Wednesday 28 April 2010

New Czech stamps - April 2010



Issued on 14 April 2010, in the series presenting explorers and travellers, here is Enrique Stanko Vráz (1860 - 1932), traveller and photographer of a mysterious origin, whose name might be only a pseudonym of an unknown nobleman. He travelled all over the world and gathered a huge collection of insects and birds which he donated to the National Museum in Prague. The stamp shows him and a Japanese countryside. Print-run 500,000.

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Issued on 14 April 2010, two transcausasian carpets from the collections of Czech museums:

21 CZK - kasim ushag, from Nagorno-Karabakh, 19th century, hand-woven, wool, 191 x 48 cm
24 CZK - celaberd from Karabakh, mid-19th century, hand-woven, wool, 194 x 146 cm

Print-run: 140,000 each.

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Issued today, 28 April 2010, the first self-adhesive Czech stamp ever! With a new letter denomination to boot. The small revolution in the Czech stamp production has begun! The stamp is printed in offset, issued in booklets of 10, and shows Fifinka, one of the four characters from a famous Czech children's comics called Čtyřlístek (Four Leaf Clover). The A-letter is domestic rate for postcards and letters up to 50 grams, E (for Europe) and Z (for overseas - zámoří) will follow. All the newspapers and most TV stations have reported on this, and there is a big discussion about the consequences of this move. There are even concerns about the future of the Czech philatelic tradition. I am not so pessimistic, there are still many very nice engraved stamps scheduled for the coming months:-) The state-owned Czech Post has only decided to make stamps more attractive for more people, hopefully.

EDIT: A new website has been launched to promote these new sticker stamps (unfortunately, the text is only in Czech). But new lovely Alfons Mucha stamps can be seen there, to be introduced in May 2010, rates E and Z.

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