Flare Up Over Gibraltar Stamps

The latest flare up in long-running dispute between Spain and Gibraltar, a peninsula in southern Spain ceded to the British in 1713, involves stamps.

Leo Olivero writes on Gibraltar's Panorama website, that Spainish authorities "refuse to recognize Gibraltar Philatelic identity - postage stamps, that is - and in the process they forced the local philatelic society to pull out of a recent prearranged exhibition hosted in Estepona!"

According to the article, "The Estepona mayor Jose Maria Garcia Urbano it seems instructed the Spanish organizers of the 'sociedad philatelic eurosft of Estepona' to remove all mention of Gibraltar in all promotional material regarding the exhibition i.e. posters, flyers and exhibition booklet and instead of Gibraltar, the mayor only wanted the word Britannica (Britain) in its place. As if Great Britain were actually exhibiting instead of the Gibraltar Philatelic Society!

Olivero goes on to say, "When the final poster was sent back to the Rock, the Gibraltar stamp had also been removed from the poster and replaced by the world famous UK penny black stamp which has nothing at all to do with Gibraltar. Of course the local society did not accept this and informed the Estepona organizers they would not be attending the exhibition, as it was obvious that politics had involved itself in a totally non-political event."

To read the entire article, click here.