New Issue: Definitives (Serbia)

Last week Serbia issued some new definitive stamps. They're interesting because they seem to be from three different sets. Two are about pets. The others are about plant life but one design is very different to the rest. The 5 para stamp showing chicory flowers is very similar to the 2025 stamp - in fact, it looks identical to me apart from the fact that the year printed at the bottom has been changed. The others are very different. the old designs have gone apart from the chicory flowers and instead we have two stamps (4 and 8 paras) showing pets - a cat and a dog - and the higher values all show plant life. These are plums (10 para), walnut (13 para), poppy (50 para) and Natalie's Ramonda (100 para). I think these are very nice and plant life is a good theme for definitives. I'm not sure about pets though, as normally pets are on commemoratives. It's a curious mix and I'm not sure they go together as a larger set, but every individual stamp looks good by itself.

Design Quality - These designs are solid but three different designs feels very strange. The quality of the artwork really stands out, but overall the design feels a bit ordinary. I'm not sure why the cat stamp has a white border at the top but the dog stamp doesn't - a good design needs to be consistent. 6/10

Theme and Subject Choice - The flowers and plants are a great theme for definitives. I'm not really sure that the pets are, but they are still terrific stamps. Perhaps they should have stuck with plants and perhaps created another set for the pets? 3/10

Historical and Cultural Relevance - Native plants and flowers have a strong cultural relevance. Natalie's Ramonda was named after Queen Natalie of Serbia, so there's a strong historical connection there. Pets are popular everywhere, but there's nothing especially Serbian about them. 7/10

Innovation and Creativity - The artistic style of the plants and flowers is quite creative. The pet stamps show some nice photography. It's well done. It's not massively innovative, but they're nicely designed everyday stamps that will be used on a lot of mail. 6/10

Collectability - They are very attractive which will help make them collectable. Some collectors really like animals and plants. They're also affordable which helps. 7/10

Personal Appeal - I think it is strange that this feels like bits from three different sets rather than have one large set on the same theme. But I like all of the stamps here and even if they feel an odd fit as a set I feel that they're all really good stamps individually. Both the photography and the artwork is excellent and who doesn't like cute animals and beautiful plants? 8/10

Overall score - 37/60