Postage stamps from around the world
This very curious and hard hitting message stamp was issued on May 31, 1994 in Slovakia on the occasion of the World Health Organisation’s International Day of No Tobacco after the idea was suggested by the National Oncology Institute in Bratislava.
The stamp was designed by Zdeno Brázdil and was engraved by Martin Cinovský. It was printed in the Czech Republic by the Postal Stationery Printing House, Prague, with a print run of 5,450,000 stamps.
On this day 20th May, in 1932, Amelia Earhart the American aviator, set off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland on the first solo transatlantic flight by a woman!
The flight lasted 14 hours, 56 minutes and she landed in a field in Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland.
This 8¢ U.S. Air Mail Stamp featuring the aviation heroine was issued on what would have been her 66th birthday on July 24, 1963 (cat. Scott #C68).
The collection of aviation stamps and more specifically U.S. Air Mail Stamps is an increasingly popular thematic specialization known as Aerophilately.
Nobody living in Italy could have failed to notice that 2008 is the centenary year of the birth of one of Italy’s greatest and best loved actresses, Anna Magnani, with numerous television documentaries, exhibitions, DVD releases and book publications accompanying the event. Sadly, Nannarella as she was affectionately known in Italy, died in 1973 but left behind a long list of performances which have since become iconic in the world of cinema, most notably perhaps, the desperate plight of Pina in Rossellini’s Roma, città aperta. International audiences probably remember her best for her Oscar winning role as Serafina Delle Rose opposite Bert Reynolds in The Rose Tattoo, in a part written specifically for her by Tennessee Williams.
The Italian Post Office issued a stamp on her birthday 7 March, but this wasn’t the first time that she has appeared on an Italian postage stamp. This philatelic postcard was issued on the occasion of the second edition of the Rome Film Festival and was cancelled on 19th October 2007 although the 800 lire Anna Magnani postage stamp was originally issued on 27 August 1997 as part of a series celebrating Scenes from Italian cinema (Scene di film del cinema italiano ). In fact, this stamp shows a portrait of La Magnani in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Mamma Roma . The stamp was designed by R.Morena and had a print run of 3.000.000.
This commemorative stamp from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) was issued in 1959 to celebrate the Institution of the Pirivena Universities, distinguished Buddhist centres of learning, which had been given university status following the University Act No 45 of 1958, namely Vidyodaya Pirivena, at Maligakanda, Colombo, and the Vidyalankara Pirivena in Kelaniya.
The stamp depicts the Maligakanda Vidyodaya Pirivena on the left - first established in 1873 under the guidance of the Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thero, who is shown in a vignette above his school, with the Vidyalankara Pirivena, established in 1875 by the Kalapaluvawe Dharmarama Thero shown on the right.
World leaders have always been an obvious choice as subjects on commemorative stamps but this stamp issued on 25 November, 1974 by Dominica on the occasional of the Centenary of Winston Churchill’s birth on 30th November, 1874 is unusual in the informality of the setting.
The one-half cent issue pictures Winston Churchill at the Race Track and was printed on unwatermarked paper by
Format International Ltd, London.
This crazy envelope surely has to win some kind of prize for its eccentric mix of British commemorative and definitive stamps from many different years and issues! Posted on 7 October 2003, it carries the following stamps (running clockwise):
11 1/2p - Policeman Directing Traffic issued on 26 September 1979 as part of the 150th Anniversary of the Metropolitan Police set;
63p – Ballyroney, County Down from the Sub-Post Offices set issued on 12 August, 1997 to mark the centenary of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters;
65p – Spiral Hat by Philip Treacy issued on 19th June, 2001 as one of four Fashion Hats;
68p – Deep reddish lilac and silver Tudor Rose regional issue which were in circulation from 2001 -2002;
2p - Myrtle-green with 2 phosphor bands (Queen Elizabeth II decimal definitives issued between 15th February 1971 and 6th February 1996) ;
63p – Peter Cook who was featured in the British Comedians set issued on 23 April, 1998;
1/2p - Turquoise-blue with 2 phosphor bands and gutter advertisement (Queen Elizabeth II decimal definitives issued between 15th February 1971 and 6th February 1996);
65p – Very Dry from the Weather set which featured four quadrants of a barometer that joined together on the miniature sheet.
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.
Merry Christmas from Penny Black 1840! I have just made this little video of the 1973 British commemorative stamps for Christmas telling the story of Good King Wenceslas - Good King Wenceslas, the Page and the Peasant.
The stamps were issued as a se-tenant strip with a slightly higher value 3 1/2 pence stamp issued separately.
I’ve always loved these 1977 Christmas stamps because they were one of the first sets I collected as a child, eagerly waiting for different images to arrive on letters and then steaming them off Christmas card envelopes to make up the full set of six.
The five 7 pence stamps represent different lines of the Christmas song The Twelve Days of Christmas:
“Twelves Lords a-leaping,
Eleven Ladies dancing,
*
Ten Pipers piping,
Nine Drummers drumming,
*
Eight Maids a-milking,
Seven Swans a-swimming,
*
Six Geese a-laying,
Five Gold Rings,
Four Colly Birds,
*
Three French Hens,
Two Turtle Doves…”
whilst the 9 pence stamp represents the repeated chorus:
“And a Partridge in a Pear Tree”.
The 7 pence stamps were printed horizontally in a se-tenant strip.
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