AIDS on Stamps

AIDS on Stamps showcases how the AIDS epidemic has been seen on stamps from around the world.

News

December 24, 2009: Just a quick gift to y'all before I head out for several weeks of family and fun in both Iowa and Hawaii -- a new page on the website about local posts and the AIDS stamps they have released over the years. It's a work in progress -- my primary source of information is only up to "E" in his alphabetical research of the subject. So far we have discovered three stamps though, and I wanted to give y'all a link before I head out for the holidays.

I'll provide a more detailed update in a month or so when I'm back from my trips and the subject is more fully researched. In the meantime, the new page has an explanation of what local posts are (for those of you who are not walking philatelic dictionaries).
December 22, 2009: It's only been four days since my last update but there are a few things to report.

First, this souvenir sheet from Nigeria. We've had the stamps listed or some time, but never this sheet.

Second, an update on the oh-so-rare Rwanda (2003) stamps. As I posted earlier this year, the Scott Guide assigned two of the stamps official numbers. They said they were trying to establish that the other two had actually been released, at which point they would be assigned number as well. Well, I am pleased to report that I purchased the remaining two stamps earlier this evening. I won't receive them for a couple of weeks, but when they do I will send Scott a letter along with detailed scans. I've been meaning to send them a letter about a number of AIDS stamps for a while now with information about stamps from Mali, Cameroon, and others. I'll let you know when that happens.

Third, there's an interesting petition going around in the United States. On World AIDS Day (December 1), the sister of Pedro Zamora kicked off a drive to urge the US Postal Service to release a stamp in his honor. Zamora, as you may or may not know, was a Cuban-American who was diagnosed with HIV during his junior year of high school. Upon graduation he became an AIDS activist and eventually became a star of an early season of MTV's The Real World. As he lay in a hospital dying, President Bill Clinton called him to thank him for all his efforts. Zamora is widely credited with raising consciousness about AIDS among school and college-aged youths. If I hear anything more about the petition effort or any positive results I'll be sure and let you know.
December 18, 2009: The holiday season has rolled around again and you know what that means -- yet another postal tax stamp from Macedonia. We didn't get one in March (as they do about half the time), but the good folks at their postal service are continuing their part of keeping AIDS in the public eye. At present I have only seen the stamp on Delcampe but I'm sure it'll be making the rounds of dealers in the not-too-distant future. Their postal tax stamps are never widely available, but they're not that hard to find if you poke around a bit, especially as the years go by.

Next up is this stamp from Greece. I was excited to see it at first, but on researching it I learned that it's just a personalized stamp. The faces on the left side of the stamp pair is one of eight or so pre-made stamp designs. The right-part can be customized as people see fit. I have included both "before" and "after" versions of the personalized stamp. So it's not an official AIDS stamp, but I have added it to the personalized stamp page.

I also realized that the full sheet for the AIDS stamp from Vatican City (2004) has additional AIDS text in the center. So I thought I'd add this to our listings. I already had the stamp, but it's worth listing the full sheet. If someone would translate the text for me I'd be glad to add it to the site as well.

Now I wanna turn to a not-so-pleasant subject: fraud. You may have noticed in the past year a lot of these Indian stamp booklets appearing on the web.

As you can see from the back of the booklet, supposedly only 250 of these were printed. What would be a collectors item among Indian stamp dealers though has been all over the Internet on auction sites. Dozens upon dozens of these are available. I finally took the plunge and bought one, only to discover that it was a blatant forgery. The booklet supposedly contains 100 rupees of stamps, but mine only contained 20. And they were obviously torn off a larger sheet and stuck to the top of the booklet. A very sloppy job if I've ever seen one.

I'm not the only person to have a bad experience with this booklet. Gwen, a long-time reader of AIDS on Stamps, bought a booklet earlier this year. Hers had completely different stamps inside than mine did, and again, less than 100 Rs. worth of stamps. She, like me, believes hers was fake as well.

In an effort to learn a bit more about this booklet, I contacted Sahadeva Sahoo, a former President of the Philatelic Congress of India. He said that Uttarakhand is a state located in the north of India near the Himalayas. They did release a booklet cover on December 1, 2008 to mark the observance of World AIDS Day. He stressed that it was more of a cover than a booklet, as they did not have a formal set of stamps to put inside. Rather, they were able to put inside whatever stamps they saw fit. (Most booklets of this type on the Internet feature a combination of AIDS stamps and stamps on breastfeeding. Mine arrived with four stamps about Indian national parks.) He said that India Post does authorize its "circle heads" to issue promotional products of this type to the philatelic community, or to permit a society to issue a promotional philatelic item. He was unfamilar with all of the fraud that occurs in regards to these booklets, but acknowledged that fraud does often exist.

I am continuing my investigation to learn what I can about what actual stamps were released in the booklet. I doubt any of us will ever be able to determine what are authentic booklets and which are forgeries. So for now I recommend that you do NOT buy this booklet, as it's almost certainly going to be a forgery and worthless. I'll be sure and post more information as I get it.

That's all for now. Happy holidays!
November 11, 2009: Two announcements today. First is this forthcoming stamp from Jersey, a British island off the northern coast of France in the English Channel. The stamp will be released on January 13, 2010 to promote the activities of the Girl Guides, a variation on the Girl Scouts. It's part of a five-stamp set and features the words "AIDS Awareness" along with a red ribbon.

It is worth noting that although the stamp has not yet been released, there is a dealer in India on eBay selling the stamps already. I fired an e-mail off to the Jersey Postal Service asking if/how they could be legitimate but am not sure I'll get a response. These stamps will be easy to acquire once they are officially released so I do not recommend purchasing them from this dealer in the meantime. You'd hate to reward a corrupt official in the Jersey postal agency slipping him stamp sheets before the official release date. Or worse yet, they could be counterfeit.

Second is another sheet of Philippines stamps. First there was 2006, now there's a similar variation in 2007. I don't know the Scott number yet but will figure it out next time I head to the libray. As with the 2006 sheet, the stamps are not directly AIDS-related, but the center of the sheet are the eight icons and accompanying text for the eight UN Milennium Development Goals. One of those has to do with halting the spread of AIDS and HIV.
October 29, 2009: Like every summer and early fall, 2009 has been quiet for AIDS stamps. A few things have come to my attention though so I thought I'd update the page with a bit of news.

First up, all those promised United Nations stamps are now available. Scroll down for pictures of them.

Second, I have added a new sheet of 2006 stamps for the Philippines. I don't know the Scott number yet but will figure it out next time I head to the libray. (I tend to put off these library visits to allow them to replace more volumes of the Scott catalog with newer editions). The sheet itself is filled with stamps that are not directly AIDS-related. In the center of the sheet are the eight icons and accompanying text for the eight UN Milennium Development Goals. One of those has to do with halting the spread of AIDS and HIV.

Third, I added information on a new PWA stamp, Ofra Haza, an Israeli musician who passed away this year. The GLHSC newsletter reported this as Scott 17731, but that number sounds awfully high to me. Since it's on a 12-stamp sheet I'm thinking it may have been 1773i and someone misread it. I'll update this paragraph when I figure it out.

Finally and most importantly, some interesting news on these Rwandan AIDS stamps...

The GLHSC is reporting (and I'm currently trying to confirm) that Scott is saying that to the best of their knowledge, only two of these were ever postally used. These have been given the numbers 1395-6. The editors will give the other two numbers when they are able to confirm their existance and use.

While I don't know which two Scott gave numbers to, I can confirm that the first and third stamps were both postally used. How do I know this? By pure coincidence, I purchased both stamps in used condition this morning. Talk about a lucky find! In all my collecting I have seen these stamps for sale. I did find a French website for trading stamps in which smoeone posted the fourth stamp, but by the time I contacted him he said he had traded it away.

It'll be another week or so until they arrive, but in the meantime I'm trying to find out Scott's information on the subject. I'll be sure and pass along to you anything I learn. These Rwandan stamps are the "Holy Grail" of stamp collecting. To be able to collect them is truly an accomplishment of epic proportions.
August 7, 2009: There is a bit of United Nations news today. First up, this stamp is now available from the UN Postal Administration website.

Gwen also wrote to say that on September 25, 2009 the UN will issue three mini-sheets for the Millenium Development Goals. According to Gwen, "each sheet has 8 stamps and includes various symbolic figures. There is one of a symbolic medicine bottle with a Red Cross and the message is 'Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other Diseases'. No red ribbon. The other statements are for poverty, education, maternal health, child mortality, geneder equality, etc."

The text on these stamp sheets was written by UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon and reads (in English, German, or French depending on the sheet):

"Eradicating extreme poverty continues to be one of the main challenges of our time, and is a major concern of the international community. Ending this scourge will require the combined efforts of all, governments, civil society organizations and the private sector, in the context of a stronger and more effective global partnership for development. The Millennium Development Goals set time-bound targets, by which progress in reducing income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter and exclusion -- while promoting gender equality, health, education and environmental sustainability -- can be measured. They also embody basic human rights -- the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter and security. The Goals are ambitious but feasible and, together with the comprehensive United Nations development agenda, set the course for the world's efforts to alleviate extreme poverty by 2015."

I managed to find this close-up of the icon on the AIDS stamp on the sheet. It also has some interesting accompanying text regarding sub-goals for this Millenium Goal.
July 27, 2009: Dr. Gwen P, an AIDS on Stamps reader who has an impressive medical philately collection of her own, was kind enough to submit an article she wrote about Dr. Lise Thiry, a Belgian research who appears on this Belgium (2007) AIDS stamp.
July 22, 2009: Sorry I haven't updated the site lately. There simply hasn't been anything to report until now. It appears that 2011 is going to be the biggest year for AIDS stamps since 2004, perhaps ever. Thanks to Gwen for the tipping me off to the news.

The July 27, 2009 issue of Linn's Stamp News contained an article titled UPU Promoting AIDS stamps for 2011. The article helped me find a pile of information about this program. Apparently the Universal Postal Union has kicked off a worldwide AIDS prevention campaign for that year. As part of that campaign they are urging their 191 member nations to release postal items between now and 2011 to promote AIDS awareness incouding posters, fact sheets, postcards, and brochures. In 2011 those countries are urged to release postage stamps to commemorate the discover of AIDS thirty years earlier. (Technically they are commemorating the publication in 2001 of the first scientific journal about what would come to be known as AIDS. The virus itself was not identified until 1984). The entire effort is designed to advance one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.

Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, China, Estonia, Mali, and Nigeria have kicked off the campaign. Over the next several weeks visitors to over 16,000 post offices in those countries will be presented with HIV prevention information. The ongoing goal of the program is to extend the campaign into as many of the 191 UPU member countries and their 660,000 post offices as possible. AT the end of the 2009 campaign the campaign will go globan and more countries will be invited to take part. In 2010 the campaign will enter a second stage during which postal employees will be better educated about the AIDS epidemic so they can pass on that information to the people that they meet. (In developing countries, postal workers have been successfully used to educate people they encounter during their daily delivery routes.) As stated earlier, the campaign will culminate with a wide display of AIDS stamps.

Postal services are also encouraged to use their initiative during this campaign to promote AIDS in other ways. For example, the UPU suggested that a post office might develop a special cancellation mark bearing the slogan of the program (see below). High-traffic post offices might also wish to invite health workers to educate visitors about AIDS and HIV.

Take a look at this logo and slogan for the program.

The slogan can be changed to reflect the cultural nuances of each country. For example, in Brazil the slogan reads, "Your post office cares. Protect yourself. Wear a condom." This is quite interesting to me, as that slogan would be considered too controversial for American social conservatives that believe condom use is immoral. While I think they need to get over it, the reality remains that AIDS in the United States is (unfortunately) a socially delicate issue. Hence why our AIDS stamp was a single red ribbon with no stated message. Very ambiguous and designed to minimize controversy.

Full information about the program can be found in the June 2009 issue of Union Postale (.pdf file).
June 10, 2009: A new set of stamps to report, this time from Guinea-Bissau Only one is about AIDS, the lower-left one featuring Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. Like the Sao Tome stamps that have come out in recent years, I have my doubts about the legitimacy of most of the Guinea-Bissau ones. I am planning to do something to find out whether they are valid or not, which I will explain to you shortly.

In the meantime, here are the 2009 Guinea-Bissau stamps. I have left together the photo of the entire set for context.
June 3, 2009: I have been continuing my research on the Rwandan AIDS stamps (more on that in a day or two) and made an interesting discovery. The Zimbabwe 2000 AIDS stamp (pictured left) is not the only one in the set having to do with AIDS. The stamp on right, although it makes no direct mention of HIV or AIDS, should be considered an AIDS stamp as well. It promotes the success of the country's New Start program (.pdf file), in which 20 HIV testing and counseling centers were opened around the country. Sure enough, some of the the writing on the stamp says "counseling and testing centers".

I checked the rest of the set over just to make sure none of them were AIDS stamps. One was on maternal and child health, another was on Rotary, a third was on RAPT (an anti-TB organization), and the fourth was Riders for Health, some sort of motorcycle health group.
June 2, 2009: On a whim I took a peek at Zazzle today to see what new personalized AIDS stamps they had. To my surprise they had over 70 new designs. About a third of those are by two artists who are clearly making a small business out of it, but many others are original in their design.

As always, I am on the lookout for personalized stamp designs, particularly from countries outside the USA. If you have access to images of personalized AIDS stamps from other countries, please do send them my way.

All of the new designs have been added to the personalized stamps page. Here are a sampling of the more interesting ones.
June 2, 2009: A few bits of news for you today. First, this new AIDS stamp from Sao Tome y Principe (St. Thomas and Principe). As with their other recent releases, I am highly suspicious that this is not an authorized stamp. It's hard to tell. St. Thomas engages in "excessive stampage" in which they release mass numbers of stamps that are sold to foreign collectors and not used domestically. As a result, it's ripe for counterfeiting as no one can reasonably be expected to keep track of what is and isn't an authorized stamp.

In this particular case, I am extra-suspicious because the stamp says it is for World AIDS Day 2009, but that won't roll around for another six months from now. Postal agencies often unveil stamps on World AIDS Day that aren't released for several more months, but this is the first time I've ever heard of a postal agency releasing a stamp six months early to celebrate an event.

Either way, here's the image I found.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, the UN Economic and Social Council is releasing on August 6 a set of six stamps. Gwen was kind enough to send me a photocopy of the announcement. Here is the scan of the stamp that I made. The set contains two stamps representing each of the three international branches of the United Nations. The AIDS stamp is in German for the office in Vienna, Austria.

Finally, I have an addition to the not about AIDS page. This is a stamp from Bosnia & Herzegovina (Sarajevo administration). It is being advertised on Delcampe.net as an anti-AIDS stamp. The larger writing is clearly an anti-drug message though. I asked the seller what the smaller writing said, to which he responded "droga nema poslijednju rije" ("drugs haven't the last word"). Seeing as this stamp appears to have no connection to AIDS, I am sticking it on the "not about AIDS" page.
May 13, 2009: A bit of news that deserves its own entry. Gwen writes that the UN Economic and Social Council is releasing on August 6, 2009 a six stamp set. One of the stamps is about HIV/AIDS, malaria, and cancer. Gwen writes describes it as, "an odd design but the red ribbon is there with the wording." This represents our first confirmation an AIDS stamp to be released in 2009.
May 13, 2009: I'm working on the site again. A few new things. First, here's a picture of the Nigeria (2003) AIDS stamps as part of a souvenir sheet.

Second, another version of this set of Guine-Bissau (2007) stamps. I have long been suspicious that they are counterfeit but have not been able to establish their validity eithe rway. Note that all four stamps have a border made up of smaller versions of the pictures of each of the four stamps. So there are a series of tiny AIDS ribbons in the border on all four stamps.

Then there's these two souvenir sheets of a Sao Tome (2005) stamp. Again, I am suspicious these might be counterfeit. Both Guine-Bissau and Sao Tome release massive amounts of stamps that have nothing to do with their country (and indeed, aren't sold within the country for postage) to raise capital from stamp collectors. Unfortunately, unscrupulous businesspeople have released any number of fake stamps allegedly from both countries. Since neither country bothers with any sort of "official" list of their stamps they are ripe for impersonation.

That being said, here are the souvenir sheets.
May 13, 2009: I have added several images to the website that may interest you.

First up is this 2002 Cameroon souvenir sheet. These stamps are previously known, but this is the first time I have had an image of their souvenir sheet. The Scott Catalogue states that other stamps in the series may exist, but I do not think any do. I have seen no evidence of them in all of my AIDS stamp research and am quite sure I would have seen something, somewhere if that was true.

Next, I have updated several pages on this site with new images. The counterfeit stamps and not about AIDS pages have both been updated with several fake Chadian stamps as well as a number of stamps that dealers commonly confuse with AIDS issues. I have updated the cinderella stamp page with a bit more information about the Lion's Club of Khumalo AIDS stamp.

Also a correction. The stamp I listed yesterday from Ghana is really from Tanzania. I got it confused with a similar 2008 souvenir sheet from Ghana that also featured George Bush.
May 12, 2009: Another update, this time about India. Although the country has only released one AIDS stamp, it has arguably done more to promote AIDS awareness than any other postal service in the world. Much of this has been done through their "Meghdoot" series of pre-paid postcards (I'll have an update about those soon), but also in the form of AIDS awareness information on stamp booklets.

In honor of the number of contributions that they have made (along with a few other countries), I have created a new stamp booklet page to promote AIDS awareness on stamp booklets. I urge you to check it out -- there are a number of new booklets you may not have seen before.
May 12, 2009: I have been horribly overdue in writing updates for this website. Never fear, it isn't abandoned. There simply hasn't been all that much to report. I have compiled enough interesting things though that it's time to post some updates. It's 4am as I write this so I'm off to bed in a moment, but I wanted to give you a quick look at this 2008 stamp from Ghana.

I'll post more tomorrow. There's a fair amount to report, even if this is the only new stamp.

Update: This is from Tanzania, not Ghana as I originally said. Oops!

Another update: This is Scott 2535a-b.
January 11, 2009: No new stamps to report, but I have been doing a lot of work on the new AIDS checklist. I have added a column for Stanley-Gibbons numbers, and have filled in a ton of SG stamp numbers. I have also researched and added numerous Yvert and Michel numbers. So if you're not into Scott catalog numbers, this document will be of great help.

At times I will be updating this document more often than I am updating this website. Accordingly, I have added a last revised date to the top of the document, so you can always tell when it's a new version. You can find this last revised date on the AIDS on Stamps page.
January 6, 2009: I forgot to mention in my last update -- I have created a new page dedicated to Cinderella stamps. These are stamps that are designed to express a message, but are not intended to be used as valid postage. Often they are sold to raise money for charity although that is not always the case.

Starting off the list, I moved the Gay Kingdom (2004) stamp to the Cinderella page, since I don't think the activists ever actually intended to make a working postal system on a deserted island, nor be recognized by any foreign government. I have also added these two issues as well.
January 6, 2009: I took a long overdue trip to the library today to update this site based on the Scott 2009 catalogues. I filled in quite a few missing Scott numbers and release dates. In particular, the new downloadable AIDS checklist and People with AIDS page were signficantly updated.

I have observed is that pre-printed postcards (ie; those from a postal service with pre-printed postage on them) are not catalogued by Scott. Anyone have any idea how they are normally catalogued? Do the Michel, Stanley-Gibbons, and/or Yvert catalogs have numbers for them? If not, perhaps it is time I come up with my own system for cataloging AIDS postcards.

The same can be said for booklets of stamps as well. The Scott catalogs do mention booklets of stamps, but they only describe the stamps inside, and don't discuss the cover of the booklet at all. Accordingly, if five different covers of the same stamps were released on the same day, they'd only list it once. Methinks we're going to need some sort of system for keeping track of these. Hrm.

On a lighter note, I made a development on a minor mystery today. I've mentioned lately that I remember seeing a few years back a Netherlands stamp sheet that said "Stop AIDS Now" in the margin. I'm not talking about the Netherlands (2005) set either. This one was mostly white and had angels on it. Well, I spotted it in the Scott guide today. The stamps are definitely their 2006 Christmas set (Scott B749a-j, I think. Or was it 750?) of children dressed up as angels. The Scott guide said, "Surtax went to various organizations named in the sheet selvage." Since selvage means margin, I may be on the verge of confirming another AIDS issue. I can't find a picture of the set on the web though, and the picture in the Scott guide was rather small. I'll keep you informed what I discover.

I do have one "new" stamp to confirm. A few AIDS stamps over the years have been overprinted with new values. Cameroon (1991) and Cameroon (1993), for example. Today I am posting another one, Namibia (2006).

Finally, a request. Can someone look in a Michel catalog and describe to me (or better yet, scan and e-mail me) South Africa #1115; MH. Not sure what the MH stands for. It's a note about a possible AIDS stamp booklet I have from the AIDS stamp list I am now editing. I don't have access to a Michel catalog so whatever you can tell me would be appreciated.
January 4, 2009: I'm in the mood to work on this site so I have made a few more updates and have a few announcements to make.

I am officially putting out a call for people to e-mail me all of their scans and information about AIDS-related government-issued postcards and postal cancellation marks. Also, first-day covers for AIDS stamps. At some point in the future I would like to create pages to showcase these, so I figured I'd start gathering information now. I won't catalog them in the same way as I catalog stamps, as there are half a zillion different FDCs, cancellation marks, and postcards. So e-mail me whatcha got, folks.

I have also worked out a deal with the Gay and Lesbian History on Stamps Club to host their Excel spreadsheet (.xls) of AIDS and HIV stamps on this website. I have been maintaining it anyway for a while now, and since this website catalogs everything that is in their list it has ceased to be a draw to get people to join GLHSC. It does have a few minor advantages over this site though, in that it catalogs Michel and Yvert numbers. I have also added a column to it for Stanley-Gibbons numbers, although right now the column is entirely blank. (Perhaps some of you would like to add the Michel/Yvert/S-G numbers to the chart? I'd be most grateful.)

Anyway, it is now listed on the AIDS on Stamps and chart pages.

I also spent some time working on the PWAs on stamps page. I sync'ed it with the GLHSC stamp list and found a number of errors. It's really a work in progress at this point, and hasn't had nearly the amount of love and attention that the main stamp list has received. Still, it's coming along. I'll be taking a library trip this next week and should have more corrections for it then.

Finally, I found an interesting page on AIDS postcards in India. Most long-time collectors of AIDS stamps have at least a few of them sitting around their collection. India prints more of these than, I'm guessing, every other country in the world put together. Someone took the time to put together a list of these postcards as of late 2005. He deserves a link, so I have added it to the links page.
January 2, 2009: The new year has been celebrated and the festivities have come and gone. While the 2009 AIDS stamps are yet to be released, there's still more from 2008 and before to be documented.

First up, an interesting story told to me by Norman, a reader of this site. A while back he learned that the United Nations was holding an auction on eBay of various items. The auction did not use keywords, so a search of AIDS Stamps would not have found it. You'd have to have done a search for the specific auction item number to find it. While searching for a number of items, he found for sale the original artwork used on the United Nations (1990) stamps. Cheap, too he tells me. What a find! Kudos to him on his purchase.

Second, I discovered something interesting on the Internet the other day. Rep. Barbara Lee from California has introduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives calling upon the postal service to issue a postage stamp commemorating the struggle to prevent and treat HIV in the US and around the world. This was initially introduced in 2007 and referred to the House Committe on Oversight and Government Reform, where I believe it died in committee for lack of support. I have not found a list of other Representatives who have signed on to the bill, nor have I found a Senate counterpart bill. Nor have I heard anything of it being introduced since. I suspect it's a pet project of hers, but not something likely to be passed anytime soon.

Third, I have begun a new project on AIDS on Stamps for all of you. I am beginning the Great Rwandan AIDS Stamp Project. What is this, you ask? It's simple -- a project to track down a source where we can obtain the more difficult to find AIDS stamps in the world -- the Rwanda issues.

Since these stamps came out in 2003 I have yet to find a dealer or collector who has these stamps. Over a dozen of you have mentioned that you'd like to add them to your collections. Not surprising, since non one has them! In all of my hours spent searching for these stamps I have located exactly one stamp from this series. Someone had posted it on a French-language stamp trading website. I don't speak a word of French, but with the help of an online translation website I was able to read the website, contact him, and ask if he still has it available. Unfortunately he had already traded it away, and there went my only hope of ever finding it.

So I am starting this new project so we can compile all of our information and leads about this stamp set in the hopes that someone will someday be able to obtain it. Ideally enough sets so that it can be distributed around to the more dedicated collectors in the community. So join in the Great Rwandan AIDS Stamp Project and contribute to our body of knowledge of this stamp set.

Side note: Those of you who have signed up for the AIDS on Stamps directory will receive "high priority" on the stamp sets if/when I am able to obtain them. And those people in the directory who contribute to the stamp project will get "first dibs" on them. So if you're not listed in the directory, e-mail me with your first name and AIDS-related collecting interests to be placed on the list.

Fourth, I found an article that mentions an AIDS cinderella stamp (ie; not valid postage) issued in Enotria, Italy. I puttered around the web a bit following this up but did not find anything more. I have added this to the under investigation page.

Fifth, for the past year I have been searching for this Austrian stamp. It has not been widely available, and I have seen this stamp available only on rare circumstances. Over the holidays it dawned on me why. Note the blue bar on the bottom -- that is the mark of a personalized stamp in Austria. Well, that or a yellow bar. This was not an official release by the postal service, hence its scarcity. Unfortunately, that means it is of limited value in a collection unless you enjoy collecting personalized stamps as well. Accordingly, I have removed this stamp from the 2007 page and added it to the section on personalized stamps.

Sixth (lots of news today, eh?), I have a number of new French personalized stamps available on the personalized stamp page as well.

Seventh, I found a new AIDS stamp from the Netherlands (2005). Well, not a stamp per se, but the souvenir sheet mentions AIDS. This Christmas set has "Stop AIDS Now" written in the margin, along with a number of foundations, charities, etc. The red square has been added by me, as this isn't a very good scan and the words are hard to make out.

As a side note, I seem to recall seeing another Christmas sheet on stamps from the Netherlands that also said "Stop AIDS Now" in the margin. This one was white in color and had angels on this. I saw this several years ago

Eighth, We have this new stamp booklet from India. The stamps are not new, consisting of the 2006 World AIDS Day stamp along with a stamp on breastfeeding. The booklet is new though and may interest collectors.

Finally, we have nine new AIDS stamps from Papua New Guinea. We knew they had held a contest and issued stamps for the winners in 2008. Now we have pictures. Look for them at your local dealers in a few months.
December 24, 2008: Due to a multi-car collision on the highway today I missed my flight to visit relatives for the holidays. That's bad for me, but good for you, as it means I can dedicate more time to this website. So as I begin, let my start by thanking Phillip for a bunch of updates I'm about to make to the website. I rely on readers like you to keep me informed as to what's happening in the world of AIDS stamps and what I may have missed, and Philip did a great job of sending me scans and more.

First up, we have this booklet released from South Africa all the way back on May 15, 1996. The stamps themselves have nothing to do with AIDS, but the outside and inside covers sure do.

If you try to purchase this booklet, be sure you are buying the correct one. South Africa also released several other rhino booklets around the same time that did not have the same inside and outside cover.

Next, we have another similar situation with this booklet from South Africa. Released August 7, 1998, the booklet features ten stamps of five animals (blue wildebeast, eland, impala, kudu, and waterbuck), none of which have anything to with AIDS. The best description of them I can make for those not familiar with plains animals is that one looks something akin to a yak while the other four look like antelopes. Again, if you are buying the booklet, make sure you are buying the correct one, as there are versions released that year that do not have the AIDS cover.

As we know, South Africa released two stamps in 1999 with beadwork patterns of an AIDS ribbon, one on a blue and one on a green background. I am not sure if they were available individually, but I know they were also sold in booklets of ten. I now have images of the booklet inside and outside covers.

And in case you have forgotten what the stamps look like...

We also knew in Portugal (2007) there were vending machines that gave predetermined values on printable AIDS stamps. I have never been able to figure out exactly how many values of this stamp were made, but the picture here shows (in euros) .30, .45, .48, .52, .60, .75, and 1.8. Some of them appear to be printed with just the value, while others are printed with a specific date and other technical information on them. I am guessing that the ones without a date were available from public vending machines, while the ones with a date were printed at the counters inside post offices. Either way, I'd like to learn more on this issue. If you have any scans of other values on any of these Portugal stamps, please send them my way.

From South Korea we head to North Korea. I knew they had released an AIDS stamp in 2002 on a souvenir sheet, but I never knew that it was also available as part of a set on the Red Cross in a stamp booklet. Here are some pictures from the booklet. You can't see all of the non-AIDS-related stamps in the second picture as I selected an image that would show you inside of the booklet better. I am not sure what the brochure-looking thing is next to the AIDS stamp. Perhaps a picture of a Red Cross information brochure of some sort? I really don't know (but would love to find out if any of you know).

Switching continents, we find ourselves in Canada. Those of you who know the history of the Canadian stamp know that the late AIDS stamp collector Blair Henshaw was instrumental in pressuring Canada to release their AIDS stamp. What you may not know (and I did not know until recently) is that prior to its release the Canadian postal service was tinkering with the color for the right bar on the stamp. They sent Blair Henshaw at least one contact sheet of various colored proofs. Blair cut up one sheet and sold the different colored proofs to various collectors.

Unfortunately, the bird brains at the Canadian postal service had the bad idea of mounting them on corrugated cardboard. The cardboard has a high acid content which will eventually destroy the proofs. Perhaps a professional restorer can remove them from the cardboard, but not having any of the proofs it is not something I can investigate. Either way, I now have pictures of two of the proofs. You will also note that the postage amount is two Canadian cents less than the final stamp release. I assume postage increased during the design period for this stamp.

The first stamp is the final release. The second and third are two proofs. If anyone has scans of any other color proofs I'd love for you to send them my way.

Finally, the People with AIDS on stamps page has been updated with numerous new scans and entries.
December 23, 2008: Hello and happy holidays! I have lots of gifts for you this year -- new pictures and information about AIDS stamps.

First up, Macedonia has released two new AIDS postal tax stamps in 2008. The right one was released on March 8, 2008. The left one was released on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2008.

Second, we knew Papua New Guinea was doing an art contest to raise awareness about AIDS, with winning entries to appear on stamps. I still don't have any scans of the finished stamps, but I did find this picture in a New Guinea newspaper of the top winner next to her entry. Watch for this stamp and the rest in the set to be available from dealers sometime in early 2009.

Third, whatever you may think of the policies of President Bush, his record on AIDS has been at the very least respectable. Earlier this year he visited Africa and spoke out regard the AIDS epidemic. To commemorate his visit to Ghana, they have released this souvenir sheet.

Next, we go back a few years to 2004 with this Netherlands stamp, also found on this souvenir sheet. I have only been able to fund used copies for sale on Delcampe, but I'm sure there are mint ones out there somewhere. According to one friend of the site this is Stanley-Gibbons 2402 from a larger block of 10 Christmas charity stamps.

Thanks to Paul for telling me about this 2002 stamp from Trinidad & Tobago (Scott 659-662, Stanley-Gibbons 946-949). It's part of a four-stamp set about the centennial anniversary of the Pan-American Health Organization. If you look closely at this stamp though, in the upper-right yellow "splotch" you will see a small red AIDS ribbon. Although it cannot be seen in this picture Paul tells me there is a small "AIDS" printed there as well.

Then there's this 2002 first day cover from Albania. It is currently being sold on eBay as an AIDS-related issue, but in fact it appears to have nothing to do with AIDS. The ABO on the cover are, I assume, referring to blood types. So this is likely a stamp on blood donation.

Just in case I was missing something, I sent a message to the seller asking what this cover has to do with AIDS. He wrote back that the person he bought it from said it is an AIDS issue, although he conceeded he didn't see what it had to do with AIDS. He'd leave it up to the buyer to decide. In the meantime, unfortunately, he is still advertising it as an AIDS-related issue. So I have added this to my "not about AIDS" list in the hopes it'll save some of you a few bucks.

Here are another two old personalized stamps that were used to raise money for the Global Fund about AIDS. They are no longer available, but I thought you'd still want to see their pictures.

I want to thank Phillip for also sending me a big(!!) pile of information about famous PWA's on stamps. It's going to take me hours to go through it all and add it to the website. Unfortunately I don't have time to get that done before I head out on vacation for the holidays, but I'll try and get it done in the first couple of weeks of 2009.

This website went online September 15, 2007.