Postcard from Germany no. 3

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Here is a postcard showing the small historic town of Boitzenburg, located north of Berlin in Uckermark District, Brandenburg.

The 55 eurocent wishing stamp was issued on 11 March 2010, and is complemented by a 10 eurocent definitive tulip.

The Briefzentrum 13 is code of Berlin-Nord sorting centre.

Thank you, Christina!

Cover from Italy no. 4

Here is a truly fantastic A4 cover from Giovanni!!! There are two miniature sheets, one dedicated to the Italian comics (fumetti) and its famous heroes Coccobill, Diabolik and Lupo Alberto, and the other to one of the most important works of the world's literature, Dante's La Divina Commedia. This sheet is remarkable in that it is part of a joint issue with San Marino and Vatican and reproduces on the tab the last part of the sentence of the Inferno, while the San Marino and Vatican versions reproduce the preceding parts. The whole text of the first sentence is: Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura ché la diritta via era smarrita.

The comics sheet was issued on 23 October 2009 on the occasion of "La Giornata del Colezionismo" ("The Day of Collecting"), and the Dante sheet two days earlier on the occasion of "La Giornata della Lingua Italiana" ("The Day of the Italian Language").

Grazie, Giovanni!

New Czech stamps - January 2010

After the break I am resuming the presentation of the new Czech stamps. In December there were none, so let's start on 20 January 2010.



As usual, January seems the continuation of the series "The Tradition of the Czech Stamp Production". The 10 Kč stamp shows a stamp from the series Tradition of Czech Porcelain (Medici Vase from Slavkov) issued on 15 June 1977 and designed by Vladimír Kovářík (1921 - 1999), to whom this new issue is dedicated. The print-run is 950,000. There is also a booklet with 4 coupons.

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Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová (1785 - 1845) is known here as the author of a very influential and popular cookbook Domácí kuchařska (The Home Cook, 1826), written for middle-class housewifes. The book helped to improve their knowledge of the Czech language and also served to awaken nationalistic feelings since she and her husband were keen supporters of the National Revival movement. M. Rettigová wrote also prose, poetry and drama, and had 11 children. Print-run 800,000.

Postcard from Serbia no. 4

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Here is a pretty postcard sent from Novi Sad, showing the 14th century Serbian Orthodox Poganovo monastery, located at the gorges of river Jerma, near the village Poganovo, Dimitrovgrad, in southeastern Serbia near the Bulgarian border.

The first stamp from the left was issued on 31 March 2009 and is dedicated to the 25th Summer Universiade which was held in Belgrade on 1 - 12 July 2009. The middle stamp commemorates another important event - the 125th anniversary of Serbian railways, and features the first steam locomotive used there and the building of the station in Belgrade. The stamp was issued on 8 September 2009. The rest of the postage is made up by a definite (2006) presenting the 13-century monastery in Žiča in central Serbia.

Thank you, Judit!

Cover from Aland no. 4

After the minimalist EUROPA scouting stamp from 2007 Aland issued another very simple but effective stamp in the EUROPA astronomy series in 2009. The dark blue stamp shows just the seven stars of the Big Dipper constellation, only that they are perforated in the form of stars, what a great idea! This cover was posted in Mariehamn on 8 May 2009, the day of the issue, and was, therefore, cancelled by the corresponding special postmark. The value for European destinations is 0.80 EUR, print-run 200,000. Thank you, Liisa, yet again!

Postcard from Jamaica

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Received at the end of 2009. A postcard showing Fort Charlotte at Lucea in Hanover parish in northwestern tip of the island. The fort was built in 1761 for the defence of the Lucea which, at that time, was in danger of attack by French raiders.

The JMD 50 stamp was issued in 2009 and is part of the Christmas series showing native art. 50 Jamaican dollars are 0.41 EUR.

Norden 2010 cover from Finland

A brand new cover sent on 31 March 2010 from Espoo, Finland, from Matti, who put on the envelope the current miniature sheet from the Norden series - a joint initiative of the philatelic bureaus of the Nordic countries (there are 8 in total - more info: here. This year's theme is The North by the Sea. The sheet was sent on the official first day cover, with a nice retro illustration. Thank you, Matti!

Back again:-)

It's been some time since my last December post, and I would like to apologise for the silence caused at first by Christmas holidays, then by malfuctioning Windows which has resulted in my switching to Linux with the related necessity to learn new computer tricks and launching new programmes to handle the scanner and graphics programmes. We also had to overcome a chain of spring childhood diseases, so I was forced to actually abandon my hobby, which, fortunately, makes itself heard again with renewed force. Even if we are expecting a baby any day now, I hope to stay here again.

I've received a lot of fantastic covers and there are dozens of them waiting to be shown here, and to be sent too, especially to a few patient friends who have not heard from me for a long time (Latvia, Argentina...). There has been also a number of new Czech stamps which I will show here too.

Thank you for your support and continuing interest!

Cover from Russia no. 10

Another great cover from Alex (Astrakhan)! A complete series of three stamps dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Russian Research of Antarctica, issued on 26 January 2006, with a map of Antartica and showing the Obj Diesel-electric Ship, the Il-76TD transport aircraft and the research expedition ship “The Academician Feodorov", and the scientific investigations, the under the ice research, the sledge transport train. The letter was sent on 15 January 2010. Thank you, Alex!

Cover from Italy no. 3

Thank you, Giovanni, for this splendid registered cover received a few days ago! Apart from the two excellent and informative books on Venezia, there is this miracle of contemporary Italian stamp production - stamps of various materials, ranging from traditional paper to silk.

The trio of light brown stamps on the left are in fact adhesive wooden sheets or foils (lamine di legno) without perforation, issued on 2 July 2007 in 1.5 million pieces. The stamp shows the Basilica di San Vincenzo in Galliano near Cantù in northern Italy (Province di Como), which was consecrated in 1007.

The other three self-adhesive geography-related stamps feature famous places in Europe, issued in a booklet on 25 October 2009 on the occasion of "The Day of Europe" (Giornata dell'Europa), they are: Pont du Gard in France, Hadrian's Wall in Great Britain and the Roman Odeon in Patras in Greece. The stamps also bear a logo of Italia 2009 - International Festival of Philately.

The largest stamp sheet was issued on 20 November 2001, and is made entirely of silk. Wow, it wouldn't have even occurred to me there could be anything like that! The stamp (or francobusta, as the Italian Post also called it) is self-adhesive and shows a picture of the Lake and City of Como in northern Italy, in Province of Como, not far from Milan, which is known as "cittá della seta - city of silk".

The rest of the postage is covered by the some of the current female heads definitives.

And there is much more to come from Italy!

Grazie mille, Giovanni!!!