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:-)

Postcard from Belarus

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A great postcard received from Belarus, postmarked in Grodno, showing an aerial view of the historic town of Volkovysk (Vaŭkavysk) in western Belarus, pop. 48,000.

The matching stamp, issued on 2 September 2005 in 72,000 copies, commemorated the 1000th anniversary of its founding, since the first mention of Volkovysk in the Turov Annals is in 1005. At that time Volkovysk was city-fortress on the border of the Baltic and the Slavic ethnic groups. The wolf in the coat of arms reflects the name of the town in Russian "Volko-vysk", the place where wolves howl.

The two smaller definitives are from 2008. Thank you, Helena!