1. Important Stamps - Ukraine, Jubilee, CHOGM, Boris, Japan And Sri Lanka.

   Stamps are little pieces of paper (or occasionally other materials), usually gummed on the reverse, which are a receipt for the prepayment of postage and which should be fixed to the item of mail to indicate that postage has been paid on that item.

  ‘Postage stamps’ have other roles including serving as a means of increasing revenue to postal administrations when collectors and others buy them with no intention of using them on mail but instead store them unused in collections or elsewhere without the postal service having to spend money on delivering an item of mail to which the stamp is affixed.

  Postage stamps may also have other roles which include serving as a means of national identification and publicity and assertion of sovereignty along with playing a role in commemorating significant national events and anniversaries and highlighting the issuing country’s relationships with other countries.

  The purpose of this Blog which extends the role of Commonwealth Stamps Opinion beyond the borders of The Commonwealth is to highlight new stamp issues as they are released which reflect important and historical events and anniversaries as they happen. To put it simply - day by day significant history on contemporary postage stamps. We start this project now - July 2022 - but quickly look back on the several significant events so far in 2022 - 

24 February 2022 - The Russian tyrant, Vladimir Putin, orders his army to invade neighbouring Ukraine. The Ukrainian resistance is far greater than Putin and his generals might have expected. A defiant act by a small number of Ukrainian border guards on tiny Snake Island is chosen as a design for 2 stamps to highlight the Ukrainian cause.

  14 April 2022 - The Russian flagship depicted on the stamp, Moskva, is sunk by Ukrainian forces and the stamp is redrawn to celebrate the successful humiliation of the Russians -

2 June 2022 - National holiday in United Kingdom to commemorate the Platinum Jubilee of the 96 year old Queen Elizabeth II (70th anniversary of her accession was 6 February). Royal Mail issued 8 stamps to commemorate the Queen’s achievement on 4 February 2022 -  

17 June 2022 - Rwandan President Paul Kagame plays host to representatives of 54 Commonwealth countries at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Kigali. Togo and Gabon join the organisation. The Rwandan postal service, I Posta, is not known to have issued any stamps to commemorate the event.

7 July 2022 - United Kingdom prime minister Boris Johnson announces his resignation as leader of the ruling Conservative Party and his intention to resign as prime minister after leadership elections have been held. No philatelic consequences. Johnson had appeared on a number of mock-up stamps early in his premiership when he successfully negotiated the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.

8 July 2022 - Prominent Japan politician and former prime minister Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Possible mourning stamp from Japan postal service.

9 July 2022 - An angry mob in bankrupt Sri Lanka storm the Presidential Palace and Prime minister’s residence which they burn down. Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe resigns and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, having fled his residence, agrees to do so on 13 July. Philatelic consequences (if any) awaited.