Yesterday was Kalevala Day in Finland

The Kalevala is an epic poem by Elias Lönnrot who compiled Karelian and Finnish myths into one book, first published in 1835. It helps the establishment of the Finnish national culture in the context of the rise of European national identities.

Since its publication, the book and Finnish culture are celebrated on every 28th of February.

A Faroese Post's postcard from a stamp design by Anker Eli Petersen, 2001.

This blog already spoke of the Kalevala in my Don Rosa open class collection, when the Duck Artist honored his huge Finnish fan base with a story during which Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge confronted the heroes of the Finnish traditions.

While browsing my stock of postcards for new Postcrossing exchanges, I found a series reproducing the designs of a stamp series from the Faroe Islands' post office. In 2001 artist Anker Eli Petersen represented a handful myths of Nordic countries, including the Sampo, a forge of wealth, broken during the fight between hero Väinämöinen and the witch Louhi.

Note: I discover that Postverk Føroya, founded in 1976 with the autonomy of the Danish archipelago, became a public joint stock company in 2005 and changed name for Posta in 2009.

Week #2016.08 on SébPhilatélie

Monday, February 22rd: how did Bernie Sanders almost get stamped in the U.S.?
Old news: last summer, a rumor spread in the beginning of the United States presidential primary campaign. Left Democrat candidate Bernie Sanders was put on a postage stamp ; more precisely on the side of a collar surrounding the stamp.

The hoax was from a satirical publication based in California, already know for the "Let's put Nixon behond bar" envelope  in 1995.

Wednesday February 24th: "Nature of Japan" definitives well presented in Stamp Magazine.

Lanius bucephalus on the 120 yen stamp, issued February 16th 1998 (Japan philatelic Society Fundation website).

In the March 2016 issue of the British monthly, Nicholas Pertwee wrote a very efficient introduction to the first definitive stamp series under Emperor Irohito of Japan, issued between November 1992 and February 1998, and replaced only recently.

It makes me discover the Japan philatelic Society's website (JPS ; japonais ou anglais), that hosts a list of the stamps issued in Japan since 1998.

Nicholas Pertwee was spoken of on these blogs last December concerning the modern cancels of Benin.

Thursday February 25th: The silver piastres of the Jeanne-Elisabeth, from sand to piracy.
French newspaper Le Monde presented a judiciary and scientific summary of the Jeanne-Elisabeth affair, in its Science supplement early this month, along with a third article on the problem European States currently have with ancient coinage as a way to discretly move funds across borders.

The Swedish boat was transporting cereals from Cádiz, Spain to Marseille, France... Unofficially, 32,000 Spanish silver piastres to help France in a context that would very soon become the Seven Years' War. But, in front of the island of Maguelone, near Montpellier, the wind forced the boat on the sand banks of Languedoc.

Trapped under the sand and the current, the boat was inaccessible but very preserved until a group succeed to reach the silver. The police intervened in 2007 and caught diving pirates, a recidivist leader and a coin collector of Montpellier. They were tried and found guilty last September.

Since 2007, the regional maritime archeologists have been working on the boat and its content. The wood being in very good condition under the sand, the team hopes to better understand how this kind of ships were built in the 18th century.

Friday February 26th: Should we behead unmarked kangaroos in Adelaide?
This Friday was sold a new rare accident in the rare series of the rare event of an emergency issue in the developed countries, the now famous Adelaide 2016 30 cent emergency issue: almost nine thousand Australien dollars... cough... cough...

The accident sold was a strip of five different 1994 print-on-demand stamp, but one with the value and "Adelaide 2016" wording completely missing: a kangaroo looking at the inking problem and thus was not beheaded by a double cut!

Second particularity of the strip, that may explain its occurence: the stamp is almost separated by a double side cut from the previous one, but a second cutting was done in the upper part of the illustration, hopefully missing the animal.

At the same time, on the 22nd on StampBoards.com forum, a participant posted an estimate of the existing stamps and their condition (unused, unused but stuck on unsent cover, cancelled on cover, on paper clip or sticking-out) may help you evaluate what's the part of emergency use and the part of let's speculate and be merry.

Saturday February 27th = solutions to the quiz.

French cartoonist and the fun of sending postcards

This week, French teacher-cartoonist Fabrice Erre published postcards of his Winter holidays on his blog A year in highschool, a pre-publication of his "survival guides in teaching environment".

Stamps and postmarks from the three first comics (courtesy of the artist - thank you).

Because of the svhool holiday period in zone C, the high school teacher is exploring the world to work on his history and geography lessons: snowy mountains on Tuesday 23rd, in South Sea islands on Wednesday 24th, Asian ancient temples on Thursday 25th, the Moon on Friday 26th - where will he go to until class restarts on the 29th???¹

Even if the frankings are fanciful, they constitute a perfect weekend quiz: enjoy! Especially the space topical collector would enjoy the fourth card and postage from the Moon.

Just a note of happiness: my Lattes city collection is becoming an open class collection thank to a distribution office cancel on a Princess Elisabeth stamp of New Zealand.

I'll help you with the play-on-words in French.

1: "Jamais trop de ski !" "Comme disait Staline !": Never enough skiing / like Stalin said.
Hint: who's behind "trop de ski" pronunciation in French ("p" is mute here)?

2: "Les îles, vous n'en reviendrez pas !" "Comme disait Napoléon !": Islands, you'll never come back (from there  = double sens like in English) / like Napoléon said.
Hint: Twice sent he was, only once he came back.

3: "Angkor, Angkor" "Comme disait Francis !": Angkor, Angkor (pronunce it with a mute letter), like Francis (Cabrel) said.
Hint: every French and Quebecian can hum it since 1985.

4: "D'ici, je vois ta maison !" "Comme Neil disait à Buzz !": From here I see your house / Like Neil told Buzz.
Hint: you really need one?!

Let's work!


1: Not very far in the end.

Week #2016.07 on SébPhilatélie, other blogs and medias

A week of crossposts.

Monday February 15th: the century long life and career of Ken Baker.

Thank to the reading of StampBoards threads, I discovered two of the charismatic stamp dealers of Australia. On Sunday 14th I summarized the life of Max Stern who passed away the Thursday before, then I discovered Ken Baker, who left us on January, a Londoner migrant who became a successfull dealer first in Melbourne, then in Sydney.

To read the souvenirs Ken Baker told dealer Glen Stephens in English, the latter published them on his editorial website in March 2012 to mark Baker's centenary.

Friday February 19th: Cyprus classical philately at 41 Devonshire Place.

Despite being a complete moron on classical traditional philately and bored at the idea of sorting all these stamps myself to understand printing methods, I was amazed by Akis Christou's conference at the Royal Philatelic Society London.

About the Victorian stamps of Cyprus from 1880 to 1896, he went into all the details one can know about all the varieties affecting their overprints, even the - difficult - possibility of plating one of this issue by replacing blocks of stamps depending on the full sheet watermark!

As always, the video can be easily found by the Society's members and all guests can browse the pdf file.

Saturday February 20th: The Penguin Post Office backstage on BBC Radio 4.

A small discovery yesterday: British news and culture public channel Radio 4 broadcasted again last Christmas time the behind-the-scene testimony by the natural documentary crew that went to Antarctica to film The Penguin Post Office. between October 2013 and St David's Day 2014.

BBC Radio 4's chosen picture of the museum and post office, and a small part of the thousand noisy and  smelling penguins (Radio 4 website).

The TV show was viewable prime time on BBC 2 on July 2014 and on PBS in January 2015. The United States public channel issued a dvd, surely blocked on zone 1 [Readers in Canada and U.S. will make me happy to check what the dvd zoning number logo is, please].

The backstage documentary is breathtaking during the cruise from South America to the Antarctic Peninsula among the iceberg and the blizzard. The second part of the five episodes manages to present the long and patient wait for the penguins and other animals to do what you need to film, the difficulties of the crew managing both the filming (or lack of filming) and the maintenance of their living equipment.

The philatelist will of course enjoy the small talks with the Postmistress and her assistant, waiting for the tourist boats to arrive. The museum and post office is operated since 1996 by the United Kingdom Antartic Heritage Trust, that found a good brand with "the penguin post office", and uses stamps of the British Antarctic Territory.

Sunday February 21st: hangover or begin of wisdom in Adelaide?

All quiet on the Australian front, just the eBay shells falling here and there - my little centenary of the battle of Verdun touch, while StampBoards generals philosophing on philatelic strategies.

Were are we these past week? A stripe of unused six Adelaide emergency 30 cent stamps seems to be at 2,000 Australian dollars. The albino inverted "$1.00" error in a strip of six passed the 5,000 dollar mark. Used on cover or little kiloware paper clip are under the thousand, largely depending on their date of cancellation: look for anything cancelled well before the mediatisation mid-January ; better the 6 and 7 january ones.

On StampBoards starting with page 13, the talks were a little bit more philatelic than speculative: what happened to create the "30c" and "$1.00" albino inverted errors.

The speculative hopes will come from three catalogue editors (Gibbons, Scott and Seven Seas Stamps), two of them are preparing their new Australia catalogue... A new stampede from overseas now?

In the March 2016 issue of Stamp Magazine.

While I late discovered the now famous "treasure chest" full of undelivered letters, kept by French huguenot postmaster Simon de Brienne in The Hague, in the future Netherlands, my letter to Stamp Magazine was published to highlight the enthusiastic interview of historian David Van der Linden on France Culture.

The famous chest and its letters (© Signed, Sealed & Undelivered Team, 2015. Courtesy Museum voor Communicatie, The Hague, Netherlands).

The speculative bubble in Adelaide, Australia bothers me on a regular bothering matter in philately and postal history: the high cost one goes to buy a unused or clearly cancelled isolated stamp and on't bother that, in the second case, an envelope was destroyed in the process...

... That's why I like David Van der Linden and his colleagues' wish not to unseal the letters and x-ray them in order to read them.

 Records in auctions, again in Stamp Magazine.

This month, in Stamp Magazine's "Auction Highlights" pages, two examples conforts my opinion that some may lose a lot financially, and more importlantly in knowledge for the next generation by focusing only on isolated stamps.

In a sale in Hong Kong on January 17th, Spink proposed Meiso Mizuhara's Chinese Customs Post collection. Projects for the first stamps of China were offered ; one with two drawn on the same sheet of paper (a large dragon and a pagoda) became the most expensive essays in philatelic history at 359,142 pounds sterling...

On the next page, a returned letter label, perforated, from 1872 Norway with a cancel on which you can read the city of origin reached 1,385 pounds at a Skanfil sale. The perforated stamp-size label explained why the mail was returned to sender.

When you think again how all that's said about our contemporary unstamped, labelled mail by stamp collectors...

French happenings on other blogs.

Yesterday, Adrian Keppel brought a TV Timbres video to the intaglio fan's attention. In this documentary Timbres Magazine's editor-in-chief Gauthier Toulemonde visited engraver Pierre Albuisson in his country home. The artist explained concrete things on how to engrave, how to prepare the tools.

A very nice addition to Gibbons Stamp Monthly's recent monthly articles on intaglio printing, started in the December 2015 issue, following the Long to Reign over Us issue.

Laurent Veglio published his second article on his blog in French - non-French readers can read the Italian version too or test Google Translate with both versions.

The postal historian is very efficient to prove a complete envelope is very interesting when the postmen help it: how a innocent 40 centime stamped letter from Paris to Italy in 1867 made a transatlantic return trip to Saint Thomas and Montserrat in the Caribbean.

The U.S. Post Office Department still in place in 2077... before the Nuclear War

In role playing video game with an open world, the player can replay the same game many times as long as he/she is imaginative with his/her avatar's physical and moral aspects.

The open world assures this replayability because you need to explore the whole map to visit places and find more or less useful items.

The first mailbox tha player will find in Fallout 3 with the sceal of the Post Office Department (created by an anonymous tumblr user).

But, in Fallout 3 et Fallout New Vegas, two games by Bethesda Softworks, your avatar has a weight limit on what he can carry: weight of the clothes or armor, of the necessary weaponry, and a lot of... things that may be of highly use somewhen during the many quests offered. Either you choose to put more Force than other quality into your character when you start the game, or you make it drink alcohol but you will temporallly lose one Intelligence point.

Where can you store the surplus of junk until you discover a permanent home? Especially where safely store when the Fallout universe tool place in an alternative-history post-apocalyptic future, two hundred years after nuclear strikes destroyed Washington?


In a mailbox!


Among the small tips on how to start the game, a player created this tumblr picture: he explained that the first blue rusted mailbox you encounter in the first minutes of the story can store anything as long as you want. Contrary to many containers it won't empty itself.


What can surprise our United States readers and other U.S. specialised philatelists is that these boxes wears the United States Post Office Department's sceal in 2077 when the Nuclear War happened... when the U.S. Post Office became a public firm, the U.S. Postal Service in 1971.


A century more: thank to alternate history.


The Fallout divergent history (or uchronie in French) seems to start after World War Two ended with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the fifties, the Cold War scientists went into the miniaturisation of nuclear technology in all industrial products: cars, planes, and the research into robotics, both for military and domestic use.

The 2077 Nuclear War started after decades of worldwide tensions when oil reserves get scarce. In Fallout 3, a virtual reality mission makes you live the campaign to free Alaska from the invading army of the People's Republic of China, looking to the Arctic oil reserve ; the alternate U.S. annexed Canada to secure their oil stronghold just before nuclear hell breaks loose in the form of smaller H-bombs than in our world.

A second main divergence is the survival of the fifities modes and cultures until 2077: comics, survived music styles, design of cars. Even the anticommunist insults by combat robots programmed two centuries before in a maccarathyst universe.


If you are curious enough of this universe, without the wish to buy a high graphic capable computer or a home videogame console (Xbox or PS3), now some players are becoming youTubers and propose to watch them play and a wiki website accumulated details on these games and their alternate history: Fallout Wikia in English.

To help you get the first minutes of Fallout 3: after some memories of your life in a closed-for-200-year vault, you have to fly away to find your father, a scientist, who fled some days before... because he may knew a way to make the region of Washington livable again. There, in a suit and (perhaps) a gun or a baseball bat, you met with postapocalyptic surroundings of small divided communities of humans, racist deliberately mutated mutants and irradiated ghouls... They are fighting for the remaining ressources including the radioactive meat of a charming mutated bestiary.

Week #2016.06 on SébPhilatélie

A multi-topic week on the French side of the blog.

Tuesday February 9th: Day dreaming watching Stampex flyers.

Since Autumn 2015 Stampex I decided to collect The Philatelic Traders Society's 60 year old stamp shows in London.

Not stamps, not personalised label se-tenant, but marvellous (The Philatelic Traders Society).

You can find them thrown into British philatelic monthlies (when they arrive... February issue of Gibbons Stamp Monthly still travelling).

Friday February 12th: the French postmen get a bashing through light working journalists.

On Thursday, one minority way of working in the French post centers was the center of a mediatic hate news: they were accused of "leaving as soon as finished", hence having dangerous behaviors on the roads and against the quality of service.

It was all that these journalist morons get from a full report by the French Accounting Court's annual reports on how institutions, public firms and elected politicians managed the public money... For example how former Presidents and Prime Ministers still running for offices are costly.

Hopefully an economic journalist (or an intern I bet) at conservative-liberal Le Figaro succeed to summarize the report: postmen and postwomen were acknowledged their effort facing the downsize of sent mail. What the Court wonders is if La Poste's current diversification into social services (watch elderly mainly, help with new technology) can offer enough profits to pay the current workforce anyway.

Saturday February 13th: the Adelaide continuing Emergency Issue party explained to the French.

A longer and illustrated report on the past week discoveries about the Adelaide emergency issue of early January 2016. And me impatiently waiting for the dust to settle and some writer to produce the book of it. Article in English over here or live on StampBoards.com.

Sunday February 14th: Max Stern, stamp dealer of Melbourn, passed away.

An extended biography of the Melbourne philatelic community pillar for the French readers' knowledge. Summarized here in English or read Max Stern & Compagny "About us" page and the Australian Philatelic Federation's 2001 fellowship to Mr. Stern for more.

Australia: Max Stern passed away while Adelaide emergency event continues

On StampBoard.com, an Australian-based forum where you can find worldwide knowledge and discussions on philately, two events catch attention.

"Binge philatelying" in Adelaide
The passion of StampBoarders for the emergency issue printed by Adelaide Greater Post Office at the beginning of January to face a temporary shortage of 30 cent stamps in the metropolitan area. The post office agents used a reformed machine that print value on demand stamps that they have kept for philatelic events.

While a month of eBay sales concluded a value of one thousands Australian dollar for a nice strip of six different of those stamps, two shocking errors occured this past week in a debate between a stamp dealer and his client on the mentioned forum (pages 11 and 12).

The latter was puzzled by the blank spaces in the "Adelaide 2016" imprint and check them with a UV lamp. He discovered an inverted erroneous white "$1.00"!

Before the UV picture were released on Friday February 12th, the dealer checked his stock and discover some items with an inverted erroneous white "30c" !!

To finish in three days, the current sale of the "$1.00" error is at the moment up to a promise of more than 2'600 australian dollars. Yes: 1'600 euros, 1'300 pounds sterling.

Still not enough?
These two errors that add up to the two stamp types ("1994" near or far the edge) and other variations I didn't really catch, are only parts of this week news on Adelaide emergency party.

A emergency postage on a kiloware little piece of cut envelope postmarked January 6th (almost first day cancel?) reached 2 thousands dollars! Remember to check those kiloware at stamp shows if you know what to look for.

An emergency franked letter cancelled on January 7th by the Torrentsville Plaza post office was exchanged among collector friends for the equivalent of a (large) pack of local beer.

As I don't like to participate in such philatelic fever with my own money, these events and the way the StampBoards participants testifie and write their opinions about it, helps prove the need to develop metaphilately or philosophy of philately.

On the prices reached during eBay auctions, read the debate: eBay skyscraping prices compared to long term relationship with an efficient dealer. On being an informed collector: despite this open membership and even readership forum and the general media printing, writing, shouting about the emergency issue and value, there are still Australian collectors who don't know... until Stanley Gibbons gave a line and quote in its catalogue?

Finally how to valued - monetary and is-it-genuine-ly speaking - cancelled items? First days one before philatelic discovery: for sure (5?-8? January), but after the first philatelists and dealers knew of it (7?8?-19? January)... and the whole community (19 January by a post on StampBoards)... and the whole nation... Can a February 3rd cancelled letter be genuine enough to justify a high level price?

No illustration on my blog in English: English able readers can read the whole event as it's happening on StampBoards.com: register and participate there while I try to evangelise the French on my blog in French.

In Melbourne a pillar of philatelic trade passed away.
Max Stern, important Autralian stamp dealer of Melbourne, died at almost 95, on Thursday February 11th. His shops in the Port Phillip Arcade were a philatelic beacon in the busy center of the Victoria capital. A survivor of the nazi camps, he went to Australia in 1948 and began stamp dealing in 1950, a trade he had moved in the Arcade since the opening in 1961.

Lately he appeared in the press. In September, the personalised stamp issue to honor Raoul Wallenberg he helped create and sold was reminded before Australia Post issued October 2015 its own special stamp along two other honoring Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.

But his final appearance in the press was to sadly comment the planned eviction of the Arcade's shops  by 2017, announced late October by Melbourne Metro Rail Project, a new tunnel to connect the central business district.

German underpaid postcard... or a New Year Bank Holiday too long?

Between January 18th and Saturday 23rd, I received this Postcrossing postcard from Germany with a mark indicating an insufficient postage.

Schloss Ludwiglust stamp at 80 eurocents double cancelled in Bremen.

Believing Postcrossing tools, the card was asked by Lara on Wedenesday December 23rd 2015. On a group of 69 cards I sent to German Postcrossers and 68 received since 2007, the trip from asking to registering is seven days.

One month's surprising.

Deutsche Post's postage calculator and its parent website provided the cause of the problem: since the beginning of the new year, the international rate rose from 80 cents to 90 cents. The stamp - a picture of Ludwigslust Castle in Mecklemburg - does not cover it completely, hence the taxation mark "T 10/90".

Now the cancellation from Briefzentrum 28 is the common pictorial cancel of Bremen mail center 28 and 29. On the left side of the mark is the map of both postal zones: 28 being the city of Bremen and 29 the neighbouring Landkreise of Lower Saxony. The main part of the illustration is the statue of the Town Musicians of Bremen, by the Grimm brothers' tales. Philastempel.de proposed a clearer view here.

Clearer because mine is double cancelled but I think not on the same day. I can decipher the same "-1 16" that would mean the card arrived at the mail center in January, new rate then. But one of them was surely stricken on the 5th...

The double cancel and the fact that the French post didn't ask me anything would mean that perhaps the postal operators decided that the long New Year week end, from Thursday afternoon to Monday morning may have lost some consumers.

Thank you Lara for the very nice and thankful card, and a late mailboxing that ended with the postage due mark. Thank you to La Poste or Deutsche Post to avoid me paying it or to avoid defacing the card with any sticker or huge announcement mark you're using these days.

I just wish that La Poste will put back illustrated cancellation on French mail.

Week #2016.05 on SébPhilatélie

An eventful philatelic week on the French side of the blog.

Monday February 1st: alternate and counterfactual history on France Culture radio.
As a fan of alternate history fictions (uchronie in French), I suggest to listen to five shows (one on literature with a radio play, and four on history) broadcast by France Inter and France Culture, two public radio channels.

Tuesday February 2nd: stampede in Adelaide after the rise of the postal rates.

What should have been the novelty of Australia Post 2016 postal rates... (Australia Post). 

Easy to follow for English readers on StampBoards forums (here and there), I summarized the new postal rates of Australia Post and an unexpected consequence in Adelaide. And there was a lot to say: a rising from 70 cents to a dollar, and even 1.50 dollar with the new priority rate and label!

All this in a context of great unpopularity of the thank-to-his-post multimilionaire President of Australia Post and an established reputation of snail mail...

... what every philatelist is going to remember of it (scan by GlobalAdministrator posted on StampBoards).

On January 5th, the South Australian main post office decided an emergency issue to face a ragional shortage of 30 cent stamps: a stock of machine stamps - kept for philatelic occasions - was printed "30c Adelaide 2016"... You imagine that now some philatelists and dealers produced covers in the very first days of their discovery and are now looking for genuine letters in every corners of Adelaide.

This week a strip of unused six could reach a thousand Australian dollars, more for twelve with the two types of these labels (change in the position of the year), and up to 1'400 dollars for a 5-8 January cover.

Friday February 5th: Britain got his national Postal Museum back... in 2017.
In preparation for its grand reopening The Postal Museum brand is relaunched by the former British Postal Museum & Archive.

The new logotype of The Postal Museum.

Next year the museum will open near Mount Pleasant mail center, in London, with the underground mail train unveiled to visitors.

Saturday February 6th: the social postman, a new speciality of France.
Since the Direction of La Poste understood they had to find new activities to avoid firing postmen by the thousands, the walking-cycling-driving postmen received new charged tasks: check if the old lady's fine, take pictures for the insurance company,... A policy branded "Cohesio" as cohesion/solidarity.

Because French terrestrial television system (TNT) is going high-definition only next April, the national wave agency is advertising people to check the HD capacity of their TV sets. La Poste appears on the side because postmen are going to help the elderly and the disabled household install their new TNT-HD adaptator if they do not wish to renew their equipment.

Know that, a few months ago, the government was thinking upgrading postmen as driving licence inspectors to resolve the long waiting list of young would-be drivers...

Other update: Timbres Magazine's Gauthier Toulemonde again on national radio.
Finally, I updated an older article because the French philatelic monthly's editor-in-chief talked at lenghth of philately, geopolitics and make other guests speak of stamp souvenirs on Europe 1 last Monday. The previous appearances were listed here in my review in English of his special issue.

Here are the links: Europe 1 Social Club, and illustrated with stamps by Timbres Magazine's team: 1, 2 et 3.

And finally a fine author starts a blog.
Starting September 2015 Laurent Veglio has been writing a series of interesting and well illustrated articles for Timbres Magazine on how French Napoléon III-stamped mail followed the British Imperial maritime roads between 1850 and 1870.

He's got a small amount of postal history articles in Italian hosted by Il Postalista portal, and is going to translate them in French on a new blog. One of them, Austrian aerophilatelicly inspired, was published in Timbres in the February issue.

Have a nice week reading all this and my sources.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon meets the Americas

To be able to speak about one's philatelic activities for twenty minutes (cut with some songs and commercials), without being asked about the most expensive stamp in the world. That's the pleasure you get when listening to Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon 1ère radio on October 7th 2015 morning.

Not numerous but very enthusiast! (from the Club's website)

Brume de Capelans, the local public radio's morning show, received Jean-Jacques Tillard, one member of the Club philatélique de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, past president, webmaster of spm-philatelie.com and a grand gold medallist in international exhibition for the local overprints late 19th century - that was worth a stamp issued in September 2014 when he and his club hosted an international event in Saint-Pierre!

The Grand Gold medal of Tillard was stamped in 2014 when the archipelago hosted its first international exhibition (Jean-Jacques Oliviéro's stamp reproduced by SPM 1ère).

In the interview, that you can watch on DailyMotion, Jean-Jacques Tillard explains the special status of the French oversea collectivity in the geopolitical and philatelic world. Member of the French Philatelic Associations Federation (FFAP), the Club decided the get along with their continental neighbours by becoming a member of the Interamerican Federation of Philately (FIAF) and participate a lot more to exhibitions outside the French sphere.

Saint-Pierre and Miquelon stamp on a stamp of Ecuador... strange (issued for Expo AFE 150 Años in Quito, September 2015, picture from FIAF website).

He told of the known difficulties to travel for Saint-Pierre to Canada and from there to France, and so the expedition it is to go to the Southern edge of Latin America. But it's the happiness of receiving the adventurous guest at Saint-Pierre in September 2014 too.

Tillard thanked the federation and the elected councils that provided the subsidies to help the members to exhibit and judge so far away. And it's worth it: the pride of showing the islands' flag and culture to the other philatelists of the continent.

Who in the Americas could have placed the French collectivity before its Club became a member of the American philatelic community? And who in France? ;)

Next May Tillard and his colleagues are going to put Saint-Pierre and Miquelon on the map at the New York World Stamp Show.

Cancel in French from Belarus

A little postcard corner from a Postcrossing member. Thank you Elena.

A cancel in latin alphabet and in French.

The stamp marks the sixtieth anniversary of Belarus entry in the Unesco ; Let's remind that in the Sovietic fiction, the Socialist Sovietic Republics of Belarus and Ukraine were independent states, founding members of the Organisation of the United Nations.

The cancel in French is known, see the French Blog timbré de ma philatélie on June 23rd 2014. It would be interesting to compare with a cancel on a Belarus sent to Belarus.

In a country whose population writes in cyrillic alphabet, this mark in latin alphabet with the French name of a "Departement de prestation de services" (missing an accent on the first é), is surely to respect the Universal Postal Union's directive on international mail.

But what is this administrative service? The one in charge of sending and receiving mail from foreign countries? Of the necessary accounting?