Postage stamps from around the world
Did you know that 2008 is The Year of the Frog? Zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums around the globe are joining in a massive public awareness campaign to highlight the amphibian extinction crisis.
This 1974 North Korean postage stamp illustrates the Rana catesbeiana … better known as the Bullfrog! It was part of a set of four stamps all featuring frogs. The stamps were issued without gum.
This 1964 stamp featuring the equestrian sport of show jumping was issued by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (CCCP) on the occasion of the Tokyo Summer Olympics (the Games of the XVIII Olympiad). Tokyo had won the rights to hold the games in 1958, having previously been awarded the games in 1940 then eventually refused the honour after Japan’s invasion of China. As fate would have it the outbreak of the Second World War saw the cancellation of what would have been the 1940 Helsinki Olympics. The Tokyo Games were significantly the first Olympics to be hosted by a non-Western nation. 2008, of course, will see another important first with China hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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