Tuesday 17 May 2016

More Star Trek stamps from around the world

It is truly a great year if you're a Star Trek stamp collector. There have already been numerous releases and announcements for releases this year (see my Star Trek stamps list for full listings), and now the Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corporation (who design and distribute special stamps for countries around the world) have revealed no less than four more sets of designs to add to your collections!

By far the weirdest releases come from Antigua and Barbuda (their second round of Star Trek stamps following a 2008 TOS collection), who have issued designs utilising Patrick Faricy's artwork from the novelty book, A Very Klingon Khristmas. I'm not sure what is stranger, the fact these exist as stamps at all, or that they got released in February of all times! As is the case with all the recent releases via the IGPC, this and all the other new releases come in the form of two miniature sheets; one featuring a single higher value stamp, and another sheet with multiple lower value ones.



These set an interesting precedent at least, I wonder if other veins of Star Trek illustration might be mined in future. Gold Key Comics stamps anyone?

The other releases are a little less exotic in their subject matter. From The Gambia (also no stranger to Star Trek stamps, with some TNG movie designs released in 2010), we have the second ever series of stamps based on Enterprise, following Liberia's alien collection late last year. The multi-stamp sheet features most of the main crew, while Captain Archer is reserved for the single stamp sheet.



A similar approach been taken in Grenada Carriacou and Petite Martinique's TNG series, although this time using illustrations. Captain Picard appears on both the multi-sheet and his own special stamp. These are the first Star Trek stamps issued by these islands, a dependency of Grenada.



Grenada itself has had Star Trek stamps before, back in 1999, and are returning now with a Spock focused series. The single stamp features Spock by himself, while the multi-sheet features key scenes with other characters.



If you can't make it to all these exotic locations to pick up stamps in person, you can obtain them via the IGPC. Although availability has been patchy, only the Klingon ones are actually purchasable at the time of publishing. For a look back at all the Star Trek postage stamps there have been (you might be surprised just how many!), check my Star Trek postage stamps list.



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