Cover from Hong Kong

A lovely greeting from Hong Kong sent by Brian on 27 April 2010, the date of the issue of a 4-stamp set dedicated to Hong Kong's participation in Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China (of which set I can't find a reasonably large photo). The postage is complemented by a 10c bird definitive from 2006 (White-bellied sea eagle).

Thank you very much, Brian, for the stamps and sending the cover on the date of issue!

Cover from Aland no. 5

A very nice EUROPA stamp from Aland, with an illustration from a book about the Sand Wolf by Asa Lind, Swedish-born author living in the Aland archipelago. The stamp was issued on 19 April and the EUROPA rate shown on it is now 0.85 euro. Print run: 180,000. Thank you, Liisa, again:-)

Cover from Latvia no. 5

Another fine cover from Oleg in Riga, Latvia! This time I have here a self-adhesive square stamp of a protected nature object called "Vaiku Dižakmens", issued on 7 June 2008; another stamp from a great quartet of stamps issued on 7 January 2006 and dedicated to the 50th anniversary of EUROPA stamps in Europe, reprinting the Latvian stamps from 1999 (the theme then was nature reserves and parks), and an impressive bird (raven?) coat of arms of the town of Preili, one of the oldest settlements in Latvia. This stamp was issued for the first time in 1996, and here is a reprint issued on 15 February 2010. Great! Thank you, Oleg!

Postcard of the Maine State Capitol

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Another great card from Dulcey from New Hampshire, USA, postmarked on 11 May 2010 at Manchester, NH, showing the capitol building in Augusta, Maine.

I am also very happy to have received another flag from the great US series Flags of Our Nation, this time Nevada from the 4th set issued on 16 April 2010. The other first class (44c) stamp is taken from a set of ten stamps with homeless pets photographed for a project called Animal Rescue aimed to raise awareness of the need to adopt shelter pets, issued on 30 April 2010. The rest of the postage has been covered by the American clock definitive (2003). Thank you, Dulcey!

My collection of US capitols is here.

Cover from Spain no. 4

Received this week from Carballo in Galicia, the children's book EUROPA stamp from Spain, one of the few using photography. Due to the red colour the stamp is pretty striking and original, not bad at all! It was issued on 6 May 2010 in 320,000 copies. Thank you, José Luís! The Czech stamp is on its way to you.

Registered cover from the Czech Republic no. 6

After a few days which we had to spend with my in-laws due to very heavy rains and the consequent threat of floods of our river Morava:



I am happy to be back. Fortunately, the post has been working and I have received a bunch of great letters and postcards, which I will try to upload here...




The first of them being from the town of Jaroměř, in Královehradecky kraj, Czech Republic - a registered letter with some items won at an auction. The 9 Kč stamp is pretty funny, as it shows the cliché Czech gastronomy feast - a half-liter of lager, and roast duck, sauerkraut and five dumplings... a megaheavy lunch, the most typical of all Czech dishes; the stamp was issued on 4 May 2005, and bears the logo of EUROPA (it was the gastronomy year). The 4 Kč chick stamp was issued on 25 March 1998, and is an Easter stamp (print-run 8,640,000). The 24 Kč has already been commented on these pages; it was 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.

Postcard from China no. 4

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A splendid view of Barkhor Street and the Potala Palace (at the back) in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, named after Mount Potala. The Potala Palace was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The golden kaiserihind (Teinopalpus aureus) stamp is taken from a souvenir sheet showing wild animals under the first-grade state protection, issued on 25 February 2000 (code 2000-3, 10-2).
The two se-tenant stamps show the Hangzhou Bay cross-sea bridge which was linked up on 14 June 2007 and opened on 1 May 2008 and is the second-longest bridge in the world. The stamps were issued on 18 June 2009 and bear the code 2009-11, 2-1 and 2-2.

Thank you, Huang, for this beauty!

EUROPA 2010 cover from France

A great cover received today from Paris! The brand new EUROPA stamp, the first day cancellation and an airmail cover... what a treat! Thank you, Jerome!!!

New Czech stamps - May 2010

There are two new stamps issued on 5 May 2010. The first shows the typical view of the Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge in a fine engraving by Miloš Ondráček. The sheet of four stamps and a margin with a text in Czech and English was issued on the occasion of a representative exhibition presenting more than 90 years of the Czech stamp production held at the Prague Castle from 12 May to 1 August 2010. Print-run unknown.

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The Czech contribution to the EUROPA project, an illustration from a book by Karel Čapek (1890 - 1938) called Dášeňka, or the Life a Puppy, about the adventures of a wire fox terrier from its youth to adulthood. The stamp is printed in offset and issued in a sheet of six, with one hologram logo of the Czech Post. Print-run: 210,000.

Postcard from Malaysia no. 2

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A beautiful postcard received from the city of Kota Bharu, capital of Kelantan state in northern Malasia, showing a tropical dream... a sunset over Kok Bay at Pulau Langkawi, part of an archipelago of 99 islands in the Andaman Sea, some 30 km off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia (state of Kedah).

The attractive 50-sen tiger stamps was issued on 23 February 2010 in a joint emission with Korea. It shows Korean tiger, aka Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica, or tygr ussurijský in Czech). The other stamp in the se-tenant series shows Malayan tiger. The stamps commemorate the year of the tiger and also the 50th anniversary of Malayan-Korea diplomatic relations.

Thank you, Yi Yi!

Cover from the Netherlands no. 3

A nice green cover received last week from Zwolle, Netherlands (postmark 23/4/10), with two stamps from 1994. The drawn stamp (80 + surcharge 40ct) is part of a series of three child welfare stamps and shows a picture of a family picking cherries (issued on 9 November 1994), the other stamp commemorated the 50th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne and glider operation of World War II, and was issued on 15 August 1994.

Postcard from Austin, Texas, USA

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A postcard received via postcrossing.com from Mickey in Austin, TX, sent on 21 April 2010, showing a view of the Frost Bank Tower from the Town Lake in the centre of Austin. And there are three nice stamps, two of them recent 2010 commemoratives. The large 44c stamp shows the painting by Mark Rothko (1903 - 1970) called Orange and Yellow (1956), issued on 11 March 2010 in a series of ten stamps dedicated to abstract expressionists of the 20th century; the picture is not my cup of tea, to be honest, but it certainly broadens the horizons. The second stamp was issued on 22 January 2010 for the occasion of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver (print run 45 million). The postage is complemented by a definitive showing Aerican Clock (2003).

Thank you, Mickey!

Cover from Netherlands Antilles

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A great cover received from Saba, the smallest island of the Netherlands Antilles, consisting largely of the potentially active volcano, Mount Scenery (877 m). The postmark bears the logo of the Nieuwe Post Nederlandse Antillen, the date 14 April 2010, and the name "The Bottom", the largest settlement on the island. It has 495 inhabitants (of total 1424 islanders).

The first 1.64 Netherlands Antillean guilder stamp shows Jose Dormoy, one of the Windward Islands aviation pioneers honoured in a series of stamps issued on 10 November 2009.

The other 1.64 guilder stamp shows tamarind and was issued in 2010, but unfortunately I have not been able to find more info about it.

Thank you, Tristan, for this great addition to my collection:-)

Postcard from Egypt no. 3

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Another great postcard from Farah in Egypt, showing a lithograph by David Roberts, Scottish painter known for "his detailed prints of Egypt and the Near East that he produced during the 1840s from sketches he made during long tours of the region". The picture shows the obelisk at Luxor, Upper Egypt. Luxor is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site (designated in 1979) centred on Thebes.

The 225 pt stamp shows the same obelisk from a different angle, and the postage is complemented by a 25 pt stamp from the same series of archaeological definitives issued in 2002. The card was cancelled in Cairo at first by hand, and then again by a machine.

Thank you!

Cover from Italy no. 6

Wow, another fabulous cover from Giovanni!!! 20 different stamps on the registered A4 envelope sent on 27 April 2010 from Via Rimini post office in Milan:

The blue 9-stamp sheet was issued on 8 February 2006 on the occasion of the Winter Olympic Games held in Turin on 10 - 26 February 2006. The stamps show abstract representations of various sports events.

Then there are 10 stamps from the great series called "Tourism" begun in 1974 and issued to these days. Here are the complete sets for 2002 - 2004.

The stamps for 2002 (issued on 23 March) present: Venaria Reale, in the Province of Turin, with its palace, one of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy, included in the UNESCO Heritage List; San Gimignano, a walled medieval hill town in the Province of Siena, Tuscany, also included in the UNESCO Heritage List; Capo d'Orlando, in the Province of Messina, Sicily; and Sannicandro di Bari, a town in the Province of Bari, Puglia with the Hohenstaufen-Norman castle, located in the centre of the city.

The stamps for 2003 (issued on 5 April) present: Sestri Levante, a town in Province of Genoa, in Liguria, on the Italian Riviera; Procida, a narrow volcanic island and town in the Province of Naples in Campania; and Lanciano, a town in the province of Chieti, the Abruzzo Region, with the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Ponte.

The stamps for 2004 (issued on 10 April) present: Viterbo, an ancient city in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the Province of Viterbo. with its historic center surrounded by medieval walls, still intact, built during the 11th and 12th centuries; Isole Egadi or Aegadian Isles in the Mediterranean Sea off the northwest coast of Sicily (Province of Trapani); and Vignola, a city in the Province of Modena (Emilia-Romagna).

Which is a genuine guide to Italy from the north to the south.

The last 1 euro stamp was issued on 9 September 2006 and shows the Italian flag and the Italian football team, the champions at the World Cup held in Germany.


Thank you very much, Giovanni! That's just great:-)

Cover from Latvia no. 4

A great fairytale stamp from Latvia! One of two issued on 9 April 2010 in the EUROPA project, dedicated this year to children's books. Thank you, Oleg, for this nice surprise:-)