The UN stamp program for 2022 tossed up some interesting topicals to acquire. Best was the UN’s annual Lunar New Year stamps featuring designer Tiger Pan’s | 潘 虎 artwork.
Inspired by the classic verse “Tiger in the heart, smell the rose” in Sigfried Sassoon’s masterpiece “In My Past, Present and Future”. This verse is wrapped in a universal value, and everything has two sides, one representing strength and the other representing delicacy. Tiger Pan Pan on Behance
The design includes a number of messages for the world, and I’m going to go back to Pan’s own words
It is a road full of thorns and flowers. It symbolizes the development of people all over the world, with infinite scenery and fetters on the road. In the past two years, the coronavirus pandemic has swept the world, reversing decades of progress made around the world in eradicating poverty and extreme poverty; Global warming continues to rise, bringing climate disasters and ecosystem destruction that endanger every life… We stand from the global perspective of the United Nations and let the upward spirit and beautiful meaning contained in the zodiac bring happiness and hope to people around the world.
If you pop over to Tiger Pan Pan on Behance, the page has a brief video of the tiger being created. Not long enough, but gives you a sense of the delicate work used to create the face. The design was actually a collaborative work, with Pan providing the original artwork and Li Jing providing the gonbi artwork. Gongbi is a specific style of art, with deep roots in Chinese history, dating from about 206 BCE – 220 CE. I know I’ll get the details wrong, so I suggest you go to Cultural Treasures of China – Gongbi & Shuimo Painting – Cultural Keys to learn more about Gongbi.
If you are new to UN stamps, keep in mind there are 3 issuing offices: New York, Geneva and Vienna. Each office has it’s own cancel and there are some stamps issued by one office, rather than all three. I’ve tried to note this in the list below, but it’s easy to miss something. I scour the UN post office website as well as the bulletins and press releases for cancels, FDCs, special releases. If you spot something I’ve missed, let me know in the comments below.
January
Sports for Peace – Bejing Winter Oympics
12 stamps, 6 sheets with 3 pairs, 14 FDCs, cancel
3 sets were released for Geneva, NY and Vienna under the title Sports for Peace
Illustrator: Feifei Ruan (China) Feifei Ruan
Award winning artist Feifie refers to herself as a “visual storyteller”. Dr. Who fans may be familiar with her works. In 2018, BBC Studios commissioned her for 7 illustrations featuring the Tardis in Chinese locals in an effort to promote Dr Who to Chinese audiences. You can see her Tardis works here Feifei Ruan – DOCTOR WHO – I Poster Series: TARDIS X CHINA. The poster series won gold in the 2019 Promax Awards 2019. She also illustrated the cover for Buffy the Vampire Slayer #4 comic in 2019.
If you have an Instagram account, you can follow her Feifei Ruan (@ruan0v0) • Instagram photos and videos. Hopefully, we will see more stamps by Ruan in the near future.
Designer: Rorie Katz (United Nations)
Release date: January 14, 2022
Chinese Lunar Calendar Year of the Tiger
1 stamp, sheet of 5, cancel
Offset with PMS gold.
Designer: Tiger Pan | 潘 虎
Mr Pan also designed the 2018 Year of the Dog stamps for the UN. The stamp won the 2017 Executive Design/Xioa Longfei Award and the 2019 Graphis Silver Award.
Gongbi Illustrator: Li Jing
Release date: January 21, 2021
March
#TrollsFoodHeroes
10 stamps on sheet
These stamps can be personalised – senders can add their own images to the stamps.
New York special event aimed at encouraging healthy eating. Act Now | United Nations
Artwork: DreamWorks Animation movie Trolls
Release date: March 18, 2022
April
Endangered Species
16 stamps, 4 sheets of 16, Limited Edition-Special First Day Cover (2,200), 3 cancels, 3 maxi cards
Offset lithography
New York:
- Bradypus pygmaeus (Pygmy three-toed sloth)
- Panthera onca (Jaguar)
- Ramphastos sulfuratus (Keel-billed toucan)
- Vultur gryphus (Andean condor)
- Dynastes satanas (Satanas beetle)
- Hylocereus triangularis (Night-blooming cereus)
- Acanthocereus tetragonus (Barbed-wire cactus)
- Cedrela odorata (Spanish cedar)
Geneva
- Acropora cervicornis (Staghorn coral)
- Gonatodes daudini (Grenadines clawed gecko)
- Mobula munkiana (Pygmy devil ray)
- Oophaga arborea (Polkadot poison frog)
Artist: Fernando Correia (Portugal)
Scientific illustrator Correia’s artwork has previously appeared in the National Geographic
Designer: Sergio Baradat (United Nations)
Release date: April 1, 2022
Wangari Maathai (1940-2011)
1 stamp, sheet of 20, 2 FDCs, cancel
Offset lithography – Duotone
Kenyan social & enviromental activist, first African woman to win Nobel Peace Prize
“When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and hope”.
Wangari did so much more than create environmental and educational systems to empower women through grassroots means. She touched countless lives— in Kenya, across Africa, and around the world. She embodied values and characteristics that they wanted in themselves: to aspire to an idea bigger than individual needs and to make a difference regardless of their situation or resources. Wangari Maathai | The story | About Wangari Maathai | Wangari Maathai Foundation
Issuing office: Vienna
Artist: Martin Mörck (Norway) based on the photograph by Ricardo Medina (Puerto Rico)
Mörck is one of the world’s premier stamp designers/engraveres.
Designer: Rorie Katz (United Nations)
Katz is the head of the UN Stamps Stamp Advisory Committee and has worked as a designer for the UN Post Office since 1997. She has designed 10 stamps, including the 2021 50th Anniversary of John Lennon’s Imagine.
Release date: April 28, 2022
Planet Mars
6 stamps, 3 stamps on souvenir sheets, 6 sheets of 10 stamps, FDCS, 3 cancels (note: FDCs are available in a number of stamp configurations)
Offset Hexachrome
Souvenir sheets from each issuing office:
New York $ 1.30 souvenir sheet features the Mars 2020 Ingenuity Helicopter
Geneva 2,00 souvenir sheet features UAE Hope Probe
Vienna € 1,80 souvenir sheet features the Zhurong Rover Landing Platform
Designer: Sergio Baradat (United Nations)
“I am attempting to make the viewer look at the familiar through a new lens.”
Bardat is the Art Director for the United Nations Postal Administration
Photos: NASA, Emirate Mars Mission and CNSA
Release date: April 24, 2022
May
Pre-stamped Envelopes
Vienna office
New York office
5 pre-stamped envelopes
No details available on the cover artwork.
Designer: Sergio Baradat (United Nations)
Release date: May 18, 2022
June
World Bicycle Day
10 stamps on sheet
Issuing office Geneva
Designer: Sergio Baradat (United Nations)
Release date: June 3, 2022
July
World Chess Day
10 stamps on a sheet
Issuing office: Vienna
Release date: July 20, 2022
August
World Humanitarian Day
3 stamps, 3 sheets of 10
From artist Olga Shtonda’s Instagram page:
My everyday reality starts with calling my family to check if they are alive. There is a constant bombing next to the place they live, as well as all over Ukraine. I ask my friends how they are doing in cold basements hiding from bombs. I check the news updates with shaky hands. Many people can not evacuate. All this is happening to a peaceful nation on their land.
My parents say that they are happy because I went to Mexico before the war started and they don’t have to worry about my life. They also try to cheer me up and stay strong. I stay with a heavy heart because they must see that horror while I see a peaceful sky.
But I keep telling myself that support has no distance and anyone can help stop this war initiated by a maniac Putin. Please, don’t be silent, every word and every action matters. Do anything you can before it’s too late. Olga Shtonda (@olga.shtonda) • Instagram photos and videos
Artist: Olga Shtonda (Ukraine)
Kharkiv based Shtonda has won multiple awards for her book illustrations.
- Winner, Festas de Lisboa Sardine Contest, 2016 Portugal
- Audience Award, StArtAward contest for BoekieBoekie, 2017 Netherlands
- Selected Illustrator, Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2019, Italy
- Ars in Fabula Grant Award, 2019, Italy
- Shortlisted Artist, World Illustration Awards, 2021
She has recently illustrated You Don’t Know What War Is, 12-year-old Ukrainian girl Yeva Skalietska’s diary of her journey from her home in Kharkiv, Ukraine to refugee in Dublin, Ireland.
Designer: Rorie Katz (United Nations)
Release date: August 19, 2022
November
70th Anniversary of Guided Tours at United Nations Headquarters in New York
10 stamps on souvenir sheet
Issuing office: New York
Stamps:
Mrs. Oxana Gaertner of the Guided Tour Service is the featured image on the sheet
Photos from left row top to bottom:
- Guided Tour Service at United Nations Headquarters. Credit: UN Photo.
- Guided Tour Service at United Nations Headquarters. Credit: UN Photo.
- Security Council Meets on Cuba. Credit: UN Photo/MH.
- United Nations General Assembly Building. Credit: UN Photo/MB.
- Guided tour service at United Nations. Credit: UN Photo/MB.
Photos from right row top to bottom:
- Secretary-General Hammarskjöld’s Installation. Credit: UN Photo.
- The United Nations Cherry Trees. Credit: UN Photo/Albert Fox.
- Guided Tour Service at United Nations Headquarters. Credit: UN Photo/HdeC.
- Visitors to the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Credit: UN Photo/TW.
- United Nations Headquarters. Credit: UN Photo/Teddy Chen.
Designer: Sergio Baradat (United Nations)
Release date: November 1, 2022
UNESCO World Heritage – The Great Spa Towns of Europe
6 stamps, 3 booklets. FDCS, 3 cancels (FDCS come in a number of stamp configurations) 6 sheets of 20
Offset lithography
- Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic
- Montecatini Terme Italy
- SPA Belgium
- Vichy, France
- Baden-Baden, Germany
- Baden bei Wien, Austria
Designer: Rorie Katz (United Nations)
Release date: September 9, 2022
November
UN Crypto Stamps
3 stamps, FDCs, 3 cancels
Hexachrome, Foil
NEW YORK: 30,000 copies
GENEVA: 30,000 copies
VIENNA 30,000 copies
Each stamp is linked to one of the 17 UN objectives, with a total of 51 variants.
- Goal 1 No poverty
- Goal 2 Zero hunger
- Goal 3 Good health and well-being
- Goal 4 Quality education
- Goal 5 Gender equality
- Goal 6 Safe drinking water and sanitation
- Goal 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
- Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth
- Goal 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure
- Goal 10 Reduced inequalities
- Goal 11 Sustainable cities and communities
- Goal 12 Responsible consumption and production
- Goal 13 Climate Action
- Goal 14 Life under water
- Goal 15 Life on land
- Goal 16 Peace, justice and strong institutions
- Goal 17 Partnerships for the Goals
See all the details here: 1st Global Crypto Stamp Catalog | Bitter Grounds Magazine
Designer: Sergio Baradat
Release date: November 1, 2022
Crypto stamp 1.2
3 crypto stamps, 4 FDCS, 3 cancels
1 issue for each postal service
Release date: November 18, 2022
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