Czech cover no. 9

A letter sent from me to Slovakia (where I took it for myself), with two "A" stamps taken from a sheet of 9 stamps and 12 tabs issued in 2010 to promote philately. Hand-cancelled in Kromeriz, 767 02 (Post Office in the Main Square, fortunately not using machine cancellations yet). 

 

Czech cover no. 8

This A4 cover sent by registered post bears the stamps in the total value of CZK 37. The "Z" (overseas rate, CZK 21) self-adhesive was one of the first such stamps in use from 2010 ("Zodiac" by Alfons Mucha), the "A" (domestic, CZK 10), Fifinka was another one of them, and then there are 3 definitive chrysanthemums from 2011.

Time of travel - 1 day.

The packet was sent from Rokytnice nad Jizerou (Liberec Region/Bohemia) in the western part of the Giant Mountains (Krkonose), which highland character can be seen also in its coat of arms,

to Kromeriz, Zlin Region/Moravia (tending more toward wine-production - the winegrowing knife in the arms):

New Czech stamps + an offer

Talking about vintage cars, I am happy to show a new set of six self-adhesive stamps which were issued by the Czech Post on 5 September. These are pictures by self-taught Czech artist Václav Zapadlík who specialises in the so called "Auto Art". The big stamps (5.5 x 3.3 cm) show:

a) Duesenberg SJ - 1933
b) Wikov 70 - 1931
c) Mercedes Benz 540 - 1936
d) Rolls Royce Phantom III - 1938
e) Bugatti Royale 41 - 1934
f) Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8a - 1929

and are simply awesome. Since I noticed that our local post-office has quite a lot these booklets, I am offering to send one stamp from the series on a postcard or a cover to anyone interested. In return please send me a nicely-stamped postcard showing the place where you live. (In case we haven't exchanged before, please send first, I will reply right upon receiving your card). The E rate means "EUROPE" and one stamp covers the postage to all European countries, for overseas I will add a definitive. I will send the mail hand-cancelled.

If interested, please drop me an email at milan @ noir . cz

Czech cover no. 7

This is a cover of a small registered packet sent in November 2011 from Brno 12 Post Office to Kromeriz. The delivery cost 64 CZK (approx. EUR 2.5) for a 660 gram shoebox. The first stamp on the right shows Alois Musil, Czech traveller, from a series of stamps dedicated to explorers, the 3 CZK stamps is a Christmas stamp from 1995, the 10 CZK is a Baroque stove from 2008 (located in Castle Sternberk), and on the left there's a quartet of Christmas stamps issued in 2007 with a painting by Josef Lada.

Another recent Czech issue (2012)

This is the current Czech EUROPA stamp in the Visit... series, showing the present and the past of Prague: the old Bridge Tower and the avant-garde Dancing House. Nominal value 20 CZK, the rate for sending mail up to 20 grams to Europe. Classical engraved stamp issued on 2 May 2012.

Some recent Czech issues (2012)

The lovely Italian engraved stamp showing the Santissima Trinita Montastery near Cava de' Tirreni reminded me that there were two recent Czech issues of similar old-school engraved stamps... In the Beauties of Our Country series, on 7 March 2012, there were two stamps showing the landscape of Kuks in East Bohemia and the statue of Wisdom by Matyáš Braun located in the famous Kuks sculpture avenue.

The other engraved stamp presents the Baťa Canal in East Moravia, also known as the Otrokovice-Rohatec Canal, which is a historical 52 km waterway built in 1935-38 to connect the town of Otrokovice with Rohatec. The waterway partly follows the Morava river, the rest is a complex of man-made canals with a number of gates, locks (14), and other water structures. There are 23 bridges across the canal, with pedestrian underpasses (platforms with iron-bound low railing used to support tow ropes when towing boats below the bridge). The main material transported on the waterway was lignite from the Ratiškovice mines owned by the Baťa company (text from the Czech Post website). There are plans that the canal should be extended even to Kromeriz where I live. The stamp was issued also in a booklet with two different tabs/coupons.

Czech cover no. 6

A new stamp in the ongoing series dedicated to the tradition of the Czech stamp production, issued on 20 January 2011, reproducing the stamp from a postal card (1966) made by Josef Herčík, one of the top Czech engravers. The cover above bears the stamp with the coupon (taken from a booklet), and has two cancellations... I wanted to have it only hand-cancelled, but interestingly, the cover then still went to receive the machine cancellation, at the same post-office (Kroměříž 1 - the only one here which has the machine).

Below, the stamp is used again, this time without the coupon, but with a hand-cancellation only, from Kroměříž 2 post-office located in the Main Square. This postcard shows the Baroque Church of St. John the Baptist, within a stone's throw of the said office.

Czech cover no. 5

Here's a Czech cover with a few stamps which I wanted to have postally used in my collection. The 6.50 crowns "Rose above Prague II." has two coupons, the right-hand one being used only once in a sheet of nine stamps which is the format these stamps were issued in. The left-hand one accompanies each of the stamps, and is a publicity for a postal savings bank (there may have been other tabs in circulation too, but this is the default version). The stamp was issued on 22 October 2003; incidentally, on 26 March 2003 a very similar stamp in a very similar sheet with different coupons was issued too, only with the nominal value of 6.40 crowns.

The cartoon stamp (28 May 2003) is by Adolf Born, and is part of the series "For Children", the two kids are Mach and Šebestová, who can work miracles with the telephone receiver Mach is holding.

The 0.40 crowns stamp is one of the twelve zodiac signs - pisces.

New Czech stamps - October 2010

Continuing the overview of the recent Czech stamp production... in the post about September stamps I forgot to mention another new A rate definitive stamp, one of the prettiest issued last year. It appeared on 29 September 2010 and shows a hand-painted postal shield of the Austrian postal administration from the collection of the Postal Museum in Prague, with the texts "C.k. poštovní and telegrafní úřad" and "K.k. Post und Telegrafen Amt", six postal goblins busy about their work and a historic map. Print run unknown.

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On 20 October 2010 the Post issued two new stamps in the Technical Monuments series... this time dedicated to bridges: 10 Kč stamp shows one of the newest bridges in the country which is located in Ústí nad Labem on the Labe River (constructed in 1993-1998), whereas the 12 Kč stamp shows the oldest one, in Písek in South Bohemia (older even than the Charles Bridge in Prague). Pity these stamps are rather simplistic, to be honest, I am not too enthusiastic about them:( Print runs: 1,500,000 and 800,000 copies.

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On the same day there were also new additions to the Historic Stoves series: 10 Kč - Art Noveau stove from the village of Troubky-Zdislavice in the district of Kroměříž, and 20 Kč - Art Deco stove from the town of Nové Město nad Metují in East Bohemia. Print runs: 1,500,000 and 1,000,000 copies.

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The stamp issued in October 2010: Myšpulín the Dog from the Four Clover Leaf comics series in a booklet of domestic-rate self-adhesives stamps, continuing in the tradition of Fifinka issued on 28 April 2010. The rest of the quartet will appear in 2011.

Czech cover no. 4

Even if this is not a nice cover with stamps, it contained a lot of nice stamps, so I decided tom show it here anyway... It came from the philatelic office of the Czech Post in Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) with the Czech stamps I ordered for using on letters I send abroad. Orders are made here after registration from among available stamps, and delivered free of charge if the value of the order is higher than 100 Czech crows (4 euro) for Czech addresses, and higher than 500 Czech crowns (20 euro) for addresses abroad (excellent service!!!)

This cover is "insured letter" (cenné psaní), with VL-number on the red barcode sticker, and the money is collected on delivery (cash on delivery, dobírka = remboursement). Travel time from Karlovy Vary to the opposite tip of the country where I live is 1 day.

In the catalogue I came across the very first stamp issued in the Czech Republic (20 January 1993):



The nominal value is still quoted in Czechoslovakian crowns (3 Kčs), now sold for the equal amount in Czech crowns... I will try to use this stamp on cover to see whether the system will accept it, and will show the result here.

Czech cover no. 3

Here is one of the new September 2010 stamps used on cover, with two coupons, the one with the postal submarine delivering mail being attached to only every ninth stamp.

New Czech stamps - September 2010

Still catching up to finish the presentation of the new Czech stamps of 2010:-) (because two new stamps for 2011 are already out...)

On 1 September, the Post issued this lovely sheet with fauna and flora of the South Moravia Biosphere Reserve, with stamps showing butterflies, a hoopoe, a grasshopper and a lizard, along with a set of coupons. Print-run: 70,000.

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On the same day, a new sports stamp was also issued, dedicated to the FIBA World Basketball Championship. Then with the rate of 17 Kč for sending postcards and light letters to Europe. But on 1 September the rate changed... and 17 Kč went up to 20 and 18 Kč for overseas increased to 21 Kč.

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September also saw new additions to the definitive series of flower stamps, widely used here: anemone, tulip and iris.

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There were also three new stamps with letter denominations. PRO FILATELIA A rate stamp with a boy and a girl looking at stamps (9 stamps with 12 coupons in a sheet), PRO FILATELIA E rate stamp with a boy and a stamp (9 stamps and 12 coupons in a sheet, 9 repeated, 3 unique), and the Four Leaf Clover comics characters which had been available until then only as self-adhesives in booklet. Now there is the whole gang as a regular A rate stamp, again issued as 9 stamps and 12 coupons (3 of them being unique).

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And on 29 September there were two new additions to the Personalities series, with Arnold Branald, author of children's book and a playwright, and Karel Zeman, film-maker and graphic designer, hugely popular for his breathtaking film adaptations of Jules Verne novels, using sets painted in the style of Victorian illustrations (mainly engravings by Gustave Doré). More about him also here.

Czech registered cover no. 8

Received today, a registered cover sent from the town of Jaroměř in Královehradecký Region (East Bohemia). The postage is covered by a single engraved stamp of 26 Kč (the current rate for a domestic registered letter of up to 50 grams), showing a picture by Czech painter Alois Kalvoda called "Aspens near Velké Němčice" (1897) housed by the Moravian Gallery in Brno... and it is sublime.

The stamp is part of the decades running series "Art on Stamps", the showcase of the Czech stamp production, and was issued on 9 November 2005, together with two other stamps shown above... or here. I would like to point out this Czech stamp catalogue (unfortunately not in English), presenting the complete stamp production from 1945 to 1992 (Známky ČSR II) and from 1993 to these days (Známky ČR, the links on the right - navigation). The information includes names of issues, dates of issues, print-runs, authors, pictures of FDCs, pictures of sheets, prices for unused, clearly postmarked and not-so-clearly postmarked stamps, etc.

Registered cover from the Czech Republic no. 7

A registered cover received yesterday from the town of Varnsdorf on the Czech-German border in Ustecky kraj (the name does sound German), with three 10 Kč stamps (two self-adhesive Fifinkas - name of the cartoon character - and a rose definitive), with the rest of the postage marked on the R-label (called APOST). Actually, there are two R-labels here, which is a new trend, one classic yellow label stating the postage paid, and a new barcode label, without postage and with the same number. The barcode sticker has been used since 1 September 2010 at all post-offices. The yellow APOSTs will be now used only when the postage is paid in cash. Both are nice collectible material (there are 3377 post offices in the CR:)

The price for sending domestic registered mail weighing 50 - 100 grams is now 34 Czech crowns (i.e. approximately 1.36 euro).

Postcard from Přerov, Czech Republic

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Here is a view of the centre of the town of Přerov, where I grew up:) - the main (Masaryk) Square and the Municipal House, which is a cultural venue for concerts, also with a very stylish (black, plush, and magic) night club (the entry is right behind the bus). The A stamp (local rate of 10 Kč) was issued on 29 September 2010, and in my opinion is one of the best of this year issued here. It features a painted sign of the Austro-Hungarian Post (1870s), a historic map and six postal goblins busy about their important work in postmarking and delivering letters.

The card was dropped on Saturday into a post box, so on Monday it received the automatic cancellation which is truly awful (I expected otherwise, but no, everything found in post boxes these days goes to the machines).