XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

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

Instead of reviewing different countries' Christmas stamps individually, I thought it would be better to look at them together. I'm not going to give any lengthy reviews - I'll just make a few short comments and give a mark. Here are a few of my thoughts about the different new Christmas stamps from around the world. I've tried to cover as many of them as possible, but no doubt there will be a few countries I have missed. Great Britain I will start with our own Christmas stam

Royal Mail's final issue of 2025 - the sixteenth of the year! - will be a set commemorating the stamps of Queen Victoria. There is no obvious reason for this theme at this time and no anniversary that I can think of that might be being marked. So it's a bit of a strange choice, as there have been previous Royal Mail stamps covering this very theme - take a look below at the 1990 set and the 2015 set marking the 150th and 175th anniversaries of the Penny Black. At least the

There was an interesting new issue this week, when a particular European country decided to celebrate the success of its national football team. Who could it be? Could it have been one of the teams who this week qualified for the World Cup? No. Was it a former winner of the World Cup or the European Championship? No. Maybe it was one of the women's teams? Wrong again. No, it is San Marino, Yes, the team that currently is ranked 210 out of 210 FIFA international teams! Often

It's been a while since I wrote a review of a new issue and that is because most of the new issues at the moment are Christmas stamps. I'm leaving them for a special post at the end of the month where i will compare them all. Jersey Post has released a new issue today and my sister really likes it - then again, she is really into space. She can tell you the names of all the planets, all the dwarf planets, the moons of Jupiter and tell you all about the Apollo missions. On th

Jersey's latest issue is a set of six stamps celebrating the Royal Air Force Association of Jersey' 100th Anniversary. There is also a £5 miniature sheet. Both were illustrated by Harry Milburn, who was inspired by historical RAF recruitment posters. Jersey Post's website states that "each stamp reflects an important element of RAFA Jersey's work". It is interesting that RAFA Jersey was founded in 1925, 18 years prior to the creation of the national RAFA organisation in 1943