Registered cover from Uruguay

An interesting registered cover from Uruguay, sent on 26 March 2008 from Montevideo, which went through Zurich-Mullingen in Switzerland (registered label on the back) and Prague post office no. 120 (registered label on the front).

The total value of stamps is 116 uruguayan pesos (1 EUR = 29.50 UYU), which makes approx. 4 EUR to pay for the delivery. Interestingly, the delivery of a letter of this size from the Czech Republic to Uruguay would cost me around 2.30 euro (57 Czech crowns).

As for the stamps, there is a small self-adhesive 100 UYU definitive featuring grey eagle (águila gris - Geranoaetus melanoleucus) issued in 2006, a great painting by Lithuanian-born Uruguayan painter José Gurvich (1927 - 1974) issued in 2007 and another self-adhesive stamp from the series "oficios" (trades) with a "manicero" (peanut seller) issued also in 2007. Thank you A. for this great letter with Uruguayan postcards.

Postcard from Iceland

Received on 13 August 2008 from Egilsstadir in the eastern Iceland (population 2,300 in 2007). The picture shows a breathtaking panorama of the harbour of Seyðisfjörður (population 700).

I am happy about the stamp - EUROPA 2005 (Gastronomy) - for my still small, but growing collection of EUROPA stamps. When looking at the catalogue of Icelandic stamps at www.postbeeld.com I was amazed by the beauty of the local stamp production. Thank you M. for sending me this one.

Postcard from El Salvador

Joya de Cerén is the only UNESCO site in El Salvador. Known as "the Pompeii of the Americas", it is an ancient Mayan farming settlement conserved under layers of ash erupting from a nearby volcano around 590 AD.
The stamp is from 1999 and along with another stamp in this two-value series commemorates the cooperation of the European Union with this Central American nation.
I sent this postcard to my parents in January 2000 when working there.

Templar cover from Bulgaria

On 30 September 2008 the Bulgarian post issued a templar stamp (face value 1 leva). According to information available online, the stamp commemorates the 700th anniversary of disbanding and destroying the Knights Templar. It is interesting that the stamp was issued one year later. The stamp also features a mention of the Grand Priory of Bulgaria.

I received this stamp on 9 October 2008 along with the postmark of the first day of issue depicting a magnificent seal with two soldiers on one horse.

The print-run of the stamp was only 25,000, which I find a surprisingly small quantity, but after looking at the print-runs of other recent Bulgarian commemoratives, which often don't reach 20,000, it is fairly much. I really would like to know if in Bulgaria these stamps are so rare, and plenty of definitives and ATM labels are used.

My thanks go to L.

Lovely postcard from Russia

I received one of my most beautiful postcards from the city of St. Petersburg on 26 August 2008 after 9 days of travel. It features the Palace Bridge between the two parts of which the Peter and Paul Fortress can be seen. There are some strong dramatics in the picture and a great colour composition.
Also the stamps are very nice. The 4 ruble stamp is not connected to a Soviet/Russian cartoon as I had thought, but was issued (on 5 August 2004) to warn children against traffic dangers (print-run 150,000).
The 12 ruble stamp was issued on 25 March 2008 as part of a souvenir sheet (print run 120,000) about archaelogical heritage and is embossed and varnished. It shows a bronze plate with the image of bulls.
Well, wow! Thank you K.

Cover from Brazil

This letter reached me today after 14 days of travel from Rio de Janeiro. I am not sure if "economico" means that it did not go by air. Anyway, if it sailed the Atlantic by boat, it arrived pretty quickly (in my opinion, from a position of a person living in a landlocked country).
The long stamp (RS 0,60) from 2008 commemorates the 100th anniversary of birth of the Brazilian writer Joao Guimaraes Rosa whose books have been translated also to Czech. The other stamp (RS 0,40) was issued for Christmas in 2001. Thank you T.!

Postcard from Madeira

Postcard sent from Funchal, Madeira in October 2007 by a friend of mine from the Czech Republic. It shows the Laurisilva, the local UNESCO World Heritage site, inscribed to the list in 1999. The nice bird stamp forms a part of a 4-piece series dedicated to marine life. Thanks L.

Registered cover from the Czech Republic

One of the few nicely stamped letters I get from my own country. As it is usual these days, the majority of mail received domestically are bank statements, bills, publicity, etc., almost always without stamps, usually in envelopes featuring ony the text "port payé" ("poštovné úvěrováno"):-)
I received this interesting letter from Brandýs nad Labem overnight (the Czech Post is usually very quick in delivering, whatever else we might think of it). It features a large stamp issued on 21 February 2007 as a part of a two-piece series depicting oriental art from the collections of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, American and African Cultures in Prague; the three figures are Parvati, Shiva and Ganesha from an Indian painting on glass.
The other stamp is 2 CZK "virgo" from the 12 signs of the zodiac series of nice definitives, which, unfortunately, has been replaced in the past years by rather boring flowers. Thank you O.

Olympic letter from Croatia

A letter received on 20 October 2008 (after 6 days' travel) from the town of Drenovci in the very east of Croatia, featuring the stamp which Croatia issued this year in commemoration of the Beijing Olympics. Thank you G.

Cover from Belgium

Received on 23 October 2008 a very nice letter from Ieper, Belgium, with a statuette stamp (Musée en Piconrue, Bastogne) and a special cancellation related to another stamp in this series (Nationaal Schoeiselmuseum in Izegem) from October 2008 dedicated to small Belgian museums. The letter reached me in 5 days in an excellent condition. Thank you T.

Postcard from Mexico

Postcard of Cancún received on 2 May 2008, sent from the state of Jalisco on 14 April 2008 (so it took 18 days to get here). It bears a very nice stamp of "Muzzy" taken from a miniature sheet (Dinosaurios de México) issued by the Mexican post in 2006. The other two stamps belong to the long series of current Mexican definitives featuring objects from the collection of the Museo de Arte Popular (dated 2007). Thank you J. for this card!

Postcard from Costa Rica

Received on 22 July 2008 after 23 days of travel from Costa Rica. Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio. The stamp, with a nice explanatory tab, shows Coryanthes kaiserana, an orchid growing only in Costa Rica. It was issued, along with nine other orchids, in 2007.

Polish cover from Ilawa

Received on 23 October 2008, after 6 days' travel from northern Poland, is this cover with the definitive stamp of the "spiritual capital of Poland" Czestochowa. The stamp was issued on 24 April 2006. Since it rained here on Thursday, the letter got a bit wet near the bottow edge. My thanks go to S.

Colourful cover from the Ukraine

Received on Tuesday 21 October, after 13 days of travelling from Kyiv. A truly great 1 UAH stamp celebrating 600 years of the city Chernivtsy in the southwest of the Ukraine, with the coat-of-arms (issued on 4 October 2008, print-run 250,000). Plus 10k "jar" and 30k "pipe" definitives. All used on a prepaid envelope (1 UAH) issued for the International Letter Week. Thank you I.

New Czech stamps - October 2008

Stamps issued on 15 October 2008.
Continuation of last year's Historic Stoves series. After Gothic and Renaissance stoves of 2007 we now have Baroque stove (10 Czk) and Rococo stove (17 Czk). Print-run 3 million each.

Moths from Finland

First cover to be published, received at the time of creating this blog. Sent from Lappeenranta in southern Finland, on 22/10/08. It reached me in only two days, which is the (pleasant) normal travel time of mail between the Czech republic and Finland. The two moths are part of the 3-piece series issued by the Finnish post this year. Great stamps! Thanks H.

Established 24 October 2008

Created from the wish to share with others the pleasant feeling of encountering nice stamps and finding what the postwoman brought to my mailbox. Interaction welcome.