As in previous years, the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau had planned two ‘Post&Go’ issues for 2025, one first dedicated to the Chinese zodiac and the second to the EUROPA series. However, the only kiosk in operation in Gibraltar, located in the philatelic office and used by the philatelic service itself to produce stamp strips, as well as by collectors and visitors, was out of service for most of the year.
Whilst awaiting a solution to the problem, the philatelic service kept postponing the launch of the ‘Post&Go’ issues. Ultimately, as it was not possible to print the stamps in Gibraltar, the stamp strips featuring the two designs were printed in June 2025 in the United Kingdom by the kiosk manufacturer, and were sent to Gibraltar for sale from July 4th.
Some of the strips from the ‘EUROPA’ design had a cutting error on the last stamp and were discarded, which reduced the final print run and led to stocks selling out quickly for this issue.
Consequently, only ‘Collectors strips’ or strips of six postage rate indicators were printed, all with the bottom code starting with B6GI25 and machine code GI04. For the two 2025 issues, therefore there are no stamps printed from the public use kiosk bearing the GI05 code and the permanent ‘Philatelic HQ’ imprint or identifier.
The postage rates corresponding to the six face value indicators in 2025 are 30p (Local up to 50g), 60p (Surface up to 50g – mail to Spain), 90p (UK up to 20g), £1 (EU up to 20g), £1.15 (ROW up to 10g – mail to the rest of the world) and £4 (Registered – additional fee for international registered mail).
The ‘Year of the Snake’ issue
The 2025 and tenth issue in the annual series dedicated to the Chinese Lunar Year and the animals of the Chinese zodiac is dedicated to the Year of the Snake.
As with the nine previous issues, the design used for the “Post&Go” issue is the same as that used for one of the two ‘traditional’ stamps in the ‘Year of the Snake’ set, released on February 20th 2025.
The very first annual series of ‘traditional’ stamps dedicated to the Chinese zodiac was issued in 2013, three years before any ‘Post&Go’ issues. In 2025, therefore, a new cycle of issues has begun, featuring new illustrations by the Rising Design Lab. The ‘Post&Go’ issue includes, for the first time, the profile silhouette of King Charles III rather than the royal cypher or monogram.
As can be seen in the image on the right, both issues have a special first day postmark with the same central design, although the date and the wording on the outer circumferences are different.
The Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau produced a pictorial first day cover with the set and associated special postmark. The stamps were printed in June (B6GI25), but the first day postmark date is July 4th.
See previous issues – ‘Year of the Monkey’ in 2016 (article & VARIABLE 40), ‘Year of the Rooster’ in 2017 (article & VARIABLE 44), ‘Year of the Dog’ in 2018 (article & VARIABLE 48), ‘Year of the Pig’ in 2019 (article & VARIABLE 55), ‘Year of the Rat’ in 2020 (article & VARIABLE 56), ‘Year of the Ox’ in 2021 (article & VARIABLE 60), ‘Year of the Tiger’ in 2022 (article & VARIABLE 65), ‘Year of the Rabbit’ in 2023 (article) & ‘Year of the Dragon’ in 2024 (article).
The ‘EUROPA National Archaeological Discoveries’ issue
The second issue of variable value stamps – ‘Post & Go’ released by the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau, forms part of the EUROPA series for the fifth consecutive year.
The common theme chosen by PostEurop for the special 2025 issue was ‘National Archaeological Discoveries’. Gibraltar is not part of PostEurop, but still releases an annual EUROPA series, and dedicated its series 2025 to the significant fossil finds of Neanderthal remains at Forbes’ Quarry, on the northern face of the Rock, and Gorham’s Cave, a group of caves declared a World Heritage Site in 2016. The Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau has already previously dedicated a series of stamps and ‘Post&Go’ special imprints to this group of caves (see article, published in VARIABLE 42).
The EUROPA series of ‘traditional’ stamps, based on illustrations by Jonathan Pointer, consists of sheets of six stamps of each illustration and a mini sheet with both designs, and was released on May 8th 2025.
The ‘Post&Go’ issue features the design depicting the Neanderthal skull against the backdrop of the Rock.
The Neanderthal skull featured on the stamps is known as ‘Gibraltar 1’. It was discovered at Forbes’ Quarry in 1848, eleven years before the publication of Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’ and eight years before the discovery in the Neander Valley in Germany, where the first recognised fossil remains of Homo neanderthalensis were found.
The maximum cards show the skull as it was found in 1848 (left) and its current condition (right), on display at the Natural History Museum in London
The official cover and the special first day postmark produced by the Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau feature an image of the ‘Gibraltar 1’ skull.
See previous ‘Post & Go – EUROPA’ issues – ‘Barbary Macaques’ in 2021 (article & VARIABLE 62), ‘Stories & Myths’ in 2022 (article & VARIABLE 66), ‘Peace’ in 2023 (article) and ‘EUROPA Underwater Fauna & Flora’ in 2024 (article).
(English edition rewritten by J. Gareze – March 2026)
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