Postage stamps from around the world
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.
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.
It probably won’t come as a surprise that I have a particular liking for small stamps that have the feel of the very first stamp - the Penny Black! This 4 cent US postage stamp featuring President Abraham Lincoln was issued on 19 November, 1965 as part of the Prominent Americans Issue between 1965 -1978 and features an instantly recognisable and almost iconic profile portrait of the assassinated president.
This striking little stamp was designed by Bill Hyde and engraved by J. S. Creamer.
Here’s a great example of why it’s nice to get international snail-mail now and again! My writer friend Adam Williams sent me some documents from China a couple of years ago in a large envelope, quite literally, covered with commemorative stamps. The large block of twenty stamps on the right depicts an anecdote about the early life of Sima Guang (1019 - 1086 AD), a Chinese politician and writer of the classical chronicle Historical Events Retold as a Mirror for Government (Zi Zhi Tong Jian), which is used to illustrate his great intelligence and ingenuity even as a child. The stamps show a baby falling into a vat of water and Sima Guang smashing the vat with a stone, causing the water to spill out and thus saving the child.
The 80 Fen stamp shows Sima Breaking the Vat, and is the second episode in the tale with another 80 Fen stamp showing the Baby’s Fall into Water, with the Rescue appearing on the 2 Yuan stamp. The set was designed by Li Wei and first issued on 1st June 2004, several months before this letter was posted in August 2004.
Interestingly, the bird stamp on the left, had been issued as a regular, rather than commemorative stamp, on 1st February, 2002 as part of a set of three depicting Chinese birds.
The recent space shuttle mission reminded me of this set of stamps, although I waited till the crew got home safely before posting this! Issued by Saint Lucia in 1979 - The International Year of the Child - the set of six stamps was issued on the 10th Anniversary of the Moonwalk and features several popular Walt Disney characters as astronauts.
Donald Duck appears on both the 1 and 10 cent stamps;
Goofy graces both the 3 and 4 cent stamps;
Minnie Mouse is featured on the 2 cent stamp;
and Pluto buries a bone amongst the craters on the moon on the 5 cent stamp.
Mickey Mouse is, mysteriously, lost in space and nowhere to be seen! (Actually, he sits aboard a rocket on the 1/2 cent stamp which is sadly missing from my collection…)
This 1974 set of Cuban Postage Stamps featured five notable examples of extinct bird species - namely the Dodo (1c), Macaw (3c), Passenger Pigeon (8c), Moa (10c) and Great Auk (13c).
The Dodo - This meter-high flightless bird was found on Mauritius. It is one of the world’s most infamous examples of how man’s impact on the natural habitat of a species can rapidly drive it to the point of extinction. The last specimen was killed in 1681, only 80 years after the arrival of Dutch settlers on the island.
Cuban Red Macaw - This small species of parrot was native to Cuba and the Isla de la Juventud. Unconfirmed records note the continued existence of the birds until 1885.
Passenger Pigeon - The passenger pigeon was once probably the most common bird in the world, with single flocks numbering up to several billion birds. However, it was hunted close to extinction for food and sport in the late 19th century and the last living example died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.
Moa - This giant flightless and wingless bird was native to New Zealand. Although some cryptozoologists claim the moa still exists it is thought to have become extinct in around 1500.
Great Auk - This flightless bird used its wings to swim underwater. The only species in the genus Pinguinus to have survived into modern times, the great auk was hunted extensively for both food and eggs, as well as down, with the last example of the great auk seen in the British Isles in July, 1840.
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New Zealand 1996 Extinct Birds set & s/sheet US $2.99 (1 Bid) End Date: Saturday Aug-23-2008 1:14:51 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
This 5 yen Japanese Mandarin duck (or in Japanese oshidori) postage stamp was in use from 1952 - 1968. By no means rare - it sells by the bag-full on eBay - I’ve always found this little postage stamp extremely attractive.
Photo: philspics
1971 Postage Stamp issued in North Vietnam to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the Tay Son
Whilst leafing through some old stamp albums from childhood recently I suddenly felt a renewed interest in some of the postage stamps that I had long ago dismissed as a merely juvenile collection of jumbled commemorative issues from around the world, in favour of my adult interest in Victorian line engraved stamps. With a jolt I realised that most of these stamps had been issued in the late 1960s and early 1970s and that I’d hardly looked at them in last twenty years! Although none of them were particularly rare some them of them were actually rather interesting…
I’m now in the process of scanning and researching the stories, anniversaries and events behind the postage stamps in my collection and will post them here regularly.
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