AIDS on Stamps

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

News

April 7, 2016 Another postal find from India. These are images of a fifth type of Indian postal stationery -- registered letters -- six of them in all. There is no obvious date on them but the picture on the bottom envelope of the first photo matches an inland letter card and Aerogramme released in 2007, so I'd guess these were released around the same time.







April 6, 2016 I finally finished the pages for 2015 and 2016. Sadly, no AIDS stamps were released in 2015, the first time since AIDS stamps came on the market in 1988 this has happened. I hope I'm wrong and someone discovers one somewhere, but I'm pretty sure I have it right. We do have one new stamp for 2016, this Girl Guides issue for Hong Kong. Although the ribbon is green the descriptive text for the stamp release makes it clear the ribbon refers to their AIDS awareness badge.







I added a new piece of Indian postal stationery as well -- the first Indian AIDS-related Aerogramme I've been able to discover. An Aerogramme is a pre-printed envelope with postage folded from a single sheet of paper on which the sender writes their message on the other side. Aerogrammes differ from inland letter cards in that ILCs are used for domestic mail and Aerogrammes are for air mail to other countries. Naturally the pre-printed postage is higher as well. This particular Aerogramme was apparently released in 2007 along with a nearly-identical domestic ILC version.



April 5, 2016 I just completed about eight hours of work on the AIDS on Stamps Indian Postal Stationery page. Specifically, I finally used a pair of Indian postal stationery catalogs to update the entries from 1997 to 2002. I removed a couple of false items (ie; they weren't about AIDS), add a bunch of new ones, added pictures for quite a few items, and identified several items for which I couldn't determine a year. I even found an inland letter card (read: pre-paid envelope) going back to 1993. Quite exciting (if you're as nerdy about this stuff as I am). February 13, 2016 Work on the site continues. I've added a number of new AIDS stamps to the site for 2008, 2013, and 2014. I'm not sure there are any AIDS stamps for 2015, but will look into the matter soon. It would be an unusual year if there were none, as it would be first year since AIDS became a collectable topic in 1988 that has happened.



First up, we have Macedonia's annual postal tax stamp about AIDS for 2013. No Scott number yet. I'm sure it's been assigned one, but I haven't been to a library yet to update my notes.







Second, this interesting tab in the middle of an otherwise uninteresting (from an AIDS stamp perspective) sheet of stamps from North Korea. This sheet is from 2013.







Third, South Africa redesigned their proposed AIDS stamp releases for 2013 and released this set. Gone are the happy cartoon-like characters. Instead we have this rather depressing looking booklet.











Fourth, this 2013 stamp from Tuvalu. It's available on a larger sheet of medical-related stamps. Please note there is another souvenier sheet in addition to this set, but it has nothing to do with AIDS.











Fifth, on December 1, 2014 Monaco released this sheet of AIDS stamps. Please note that while the sheet indicates it's a 2015 release, the stamp was actually released in 2014. (And oddly, the lower-right corner of the sheet suggests it was released on November 6, 2014, which is different than what I've seen on a first day cover. Perhaps the Scott Catalog will clarify the date when I check it out.)







Finally, we jump back to 2008 for this AIDS stamp from Liberia. I think it wound up being released a few years later so I may have to move this from the 2008 page to wherever it belongs, but for now I'll set it there. I'll find out for sure at some point.







More stamps soon perhaps, but that's enough for today. February 12, 2016 Yes, folks, I'm alive and well.



I let this website linger these last three years for a couple of reasons. In part it was due to my interest in a new hobby -- being a referee for women's roller derby (really!). In part it was also because my son was in preschool. Taking care of him involved much of my free time. I've never lost my love of AIDS stamps though and have been trying to keep the Facebook page more-or-less up to date. Now he's in grade school so I have a bit more time to work on my projects.



I've got a bit of free time this evening so I'm working on an update. First and foremost, I need to do some maintenance on the website -- removing outdated links, that sorta thing. Fortunately I was able to get that done in fairly short order. Second, I need to update the website to feature new AIDS stamps that have been released since you last heard from me. I'll work on that over the next few days. I'd like to continue my work on my third priority, the Indian postal stationery page. I have two books filled with information on Indian postal stationery with lots of entries about AIDS-related releases. It's been a nagging thought in my mind that I need to get this website updated to reflect the information in there.



Anyway, know that I'm back for the time being. In my area we're on the off-season in roller derby until March so I'd like to get a few updates posted before I vanish again. Expect to hear from me more in the next few days.

Updates prior to this point can be found in the archived news page.

This website went online September 15, 2007.