My first cover from Turkmenistan

(I’m writing this blog post from the Air France lounge in Paris airport, waiting for my flight to Shanghai where I will spend another very busy week.)

Yesterday I had the surprise to receive my first cover from Turkmenistan! This adds on country to the list of places in the world from where I got mail. It is a pity that the stamps on the cover seem to have been spoiled (cut ? or damaged during the transport?) but the cover contained some mint stamps that arrived in a good shape and that I will share with you also in this post.

But first here is the cover.

The stamp on the far right is part of a set of two souvenir sheets issued on the 6^th of April 2007 as a tribute to the first president of Turkmenistan. Here is a picture of both souvenir sheets that contain several stamps picturing the president.

The other stamp used on the cover is part of a set of three stamps issued on the 2^nd of July 2009 and picturing animals from Turkmenistan. A copy of a mint version of the set was included in the cover, here it is. I’m not very sure to be able to name the exact species of the animals that are pictured.Inside the cover there was also another set of seven stamps, issued at the same time that the previous one and also dedicated to fauna. Here it is.

I must admit that this is the first time that I see stamps from this country. What is striking when you look at them is that they do not bear any denomination but they bear letters : A, G, D, K…

I don’t know how the system is working to determine the rate which is associated to each letter. I could not find any useful information on the internet on this, so if you know something about it, let me know. Thanks.