Sunday 25 December 2011

Santa Claus cover from Finland no. 2




Courtesy of Giovanni we received a fantastic present from the Santa Claus office at the Artic Circle, from Napapiiri, Finland! Santa, as usual, sent a greeting and a lovely picture and a calendar, and put on a stamp with himself, this time from 2001, and cancelled it with a special postmark. Thank you, Giovanni!!

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Postcard from Andorra (Spanish Post)





Here's a fresh postcard sent from the capital of Andorra on 29 November 2011, showing a breathtaking view of Andorra la Vella from the Romanesque church of St. Miguel d'Engolasters.
The EUROPA forest stamp was issued on 4 April 2011 and shows the Bosc de Sorobilles near Ordino. Print-run: 115,000.

Thank you, Fabienne!!

Monday 5 December 2011

Cover from Dominica





Disney's Chip and Dale are soaking and drying stamps on this lovely cover sent on 28 July 1986 from Dominica to Ceske Budejovice (Budweis) in South Bohemia. The set of 4 large stamps was issued in 1986 to commemorate the Ameripex philatelic exhibition held in the US.

Cover from Grenada




Still tripping in the Caribbean, here's a cover sent on 10 April 1991 from Grenada to Trinec in Silesia/Czechoslovakia. The bird stamps are definitives from a series issued in 1989.

Sunday 4 December 2011

Cover from Montserrat




Continuing the trip along the Caribbean, here's an airmail cover sent from the island of Montserrat to Trinec in North Moravia sometime in 1989/1990. The moon-landing stamp is part of a quartet of stamps from 1989, commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the the First Manned Moon Landing.

Saturday 3 December 2011

Cover from St. Kitts





Following the cover from the island of Nevis, here's a cover from St. Kitts, the neighbouring island forming with Nevis the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis (West Indies, pop. around 51,000). The cover was mailed from the capital of Basseterre on 12 July 1993 To Czechoslovakia (it should have been the Czech Republic by then). The ship stamp is part of a big series of stamps issued in 1990, the stamp depicting the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is from 1993, commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Diocese of the North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba.

Cover from Nevis





Here's another beauty from my treasure trove of exotic covers, an airmail cover sent from Charleston, the capital of the island of Nevis in the West Indies, with two cricket stamps issued in 1989. The date on the postmark is illegible, but it should be somewhere around 1990.

Friday 2 December 2011

Cover from Transkei, South Africa



Last week, when we were collectively ill at home with some gastric flu, I spent an evening browsing pages of the largest Czech auction server www.aukro.cz, looking for nothing, and on a whim I bid 1 Czech crown (4 eurocent) at an auction for a collection of more than 50 covers and postcards from some pretty exotic locations around the world, sent to various address in the former Czechoslovakia, in the years 1970-1993, and surprise, surprise, I won, as the only bidder... and the items are just beautiful, here's, for example, a cover from the former Bantustan Transkei in South Africa (dissolved in 1994), with a complete series of stamps on the topic of textile production from 1988, postmarked in Impala Park on 4 December 1990.