My Philately

Buying the 2012 Australian legends stamps in Melbourne

2012-01-23T04:11:00.002+02:00

This is my last day in Australia. I am currently in Melbourne, and tomorrow I will fly back to Paris via Singapore.I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about my new experience in anAustralian post office, trying to buy stamps. But first let me give you thecontext.

On the 20^th of January, Australian post hasissued a set of eight stamps in the series “Australian legends” started in1997. Each year since 1997, the Australian Legends Award has recognizedoutstanding individuals for their part in shaping the social and cultural lifeof Australia.

In 2012, the Australia Post Australian Legends awardcelebrates eight doyens of football, champions past and present. The fourcategories are:

- Australian rules football, with Ron Barassi and GaryAblett

- Rugby league,with John Raper and Billy Slater

- Rugby union, withDavid Campese and David Pocock

- Soccer,with Joe Marston and Mark Schwarzer

Here are the eight stamps.

As usual, the Australian post has issued a huge numberof philatelic products around this issue, such as the stamp pack, the maximumcards, the fdc, the gutter pairs.

And I don’t show you the booklets (one for eachstamp), the booklet of booklets (yes!), the deluxe presentation pack and I don’t knowwhat else. Gosh, you must be rich if you want to collect all items related tonew stamp issues in Australia!

As you can imagine, I am interested in this stampissue because two of the stamps are related to RugbyUnion, my favorite sport and topic for collection. I therefore decided to tryto buy the stamps from a post office in Melbourne.Just near the GPO, an old building that must have been a General Post Office inthe past but which is now a shopping center, I found a large post shop from Australiashop. I decided to try this place. First thing that surprised me when entering isthat you could find there a lot of things not at all related to postal service.For instance you could buy some plastic things to protect your toothbrush!

Then in a corner of the shop there was a large windowdisplay with all the recent stamps and philatelic issues. I was delighted as this isexactly what I was looking for! It was written that all these items are sold atthe postal desk, you just needed to ask the clerk. So I queued at the postaldesk. Then I was welcomed by a very nice lady. When I asked her the stamp packfrom the 2012 Australianlegend then I felt she did not really understand what I wanted. I thought thatmy (bad) accent was the cause of the trouble, so I pointed to the poster justbehind her, advertizing the product I was looking for. She looked at the posterand looked back at me and then said “I’m not sure we have it”. Then I thought “comeon, why do you have posters advertizing the items and why do you have this big displayif you don’t have them!” but I did not say that, of course, and simply asked:could you check? She then disappeared for five minutes, and then came back witha large smile: she had found it! I was relieved. At this stage I did not dareasking her about the FDC and the maximum cards that I would have liked topurchase also. I can get them from another source (internet for instance).

As a conclusion I would say that it seems thesituation in Australiais very comparable, as far as stamps are concerned. The number of issues (andrelated items) is big, probably bigger than in France. And it seems less and lesscommon to buy stamps from a post office. It seems everything is done toencourage you to buy stamps from the internet. We can be a bit worried aboutour hobby!

Twenty... and counting

2012-01-16T07:17:00.001+02:00

Twenty! This is the number of countries from where Ialready received a frog cover for my mail art project “the frogsof the world challenge” (on top of which I can add two from regional area).And there are more, travelling to my mail box at the time I’m writing theselines.

For this post I wanted to share with you the threelast ones I got, because, as you will see, there are the results of an experiment.I recently had the idea to try a trick to get such frog covers from countrieswhere I have low chance to go. I decided to get some stamps from the desiredcountry, to prepare my cover and sent it to the philatelic service of thecountry, asking them that they simply send it back to me. The cover is already frankedso I did not see any reason why they would refuse. I selected three “friendly”philatelic services to start my experimentation: Iceland,Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.And as you will see below, it worked from the three of them.

All three covers below are “over franked” as I couldnot decide myself to break the stamp set I had bought and decided to use thewhole set on the cover. And I really like the result.

The first one I tried was Iceland. I used the set of fourstamps issued on the 27h of January 2011 to celebrate the 50^thanniversary of the World Wide Fund for Nature. Here the cover I got back.

Nice one isn’t it? They nicely added the “air mail”blue label and the postmark from Reykjavikis really clean.

The four stamps picture endangered birds: from left toright and top to bottom: the Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis), the White-frontedgoose (Anser albifrons), the Common scoter (Melanitta nigra) and the Gadwall(Anas strepera). All stamps also contain the WWF logo in the top left corner.

Encouraged by this success, I tried Liechtenstein.For this one I used a set of four stamps issued on the 14^th ofNovember 2011 and dedicated to castles in Liechtenstein. Here is the cover.

The four stamps picture four different castles as theylooked by at the end of the 19^th century (so sometimes they are inruins). The stamps are based on paintings from the artist Moriz Menzinger(1832-1914). Clockwise, the stamps picture the following castles:

- the Schalun ruin in the Vaduz Forest

- the Vaduz Castle viewed from thenorth

- the Gutenberg Castle in Balzers

- the Schellenberg ruins

Again the stamps have been cleanly cancelled. Whatseems strange for me is the date on the cancel: 23.14.11 ? Is it a mistake ?

This cover is by the way the first cover I get from Liechtensteinand bearing stamps!

Finally, before leaving for Australiafor my vacation, I tried a third country: Luxembourg. I used a set of fourstamps issued on the 6^th of November 2011. This set is the second ina series about “trades of yesterdays”.

The nice stamps picture old trades: the potter, the joiner,the printer, the stonemason. It is not very visible on the scan, but all smallsymbols pictured in the left bottom corner of the stamps are printed in gold.

Again a nice and clean cancel on the stamps.

I may try again this experimentation with differentcountries. I will let you know the results. Once again, if you want to help mein my project, just drop me a mail and I will tell you how you can help!

Year of the Dragon stamps from Australia

2012-01-11T06:58:00.001+02:00

I am writing this postfrom my hotel room in Sydneywhere I spend very nice holidays. Theweather is warm and nice, even if a little bit cloudy.

Yesterday, Tuesday the10^th of January was the first day of issue of the stamps celebratingthe Chinese New year, the Year of the Dragon, issued by Australian post. Ofcourse, as you can imagine, I could not miss the opportunity to visit a postoffice to try to buy some of the stamps are related products.

As during my last stayin Sydney in 2009, buying stamps (well moreexactly buying the stamps you want) in a post office is almost as impossible asin France!I finally found what I was looking for, at the Sydney Philatelic Center, located not veryfar from my hotel.

I’m not really a bigfan of the stamps issued for the Chinese New Year. Very often this is only theoccasion for postal administrations to draw money away from collectors. And asusual, Australian post did not hesitate: the number of philatelic items issuedfor the occasion is really huge! Let’s have a look to what I have seen.

First the stamp setitself.

The stamps show thedevelopment of the Chinese character for the Dragon, shown fully in the $1.80stamp, and the way it is derived from its pictorial representation, shown inthe 60c stamp. Paper cut motifs are used to represent the Dragon in the 60cstamp. The Dragon occupies a special place in the Chinese zodiac, being theonly mythical creature among them.

The stamps can also bepurchased with decorated gutter.

Then there is theminiature sheet.

The miniature sheettells the story (in Chinese and English) about the helpful, soft-hearted Dragonwho, although expected to win the race because he could fly, only came fifthbecause he stopped during the race to create rain to break a severe drought andthen aided the rabbit, a fellow competitor, by gently blowing him across theriver on a raft.

Followed by the nowusual zodiac sheetlet.

There is a specialgold foil overprinting on the stamps, minisheet and zodiac sheetlet.

You can add on top astamp pack that can be used as a greeting card.

On the postalstationeries side you can find a postal card and two pre-paid envelopes.

And I don’t show you theFDCs, the prestige booklet and other miscellaneous items! Ouf!

A commemorative cover from Germany

2012-01-10T12:00:00.000+02:00

Here is a very nice coverthat I received from Germany.

The cover has beendesigned by its sender to commemorate the 50^thanniversary of the New Protestant Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church(Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche in German) located in Berlin.

The “old” church wasconsecrated in 1895. It was named in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm by hisgrandson Kaiser Wilhelm II. The church was widely destroyed in 1943during a bombing raid.

The “new” church,designed by Egon Eiermann, consists on four buildings grouped aroundthe remaining ruins of the old church. Among those four buildingthere is an impressive tower that is 54m high. The new church wasconsecrated in 1961.

The stamp used onthe cover was issued to celebrate the 50^thanniversary of the consecration of the new church. It pictures thetower of the new church and the reaming part of the old one. Anotherview has been used by the sender of this letter to illustrate thecover on the left side. I think the mixture between the old and thenew buildings gives a very stunning result!

The stamp is cancelledwith the commemorative postmark which is very nice also.

Also as an illustration,you can see a picture of a 1953 stamp that pictures the old church asit was before its destruction. Here is a copy of the original stamp.

The old and new churcheshave appeared several times on stamps.

In 1956 astamp was issued picturing the remaining ruins of the old churchafter the bombing.

The top of the old churchalso appears on a 1961 stamps.

The old and newchurches appear together on a 1965 stamp illustrating the “NewBerlin”.

And again theyappear on a 1987 stamp commemorating the 750^thanniversary of Berlin.

The 100^thanniversary of the consecration of the old church was also celebratedby a stamp in 1995.

Just to close thisphilatelic illustration, a stamp issued in 2004 pictures part of theold and new churches in the background of a stamp commemorating the100^thanniversary of the birth of Egon Eiermann, its designer.

To complete the franking,the cover also bears a label picturing the top of the BrandenburgGate that I don’t need to introduce as it is probably the mostfamous landmark of Berlin!

A cover from Dubai

2012-01-08T12:00:00.000+02:00

I have received andscanned the cover that illustrates this post since a while now, but Inever found the time to share it with you. Thisis a pity because I think this is the first cover I receive from UAE(United Arab Emirates). This one is coming from Dubai (Thank you verymuch Ganesh for this nice cover).

So here is the coverbearing five large and nice stamps.

The stamp located inthe top right corner was issued on the 2nd of December 2009 tocelebrate the 38th National Day. The National Day is celebrated onthe 2nd of December each year in the United Arab Emirates. It marksthe UAE's formal independence from the United Kingdom and theeventual unification of the seven emirates in 1971 which combined toform the modern-day country. The stamppictures the official emblem of the 38^thNational Day that reuses the four colors of the national flag: green,red, black and white.

The stamp located onthe left of the preceding was issued on the 4^thof April 2011 to commemorate the 17^thGCC Stamp Exhibition that was held in Abu Dhabi. The stamp reuses thesame color code and picture the head of the Peregrine Falcon, thenational bird and symbol of UEA. I think the result is really nice.

You can see thisPeregrine Falcon on the two other stamps that are part of thedefinitive series issued on the 2^ndof April 2009. The full set contains seven stamps where the designmixes the falcon with the Arabic symbol of the country.

The last stamp wasissued on the 31^stof May 2011 to celebrate the 5th Gulf federation for cancer controlconference that was held from the 5^thto the 7^thof May in Sharjah. The stamp pictures the logo of the conference.

I must admit that I didnot now so much about the modern stamps of UEA and this cover isreally a nice addition to my covers collection!

Frogs in space! A commemorative cover

2012-01-06T12:00:00.000+02:00

Do you know what anOFO is? (No I did not make a typo, I didnot mean an UFO (unidentified flying object). I really meant an OFO.It stands for Orbiting Frog Otolith.

This is the name of a NASAspace program that resulted in the launch in 1970 of a spacecraft,sending two bullfrogs into orbit for the study of the effect ofweightlessness.

The name “Otolith”refers to the part of the inner ear that is associated with theequilibrium control. The purpose of the mission was to investigatethe effect of microgravity on the otolith. Bullfrogs have been chosenbecause they have an inner ear labyrinth that is very similar to theones of human.

Initially planned in1966 (what a great year ;-) ) the OFO was orbited on the 9^thof November 1970. It staid in orbit for seven days, no recover wasplanned (which means that the fate of the two poor frogs was fixedsince the beginning…)

As almost all spaceprograms this event has been commemorated via postal covers. Here isone.

The left side of the coverpictures the details of the OFO spacecraft.

The cover is cancelled onthe day of the launch with a mechanical cancel from Wallops Island,Virginia. Wallops Island is a small island located off the east coastof Virginia. It hosts Wallops Flight Facility operated by NASA since1945 to launch all sort of rockets, including the one that orbitedthe OFO.

The cover is frankedwith a nice stamp issued by USA on the 9^thof July 1970 to commemorate the 150^thanniversary of the statehood of state of Main. Main became a state onthe 15^thof March 1820. The stamp pictures a painting from my one of myfavorite painters, Edward Hopper. The painting is called “Lighthouseat two lights” and is currently displayed in the MetropolitanMuseum of Art in New York.

On my way to Australia

2012-01-03T10:00:00.000+02:00

I am currently travelling to Australia for a bit more than three weeks vacation. I'm not sure I will be able to update my blog during this time. So if not, see you end of January when I'm back!

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T14:55:00.003+02:00

Just a short note to wish all of you a very happy new year. I hope 2012 will bring you all what you may desire for you and your family!

I have updated the list of links on my blog. If you want me to add a link to yours, don't hesitate to send me a mail.

Frogs, frogs, frogs everywhere !

2011-12-28T21:00:00.001+02:00

As I said in a previous post, I have started a very massive reshuffling of my website presenting my frog stamps collection (The Philatelic Frog) and as you can imagine I am very slow in doing this change. Nevertheless, these last months, I have accumulated quite a big number of frog stamps and on popular demand (don’t laugh I had two different requests ;-) ) I decided to write this post to share with you all my latest findings.

Sooner or later they will be posted on my website but for people sharing the same interest this blog post could be already a good source of information.

I present them below in so specific order and I do not show the ones I already showed in this blog. Some are recent issues from 2011, some are older (mainly 2010) but I only recently found out about them. Some of these issues have been highlighted to me by some of my readers and for this I would like to say a big thank you to every body reading my blog and an even bigger thank you to all who help me in my collections.

• Let’s start by Dominican Republic that issued a set of four stamps on the 7th of September 2011 bearing the logo of the WWF and picturing the same frog species: Hypsiboas heilprini (Hispaniolan Green Tree frog)

To be noted that these are the first frog stamps issued by this country.

• Then a stamp and souvenir sheet issued by Indonesia on the 5th of November 2011.

The frog that is pictured on the stamp is a Leptophryne cruentata (Bleeding toad). To be noted that souvenir sheet is pre-cut in the form of a water lily leaf as you can see on the First Day Cover below.

• 2011 has been chosen as the international year of the forest and at this occasion, United Nations have issued a set of six stamps (two se-tenant stamps per office). The stamps from the office of New York picture a magical forest and its inhabitants among which there is a red frog.

What I find surprising for these stamps (and for the other stamps of the set by the way) is that nowhere it is mentioned that United Nations is the entity that has issued the stamps! Strange, no?

• Now let’s move to Ukraine where a very impressive sheet of five stamps has been issued on the 22nd of November 2011 to picture amphibians.

The stamps picture the following species: Pelophylax kl. esculentus (Edible frog), Pelophylax lessonae (Pool frog), Pelophylax ridibundus (Marsh frog), Rana dalmatina (Agile frog) and the well known Hyla arborea (Green tree frog).

• To stay on spectacular issue, here is one from Vanuatu, issued on the 27th of July 2011 with four stamps and a rather impressive souvenir sheet. All stamps pictures the same type of frog, a Litoria aurea (Green and golden bell frog)

I could not find any information to confirm that the two following issues are valid ones. If you have any information I would be happy to get some as they may be bogus issues. Even if they are valid they are clearly issues targeting topical collectors and will probably never see a cover!

• The first one is from Guinea-Bissau

• The second is one from Mozambique.

• Let’s continue with this stamp booklet issued by Ecuador in 2011 to promote the Yasuni-ITT program and that contains three stamps picturing a frog.

The Yasuni-ITT program is named after the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini field located in the Yasuni National Park. Under this field a big reserve of oil has been found by through the Yasuni-ITT initiative the government from Ecuador committed not to exploit this oil reserve in order to protect the spectacular natural reserve full of various species of plants and animals that represents this area.

• In the of four stamps issued on the 24th of August 2011 by Costa-Rica featuring the flora and fauna of the natural reserve “Bosque Eterno de los Niños” we can find a stamp picturing a frog, Lithobates vibricarius.

• A souvenir sheet issued in 2011 by Bangladesh featuring rare animals of the country contains a stamp picturing a frog, Euphlyctis hexadactylus (Green pond frog).

• A very different type of issue is the set of stamps issued by Gambia in the scope of the international philatelic exhibition Nippon 2011. Dedicated to Origami, this issue pictures various animals in paper among which there is a frog.

As you may know, if you read my blog regularly, I’m very found of Origami, therefore I really like this issue. The frog is not an easy model for Origami, I never succeeded to fold a good one.

• Also on a different note here is a stamp issued by Soith Korea on the 1st of October 2011 as part of the definitive series. The stamp pictures a long-necked Jar decorated with clay figurines among which you can see some frogs.

Among the issues of 2010 I would like to share with you the following.

• The fist frog stamp from Bolivia issued on the 1st of November 2010.

It is part of a set of four stamps dedicated to endangered species. The frog that is featured on the stamp is an Atelopus tricolor (the Three-colored harlequin toad).

• The rather rare issue from East Timor celebrates the year of biodiversity with amphibians and reptiles

Limnonectes timorensis (Timor river frog) is the species features on the stamp.

• Also to celebrate the year of the biodiversity, here is the stamp issued by Morocco on the 1st of October 2010 on which there is, as you can see on the zoom, a small frog

Mail from Santa Calus

2011-12-22T19:00:00.000+02:00

When Iwas a young boy, I was told by adult people that Santa Claus wouldcome into my house through the chimney tobring me presents, but only if I have been a good boy. At this time Iwas very skeptic because there was no chimney in my house! So howcould Santa Claus come? I remember that I tried to stay awake duringthe whole night in order to see him and see how he would do… Ofcourse I failed and felt asleep very quickly…

Years later,I know that Santa Claus does not really exist ;-) but I always likethe Christmas spirit. This is why I’m happy to share with you somemails received from Santa Claus office.

I got thefirst one from Elena, a colleague from Romania, who spent few days inLapland. She was kind enough to take the time to send me one postcardand one cover.

On thepostcard is pictured Santa Claus village located in Rovaniemi.

Rovaniemi isa city located in the North of Finland, 10km away from the polarcircle. It is the capital of the finish Lapland and is the officialhome town of Santa Claus.

Here is theother side of the card bearing a Christmas stamp issued in 2001.

The postmarkis more visible on the cover that I also got from Elena.

Nicepostmark, isn’t it? I could not really find information on thestamp that Elena used on the cover. It seems it is part of a setissued in 2011 for the Stamp Day but I’m not completely sure. Ialso don’t now what is the bridge pictured on the stamp; If youknow I would be happy to hear from you.

From thesame place I also received the “official” letter from Santa Claussent by the Finish post.

Same stamp,same postmark. The letter that was inside is in French! Here it iswith also a nice drawing on the reverse side.

The coveralso contained a 2012 calendar. This letter from Santa Claus is notfree. It can be bought from Finish post website and exists in variouslanguages.

And tofinish let me show you the letter from Santa Claus that French postis sending. To get it you just need to write to Santa using theFrench post website. What you get is a postal stationary containing asmall gift, a paper mask to be cut out for your kids.

As I won’tprobably have time to write more in my blog before the weekend, letme whish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS. Let’s get immersed in the Christmasspirit!

Some more mails from postal administrations

2011-12-19T20:53:00.000+02:00

As a follow up of myprevious post, I would like to share with you some more mails that Ireceived from other postal administrations.

The first one is fromLiechtenstein. This is the first letter I receive from this country,but as you can see it does not bear any stamps unfortunately.

But on the positive side Imust say that this cover contained a gift for me (on top of itsexpected content). This is a nice Christmas card. I think itcompensates the lack of stamps on the cover!

The card bears oneof the three Christmas stamps issued by the Liechtenstein Post on the14^thof November. Here is a picture of the full set that I rather like(two of the three stamps contain an ox in their design so will fitinto my cow/ox collection!).

The second one is fromLuxembourg. Again no stamps on it!

But again there wasan unexpected gift inside. This is again a Christmas card containingthe Christmas stamp issued by Luxembourg on the 6^thof November 2011 and bearing the first day cancel.

I realized that this stampwould also fit into my collection as among the small animals that youcan see there is a small ox!

The last one comes fromFaroe Islands. My first cover from this part of the world! And thistime the postal administration has used four stamps to frank thecover!

The four stamps arepart of a set of eight issued on the 18^thof September 2006. The full set has been issued as a souvenir sheet.

The stamps picturevarious views of sandoy, one of the Faroe Islands. There are 18islands in total, one

being inhabited, and sandoy being the fifthbiggest one.

Mails from postal administrations

2011-12-03T15:58:00.001+02:00

I recently received mails from several postal administrations and I decided to share them with you in order to share also my frustration.

Before I show you the covers I received, let me give two important precisions. The first one is that all these covers (except one) were sent only to me, I mean that they were not covers containing a generic mail sent to hundreds or thousands of people. The second point is that they are all coming from the philatelic service of the concerned postal administration.

Here are the covers I got from Sweden, Finland and United Nations.

You start to understand where I going to?

Now let’s see the covers I got from Iceland and Portugal.

You see the differences? The last two covers are franked with real stamps! Yes! And it really makes a difference.

And for Portugal I must even precise that the cover contained a catalog of 2011 products, so not a mail just sent to me but to a lot a people. This is the exception.

The cover from Iceland bears a Christmas stamp from a set of two issued on the 5th of November 2009 and picturing stained-glass exploring Iceland’s religious history.

The second stamp is a part of a set of two issued on the 10th of March 2005 dedictaed to mice! The stamp pictures a (cute) field mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) as opposed to the house mouse (Mus musculus) which is pictured on the second stamp of the set.

The Portuguese cover bears a more recent stamp which is part of a set of six issued on the 3rd of March 2011 celebrating the inscription of fado in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.

The set pictures the most famous people associated with this traditional Portuguese musical genre.

Why all philatelic services don’t use stamps when they write a specific customer? This could be a very good advertisement of their products. This experience makes me feel like buying more stamps from Iceland and Portugal!

My first cover from Laos

2011-12-02T12:00:00.000+02:00

I’m very happy today to share with you my first cover received from Laos! This is a registered cover franked with a rather interesting number of stamps. Here it is.

The bad news is that I have had a lot of difficulties to find some information about the stamps (date of issue, subject, etc). I could not find any good on line resources to learn about the recent stamps issued by Laos.

I can anyway share with you my limited knowledge.

The stamp located on the far left was issued in 2005 to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Lao PDR. Indeed this is on the 2^nd of December 1975 that the country became the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

The stamp in the middle was issued in 2010 to commemorate the 15^th anniversary of the nomination of the city of Luang Prabang as UNESCO world heritage site. I don’t know if other stamps have been issued together with this one and I could not really find details on what it pictures.

All the other stamps, picturing flowers, are 2011 issues on which I could not find any information.

If you can help me to gather more details I would be very happy.

Advent calendar

2011-12-01T21:07:00.001+02:00

Today being the 1st of December I have opened the first window of the Advent calendar that I bought from the French post.

As expected behind the window there as a piece of chocolate (not the best chocolate in the world if you allow me…) wrapped into a paper reusing the design of the Happiness image that is on the window and on the stamps of the collector.

Twenty four days to go before Chistmas ;-)

Unusual cancellation on a French cover

2011-11-23T21:36:00.001+02:00

I have received this covera long time ago but I never took the time to share it with you. Overthe weekend I was doing some clean up among the scanned images in myPC and I found it back and decided to show it today.

The stamps on the coverare not the reason why I wanted to write about it? Nevertheless, letme give some information about them.

The stamp on theleft has been issued in 1973 to celebrate the 10^thanniversary of the cooperation treaty between France and Germany.That was signed on the 22^ndof January 1963. The design of the stamp uses a mixture of the Frenchand German flags to illustrate this cooperation.

The other stamp hasbeen issued in 1989 to celebrate the 200^thanniversary of the French revolution. The stamp has been designed bythe Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon and pictures the birds used as alogo during the commemoration.

The real reason thattriggered my intention to share this cover with you is the cancel.The block of four stamps is cancelled with an unusual rectangularcancel. Here is a close up of the cancellation (I tried to play withPhotoshop to highlight more the cancel, this is the best I could do).

As you can see the cancel reads: Montrouge CCT1 920840.

Montrouge is the city where I live. CCT1 stands for Centre de Courrier Type 1 (Mail center type 1). My understanding is that a CCT1 comes from the split of a post office in two separate entities (located in the same place but with their own director): one entity for mail sorting/distribution and one for the general public. I don’t know what a CCT2 is and I don’t know if there are other types of CC.

I guess 920840 is the code of the CCT1 of Montrouge.

This is the firs time I see such cancel on a cover. I guess that what happened is that the cover left un-cancelled the place where it was mailed and that when it arrives in Montrouge mail center they used what they had in hands to cancel the stamps.

At the end it gives an unusual item!

A cover from Colombia and a new frog item

2011-11-16T22:17:00.001+02:00

I recently received a very nice cover from Colombia that I would like to share with you. This is a registered letter, franked with an interesting number of stamps. The stamps are cancelled with a nice postmark from Bogota. A nice result! Here is the cover.

The stamp on the left part of the cover was issued in 2005 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Colpatria bank. The stamp pictures the Colpatria tower that hosts the headquarter of the bank, a 50 story skyscraper located in Bogota. This is the tallest building of the country; it was built in 1978/1979.

The stamp located in the middle of the cover is part of a set of four corporate stamps issued on the 1st of March 2009 to commemorate the launch 4.72, the new name of the postal service in Colombia. I could not find information about the origin of this name, 4.72?

The last stamp on the right was issued in 2006 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Saint Francis Xavier.

But what was even more interesting for me was what was inside the cover: a souvenir sheet recently issued by Colombian post to celebrate biodiversity. I’m not a bog fan of the design of the souvenir sheet, as it looks really artificial. It looks similar to other souvenir sheets issued by this country. I could not find the exact date of issue of the sheet, so if you have information, please contact me.

Here is the item.

As you can see the souvenir sheet pictures several frogs, two on the border and one on the stamp. The stamp pictures a rather impressive number of species of animals and plants! The design is quite loaded. Only the animals and plants pictured on the stamp are identified, which makes the stamp design even more crowded.

The frog pictured on the stamp is a Lhemann’s Poison frog (Dendrobates lehmanni), a species of frog that is endemic to Colombia. It is named after the Colombian biologist Frederico Carlos Lehmann. The stamp pictures three other animals and four plants!

I take this opportunity to tell you that I’m working on a BIG reshuffling of my frog stamp website. It takes me a lot of time and energy, this is why I have less time to update this blog. I hope I will be able to finish soon and to share it with you.

Is Christmas almost there?

2011-11-10T10:03:00.000+02:00

I can not believe it. We are only at the beginning of November, but already since several weeks Christmas decorations and chocolates have appeared in shops and super-markets. Also on the philatelic front Christmas stamps issues are popping up from everywhere. On Tuesday it was the case of Royal Mail that has issued a set of stamps in various forms including a souvenir sheet.

Here are the stamps.

Here is the souvenir sheet.

Some of the stamps are also available in booklets.

The design is rather traditional for Christmas stamps, using scenes from the Nativity.

Christmas stamps, when they picture Nativity, is a big source for my collection of stamps picturing cows and oxen. Indeed, very often the traditional ox is pictured on the stamps together with the donkey as it is the case of one of the stamps from Royal Mail.

Also in the nativity stamps from France that I bough during the stamp fair (mettre un lien), several stamps picture an ox in the background. I will probably have to dedicate one part of my cow and ox stamp collection to Christmas stamps!

My visit to "le salon d'automne" (cont'd)

2011-11-08T21:52:00.000+02:00

Just a short postto share with you the FDC that I sent to myslef from the "salon d'automne" that I mentioned in my previous post.

Here are the two FDC.

I also wanted to share with you something I forgot. During the stamp fair, on the booth of the French post, you could buy an advent calendar. Here is a small picture coming from the web, the calendar being to big to be scanned.

The 24 "windows" of the advent calendar are decorated with "pictures of happinness". Behind each window there is a piece of chocolate. Of course I did not open any as I'm waiting for the 1st of December to start.

I found this idea rather strange. Even stranger is that the French post also sells a collector of 24 pre-personalized stamps reusing the same pictures than on the calendar. Here is the cover of the collector and the stamps. As the collector is rather large I scanned it in three pieces (the collector being folded in three anyway).

My visit to “Le salon d'automne”

2011-11-03T15:56:00.002+02:00

Today, Thursday 3rd of November, starts the “salon d'automne”, a stamp fair held in Paris every year at the beginning of November. As I am on holidays this week (yes!) I decided to visit the stamp fair to see if I could find interesting things. I'm just back, from it and as it is raining in Paris I decided to sit in front of my PC and to share with you the details of this visit.

The stamp fair will be held from today until Sunday the 6th of November. It is held in a place called “espace Champerret”, located in the north west of Paris. This place hosts a lot of various fairs all along the year. Here is a picture of the entrance.

The fair started at 10h in the morning, but I was there at 8h45 and I was not the first one. Several people were there already to be sure they would be the first ones to access to the LISA machines, the machines that distributes ATM designed for the occasion. This labels are not available out of the manifestation so you have to queue sometimes for hours to get them. I will be honest I did not have the patience to queue for them and therefore I did not buy any of them.

When I entered the fair I received the official program, containing also a map of the place.

This year is the 65th edition of the salon and Great Britain is the guest of honour.

The first thing I did when I entered the place was to go to the booth of the French Post to buy the stamps issued on this day and to get some first day cancellations. Here is a picture of the booth where you could buy the stamps newly issued (the picture is misleading, when I arrived there were already a lot of people queueing. The picture was taken at a quieter moment, during lunch time).

Before the stamp fair I had received an invitation to the first day ceremonies so I knew what stamps I could buy (these invitations that I show below are only for information. You don't need an invitation to participate to a first day ceremony, of course).

The first new issue is a booklet of twelve stamps representing paintings picturing the nativity and that you can find in French museums. Here is a copy of the invitation to the first day ceremony and a picture of the booklet.

The first thing that you can see when you have the booklet in the hands is that the stamps are ridiculously small! 26X24 mm is very small for stamps picturing such beautiful paintings. You almost need a magnifier to be able to appreciate the paintings on the stamp. This is a pity. I don't know why they made the stamps so small!

The second issue is a block of Marianne, which is, as you know, the French definitive stamp. Again I show you the invitation and the block itself.

The block contains the seven Marianne of Europe that were issued after the change of postal rate in July.

For both issues you could get First Day Cancellations at the booth pictured below.

I took this opportunity to send some covers to myself (I will show them here when I get them back) and to some of my readers. I hope they will travel safely and arrive in a good shape.

Together with the stamps you could also buy two philatelic souvenirs, one related to the Nativity booklet and picturing one of the paintings, the one from Georges De La Tour (my favourite one!) and one dedicated to the stamp that has been chosen as the most beautiful French stamp of 2010, the stamp picturing Abbé Pierre, a very famous figure in France who made a lot for poor people.

But the stamp fair does not only contain the booth of the French Post. You can find also booths from stamp dealers and from foreign postal administrations such as the one from Royal Mail pictured below.

From the booth of some foreign post offices you could send mails to yourself, which I did on the booth from Portugal post and from Israel post. I will show you the covers when I get them back.

I also visited a lot of stamp dealer booths in order to find some interesting items for my frog stamp collection but I did not find any. The problem is that my collection is now rather big, the old items that I miss are rare and difficult to find and I'm pretty well organized to get the new issues. Anyway this was an interesting visit since I could find some items for my cow stamp collection.

During the salon you can also meet some stamp designers who can autograph their stamps. The queue was so big that I did not do it but I nevertheless got an autograph!

Indeed, in the salon you could buy a collector issued to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the TV show Télé-philatélie that started in 1961 and ran for 22 years. A TV show dedicated to philately is rather seldom, and I remember very well watching it when I was young. The show was presented by Jacqueline Caurat who is pictured on the collector.

She was present on the salon and I could get a a personalized autograph that I'm pretty proud of. This TV show as really great.

Here is a picture of Madam Caurat signing my collector. She is really a very charming lady and it was a great honour for me to be able to meet her.

Tomorrow the stamp fair goes on with other stamp issues. I don't know if I will have the time to go back there. If I do I will let you know.

Well done boys ! (cont’d)

2011-10-24T18:00:00.000+02:00

As an answer to my last post here is the souvenir sheet issued today by the

New Zealand

post to celebrate the victory of the All Blacks.

The picture in the middle of the sheet is taken at the end of the match when the team has received the trophy. The sheet re-uses the black stamps picturing the silver fern. The score of the match (New Zealand 8 – France 7) is written on the sheet also, making it a nice souvenir for the victory.

But, even if we did not win, France has also issued a stamp to pay tribute to the team. Here is the oval stamp that is issued today to thank the team for their game.

Well done boys !

2011-10-23T21:01:00.000+02:00

Well, I can not hide it. I'm disappointed that France has lost the final against New Zealand in the 2011 Rugby World Cup today. And they only lost for one point! Too dab. The French team did play a very good game, so nothing to be ashamed of. And, to be fair, on the whole duration of the competition, New Zealand surely deserves the victory. Congratulations to the All Blacks for having won the 7th rugby world cup. This is the second time that New Zeland wons the Rugby World Cup.

As a tribute to the All Blacks I would like to share with you two souvenir sheets I have received recently. Both are sheets of personalized stamps. The first one is composed of stamps picturing the silver fern, the very well known emblem of the New Zealand rugby team, with labels attached to the stamps picturing All Blacks players. An impressive tribute I think!

The second one contains stamps picturing the emblem of the 2011 rugby world cup attached to label picturing the emblems of all participating countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Namibia , New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, Tonga, USA, Wales.

I wonder if the New Zealand post will issue a commemorative stamp to celebarte the victory of its team. Well, I will keep you informed!

New frog and cow stamp from Portugal

2011-10-13T19:00:00.000+02:00

A recent issue has triggered my attention because it contains several items that fall into my topics of collection.

Four stamps and one souvenir sheet have been issued by Portugal on the 7th of September 2011 to celebrate the “world veterinary year”.

Indeed, as I wrote in a previous post about a recent French stamp issue, this is the 250th anniversary of the foundation of the first veterinary school by Claude Bourgelat. It can also be considered as the 250th anniversary of the veterinary profession. In this respect 2011 was elected the world veterinary year (you can find more details on the official website: Vet 2011).

The four stamps of the set illustrate, in a rather colorful way, various aspects of the veterinary profession by picturing various domestic or farm animals.

The first stamp picturing a pig is associated to the animal protection and health. The stamp with the DNA symbol inside the horse stands for the genetic research for improvement of animal breeding. The cat stamp pictures the medicines and medical products used for animal. And the last stamp, the one that pictures a cow producing milk is associated with public hygiene. One more stamp for my cow stamp collection!

The souvenir sheet is associated to “The Centro de Recuperação de Animais Silvestres de Lisboa - LxCRAS, a structure under the City Council of Lisbon and part of the National Network of Centers for the Recovery of the Fauna. It is located in the Biodiversity Space in Monsanto Forest Park. It was officially inaugurated on 15 October 1997 to meet the growing demand and request of the citizens of Lisbon for the collection, reception and recovery of autochthonous wounded or weak wild animals.

The souvenir sheet therefore pictures animals of the forest.

And if you look in the bottom left corner you will see a green frog! So one more item for my frog collection!

I rather like this set, don’t you?

Frog on a new souvenir sheet from South Africa

2011-10-11T20:50:00.003+02:00

I would like to stay in the same country than for last post, South Africa, in order to share with you a souvenir sheet I recently got for my frog collection. The sheet has been issued on the 23^rd of September 2011 and contains ten different stamps. Here is the item.

The souvenir sheet is dedicated to the Cape floral protected region. This region, that includes eight different protected areas, is the sixth UNESCO world heritage site in South Africa. It was included in 2004. The eight areas of the Cape floral protected region are:

- Table mountain

- De Hoop Natural reserve

- Boland mountain complex

- Groot Winterhoek wilderness area

- Swartberg mountain

- Boosmansbos wilderness area

- Cederberg wilderness area

- Baviaanskloof

The souvenir and the stamps designed by the artist Tobie Beele picture the diversity of flora and fauna in this area. Anti-clockwise, and starting with the frog stamp, the species pictured on the souvenir sheet are:

- the Purcell’s ghost frog (Heleophryne purcelli)

- the African clowless otter (Aonyx capensis)

- the bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae) that takes it scientific name from Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz the queen consort of King George III

- the mealie heath (Erica patersonii)

- the Cape sugarbird (Promerops cafer)

- the Cape Aloe (Aloe ferox)

- the King protea (Protea cynaroides)

- the caracal (Caracal caracal)

- the Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres)

This souvenir sheet reminds me a lot about another one issued in 2004 and dedicated to the Table Mountain area.

In this sheet the frog is a Table mountain ghost frog (Heleophryne rosei) that belongs to the same family (Heleophrynidae) than the one pictured on this new sheet.

Rugby emblem from South Africa

2011-10-07T17:26:00.000+02:00

The 2011 Rugby World Cup goes one, next weekend France will play against England for the quarter final. I’m a bit disappointed by the performance of the French team so far but I’m anyway happy they could qualify for the quarter final.

As a spin off the Rugby World Cup, the South African postal administration has issued on the 19th of August 2011 an interesting souvenir sheet picturing the evolution of the emblem of the national rugby team through history.

The South African Rugby Union team is called “the springboks”. This name dates back from 1906 when Paul Roos, one of the first captains of the South African team used this nickname for the first time during a press conference in the first international tour of the team. The springbok is a type of antelope which was widely used at this time as a national symbol but mainly among the white community. This is the reason why the emblem has evolved over the years.

At the end of apartheid the usage of the springbok as a national symbol was highly questioned. Several sport teams decided to rename themselves into “the proteas” which is the national flower of South Africa. The rugby team kept the name “springboks” but they added protea flowers to their emblem as shown on the stamp picturing the emblem of the 1992-1995 and 1996-2003 period.

If you look at the two last stamps, on the right and bottom corner you see that the protea has disappeared from the emblem. Well this is not exactly true. If you look at the jersey used by the rugby team these days, they have the springbok on one side of the chest, and a badge with the protea on the other side. There is a funny anecdote linked to that. For the 2011 Rugby World Cup there as an issue because the jersey must also include the logo of the competition and it was too much logos on the front side of the jersey. The solution has been to move the springbok from the chest to the sleeves (keeping the protea on the chest). This has obvisouly triggered some debate…

It shows how important are all these symbols used in sport…

Cover from Japan

2011-10-06T12:00:00.000+02:00

Every international stamp exhibition is the opportunity for the receiving postal administration to issue set of stamps to commemorate the event. This is the case of Japan postal administration that issued several stamps for Phila’Nippon, the international stamp exhibition that took place from the 28^th of July 2011 until the 2^nd of August 2011 in Yokohama. One of these stamps has been used on this nice cover that I received from Japan.

The stamp I speaking about is the one on the right, the stamp attached to a label. The label pictures the logo of Phila’Nippon 2011, with the rabbit riding a horse. The stamp is part of a set of ten stamps that picture ten of the thirty-six views of Mount Fuji.

The “thirty-six views of Mount Fuji” is a series of woodblock prints made by the artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), each print picturing a different view of the Mount Fuji. These prints were made from an image carved in wood and then printed on paper (each color needing a different carved woodblock!). Despite its name, the full series actually contains 46 views, ten have been produce later after the public success of the first 36.

The stamp used on the cover pictures the city of Hodoyaga on the Tokaido road.

You can see the whole series of prints by clicking here.

The ten stamps of the set have been issued as a souvenir sheet; here is a picture of the full sheet coming from the Japan Post website. As you can see, each stamp has a different label attached. A nice set I think.

The second stamp used on the cover is a prefecture stamp (i.e. a stamp issued in a specific prefecture). This one is from Kanagawa prefecture and is part of a set of ten stamps issued on the 21st of May 2010 to celebrate the National Reforestation Campaign. The objective of this campaign is to promote the adoption of the “green attitude”.

The stamp pictures a flower native from Japan, the Lilium auratum. The particularity of this set is that on the margin of each stamp is pictures the seeds of the corresponding flower as you can see on the cover.

300 to go

2011-10-05T12:30:00.000+02:00

300 days to go. 300 days before the official kick off of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Well actually it is now 296 days to go at it was 300 on the 1st of October. This is crazy how quickly time is flying. I remember so well when the official nomination of London was announced (and when we understood that Paris won’t have them…).

In order to celebrate these 300 last days to go, Royal Mail has issued on the 4th of October a set of four definitive stamps bearing the logo of the competition.

The logo is a representation of the number 2012, with the Olympic Rings embedded within the zero. It is the first time that the same essential logo is to be used for both the Olympic and Paralympic games.

The standard colors of the logo are green, magenta, orange and blue. The logo has been a subject of very vivid debate; few people seem to appreciate it. Early public reaction to the logo was largely negative: more than 80% of votes gave the logo the lowest possible rating.

I must admit that the design of the logo is not really my taste. And therefore I do not find the resulting stamps very attractive.

To be noted that this Olympiad will be the 30th one, already celebrated by 30 stamps issued by Royal mail! Who is speaking about inflation of the number of stamp issues?

Two frog cards from Costa Rica

2011-10-03T14:32:00.000+02:00

Here are two nice pre-stamped cards issued by the postal administration of Costa Rica that I have just purchased for my frog collection. They are part of a set of seven touristic cards that were issued on the 17th of March picturing endangered species or natural reserves of Costa Rica.

The first card pictures a type of poison frog. These types of frogs have always a very bright color in order to warn their predators that they are toxic!

The second card pictures the red-eyed tree frog with it nice colors.

On both cards a “stamp” is printed re-using the design of the card. These two items are really a nice addition to my collection.

Just to be complete let me share with you an image of the five other cards that are in the set.

Born in 1966

2011-10-02T14:10:00.004+02:00

If you read my blog regularly you know that I was born in 1966. And you probably know also that I am collecting all stamps issued this year. I know this is a collection I will never be able to complete, because there were too many stamps issued. Also some of them have a price that exceeds than what I accept to pay for a stamp. Nevertheless I go on with my accumulation of stamps issued in 1966.

I’m always happy when I complete one of the steps: complete a country or complete an “omnibus” series. There are several “omnibus series” issued in 1966, such as the one for the Soccer World Cup. Or also as the Europa series that I recently completed. I have now all Europa stamp issued in 1966!

Europa stamps have been issued for the first time in 1956. At this time 6 countries have participated, the six members of the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community). It was handed over to CEPT (European Conference or Postal and Telecommunication Administrations) in 1959, and more recently, in 1993, to PostEurop.In 1956 all stamps issued had the same design. The principal of a unique design was used from 1958 until 1973. Since 1974 the Europa stamps shares a common theme but not a common design (with exception of 1984, for the 25th anniversary of the CEPT and in 2000). In 1966 the common design was still the rule. This year the design was a symbolic ship representing the CEPT steady progress on a calm sea. Nineteen countries have participated to the 1966 Europa issue (with the first participation of French Andorra) but only seventeen have used the common design, representing 34 stamps. Some countries have issued monochrome stamps, others have issued multicolored ones. Interesting to notice that for two countries (Belgium and Netherlands) there are four wave lines below the boat while for the others there are only three. I wonder why there is such a difference?

Andorra (Fr)

Belgium

Cyprus

France

Germany

Greece

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

Liechtenstein

Luxembourg

Monaco

Netherlands

Norway

Portugal

Switzerland

Turkey

Two countries did not follow the common design, Spain and San Marino. I do not know if they are counted as official Europa issue in this case? The Spanish stamps picture what I interpreted as Europa from the Greek mythology, the woman being seduced by Zeus transformed into a bull (except that in this case the bull should be white as in the legend…).

The one from San Marino pictures a painting from Joaquin de Angulo, "Alma Mater Europae" - Our Lady of Europe, ridipinta da un'antica tavola del 1502 della Punta d'Europa, a Gibilterra. repainted in 1502 from an old table of the Punta Europa, Gibraltar.

I have decided to start a new website to display my collection of stamps from 1966. This is only the beginning and when it is advanced enough I will share the link with you (I would need several lives to complete all what I would like to do…)

Very nice cover from Iceland

2011-09-29T18:39:00.000+02:00

Today I would like to share with you a very nice cover that I received from Iceland. Thank you Benedickt for this sending!

The cover is franked with a full souvenir sheet issued on the 4th of May 2011 to commemorate the opening of Harpa, the Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre. Harpa is the home of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Icelandic Opera. The building was designed by Henning Larsen Architects and Batterid Architects with acoustics conceived by Artec Consultants Inc., the building is equipped with technologically advanced sound. The multi-faceted glass facade is the result of collaboration between the artist Olafur Eliasson and Henning Larsen Architects. The facades remind the crystallized basalt columns commonly found in Iceland.

This is this stunning façade which is pictured on the souvenir sheet, with the stamps embedded in the window design. The stamps can be visually isolated only thanks to their different colors. It gives a rather fascinating result and I really like the unusual aspect of this souvenir sheet

Philatelic documents

2011-09-26T20:21:00.000+02:00

For almost each stamp issued in France, the French postal administration, La Poste, issues also a philatelic document. This is a limited edition item printed on a A4 paper that contains:

- a copy of the stamp, cancelled with the first day cancel

- a recess-printed monochrome version of the stamp

- a text about the stamp and a related illustration

- the dry stamp of the printers to authenticate the document

This is usually a nice item. I think that in the past, collecting such items was rather popular. This is less the case nowadays I think. You can buy these philatelic documents during the first day ceremony or from the website of the French postal administration.

Why do I write about it? Because I received recently from the French post an offer to subscribe to such items so that I receive all of them in 2012 directly in my mail box. And as an appetizer the French post sent me a gift: a sort of mini philatelic document that I wanted to share with you. Here it is:

The document is related to a stamp issued in November 2010 dedicated to Villeneuve-en-Lot a city located in the south west of France.

This mini document is half the size of a normal one but contains all the standard items: a copy of the stamp, stuck on the paper sheet, a copy of the first day cancel (“Timbre à date premier jour”), a engraved monochrome version of the stamp (“Empreinte du poinçon orginal”) . And the empty square is not empty; it contains something that the scanner could not reproduce: the dry stamp of the printer. It gives an embossed drawing that you can only see when moving the paper under the light. I had to play with the contrast setting in Photoshop to make it appear in order to share it with you.

A nice gift. Even if I’m not going to subscribe to such collection which is definitely too expensive for me.

All this documentation was contained in a pre-stamped cover re-using the same design than the Villeneuve-sur-lot stamp.

As you can see on the picture the printed stamp is similar to the real stamp except that it does not contain any face value.

Again you can not see it but the left top corner of the cover also contains the dry stamp of the printer.

Allez les bleus

2011-09-10T20:01:00.000+02:00

I'm writing this post from the Air-France lounge of Roissy airport as I'm flying to Shanghai tonight. I will spend four days in Shanghai and I'm not sure to be able to update my blog during this period.

As you probably know, the 2011 Rugby World Cup has started yesterday in New Zealand. This morning the French team has won its first match (with some difficulties) against Japan. Good start! But they have to improve! So let's support the French team : Allez les bleus (Go the blues! Blue being the color of the French team).

I could not illustrate this post with something else than the first animated stamp issued by New Zealand on the 7th of September to celebrate the world cup.

This 3D stamp is a first for New Zealand post. It pictures a rotating Web Ellis cup, which is the trohpy that the winner will get at the end of the competition.

The trophy was crafted in 1906 and was used in 1987 for the first time as a trophy for the rugby world cup.

The Cup is silver gilded in gold, 38 centimetres tall with two cast scroll handles. On one there perches the head of a satyr, on the other the head of a nymph, the nymph, beautiful spirit of nature, forever safe from the randy aspirations of the goat-man. The terminals are a bearded mask, a lion mask and a vine.

The Nantaise cow

2011-09-08T16:55:00.003+02:00

As part of my collection of stamps picturing cattle (cow, bull, ox...) I also try to find postmarks picturing these animals. I'm not searching for thems very actively, but I'm always happy when I find one, even by accident.

The item I have selected for today is the first example of a postmark picturing a cow that I could get. Here it is.

This commemorative postmark celebrates the 2010 session of the annual fair held in Le Dresny (a small town located near Nantes, in the west of France) around a specific species of cow: La Nantaise (the Nantaise cow, that takes its name from Nantes). I do not know exactly what happens during this fair, but at least last year it was possible to get such nice postmark.

The Nantaise cow is a type of cow that is light brown, looking very similar to the Jersey cattle. The Nantaise cow alsmost disappeared (there were only 50 left in France in 1985!) and is now a preserved species.

Just for the pleasure here is a picture of a Nantaise cow.

(This post is dedicated to Lady Clochette. She will understand why!)

A nice cover from India and more

2011-09-06T21:13:00.000+02:00

For today I have selected a very nice cover that I received recently from India. The cover included some interesting items that I would also like to share with you.

Let’s start by the cover.

Very colorful, isn’t it?

The cover is franked with an interesting mixture of stamps. Also the stamps are nicely positioned on the cover which gives a nice result I think.

The two stamps on the left have been issued on the 25th of May 2011 to celebrate the 2nd Africa-India Forum Summit that was held from the 20th until the 25th of May in Addis Ababa. This summit is the official platform to deal with India-Africa relations. The first summit has been held in 2008 in New Delhi. The stamps have also been issued in the form of a souvenir sheet that was included in the cover.

I really like this souvenir sheet. I think the design is really nice. I like the fact that the drawing extends out of the limits of the stamps, but still the design of the stamp remains nice when cut from the sheet. These days I think that a lot of postal administration issues souvenir sheet with continuous design, but once you separate one stamp from the sheet, the design of the stamp look weird.

The stamps pictures two types of elephants: the African elephant (on the left stamp) and the Asian elephant (on the right). The African elephant is bigger (and has bigger ears) than the Asian one.

In the left top corner, the sheet also contains the emblem of the Africa-India Forum Summit with a map of India in red and a map of Africa in green.

The four other stamps on the cover have been issued on the 12th of February 2011 to commemorate 100 years of airmail. The stamps have also been issued in a very nice souvenir sheet that illustrates quite well the subject!

As you can see the sheet has been issued for Indipex 2011, the world philatelic exhibition that was held from the 12th to the 18th of February in New Delhi. The design of the souvenir sheet is rather loaded, mixing maps of airmail routes, pictures of covers, postmarks, etc.

In addition to the souvenir sheet with the elephants, the cover also included one other souvenir sheet issued on the 10th of December 2009 and picturing traditional textiles from India.

Again, this is a nice item!

Finally inside the cover there was also a First Day Cover.

This FDC bears the stamps issued on the 7th of May 2011 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). He was a poet, philosopher, musician and writer from Bengali. He is the first non European Nobel Laureate that he got in 1913 (for Literature).

The stamps picture a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore at different ages. I did not find information about the flower that is pictured on the stamp on the right…

The stamps have also been issued in a souvenir sheet.

In the background of the sheet is pictured a poem written by his hand. On the right border of the sheet his Nobel Prize is mentioned.

Souvenir sheets seem to be more and more popular and a lot of postal administrations are issuing stamps only in this format. Even though this gives nice items I’m never completely satisfied by souvenir sheets. First for the reason I mentioned above, very often the design of the stamps, once they are removed from the sheet, looks a bit strange. Also when stamps are issued only in souvenir sheets they are less often used on mails. It is very rare to use a full sheet to frank a cover (and sometimes the sheets are anyway too big). And very few people like to tear a souvenir sheet to extract the stamps to put on their mail. I do it, but this does not seem very common. So I prefer single stamps than souvenir sheets, because they seem more “postal”.

First day covers from Burma, Brunei and Lithuania

2011-09-03T10:37:00.004+02:00

I haverecently received a set of mint FDCs through a cover exchange club.As you know I am not a big fan of mint FDCs (what I call mint FDCsare FDCs that haven’t traveled through the postal service). But Iwanted to share with you three of them anyway. Two comes fromcountries from where I rarely (or never) got mails. And the third oneis somehow related to my cow stamps collection.

Lest startby the first one, coming from Burma, or more precisely the Republicof the Union of Myanmar.

The stamp wasissued in 1992 for the World Campaign against AIDS. The first daycancel reuses the same design that the stamp.

The secondone is coming from Brunei Darussalam

Thefour se-tenant stamps have been issued on the 23^rdof February 2004 to celebrate the 20^thanniversary of the National Day. The stamp on the left picturesSultan Hassanal Bolkiah at the United Nations. Hassanal Bolkiah isthe 29^thSultan of Brunei since 1967 and since 1984 he is the first primeminister. His portrait is also present on the right top corner ofeach stamp.

Thelast stamp on the right pictures an emblem which is also pictured onthe official first day cover. The red emblem included in this designis the national crest of Brunei.

TheNational Crest of Brunei Darussalam wasdeveloped from a Royal emblem. It was superimposed on the Nationalflag after promulgation of the 1959 Brunei Constitution.

Thecrest consists of (from top to bottom):

- Bendera -the flag

-Payung Ubor-Ubor - the Royal Umbrella

- Sayap -the wing

- Tangan(Kimhap) - the hands

- Bulan -the crescent

The Benderaand Payung Ubor-Ubor have been Royal regalia's since the creation ofthe crest. The Sayap - the wing of four feathers - symbolizes theprotection of justice, tranquility, prosperity and peace.

Tanganor Kimhap - the hands - signify the Government's duty to promotewelfare, peace and prosperity.

Bulan - thecrescent - is the symbol of Islam, the national religion of BruneiDarussalam.

On thecrescent is written the National motto: "Always in service with God's guidance".

The scrollbeneath the crest reads "Brunei Darussalam" which means"Brunei, the abode of peace".

Finally the third one isfrom Lithuania.

The three stampshave been issued on the 18^thof October 1997 and picture coat of arms of various cities. From leftto right: Neringa, Vilkaviskis and Pasvalys.

As you can see the coat ofarms of Pasvalys pictures the head of a bull with a ring in the nose,so the stamp will find its place in my cattle on stamps collection.

By the way this isinteresting to notice that there are several examples of coat of armsthrough the world that include a cow, an ox or a bull in theirdesign. This is an interesting subject for a future post. If you knowsome stamps picturing such symbols, pleasedrop me a mail! Thanks

Why do we bother ?

2011-09-01T20:30:00.000+02:00

Yes, why do we bother? Why do we bother using valid postage stamps on our mail while item franked with fantasy stamps seem to go through the French postal service without problem?

I have already shared with you in a previous post that came to me with a laber from a famous cheese brand instead of a valid postage stamp. Today I’m sharing with you another one, this time bearing an ad for Milka, the chocolate brand, in place of a postage stamp. And it arrived in my mail box without issue, with even a proper mechanical cancellation!

This cover was sent by a friend. He has used on the cover what I think is called an artistamp, i.e. a creation from a mail artist. Artistamps are not intended to full the postal service, and they do not copy the design of an actual postage stamp (as fake stamps would do). Some artists nevertheless try to get their creation through the postal service as apart of the artistic process. Creating artistamps is a form of mail art as you can read in this interesting article available on Wikipedia

I think that the “stamp” on the cover is really nice, really a piece of art, and it looks as nice as many stamps issued by the French post ;-) It uses the lilac cow that is part in all ads of the chocolate brand.

What is funny is that, not only this is not a real stamp, but also it is not even inscribed “France” but “Switzerland”, the country from which the Milka brand is originating. And the cancelling machine did not detect anything!

Registered cover and stamps from Iraq

2011-08-29T20:43:00.009+02:00

I have been rather busy these days and I was not able to update my blog since almost two weeks. What a pity. At last I found some free time tonight to write this post.

Today I would like to share with you a registered cover I received from Iraq and also some mint stamps from the same country. The cover arrived rather damaged from the transport in the postal service, some stamps being torn, but I decided to share it with you anyway as it is quite rare for me to receive mails from this country. The cover is quite large so it did not fit into my scanner. But let me show you the picture.

The first thing that you can notice is the part of a stamp sheet that has been used to frank the cover. A mint copy of the full sheet was included in the cover so I’m able to show you the complete thing.

The sheet contains eight different stamps. The set was issued on the 28^th of June 2010 and pictures prehistoric fauna. The sheet is rather impressive, but I must admit that this is not really the type of stamps I would have expected from Iraq. Together with the sheet, two additional large imperforated stamps have been issued. Here they are.

These two items are rather strange for me. I don’t know if they should be used as normal stamps?

Not less that eight different stamps have been used to frank the cover. From left to right and top to bottom, here are some details on the stamps.

The first one was torn during the transport, so here is an image of the stamp.

This stamp is a part of three stamps issued in 2009. The set celebrates the FIFA Confederation Cup organized in South Africa in 2009. Brazil has won this international soccer competition and it was the first participation of Iraq.

The second stamp is also torn. Here is a proper image

The stamp is part of a set of 2007 stamps picturing birds. The one which is just below on the cover also belongs to the same set. The stamp on the top pictures Pin-tailed sandgrouses (Pterocles alchata) while the second stamp pictures the Olive Bee-eater (Merops superciliosus). The full set contains eight stamps.

The two next stamps on the cover belong to a set from 2007 picturing personalities from Iraq. The full set contains four stamps.

The first stamp on the second row is part of a 2007 set containing one stamp and one souvenir sheet and dedicated to flora. The stamp on the cover pictures violets.

The square stamp gave me some hard time for identification. I finally found out that it is part of set of three stamps celebrating the national reconciliation.

The last one is part of a set of stamps picturing musicians. The stamp is also torn in the corner. Here is the stamp as it was issued, se-tenant with another stamp.

The cover bears two different postmarks, the second one picturing the map of Iraq.

Finally here is another set of stamps issued recently by Iraq which is now part to my frog collection. The set was issued in 2010 for the year of the biodiversity. It contains four stamps and a souvenir sheet.

The souvenir sheet pictures a frog in the border, hence my interest in this issue!

A very nice FDC from USA

2011-08-11T21:19:00.004+02:00

As promised, no frog, no toad today… only a mockingbird ;-)

I have received a very nice FRC from USA some months ago already but I never took the time to search for information on the stamp and the postmark. I spent some times yesterday to correct this mistake and I’m happy to share with you my findings.
First let’s have a look to the cove itself.

The stamp used on the cover was issued on the 28th of April 2011 by the American postal administration (USPS). This is the 17th stamp in the “Legends of Hollywood” series and pictures Gregory Peck (1916-2003).
I guess I don’t need to tell you who Gregory Peck was! He started his acting career on stage and made his first movie in 1944 (Days of glory). He has played in more than 60 movies. He reminds me my childhood, when I was watching some of his movies on the familial black & white TV, such as “Moby Dick” (1956), “The Guns of Navarone” (1961) or the very nice “Roman Holidays” (1953).

A first day ceremony of this stamp was held in Monroeville, Alabama. The postmark on the cover is the one from this first day ceremony.
Monroeville is a city located in the Monroe County. This city is famous for being the hometown of Harper Lee an author who won in 1961 the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “To kill a mocking bird”. The novel, published in 1960, is based on an event that took place in 1936 in her hometown when she was 10. It tells the story of a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. It is a story about injustice, racism and has become a classic of the American modern literature. The mockingbird mentioned in the title is used in the novel to symbolize innocence (hence the bird on the postmark).

In 1997 the city of Monroeville has been designated by the Alabama legislature as the literary capital of Alabama (see the postmark), because several other famous writers were born or have lived there (e.g. Truman Capote)

In 1962, “To kill a mocking bird” became a movie. I’m sure you guess who played the main role? Gregory Peck! The picture used on the stamp is a picture from the movie, with Peck playing Atticus Finch, the advocate who defends the black man falsely accused. Peck won an Oscar for this role in 1962 (this is the only Oscar he received, despite having been nominated five times during his career). The movie also won two other Oscars, an award in Cannes festival and several Golden globes. The movies has been shot in Monreoville, partly in the Monroe County house which is also pictured on the postmark.

Now you see the link between the stamp and the postmark. I must admit that I do not remember having seen this movie (and I surely did not read the novel) but all what I found about it while preparing this post, made me feel like repair this omission.

Toad postmark from Germany

2011-08-09T19:49:00.005+02:00

I know, I know. This is the third posts in a row about frog and toads. I swear that next post will cover a different subject ;-) Bu today I really wanted to share with you the very nice cover I received from Uwe from Germany. Thank you very much Uwe.

Here is the cover.

The very nice postmark on the cover celebrates the well known festival of Bayreuth that is held from the 25^th of July until the 28^th of August. The ugly toad pictured on the postmark comes from the opera “Das Rheingold” (The Rhine gold), the first of the four operas that constitutes Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungeng (The Ring of the Nibelung). Why a toad? Because in this opera, Alberich, a Nibelung dwarf, is transformed into a toad.

Uwe used two nice stamps on his cover. The small one is part of the definitive flower series and pictures a marigold.

The larger one has been issued on the 7^th of July 2011 to celebrate the 500^th anniversary of the publication of the tales about Till Eulenspiegel. Till Eulenspiegel is a character from German folklore, an imaginary figure who appears in a cycle of tales that were popular in the Middle Ages. In the stories, Till is presented as a fool who plays jokes on his contemporaries. The earliest printed edition of these tales is from 1511.

Literally Eulenspiegel means “owl mirror” two symbols that are often used when picturing the character, as it is the case on the stamp also. On the stamp Till is pictured together with a lot of “objects” that he uses for his tricks to fool other people.

The stamp was issued in small colorful sheets.

This anniversary was also celebrated with the issue of a coin.

Irish animals definitive series

2011-08-08T15:29:00.000+02:00

To stay in the « frog » topic, I would like to share with you my latest acquisition. This is a set of eight self-adhesive stamps issued bu Irish post on the 21^st of July 2011. This set if part of the definitive series about Irish animals and marine life and is the second one in the series (the first set was issued on the 8^th fo September 2010).

Each stamp of the set contains a pictures on an animal, and, overall, the stamps look more like labels from automatic machines than like actual stamps, don’t you think so?

Nevertheless I find this series rather attractive and the fact that the second issue contains a frog stamp re-enforces my interest.

Here are the eight stamps of the set.

From left to right and top to bottom the animals that are pictures are:

- the green huntsman spider (Micrommata virescens)

- the beadlet anemone (Actinia equina) which is a common sea anemone

- the elephant hawk-moth (Deilephila elpenor), a moth that takes its name from its large size

- the squat lobster (Munida rugosa) which, despite its name, is more a crab than a lobser

- the European goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

- the cuckoo wrasse (Labrus mixtus)

- the red deer (Cervus elaphus)

- the European common frog (Rana temporaria)

Interestingly the European Common Frog has long been thought to be an entirely introduced species in Ireland; however, recent genetic analyses suggest that particular populations in the south west of Ireland are indeed indigenous to the country.

I will soon travel to Dublin for a three days weekend to attend a rugby test match between France and Ireland. I will for sure try to send some covers using these very nice stamps…

Would you like to be my valentine?

2011-08-06T15:25:00.002+02:00

Strange title, I know ;-) But it has to do with the item I have selected for today’s post.

I already explained in this blog that one of the funny thing when you are a topical (or thematic) collector, and when your open your collection to all philatelic items, is that you sometimes find unusual and interesting items. Some years ago I have decided to include postal stationeries into my frog collection, and today I would like to share with you one of the latest I got.

The item is a lettergram, issued by Australian post. A lettergram was a service provided by Australian post at the end of the 80’s or beginning of the 90’s that allowed you to send a telegram through the postal service. If I understood well, you had to call a specific number and dictate your message. Then the message was printed and put in a cover sent through the postal service. To mark some specific events (birth of a new baby, anniversary, etc etc) the Australian post has issued decorated covers to be used for this service. This is the case of the item below, who

is a lettergram and a valentine card at the same time.

Here if the front side.

It’s not so easy to se on the scan, but there is a rectangle “window” that lets appear the address of the recipient when the message is put in the cover. The cover is not made of paper, but of a thick cardboard and looks more like a greeting cards.

The printed stamp is not really a stamp but just a logo to indicate the postage paid.

When you open the cover you see this.

You understand why it goes into my frog collection ;-)

Again it’s hard to see, but on the left part you can insert the message to be sent.

On the back side there is nothing else than the logo of Australian post and the phone number that should be called for the lettergram service.

I think the Australian post discontinued the service in 1993. I do not know for how long it was opened and how many types of similar items were available. If you have any information on this I would be happy to hear from you.

News from the Frogs of the world challenge

2011-08-03T18:42:00.002+02:00

As promised some times ago, I would like to give you an update of my challenge called “Frogs of the world challenge”. So far, thanks to Nasia, Henderica, Claire, Melissa, Adrian, Andryi, David and George, I was able to get frog covers from twelve countries: Australia, China (PRC), Cyprus, Canada, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Scotland, Taiwain, USA and Wales.

Some more are on their way from India, Romania and Ireland.

Here is, for instance, the one I got from Taiwan and sent by George.

It is nice, isn’t it? George had the nice idea to post the letter on the 14^th of July, the “bastille day”, i.e. the French National day. The main purpose of the challenge is not really a philatelic one, but I can not prevent myself from speaking about the nice stamps George used on the cover (by the way all senders have taken care of using nice stamps when sending me back the frog cover and I would like to thank them all again for that).

The four stamps used by George have been issued on the 26^th of August 2009. This set is part of a series about Children folk rhymes. Previous stamps in this series have been issued in April 1998, April 1999 and April 2001. Each stamp of the series pictures a Children popular song. The ones on the cover are: Little girl and her doll, Train, Thunder shower, Kingdom of dolls. I like the stamps of this series; they are really colorful (by the way one of the stamps of the 1998 issue is part of my frog stamp collection!). It is a pity that I could not find details on the songs that are pictured on the whole series.

My complete collection can be viewed here.

If you want to help me in this challenge, then it is simple: drop me a mail and I will give you all the details.

A cover from Norway

2011-07-26T19:51:00.007+02:00

Last weekend I have made some clean up on the hard disk of my home PC and I realized that I had scanned some covers and philatelic items that I did not share with you yet. This is the case of the cover I selected for today, a cover from Norway, a country from where I do not get mails very often (I think this cover is my second one only in the last ten years…).

The cover was sent to me by the son of a friend who went to Norway for few days. Here is the cover.

Probably confused by the vertical text the sender has put the stamps vertically while I think it would have been better to have them put horizontally. Never mind. Two different stamps are used on the cover, they both belong to a set of six stamps issued on the 12^th of April 2088. This set is a set of “tourist” stamps, i.e. stamps that are mainly targeting tourists who want to put nice stamps when sending news to their family or friends during their holidays in the country. This type of stamps always picture nice sceneries from the country as it is the case for this set. This is a good illustration of stamps being like a sort of little ambassadors of the issuing country.

But let’s have a look to the full set. The first stamp (also used on the cover) pictures a part of the Sunmore Alps (apologies to my Norwegian readers, my keyboard does not allow me using the right “o” which should be crossed with a bar in the middle to respect the correct orthography).

The sharp mountain is called purposely “the blade”.

The second stamp, also used on the cover, pictures a very impressive scene, two guys on a stone plugged between two rocks. This big stone is called the Kjerag boulder, Kjerag being the name of a Norwegian mountain. This place has become a popular BASE jumping destination.

The next stamp of the set pictures a view of Lyngor, a nice village that is accessible only by boat and where there are no cars. Must be a nice place to be ;-)

The next stamp pictures the Lyngor lighthouse. Well, this is what the information from the website of Norwegian post says, because the light house can hardly be seen on the stamp… It is hidden by the vertical writing.

The two last stamps of the set are dedicated to Oslo. One pictures Olso harbour, with the city hall in the background

The other one pictures a very impressive sculpture from Ola Enstad called “the divers”. Must be nice to see it in real!

I think this set is rather nice and could easily give the idea to visit the country to see it in real life. After all, this is what stamps should mainly do, no? I only regret that none of the stamps contains the name of the place it pictures!

These days Norway is in the news for very very sad reasons. This post is my philatelic tribute to mark my support to the people of Norway.

Nice cover from Taiwan

2011-07-21T17:31:00.003+02:00

It is hard to believe that we are in summer these days. The weather in Paris is ugly, cold and raining. My workload at work is as high as usual. Normally July and August are rather quiet, but this is not the case this year. So I haven’t much time to take care to my stamps or to update my blogs. This is a pity.

Today I would like to share with you a nice cover I received from Taiwan through a cover exchange club. It bears nice stamps and nice cancellations.

The two identical stamps on the left side are definitive stamps issued on the 14th of October 2009. The stamp pictures a pink powder puff (Calliandra emarginata). The flower takes its common name from the fact it looks like a powder puff! The stamp is part of set of four stamps (images are coming from Taiwain postal administration website, hence the “specimen” mark).

The three other stamps picture a cotton tree (Bombax ceiba), a royal Poinciana (Delonix regia) and a fountain tree (Spathodea campanulata). This set is the second one in a series that started in March 2009.

The two other stamps on the cover are part of a set of issued on the 28th f July 2010 and dedicated to lighthouses.

The NT$5 stamp pictures the Wenkan Tui lighthouse. Built in 1914, this skeletal steel frame light tower is located on Waisanding Sandbar off Kouhu Township, Yunlin County. In 1974, due to sandbar shift, the lighthouse was rebuilt and placed in a new location nearby. In 2006, because of another sandbar shift, the lighthouse was moved once again to present location, and a radar beacon pole was added.

The NT$10 stamp pictures the Paisha Chia lighthouse. Built in 1901, this round brick light tower is located in Guanyin Township, Taoyuan County. In 2002 the Taoyuan County Government designated the lighthouse as a county monument!

The full set contains two other stamps picturing the Chilung Tao lighthouse and the Liuchiu Yu lighthouse.

The cover bears an interesting cancellation picturing a owl. I wonder in which context this nice pictorial cancel was used. Does anybody have information on it? I also wonder the same about the red cancel on the far left of the cover.

Rugby stamps from France

2011-07-16T13:19:00.002+02:00

Earlier this week, the French postal administration has issued a set of stamps to celebrate the coming Rugby World Cup that is going to be held in November in New Zealand. Being a big fan of rugby I was rather impatient to get these stamps. Yesterday I could find the time to buy then, but I must admit I'm finally a bit disappointed.

Two items have been issued. First a souvenir sheet containing four stamps.

Two stamps picture scenes from a rugby game: a player extracting the ball from a scrum and a player making a pass. Two other stamps picture sceneries from New Zealand.

Why am I disappointed? For several reasons. First of all the stamps picturing the rugby players are not very nice. The design looks very artificial. Another thing I do not like is that nowhere (nor on the stamps nor on the sheet) it is explained what part of New Zealand are pictured on the two other stamps.

A quick search on the internet helped me to find out that the stamp on the left pictures Auckland (that was easy to guess). The stamp on the right pictures a view from Arthur's Pass National Park. This is a national park located on the south island that was founded in 1929. The place looks very nice. It is a real pity that none of the places are mentioned on the stamps or on the border of the sheet. Don't you think so?

The border of the sheet pictures the logo of the Rugby World Cup 2011. In fact this is the same logo for each world cups, only the year changes. Also the sheet pictures the flag of the twenty countries participating to the final part of the competition: South Africa, England, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Scotland, USA, Fiji, France, Wales, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Samoa and Tonga.

To be noted that, as far as I know, this is the first time that Russia is qualified for the final competition!

On the background of the sheet there is a design looking like Maori tattoos that are rather well known now (and are rather famous among rugby players).

Here are two FDC of this stamp issue with two nice different cancellations.

On the same day, French post has issued a stamp made of silver. This stamp is sold in a plastic protective capsule included in a cardboard card of the size of a credit card. Here is a view of both side of the card.

The stamp has a high face value (5 Euro) and I'm pretty sure nobody is going to use this stamp on mail... On the back side it is written that the stamp should be kept in the protective capsule because otherwise it may blackened because of oxidation. In know from experience that even if kept in this capsule, the stamp is going to blacken!

This is not the first time the French post issues a silver stamp (check here my blog post on the first one).

This silver stamp is for me more a curiosity than a real postal item...

Short period of usage…

2011-07-11T20:48:00.004+02:00

On the 1^st of July 2011, the postal rates in France have changed. For instance the rate for a standard letter (below 20g) has increased from 0.58€ to 0.60€. Interestingly, on the 27^th of June, so only four days earlier, the French postal administration has issued the two following stamps, still with a face value of 0.58€.

The stamp on the left was issued to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the “Chemins de fer de provence” an old railway company located in the south of France which is now running a unique route between Nice and Digne-les-bains. This route, that opened in 1911, is locally referred as the “train des pignes” (the pine nuts train) as indicated on the stamp.

The stamp on the right pictures Varengeville-sur-Mer, a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.

The change of postal rates means that those two stamps could be used only during four days to frank, alone, a standard letter. This is the case of the cover I have received and that I share with you below.

The very short period during which these stamps could be used alone on a letter makes this cover a curiosity.

Place Jean Jaurès, Montrouge

2011-07-07T21:02:00.012+02:00

Time has run so fast since last time I wrote in that blog… I did so many things, including another trip to China and some other stuff… My “frogs of the world” challenge starts pretty well, I will give you some news on this in a near future.

But for today I have chosen something different. I’m not going to speak about stamps. Well at least not at the beginning of this post. I’m going to speak about postcards. I do not collect postcards (except may be maximum cards when they fit into my topics). But I do have several friends who do. I recently had an interesting discussion with one of them. He was trying to convince me to start collecting postcards. But it did not really succeed. In order to show me how funny it could be, he told me that he could probably find postcards picturing the place where I was born or the place where I live. It triggered my curiosity. I was quite sure that no postcards exist picturing the place where I was born, but I was really surprised when he showed me postcards picturing where I actually live.
I live in Montrouge, a small city located in the suburb of Paris. It is in the south of Paris, at the border of the 14th arrondissement for those who know Paris. I live just near a nice place called Place Jean Jaures. This is a large place, with a large roundabout where a fountain is located. My friend found the following postcards that picture the place at different periods in time. I’m not sure I ordered the cards in the right chronological order, as they are not dated. Some are used so we can not the date form the cancel on the stamp, but some others are not used. What is sure is that the last one is the most recent one and pictures a view of the place which is very similar than the way it looks today.

The oldest card must date from the 30’s. It is interesting to see how much the pace has changed over the time. The central fountain seems to be a rather recent addition. It is also interesting to see how the people, the cars and all the rest have changed. This is like a sort of time travel.

Some information about the man who gave the name of the place. Jean Léon Jaurès was born in 1859 and he was a leader of the French socialist party from 1902. In 1905 his party merged with another one to become the SFIO (French Section of the Workers International). He was an antimilitarist and was assassinated in July 1914. He is very famous in France and his name has been given to a lot of places, streets and avenues in various cities.

As I am an incorrigible philatelist, I had a look to the stamps that were issued by French postal administration picturing Jaurès. Two stamps have been issued in 1936.

One was issued in 1959 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth.

One was issued in 1981 picturing the Panthéon that is located in Paris and that contains the remainings of distinguished French citizens, including Jaurès.

(all the stamp pictures of this post comes from the excellent website : Phila Echange)

Frogs from Singapore

2011-06-18T16:01:00.014+02:00

I haven’t been very active on this blog these last days because I have been quite busy with my new blog and with the preparation of the covers for my “frogs of the world” challenge. Thank you very much for those who already proposed to help me on this. Covers are going to be sent soon. Also I was supposed to spend the whole week in China for business trip but Air France did its best to prevent me from flying to Shanghai: on Saturday after hours of waiting my flight was cancel without any satisfying backup proposed by Air France. So I cancelled the whole mission, but my professional schedule is therefore a bit disorganized.

Few days ago, I received a registered cover from Singapore and it reminded me that I did not share yet on this blog the stamps I recently bought from Singapore Post for my frog stamps collection. I would like to close this gap with this post.

But first let me show you the cover that bears four stamps (and an impressive number of cancellations…)

The two similar stamps on the right side are part of a set of six stamps issued on the 9^th of March 2010. This set is an invitation to remember the joy of childhood by picturing playgrounds. Here is a picture of the full set, coming from the website of Singapore post.

In fact this picture is extracted from the brochure announcing the issue. Interestingly the stamps on the brochure seems to be inscribed “2009” whereas the final stamps are inscribed 2010. Probably the issue of the set has been postponed…

The two other stamps are part of a set issued on the 13^th of April 2011 and picturing the fauna and flora that can be found a round a pond. The set contains ten stamps. I recently purchased the presentation pack of this issue. Here is the cover of the presentation pack, when it is folded. I like this cover, and not only because it contains a frog ;-)

And here the presentation pack unfolded, with the ten stamps inside.

Two stamps picturing flora are on the top raw. They picture respectively (from left to right):

- the fragrant water lilies (Nymphaea odorata)
- the water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)

I have always liked water lilies. I think they are really nice.

On the second row, the stamps picture respectively (from left to right):

- the white collared kingfisher (Todirhamphus chloris)
- the diving beetle (Cybister rugosus)
- the common redbolt (Rhodothemis rufa)
- the orange-tailed marsh dart (Ceriagrion cerinorubellum)

On the third row the stamps picture:

- the black marsh terrapin (Siebenrockiella crassicollis) also known as the smiling terrapin
- the white breasted water hen (Amaurornis phoenicurus)
- the common green frog (Rana erythraea)
- the common asian toad (Bufo melanostictus)

As you can imagine, the two last stamps are the one that triggered my interest.

The set also contains a souvenir sheet that I also bought in a presentation pack. Here is the cover of the pack.

Here is the sheet.

I also bought the FDC of the issue.

Note the nice frog on the first day postmark.

Here is also a FDC that I received from Velu (Thank you very much Velu), together with a piece of paper where the postal clerk has tried the postmark several times. It gives an interesting item for my collection.

I had the opportunity to read an article written by Eric Kong who designed the stamps and the sheet. It was very interesting to see how, to design the set, he used his childhood memories, when he was used to walk around ponds and observe the flora and the fauna of such places. He explained how he could play with the green frog or how he could run after the water hen. I really like when you can get the testimony of the designer of a stamp. I think it gives an interesting viewpoint on the issue and helps understanding how the stamps have been created.

Frogs of the world challenge: a call for help

2011-06-10T17:30:00.000+02:00

This post will take the shape of a call for help, help for a (sort of) mail-art project that I just initiated. I called it “frogs of the world challenge”. Here is the idea. My challenge is to receive from as many countries as possible, a cover that I designed in the following way:
- the cover is illustrated with a drawing of a frog, decorated with the flag of the country
- below the frog is written “frog” in the language of the country

As you can imagine I have already started sending such covers to myself during some of my trips. Here are the two first examples that I sent to myself, one from China and one from Wales. I also took a picture of the mailboxes in which I posted the cover.

I should get one soon from Romania and Ireland thanks to help of some friends.

If you want to help me in this project, here is what you should do. Contact me by email and send me:
- your postal address
- the translation of the word ‘frog” in the language(s) of your country
- if you have a specific topic that you collect, let me know also

I will send you a letter from France that will include a cover I will have designed in the model show above, but adapted to your country. The only thing you will have to do it to put a stamp on cover and send it back to me.
If you could take a picture of the mailbox from where you sent the cover it is even better.
Of course I will pay for the stamp (I can send you mint French stamps in exchange if you are interested or other things. Just tell me what you would like).

I will display the covers I will get in a dedicated blog that I’m setting up around mail-art.

A big thank you in advance to all who accept to help me in this project.

First day cover from USA

2011-06-08T17:25:00.002+02:00

I have received through the CCCC a very nice fist day cover from the USA that I would like to share with you today.

The two large stamps have been issued on the 12th of April 2011. These two stamps are the first part of a series that will run through 2015 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. Two stamps are going to be issued each year.
Both stamps on the cover picture battles that took place in 1861 at the beginning of the war. The one on the right side commemorate Fort Sumter battle. Fort Sumter that is located in South Carolina was the place of a battle that marked the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861. The stamp is a reproduction of a “Currier & Ives” lithograph, circa 1861, titled "Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor."
The one on the left side pictures the First Bull Run battle that was fought on the 21st of July 1861 and was the bloodiest battle in American history up to that point. The stamp is a reproduction of a 1964 painting by Sidney E. King titled "The Capture of Rickett’s Battery."
The stamps are issued in the form of a souvenir sheet containing twelve stamps (six of each design) as shown below on the picture coming form USPS website.

The first day ceremony was held in Charleston, SC. The postmark design, which features a shield containing stripes, a single star, and the date "1861." Was inspired by corps badges and military insignia.
To be noted that both stamps are “forever” stamps, i.e. with no denomination and valid forever for a one-ounce letter (forever stamps have been introduced in 2007 in USA for definitive stamps and have been extended to commemorative stamps this year only).

The last stamp on the cover is part of the American Design series. It was issued in January 2003. The same design was reused in 2006 and 2010. The stamp features an artistic rendering of a banjo clock. Constructed of brass and steel, the banjo clock depicted on the stamp was made by Simon Willard (1753-1848) a famous clock maker.

A nice cover from Poland

2011-06-06T20:17:00.005+02:00

Still very busy despite a very nice four days weekend that has run so quickly...

For today, just a short post to share with you a nice cover I received from Poland. A nice cover for bidrs stamp collectors.

The cover is franked with the top of a souvenir sheet containing eight stamps that has been issued on the 31st October 2003. The full sheet was included in the cover.

The stamps picture an endangered bird, the osprey (Pandion haliaetus). Each stamp bears the WWF logo in the bottom left corner. A nice sheet I think.

A French stamp with a cow, a FDC and a mail-art puzzle…

2011-06-02T17:33:00.004+02:00

(I haven’t bee very active on this blog in the last two weeks, sorry for this. But I have been very busy and some personal issues have eaten all my free time preventing from taking care of my stamps. Hopefully now everything is back to normal.)

On the 16th of May 2011, the French postal administration has issued a stamp that falls into my collection of cows on stamps! This stamp commemorates the 250th anniversary of the creation of the first veterinary school in the world.

The first veterinary school has been created in 1761 in Lyon by Claude Bourgelat (1712-1779). The portrait of Bourgelat is pictured on the stamp with a cow in the background.
To be noticed that this stamp has been designed by Sophie Beaujard and has been engraved by her father (who has created the current French definitive stamps), hence the presence of the two names in the right and left bottom corners!

My friend Eric has participated to the first day ceremony of this stamp issue and has sent me a First Day Cover bearing the very nice first day cancel and also the signature of Sophie Beaujard the designer of the stamp. Thank you very much Eric for this very nice cover.

As you can see, the French post, once again, didn’t respect this philatelic item and has spoiled it with an ugly mechanical cancellation. The same thing that happened to me earlier in the year (read here). The same has happened to Eric (read here). What a pity.

This stamp has inspired by friend Philippe Charron, the mail artist I have already mentioned several times on this blog. He has sent me a mail-art puzzle, made of six pieces. I have received one piece every day, and only after the 6th day I was able to enjoy the full drawing. It was not easy to scan and to present in one picture but here it is.

Nice, isn’t it? Each piece of the puzzle is a sort of postcard franked with the stamp os today’s post.
The drawing is around a word play that only works in French. In French a milk cow is said “une vache à lait” (vache=cow, lait=milk). “Lait”, when pronounced, sounds that the beginning of “Lettres”, the French word for “letters”. So Philippe transformed the “vache à lait” into a “vache à lettres” (a letter cow), picturing a cow that produces letters and words instead of milk. Don’t know if my explaination is very clear, but it does not prevent from enjoying the work of Philippe!

Registered cover from Namibia

2011-05-17T15:57:00.004+02:00

One month ago I wrote a post about a frog shaped souvenir sheet issued by Namibian post. As you guess, I was eager to get it for my frog stamp collection. As I do not know anybody in Namibia, I decided to try to order it from the website of the Namibian post.

After a long wait, and some mail exchange with the responsible of the philatelic service, I finally got my order! It gave me the occasion to receive my first cover from Namibia! Unfortunately it is not franked with stamps, but still, this is the first time I get mail from this country. So I decided to share it with you.

And just for the pleasure here is a scan of the sheet I received.

800th anniversary of the cathedral of Reims (II)

2011-05-15T15:33:00.003+02:00

Just a short post to share with you the two covers that I sent to myself as mentionned in my previous blog post.

Nice result !

Xi'an International Horticulture Expo 2011 (II)

2011-05-10T13:36:00.000+02:00

During my stay in Shanghai I wrote a post about the stamps issued for the Xi’an International Horticulture Expo.
I would like to share with you the following presentation pack, which is more a sort of book, dedicated to this issue.

The book contains blocks of four of the stamps issued for the occasion. It contains also three first day covers: one for each of the stamps of the set, and one for a personalized stamp with a label reusing the logo of the expo.

800th anniversary of the cathedral of Reims

2011-05-09T13:21:00.014+02:00

I spent last weekend in Reims, the capital of Champagne, where has started the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the building of the cathedral. (I already wrote about this cathedral and its representation on stamps in an old post).

This celebration was the occasion for the French postal administration to issue a new set of stamps and to run a first day ceremony, which was the main purpose of my trip. (I know, I have written in a previous post that I would never again participate to such ceremony, but, well, this one was the occasion to go in a city that I really like and to have the opportunity to drink some champagne ;-) So I did not hesitate.)

We had a wonderful weather and there were a LOT of people for the occasion. The cathedral was free of any scaffolding, which did not happen since a long time. Here is a view of the front of the cathedral and a close up on its mist famous statue, the smiling angel, which has really become a symbol of Reims.

The first day ceremony was held in the palace of Tau, a palace located near the cathedral. Here is the entrance of the palace that led to the place where the ceremony was held.

The palace of Tau takes it name from its shape which looks like a T (in Greek the letter TAU). The palace is the place where the Archbishop of Reims is living. The palace was the place where the Kings of France were spending the days prior to their coronation in the cathedral (almost all kings of France have been crowned in the cathedral of Reims). The cathedral and the palace of Tau are a UNESCO world heritage site since 1991.

Here are people queuing in front of the booth of La Poste to buy stamps and get their covers postmarked with the first day cancel.

Here are people busy sticking the stamps on their cover.

And finally here is the mail box where you had to put your covers to be sure they would go through the postal service without additional ugly postal cancellation.

On the booth you could buy the block issued by the French post to celebrate the anniversary: a nice block of two round stamps, picturing two details of the stained glasses of the cathedral.

You could also buy the engraving of the stamps.

Additionally, the French post has issues a philatelic souvenir, re-using both stamps. Here is the cover and the souvenir.

And finally you could also purchase the philatelic document, containing a canceled version of the block, the engravings of the stamps and a text about the issue. Here is the cover of the document.

I sent two covers to myself (and also to some of you, my readers), I will show them here on my blog when I get them.

Beside the booth of the postal administration, there was a booth of the association of the “friends of the cathedral”. They were selling mint first day covers or maximum cards such as those two ones.

As if it was not enough, the French post has also issued two sets of ten pre-stamped enveloped illustrated with ten different picture of the cathedral such as this one.

History of France (II)

2011-05-03T14:54:00.004+02:00

Several months ago I promised, here on this blog, to show some old French stamps that I like. I started by showing you the three first stamps of a series initiated in 1996 and dedicated to the history of France. And due to lack of time, or I don’t know what, I did not show you any other stamps of the series. While sorting out pictures on my hard disk I found out the scan of the following stamps of the series and I decided that it was time to share them with you.

The three first stamps of the series issued in 1966 can be seen here. In 1967, there other stamps have been issued in the series. Again the three stamps are dedicated to three former rulers of France, three former kings to be precise.

The first one pictures the election of the first king of France of the Capetian dynasty, Hugues Capet.

Huges Capet (939-996) was elected King of France on the 3rd of July 987 which started the largest and the oldest Europe royal house, the house of Capet.

The second stamp is rather impressive. I really find it beautiful. It is dedicated to Philippe Auguste (1165-1223), also known as Philip II of France who was king of France from 118à until his death.

The stamp pictures the king during the Bouvines battle that took place in 1214. I remember that when I was a stamp collector, I was really impressed by this stamp.

The last stamp of the 1967 issue is dedicated to Louis IX of France (1214-1270).

Also known as Saint Louis, he became king of France in 1226. He is the only king of France who has been canonized (he was canonized in 1297). The stamp pictures a very famous scene, Saint Louis rendering justice under an oak in Vincennes where he lived. Saint Louis is very often pictured in this situation. To be noted that he has given his name to a lot of places in the world, among others let’s mention the city of Saint Louis in the USA!

The series has continued for several years so I will have the pleasure to show you some others in future posts (I will try not to wait so long for next time!).

Xi'an International Horticulture Expo 2011

2011-05-02T08:40:00.003+02:00

Last time I came to Shanghai, my attention was triggered when, going back to the airport, I saw a funny red statue on the right side of the road. I wondered what it was, but as my Chinese is rather limited ;-) I could not ask to the taxi driver. Here is a picture of the statue I saw (the picture is from the web, this is not a picture of the actual statue I saw but another copy located somewhere else).

As you know, I am curious and I kept in mind a note to try to find out. Yesterday, when I arrived in Shanghai I spent some time trying to get some information about the latest stamp issues from China. And by this, unexpectedly, I found the meaning of the red statue!

On the 28th of April 2011, the Chinese postal administration has issued a set of two stamps commemorating the International Horticulture Expo 2011 that is held in Xi’an from the 28th of April until the 20th of October.

Xi’an, the capital city and political, economic, and cultural center of Shaanxi Province, and one of the sub-provincial cities of the People’s Republic of China, is situated at the center of the Kuan-chung Plain, south of the Weihe River and north of the Qinling Mountains. You can learn more about the Horticulture Expo on the official website.

Here are the stamps.

The left stamp pictures the emblem of the expo. The emblem of the expo is a pomegranate blossom. It embodies a series of "concentric-ring" petal shapes of increasing complexity. Each of the rings have a polygonal shape that corresponds to an important Chinese principle.

- The innermost polygonal shape of the pomegranate blossom is the triangle, which looks like the Chinese character meaning "people". And people – together with nature – are the two bearing pillars of the expo's central theme.
- The second ring is a four-sided polygonal shape – a quadrangle – that symbolizes the ancient city walls of Xi'an.
- The next polygonal one is a pentagon, symbolizing the five principles of “fengshui” that represent balance and harmony in all human endeavors.
- The final, or outer polygonal shape, is the hexagon – the characteristic shape of the snowflake – the snowflake being one of many forms that water takes, water in turn being the basis of all life on planet earth.

The second stamp pictures the mascot, which is the statue I saw! The mascot is a stylized human-like figure whose oversized head is a pomegranate that ends in a shock of "hair" – a flower, albeit, a flower that looks like a daisy.

A mystery has been solved ;-)

My first cover from Turkmenistan

2011-04-30T19:39:00.006+02:00

(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.

A frog on new souvenir sheet from Canada

2011-04-27T20:29:00.001+02:00

On the 21st of April 2011, the Canadian postal administration has issued a nice souvenir sheet to celebrate the international year of the forest. This souvenir sheet contains one large stamp and pictures a vertical panoramic view of a forest. Here it is. The picture is a bit small (it comes from Canada port website, as I don’t own yet the sheet) but if you look closely to the right side of the sheet you will see what triggered my interest in this issues. On the right side are pictured animals that could be found in the various layers of the forest and on the level of the floor is pictured the silhouette of a frog! I also read that if you hold the sheet in front of light you can see the silhouette of nocturnal animals. I’m now impatient to get this new item for my collection.

Cover from Argentina

2011-04-26T20:13:00.006+02:00

I’m back from a very intensive week in Shanghai. Obviously not intensive enough as I have to go back there next week! This is good for my frequent flyer program but a bit tiring for my body. Hopefully May will be full of holidays for me, and then I will be able to have some rest.

When I came back from Shanghai I had the pleasure to find my mailbox full of mails. Among various interesting covers there was this cover that I received from Argentina. It was sent by Viviana (thank you very much Viviana), who maintains a very nice blog :

http://filateliaparaelmundo.blogspot.com/.

The stamps used to frank the cover are part of a booklet issued on the 26^th of July 2008 for young philatelists. The objective of the booklet is to encourage young people to start collecting stamps. The stamps are illustrated by popular kids’ tales. The stamps used on the cover are illustrating the tale “Mamarrachos por carta" from Ricardo Marino that tells about a monkey who falls into a mailbox!. The stamps have been issued in booklet pane.

The other booklet panes are part of the set.

And four single stamps complete the issue, giving twenty differents stamps for this set!

The cover is cancelled with large circular postmarks, as often seen on cover from Argentina.

Thank you again Viviana. As soon as I can I will send you a cover from France!

Off to Shanghai for one week

2011-04-16T10:55:00.001+02:00

I'm on my way to Shanghai for a one week business trip. Will be back next Saturday. I won't be able to update my blog while in China. See you in one week then.