Eichstätt letter

On the 7th of May 2009 the German postal administration has celebrated the stamp day by issuing a stamp with surtax picturing one of the treasures of German philately. I had recently the very nice surprise to receive a first day cover of this issue. Thank you Kalpana for this cover (and the others), thank you very much.

Before detailing the subject of the stamp, let’s have a close look to its perforation. If you look carefully between both stamps on the cover you will see that there is a small hole having the shape of an oak leaf. Here is a zoom on the stamp so that can see it better.

As you can see on the cover there are two versions of the same stamp: one with the hole on the right border and one with the hole on the left border. This sort of perforation is a security measure to avoid falsification of stamps. I have already shown some examples of security perforations on stamps from other countries (e.g the cross on stamps from Portugal, the ellipse on stamps from UK…). But this is the first time that this is done by Germany. It seems this is a sort of test, and if the test is successful, such perforation will be generalized on all stamps. I wonder why the shape of an oak leaf has been selected.

Let’s come back to the design of the stamp. As I said, it pictures one of the treasures of German philately, a cover called the Eichstätt letter. Here is a picture of the original letter.

It is addressed to Eichstätt, hence its name. What is the particularity of this cover? It is franked with a block of six black stamps that are the first stamp issue from the Kingdom of Bavaria, a stamp that was issued on the 1st of November 1849. Here is a picture of this stamp. Very simple design, isn’t it?

This letter is a unique item that was discovered in 1958 in a set of old documents and acquired by the German ministry of Post in 1969. I can not even imagine its value. It is considered as one of the most valuable objects of German philately. It has been the subject of philatelic exhibitions together with other philatelic rarities.

Just to be complete you can note that the surtax on the stamp is marked with a five dots cross that I already mentioned for a previous issue.

New covers from Japan

In a previous post I wrote about a set of stamps issued by Japan for the 50th anniversary of the wedding between the emperor and the empress. A souvenir sheet was part of the set and I had only a very small picture to share with you. I recently got the very nice surprise to receive a cover franked with this souvenir sheet, from Yusuke, a reader of my blog. Thank you very much Yusuke! Like that I’m able to share with you a larger picture of the souvenir sheet.

Using a full souvenir sheet to frank a cover is not so common so I’m always very happy to get such covers. Each time I try myself to send a cover with a souvenir sheet on it I have to fight to be able to stick it correctly on the cover!

Yusuke sent me also another cover. Here it is. I like the vertical orientation ;-)

The small stamp on the bottom is part of a definitive series about flora and fauna that I already mentioned several times here in my blog. Otherwise on the top of the cover there is the top part (first raw) of a stamp sheet issued on the 5th of June 2009 about flora. The left stamp pictures Chery blossoms whereas the right one pictures a Zelkova serrata, a tree also called keyaki in Japanese. I found a picture of the full sheet on the Japanese post website (this is a “specimen” version, hence the black circles printed on the stamps).

The margins of the sheet are illustrated as you can see. The format of the stamps, a square, is rather unusual for Japan if I’m not wrong.

New frog stamp from Australia

I recently had the opportunity to discuss with other topical (or thematic) collectors. We have exchanged some information about our respective collections. One of the question that popped up was: what is the country that has issued the highest number of stamps that fall into our topic. For frog and toad stamps, I must admit that I was not really able to answer directly. I'm still not able, since I did not compute precisely the number of stamps per country. But I would hesitate between South Africa (South Africa is helped by the fact that its postal administration has issued a sheet of 10 stamps picturing frogs in 2000!) and Australia, one of the rare countries that have issued definitive stamps picturing frogs. It is not very surprising when you know that there are more than 200 frog species in Australia!

Again, very recently, the Australian post has issued a stamp picturing one of my favourite animal. It is a part of a set of two stamps issued on the 6th of June 2009 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the creation of Queensland.

Queensland is a state of Australia which is located on the north east of the mainland continent. It was declared an indepedant state, separated from New South Wales in 1859. Queen Victoria signed a document establishing the new colony of Queensland on the 6th of JUne 1859, and later, on the 10th of December 1859 the creation of the state was officially proclaimed by the first Governor Sir George Ferguson Bowen. The state is nammed Queensland in honour of Queen Victoria.

Here is the first stamp of the set.

It pictures the Queensland Parliament house located in Brisbane, the capital of the state. Parliament did not sit there until August 1868, even though it was established on the day Queensland was proclamied. The stamp also underlines the importance of rural life in this state by the presence of a windmil, and the outback is illustrated by the red sands at the bottom of the stamp. Also on the left top border can be read "Waltzing Matilda", the title of a very famous a popular song composed in 1895 that has become, among other things, an anthem for the rugby games played at home!

The second stamp of the set is the one picturing the frog.

The main image of the stamp pictures the well known Great Barrier Reef, which is the largest natural reef and among the first World Heritage sites of Australia. This reef attracts tourists from all over the world and is therefore a major element in Queensland economy.

The stamp also pictured a Litoria chloris, commonly nammed Red-eyed tree frog, which is a frog species native to eastern Australia (Red-eyed tree frog is also the comon name of another frog species : Agalychnis callidryas, which is very often pictured on stamp). This very colourful and very attractive frog has the particularity that its skin secretions have been found to destroy HIV without harming the healthy T cells! The same has been found for the White's Tree Frog, but the Red-eyed tree frog produces it in larger quantity.

This frog species has been already pictured several times on stamps: on stamps from Angola, Mali, Antigua and Micronesia but this the first time it is pictured on an Australian stamp. A very similar species, the Orange-thighed Frog (Litoria xantheroma) has been pictured on a definitive stamp isued by Australian post in 2003.

I really enjoy this set of stamps issued by Australia, and not only because there is a frog on it ;-) I think they really illustrate a subject which is specific to Australia, not like the other numerous stamps issued by this country!

Mail art

I have always been fascinated by mail art. Mail art, or postal art, is an art that uses the postal system as a medium. I’ve had the opportunity to see several exhibitions of mail arts and I have always been amazed by the imagination of the postal artists. Unfortunately I have never been able to produce some postal art myself (I’m not an artists…) and so far I never got the chance to receive some neither. Until recent days. Following the portrait that Timbres Magazine has published about me, I was contacted by a postal artist, Philippe, who has nicely sent me two pieces that he has designed just for me, around my interest for the frogs. But first, if you want to see more of the work from Philippe you can visit his website.

So Philippe sent me to decorated covers, with a humoristic twist in both of them. Here is the first one.

The stamp used for this drawing is a part of the famous people set issued on the 23rd of February 1987 and pictures Jean Rostand. Here is a picture of the original stamp (picture is coming from PHILA ECHANGE website)

Jean Rostand (1894 - 1977) was a French biologist and philosopher. He became famous for his work as a science writer, as well as a philosopher. His scientific work covered a variety of biological fields such as amphibian embryology while his literary output extended into popular science, history of science and philosophy. He was the son of playwright Edmond Rostand and the brother of novelist and playwright Maurice Rostand. Following the footsteps of his father, Rostand was elected to the prestigious French Academy in 1959.
As Jean Rostand has studied deeply the biology of the amphibians (and therefore of the frogs and toads) he must have spent a lot of time studying them through a microscope. Here, the drawing of Philippe shows a human looking frog, studying Jean Rostand through the microscope! A funny idea.

I know that this cover may shock a lot of philatelists because the stamp has been cut to fit into the design, which could be seen as a crime for stamp collectors. But this is for the purpose of art.

The second one has a different inspiration.

It uses a stamp recently issued (on the 22th of June 2009) and belonging to the Nature series. The full set contains four stamps and also a souvenir sheet, and is dedicated to extinct or endangered animals. Here is the souvenir sheet.

The stamps picture three endangered animals, the Rhinoceros, the California condor and the Giant Panda and one extinct animal, the Aurochs.
Philippe used the Rhinoceros stamp and integrated it into the design of a Genetically Modified Organism (in French OGM as mentioned in the text of the address) mixing the head of the Rhinoceros and the body of a frog. A frightening creature, isn’t it?

Did you ever receive mail art? Or do you produce mail art on your side? I would be happy to hear from you.

A French FDC

Yesterday I have shown you the postal card sent by the French post to communicate about the philatelic program of 2009. If you check the left part of the second postcard, the yellow/orange one, you can see all the modifications made in the philatelic program of the first half of the year compared to the first postcard (the blue one). In this section, at the bottom, you can see a stamp planned to be issued on the 22nd of June 2009 as a tribute to Jean Moulin.
I recently had the very nice surprise to receive from Eric, a FDC of this stamp. Thank you very much Eric, I don’t received FDC from France so often!
Here is the cover.

Nice stamp, nice cancellation. Jean Moulin (1899-1943) was a member of the French resistance during World War II, probably the most famous one. He is known by all French people (at least he should be) and is really seen as a symbol of the resistance due to his courage and death at the hand of the Germans. If you want to know more about him, you can check this website. The portrait of Jean Moulin used on the stamp and the cancel is a very well known one. The background of the stamp pictures the house where Jean Moulin got arrested. This house is going to be a memorial that should open in 2011. The house is located in Caluire (a small city located near Lyon) where was held the first day ceremony of the stamp as you can read on the cancellation.

This is not the first stamp issued by the French postal administration and picturing Jean Moulin. A stamp was issued on the 20th of May 1957 in a set dedicated to heroes from the restistance. Here is the 1957 stamp (picture is coming from the PHILA ECHANGE website).

French philatelic program

It seems that this year, the French post has decided to innovate for the communication of its philatelic program.
In April of this year, I have received this.

It is a postcard presenting the stamp issues planned for the first half of the year. The recto (top of the image) pictures the stamps to be issued and the recto (bottom of the image) provides the date of issue and the subject.
As you can see this is a sort of pre-paid postcard, with a printed stamp that imitates one of the new personalized stamps called “Mon timbre à moi”. There is no cancellation on this pseudo stamp.
At that time I was a bit surprised to receive the program of the first half of the year in April, whereas the year is already started. On the recto side it is announced that the program of the second half will be sent in June.
And effectively, here is what I have received few days ago.

This is the same principle, a pre-paid postcard with only a difference on the color of the background and of the printed stamp. I let you see the stamps that are going to be issued in the coming months (as usual click on the picture to zoom).

I think this is a good initiative. I wonder if this will continue next year or not. If yes, then we could envisage a new collection of these postal stationeries.

How does your postal administration communicate about its philatelic program? I would be happy to hear from you.

Mythical creatures

Being a sci-fi and fantasy fan (well I’m much more into sci-fi, but fantasy is also ok…), my attention was naturally triggered by a recent stamp issue from Great Britain dedicated to Mythical creatures. Scott, from Positively Postal, made me the surprise to send me the presentation pack of this issue. Thank you very much Scott.

The stamps have been issued on the 16th of June 2009. They picture six different creatures that you can meet in fairy tales or legends: dragons, unicorns, giants, pixies, mermaids and fairies.
On Scott’s website you can find plenty of information about this issue (and also a lot of interesting features about other Royal mail issues) and also a competition where you can win some stamps. So don’t hesitate to visit it.

By coincidence it happened that almost at the same time that I received Scott’s letter, I also received a FDC bearing two of these stamps, through a cover exchange circuit. Here is a scan of the FDC, with the dragon and unicorn stamps (the two stamps that I prefer in his issue) and a very nice cancellation picturing a mermaid. The cancel does not bear the mention “first day of issue” so I guess it is why it could be used on the two definitive Machin stamps that were added to complete the franking.

Inside the FDC there was a card giving some information about the creatures pictured on the stamp. Here is a scan of the card.