tenhunen that showcase different aspects of Yle’s operations – c

Here's another Chinese New Year issue, and this one is from the Isle of Man. I looked at the New Zealand issue a few days ago and I was quite impressed with it. So, what do I think of these? Design Quality  - The horses really dominate the stamp, which is good. They feel very alive, as if the artist wanted to show the horses' personalities. Unlike the New Zealand set they don't look magical and as first glance there isn't anything particularly Chinese about them - if it wa

Here's another new issue, this time from Finland. It celebrated friendship and shows people doing different things together. The pictures speak for themselves. These have been issued with Valentine's Day in mind (maybe a bit early?) and you can see why. They were designed by Pietari Posti, who says: "The stamps are cheerful and warm images of friendship, spending time together and shared moments. The themes of the stamps center around the different dimensions of friendship

Here's another new issue, Wild Isle of Man. This issue is a set of ten stamps, which are available in this eye-catching miniature sheet. The stamps show island landscapes, wildlife and coastal heritage. They were designed by Andy North, a photographer who is also the author of Wild Guide Isle of Man . They're not just landscapes though - we see people in all of these stamps interacting with nature and the countryside and enjoying being outdoors in the Isle of Man. Some are w

Royal Mail has confirmed the special stamps issues for the first half of the year. I was looking forward to seeing what they had to offer this year. I don't like every stamp issue but usually there is something a bit different each year. Last year there were stamps about the Royal Armouries, the Royal Observatory, Monty Python and Peanuts. Some were better than others but at least these were good attempts and "something completely different". (See, I learned a lot about Monty

This new set of stamps showing birds was issued on 5th January. The Netherlands have created many distinctive and beautiful miniature sheets in the past and this one is another fantastic sheet that I think a lot of collectors will enjoy. There are ten stamps in the set, which celebrates Saba's birds. Like the more well-known Aruba and Curaçao, Saba is an island in the Caribbean Netherlands although it is not exactly a neighbour of these other islands - it is in the Windward

New Zealand is starting 2026 with this great set of stamps for the Chinese New Year. This year is the Year of the Horse and for a lot of people this is very exciting because the horse represents freedom and energy. Many Chinese people think the Year of the Horse will bring success! New Zealand have issued stamps for other years - last year they did a fantastic one for Year of the Snake and in 2024 there was one for the Year of the Dragon. So this is part of a long series. De

Jersey's first release of 2026 shows local landmarks photographed from the air. The images were captured by local photographers Marc Le Cornu and James Bedding. There are eight stamps in the set and the photographs show Les Landes MP-3, Archirondel Tower, Fort Regent, Elizabeth Castle, Mont Orgueil Castle, La Rocque harbour, Le Don Hilton and Fort Leicester. This is the latest issue in what seems to be a growing series, following Jersey from the Air (2019) and Jersey from t

Happy New Year everyone! The first Royal Mail issue of 2026 has been announced and it will be issued next Tuesday (13th January) but don't get too excited, it's about another American TV series. Most of us will have heard about Stranger Things . It's been a big thing on Netflix. It's all people are yapping about at my school this week because the finale was apparently really good. I haven't actually watched any of it so I can't judge how good it is but should even an absolu

I haven't reviewed many new issues recently and that is because there haven't been many new issues! Once the Christmas stamps are out that usually is the end of new issues for the year. I have reviewed most of this year's Christmas issues here. However, there have been one or two new issues that have nothing to do with Christmas including this from Serbia, which was released on 8th December. It is very different and I thought it deserved a review. The stamps show Serbia's fem