- The first news is actually still from April. The Singapore Mascot stamps planned for the 29th April were postponed to an unannounced date due to Covid-19. Pictures of the five stamps are however already available. The stamps will show Nila, Singa, Sharity, Water Wally and Captain Green. Nila, the mascot of the 2015 Southeast Asian Games, already appeared on at least 5 stamps in that year, but as I do not consider any sport event mascots for my collection they are not shown here. However you can see three of them here, here and here. Singa also already made a philatelic appearance in 1988. For the other three mascots it will be the first time on a stamp.
- The only stamp of these two months that I already have is the German stamp about Baron Munchhausen. Like all new German stamps it got an article in the postfrisch magazine of the Deutsche Post, Number 3/2020 for this one. That version of the magazine also includes a short article about the presentation of the Sesame Street stamp in March, which says that enough of these stamps were printed that "every child in Germany can get circa five of them" (well, I got more...), so 55million in total. However I am not sure if they only mean the gummed version or gummed and self-adhesive or how the stamp products are included in this number, but interestingly the gummed version and some of the stamp products are not available in their online shop anymore (post offices might still have some). In the last years I rarely noticed that any German stamp was actually sold out. I assume that this does not happen very often!
- Unlike in other years Japan so far issued very few childhood hero stamps in 2020. The first issue is made up of twenty stamps about Doraemon called "Doraemon of Comics" and "Travel". It was issued on 20th May.
- Probably my favourite childhood hero stamp set of May and June comes from China. On 1st June a set of six was issued about the Calabash Brothers. Although I do not know the cartoon myself, the stamps remind me of the Monkey King stamps of 2014, which I really enjoyed back then. At the moment I am waiting for a maxicard to arrive, but I am still missing for the complete set.
- On 9th June 1870 Charles Dickens died. For this anniversary two postal administrations, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Jersey, so far issued stamps. While for many others the books of Charles Dickens are for sure part of their childhood, I would actually only consider A Christmas Carol as such and do not collect general Dickens stamps. Hence I am not looking for the stamp from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which shows a portrait of Dickens. The set from Jersey on the other side includes wonderful illustrations of eight stories by Dickens including A Christmas Carol. However I am also not looking for that set, as I am just interested in one of the eight stamps and in that case it is just too expensive. But if you like Charles Dickens I can really recommend this set to you.
- On 16th June San Marino issued a set about the Birth Centenary of Gianni Rodari. I do not know this author, but for others it might be interesting. The set is made up of two stamps.
- Actually just a very small appearance, but also the most surprising one: Spongebob Squarepants will appear on a German stamp. On 2nd July a setenant pair about the Open-air Bath Witten will be issued and on the right stamp there is a towel with Spongebob's face. If I would not be from Germany I would probably not consider this stamp for my collection, as the appearance is just two small, but as I can easily get this stamp at the post office, I will add it next week. I really hope that in a future Spongebob will get a real stamp issue (maybe as part of the series "Helden der Kindheit" or in the USA). So far there was only a set of prepaid postcards by USPS.
- Rupert the Bear turns 100 this year and Guernsey (July) and Royal Mail (September) will celebrate with stamps. The images of the Guernsey set and souvenir sheet became available recently. I am still not sure how to deal with these stamps. I do not consider Rupert the Bear as a hero of my childhood, but as I do not have any of the older issues, I think about adding one of these sets to my collection, but most likely only one. I guess I will wait to see the images of the British stamps and decide then, but the stamps from Guernsey I actually like. They feature some of the characters from the stories, have a nice yellow background and will probably be cheaper than the British set.
- One of the stamp sets I was looking forward for the most this year was a set about Superheroes from Portugal. When I checked their issue programme the last time, it however unfortunately disappeared. On the other side there were however two sets of four personalised stamps ("meuselos") each about Harley Quinn and the Joker issued in late March. The designs suggested that there might be sets planned for Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman as well, but at this moment no such issues appeared (maybe due to Covid-19?). Only the future can tell if there will be four more of these sets with personalised stamps or a real stamp set about the actual heroes. I really hope for a real stamp set, as I do not collect personalised stamps and actually like the designs so far.
- Best and latest news at the end: just yesterday I read that USPS will issue a set of ten stamps celebrating Bugs Bunny's 80th birthday. The stamps are announced for the 27th July and images are not yet available. Bugs Bunny already appeared on a US stamp in 1997 (still missing) as well as on French (still missing) and Albanian (not interested) stamps. For the 80th birthday the Australian Post also issued a set of personalised stamps, which are actually quite nice for the thematic collector, but which I am not looking for, as I do not collect personalised stamps. Next month more news on this one will follow for sure!
So issued in May and June were these stamps:
(The cursive ones are issues I just list for completeness, but which I am not really interested in for my own collection.)
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Charles Dickens (one stamp)
China: Calabash Brothers (six stamps)
Germany: 300th Birthday of Baron Munchhausen (one stamp)
Japan: Doraemon (two sheets, twenty stamps in total)
Jersey: Charles Dickens (eight stamps)
San Marino: Birth Centenary of Gianni Rodari (two stamps)
To my collection I added during these two months the stamp about Baron Munchhausen with additional products and one Finnish Moomin stamp of 2007 (click here).
If I missed any news or new issues please post a comment!
