This year’s stamp week will be held again in Berjaya Times Square (if Pos Malaysia do not do another last minute switch). The dates are 13 – 19 November 2013.
The theme this year is “Visit Malaysia 2014”. There will be a whopping 4 sheetlets in this issue. Each sheetlet has 6 x 60 sen stamp making a total of 24 x 60 sen stamps!
Here are the images from Pos Malaysia (subjected to changes):
NOTE: The images have been removed pending the outcome of Pos Malaysia’s investigations.
Sheetlets
FDC (mock ups)
I have no other information on if any other items that will be made available.
My advice right now: Start saving! Plus maybe another shortage of envelopes at the stamp week site?
Updated 31 October 2013:
I have finally found the forum on the controversy over the image of a bird. Read about it here: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3568016
You might want to check out the image which was claimed as the source: http://www.romyocon.net/2013/01/long-tailed-shrike-at-bacnotan-la-union.html
I would like to thank jytou for giving the heads up.
Updated 01 November 2013:
I guess this issue will be remembered for “copying” rather than anything else.
Apparently another 2 similarities have come up:
Trying spotting this: http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/2011_November
Hornbill at the bottom of the sheetlet:
Seems that the issue has spread beyond the birds, “cut and paste” is also suspected in the bat flower: http://www.dphotographer.co.uk/image/41622/bat_flower__tacca_integrifolia
and extending to insects (this is a creative flipped image – refer to the last photo in this link): http://reptil-sud-est.forumactif.org/t140-hymenopus-coronatus-mante-orchidee
and scenary (mosque): http://euroislamnews.wordpress.com/category/the-world-most-beautiful-mosques/
So all the 4 sheetlets have images that might have been taken from other sources.
Perhaps the question Pos Malaysia need to ask the designer is which one is not Photoshopped rather than trying to find out which one is Photoshopped.
The unofficial Facebook posting has removed the Birds sheetlet. Pos Malaysia has also removed the link in the official website and I believe is investigating the above.
Keep reading…
Updated 07 November 2013:
Drafts they say…
http://www.asianews.co/stamp-controversy-pixman-satisfied-to-have-embarrassed-pos-malaysia/
The questions is how this became a draft if posters and banners are printed for release?
Updated 11 November 2013:
Since this issue is deferred indefinitely (well close to saying cancelled but I think it will be issued once the copyright is sorted out since the sheetlets were printed), a replacement re-issue of the 50 Years Malaysia in an overprint Miniature Sheet format will be issued. I do not have any images yet. I will load the images and any updated in this new post: https://myfdc.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/stamp-week-2013-replacement-issue/
If you have any information, just feel free to share with all readers.
Here is the notice of postponement.
sky52200
myfdc 
The date 13rd Nov is Wednesday and the last day is 19th Nov is Tuesday. Why not Monday to Sunday?
One of the many mysteries of how Pos Malaysia works. Maybe they want 131113 on the cancellation?
Yes you are right the dates are strange.
sky52200
The photos used in this series may not be acquired legally, one of the photographers from Philippines is now complaining that his photo was stolen and used in this stamp series, what is worst is that the form of bird is not found in Malaysia and labeled as a wrong species!!! Not so strongly interested with this series now….
WOW! This is big news!!! The posters, banners, Pos Malaysia website and the unofficial Pos Malaysia collectors’ Facebook are plastered with the images! Everything is up in “hardcopy” in the General Post Office and will be around the country in a couple of days!
Any info on which species and which image?
Thanks for the information to our readers!
sky52200
I personally hope Pos Malaysia will cancelled this VMY stamps
It still got time to do so….
SM Stamps
Ha ha they listen to my advised
All the stamps week is cancelled!!!
I believe that the design company has issued a press statement stating that the stamps which ended up in the Pos Malaysis Facebook were drafts and had not yet been approved by the client Ministry Of Tourism and also Pos Malaysia. Unfortunately, Pos Malaysia jumped the gun and posted it up weeks before the launch.
It is normal practise to have the stamps approved by the clients, then the company will inform the person who owns the images to find out and pay the licensing fees, then the stamps go to print. Generally, the image owner is not informed first, incase the photos are not approved by the clients.
As far as I know, the company has never been implicated in any such problems before, even though they have produced many stamps for Pos Malaysia. It was unfortunate that the drafts were released, causing a myriad of problems for those involved and also killing the excitement about the stamps.
Thanks for the information. I guess it is one of those cases that we will not know the actual cause(s) 🙂
sky52200
The VMY may not be used again, at least not this set, despite that the copyright issues may be settled but the errors made in species misidentification and wrong inclusion of several foreign species cannot be acceptable on an official set of stamps released by POS Malaysia and it is likely they had to destroy all the printed stamps anyway and start from scratch.
Still waiting for the VMY 14 stamps