Weeks #2017.31 on SébPhilatélie

Monday 31 July: Some news from philatelic societies.
The Royal Hispanic Philatelic Academy is publishing a special issue of his journal to mark its 40th anniversary.

On Thursday 27 July The Royal Philatelic Society London celebrated its library volunteers and employees with a special exhibition from their collections.

On Friday 28 July The Postal Museum finally opened in London, but know that the Mail Rail, the exhibition and travel through the former Post Office underground train will only be opened to the general public in September. Seems reservation for Mail Rail would be prudent.

In the middle of summer the New Zealand post office announced the Children's Health stamp series is discontinued due to sales being insufficient to donate enough to Stand ; 2016 would be the last one of a now complete collection.

The Swiss Postcrossing stamps (Postcrossing blog, 28 July 2017).

On 7 September the Swiss Post will issue three stamps - one per rate - about Postcrossing, the postcard blind exchange postcard website. Max Spring designed the humorous labels.

Friday 4 August: Being postal with Charles Bukowski.
Summer reading: Post Office by United States author Charles Bukowski who wrote quasi autobiography in some of his novels.

As it happened Bukowski, a free spirited man - spirit as the fumes of some beverages... -, was a postman and after a period of successful horse racing betting, a postal clerk sorting envelopes. Despite a reasonable efficiencies he wrote how some of the rules and regulations were alienating the staff.

A reflexion on inhumane modern fordism? Or an ode to laziness and easy pleasures?

Sunday 6 August: "175 proven stamp exhibiting tips" by Steven Zwillinger.
Another summer reading, but incomplete because of the nature of the book, this will guide a potential philatelic exhibitor into the preparation and the competition, hopefully, on "the path to gold".

The cover of The Path to Gold (American Association of Philatelic Exhibition website).

The very interesting and thought-inducing book by Steven Zwillinger was published 2016 by the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors and compiled his chronics he wrote for The Stamp Dealer & Collector from 2009 to 2016, and the publications of the AAPE.

From a detailed example of a synopsis (the text provided by the exhibitor to the jury) to etymologicly iconoclast ideas... or simply reminders that one should enjoy oneself's and the public's when exhibiting.

After I wrote my article on SébPhilatélie, I found that Steven Zwillinger was awarded a large silver medal for this book at the international exhibition in Bandung, Indonesia this August and was elected President of the American Philatelic Research Board of Trustess, which pilot the American Philatelic Society's Library in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

Week #2016.28 on SébPhilatelie and in Europe

Monday 11 July: European philatelic and postal news.
From my readings of Google News, StampBoards.com, the Commonwealth Stamp Opinion and Norvics blogs, a handful of philatelic and postal news from Western Europe.

Brexit: The current British Home Guard ready to repel the European invasion! (Lonely Planet via The Daily Mail).

How French postal clercks may have jeopardize the British referendum on the European Union by misunderstanding the British postage already paid envelopes, a possible crime of lèse-Prime Minister in the background picture of a commemorative sheet of Jersey, a second Postcrossing issue for Guernsey, the Swiss Post to make gifts to the Swiss people by January 1st 2017, the comeback of Afinsa catalogues of Portugal and colonies (look for Mundifil now), news on Machin stamps' phosphorescence, and how seagulls are a threat against mail carrying.

The SebPhilately Postcrossing Stamp Catalogue was updated accordingly.

Thursday 14 July: Paris-Philex and how philately is the history of Empires and Globalisation.
The seventh article about France Philately Championship at Paris-Philex with some covers illustrating how philately and postal history are linked to the history of colonial empires and the rise of globalisation.

Lettre de Rhodes italienne pour Téhéran en mai 1933 (collection René Maréchal, Paris-Philex 2016).

But, between the conquest of people and their exploitation by big companies, there lies hope of human and sustainable development. And there are old proofs of that: aerophilatelist René Maréchal proposed a collection on the airmail of the Aegean See between 1929 and 1947, when Italy possessed Rhodes and the Dodecane islands.

The cover pictured here was sent from Rhodes on May 1933 to a relative living in Tehran, Persia and working at a school of the Alliance israélite universelle. Four airmail companies of four different countries, allies and ennemies two by two, forwarded the cover to a country where the jewish community is still a recognised minority - despite the difficulties of geopolicy.

Sunday 17 July: Fed up with French politicians.

Again a terrorist attack in France, again a French politician manage to say something... surprising ?

The only stamp I found on this topic: a rocket launcher as one of the weapons of the Cuban Revolution (1965 stamp, series for the Museum of the Révolution., colnet.com).

Henri Guaino regrets that no French soldier with a rocket launcher on his shoulder was present in Nice on the 14th evening... Yes! With a well aimed rocket, the lorry wouldn't have continued his murderous way any longer... And how he dismiss the civilian casualties around the explosion...

I think I begin to be aware of how some people lived the 1930s in France and Britain, watching the dangers growing while their national politicians dismissed them.

Week #2016.21 on SébPhilatélie and on the web

Monday 23 May: Frank Walton presents... Sierra Leone.
A huge collection was exhibited by Frank Walton, President of the Royal Philatelic Society London, on Thursday May 19th: non-members of the RPSL are introduced to it through a pdf file ; members can watch the collector filmed the stamp frames' presentations and enjoy the 578 frame ebook online!

Note that the pdf introduction includes a bibliography to help all collectors began the path to West Africa.

Monday again: cancel at the mail centre experimentation in Switzerland.
German speaking newspaper Blick wrote on the postmark collectors' worry of an experimentation by Swiss Post in the Canton of Solothurn. To be sure all mail is cancelled and to save clerck's time, all mail will be cancelled at the mail sorting centres - a method applied in France and the United Kingdom.

The worry is, like in France with the complete disappearance of illustrated flammes, that the illustrated datestamps of many Swiss post offices would no more be available on the demand of senders.

Tuesday 24 May: again a philatelist on Saint Pierre and Miquelon radio station!!!
Who is addicted to the other: the philatelists or the public TV/Radio channels of the French archipelago? Anyway, in Brumes de Capelans, Fabrice Fouchard, current President of the Club philatélique de Saint-Pierre, was invited to speak of his club's activities and projects of all scales and dimensions.

Poster promoting SPM presence at New York Stamp Show (Jean-Jacques Oliviéro for the Club philatélique de Saint-Pierre).

From the slow but decisive growth of the Club on the international philatelic scene to how its members wish to introduce the hobby to any inhabitants of the islands ; or to buy exhibit frames to, perhaps one day, own a Club house open to all.

Wednesday 25 May: First step in my Paris-Philex summary.
I spent a dozen hours or so at Paris-Philex in the scope of three days, adding some Parisian touristicallities outside philately. From my wrongs, I began a summary of this show because many comment on the speculative issues of the French philatelic service, some are completely happy with the shorter and more intimate version of the Federation's Paris show...

But no one comment publicly at lenghth on the philatelic competition, the most interesting part of the show and... the cause of it. I hope to succeed writing at least two articles on the exhibition soon.

Thursday 26 May: introduction to a definitive series of Algeria.
In Algerian newspaper El Watan's weekly chronicle - yes Algerian collectors still enjoy a weekly column in a national newspaper, Arslan Selmane continues to write on the stamps of Algeria since 1962. This week, the Views of Algeria before 1830 series issued 1982 and 1984 can entertain a specialist collector for a long time.

Thursday again: Paris-Philex, Federation President satisfied = Stamp Director must be VERY HAPPY!!!
The President of the French Philatelic Associations Federation posted a first illustrated summary of Paris-Philex : « in the opinion of all, it was a success »... I may not read the same websites or listened to the same people at the show... There were some defaults, perhaps with special unprogrammed speculative costly stamp issues?

But because our national patron and sponsor, the Director of the French philatelic service fulled his coffers: "it was a success" because there will be a Paris-Philex 2018.

If you go read the philatelic program of late May-June 2016, you could be mistaken and believe there are enough stamps to entertain the former 10 day Paris Stamp Show...

Friday 27 May: What am I missing in New York?
A little ballad on the New York 2016 Stamp Show website, particularly the pages listing the exhibited collections. Guests of this article: the five philatelists from Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

When contemporary art reminds of philatelic studies

Translation of part an article published on SébPhilatélie, Friday 20th of February 2015.

Despite I profoundly never understand a large majority of what's exhibited in those places, I still try to visit museum of contemporary art when I visit a new town... Often for nothing, but once in a while.

In June 2014, as I discovered Toulouse, I entered the Abattoirs, former slaughterhouse in action from 1825 to 1988, refurbished as an contemporary art museum in 2000.

Two excerpts from Silvia Regenbogenreihe by Franz Gertsch, 2002, under glass at the Abattoirs, Toulouse.

The museum team understands that to catch unwilling people like me, you should show less and change the collections regularly. So, after a disturbing and noisy underground art video experiment, non sense works and reimagined African arts, I quickly found an interesting thing other than the architecture of the building.

A room with nive large panels reproducing the same picture of a woman, Silvia, in a formal pose. The only difference: nine different colors. Considering art alone, neither the French Wikipédia article on the Swiss artist, nor the empty note at the museum, helped me understood...

Franz Gertsch's artwork note as proposed by the Abattoirs Museum.

Let's get to my philatelic emotion inspired interpretation: the repetition of the same picture, reproduced in the most detailed way possible, and trying to find the finest nuance of color: three of outremer blue... or - more evocative for a French philatelist: vermilion.

Isn't that artwork what postage stamp printers have been working on since 1840? What drive specialised collectors and philatelists since James Lindsay, Earl of Crawford, compiled intelligence on anything related to the issuance and printing of stamps? A question of finding and understanding why there are different shades and accidental colors.

As I observe the nine printings, I remember how a mistaken Prussian blue change the history of some very low value French Sage stamps of 1880, or the lengthy debate about the denomination of the British Machin palette, etc.

After some thoughts, humour arrived with a first season scene from television series Ugly Betty that caricatured the snobbishness of naming every tone of red - a scene replayed in the fourth season. And no, I did not think of the fifty shades of grey at the time...

And as I didn't understand the artist's motivation to mutitply the shades of a photographed portrait, I found it marvellous to the French green/red/blue-violet gradings of the Marianne series to distinguish the weight rates... because we don't light ourselves no more by candlelight and surely wouldn't confuse a five cent stamp very light brown of shade with a 250 gram priority letter one in a redder brown tone, worth three euros more in February 2015.

Conclusion of this contemporary art trip: one hour philatelic contemplation, followed by a two hour walk along the Garonne River. I've known worse with that kind of art. And for free as it was an art festival week-end in Toulouse.

The Postcrossing stamp catalogue

Updated 14 July 2020 with the stamp of Brasil.


Since a post on May 17th, 2014, I have updated a personal stamp catalogue celebrating Postcrossing, a website to send and receive postcards among members either by chance through the site, or voluntarily through the forum if you want to exchange mail with specific countries or on specialised topics.

Don't hesitate to participate, even with a few cards per months: it's the way to ensure there will be a conteporary stamp and postal history in the decades to come. In ten years, celebrated on last July 14th, more than thirty one millions cards were sent.

The main source is the website's blog and, from there, the website of the postal operators who issued the stamps. As you are going to see hereunder, many post offices understood the interest to issue such stamps: encouraging correspondance, national and foreign philatelic orders, free publicity.

Shamefully, the French philatelic service, Phil@poste, did not... yet? Even a strict dictatorship encouraged its citizens to write and receive mail!

Since 2011 till today, twelve stamps were issued for this website by the will and lobbying of its members. What voluntary website can say that too?

Guernsey sympathetic stamp of 2014 (GuernseyStamps.com)

1. and 2.: 14 October 2011, by Post NL, Netherlands, 2 values (first class to Europe, first class to the World) issued on a minisheet of five of each (10 stamps).

3. to 6.: 9 September 2013, by Itella Posti, Finland, 4 designs at the same first class value (up to 50 grams nationwide, 20 grams to Europe and the World) printed on a minisheet.

7.: 2 January 2014, by Belpochta, Belarus, value "N" (surface postcard) in sheets of 12.

8.: 29 May 2014, Guernsey Post, one of the Channel Island and Crown Dependencies, value "Int Letter 20g" (first class to Europe and the World) : map-character of Guernsey wishing the reader a "Happy Postcrossing".

The Russian stamp, 2015.

9.: 27 January 2015, by Pochta Rosii, Russia, 23 roubles. Designed by O. Shushlebina, an envelope on globe decorated with all major European historic monuments and the Taj Mahal. Printing: 397 000.
Members from Russia constitutes the second group by country on Postcrossing with 3.5 millions postcards sent, after members from Germany.

10.: 29 May 2015, by Pošta Slovenije, Slovenia, 60 eurocents. A tourist jumping on a blond sand beach. "Summer is coming".

The Czech stamp, 2015.

11.: 2 September 2015, Česká pošta, Czech Republic, Value "E" (up to 50 grams to Europe ; "A" is nationwide, "Z" worldwide). The Postcrossing circle of correpondence designed by Portuguese artist  Maria Nogueira.

Let's remind the website was created by Paulo Magalhães, another Portuguese citizen.

The Ukrainian stamp, 2015.

12.: 9 October 2015, by Ukrposhta, Ukraine, value "E" (I'm not fluent enough in Ukrainian to find the rate...) in sheet of 16 autoadhesive stamps. Girl dressed traditionally sending her greeting from Ukraine to the world.
The stamp was issued on World Post Day, an initiative by the Universal Postal Union.

The Austrian Postcrossing stamp... A wall of bricks? (Österreichische Post via the Postcrossing blog).

13. (AUT #1): 21 March 2016 by Österreichische Post, Austria, value 80 eurocents. Designed by Robert Sabolovic (postcards and name of website in the color of the Austrian flag). Printed in offset by Joh. Enschedé Stamps B.V., 250,000 printed.

The second stamp of Russia (rusmarka.ru).

14. (RUS #2): 25 March 2016, by Pochta Rossii, Russia, value 31 rubles, sheet of 9 autoadhesive stamps by I. Sidenko. Envelope "I love Postcrossing" over landscape of different houses, with airplane and cruise ship. Print: 414 000.

Second issue for the Netherlands, 2016.

15.-24. (NLD #2): 29 March 2016, by PostNL, Netherlands, value "1 International". Sheet of ten different stamps designed by Reinier Hamel, Sin agency. Different landscape, monuments, activities and artwork of the Netherlands.

Second Guernsey issue, 2016 (guernseystamps.com).

25.-26. (GGY #2-3): 14 July 2016, by Guernsey Post, value Europe (EUR) and Rest of the world (ROW). Illustration by Sue Harmon, printed in sheets of 10 and in offset by Lowe-Martin. Depiction of the Bailliwick's islands (green), their fauna and flora, the sea waves and the sun.

Le timbre de cinq  nouveaux złotys (site de Poczta Polska).

27. (POL #1): 14 July 2016, by Poczta Polska (Poland), value 5 new złotys (PLN), printed by PWPW in minisheet of 6 with illustrated margins. Design by A. Tobolczyk: a red suitcase with touristic stickers, is in fact a mailbox to send postcards.

The second Belarus adhesive stamp issued January 2017, with no fake perforation (Postcrossing blog and Belpochta).

28. (BLR #2): 3 January 2017, by Belpochta (Belarus). Adhesive stamp value M (international airmail postcard), printed in offset in 9 stamp minisheet. Illustration by Marina Vitkovskaya.

The stamp from Romania issued February 2017 (Postcrossing blog and Romfilatelia).

29. (ROM #1): 24 February 2017, by Poșta Română (Romania). Stamp value 4 lei, printed in offset in sheets of 32 (18'000 sheets) and minisheet of 8 (1'000 sheetes). Illustration by Razvan Popescu.

The three Indonesian stamps issued July 2017 (Postcrossing blog).

30.-32. (IDN #1-3): 14 July 2017, by Pos Indonesia. Three stamps, value 3,000 rupees, illustrating travels through correspondence.

The three stamps of Switzerland Postcrossing blog, 28 July 2017).

33.-35. (CHE #1-3): 7 September 2017, by Swiss Post. Three stamps, values 1 franc (national rate), 1,50 franc (European rate) and 2 francs (worldwide). Designs by Max Spring illustrating Swiss people receiving a postcard and people of the continent and the world receiving traditions of Switzerland on postcards.

The Irish stamp (via the Postcrossing blog, 4 October 2017).

36. (IRL #1): 5 October 2017, by An Post. One stamp valued 1.35 euro (international rate) figuring five young peoples and other people's arms sending and receiving many postcards ; a design by Cathy Dineen.
Note: Irish postcrossers appeared in a documentary on the General Post Office in Dublin, broadcast by RTÉ in March 2016.

The stamp from Hungary (Magyar Posta website).

37. (HUN #1): 2 February 2018, by Magyar Posta. One stamp valued 120 forints (2 domestic rates: non-priority postcard or standard letter under 30 grams) figuring a postman on bicycle happily delivering postcards. With landmarks of Budapest in the background: the Danube river, the Liberty Bridge and Liberty Statue. Design by Zsolt Vidàk and printed in offsetin 60,000 minisheets of four stamps.

The stamp from Moldova (Postcrossing blog and the Moldovan Post's philatelic website).

38. (MDA #1): 23 June 2018, by Poșta Moldovei. One stamp valued 11 lei (international prioritary postcard to Europe ; almost worldwide non prioritary rate - 11,50 L) figuring a person travelling upon the globe on paths made of circulating postcards and letters. Design by Lilian Iatsko and printed in 120,000 in sheets of ten.

The stamp of land (Postrossing blog and Åland Post's philatelic website).

39. (ALA #1) : 7 June 2019, by Åland Post. One stamp valued "Världen" (worldwide postage ; 1.80 euro then). And indeed, a red world map, centered on the Atlantic Ocean, is included inside a heart-shaped stamp of light violet color. The Postcrossing name is written accross like by hand. The heart is included a perforated square, 3.8 cm of side. Design by Cecilia Mattsson, and printed in offset by Cartor Securiry Printing, in sheets of 28 stamps, in four columns of 14 separeted by 7 decorated labels on the correspondence topic.

The Brasilian stamp (Postcrossing blog).

40. (BRA #1) : 14 July 2020, by Correios (Brasil)). One stamp valued 2.45 reais. Illustration by Daniel Lourenço of São Paulo: two young people, living in different places as noted by monuments in corners, reading the postcards they exchange. This stamp is issued at time for the 15th birthday of Postcrossing.


To be continued of course (and completed when I find the pictures missing).

Happy Postcrossing to you too!

October in France: Hell! Three more months!

Sorry for the rudeness, but it is what I thought when I began to prepare this article about France's issue in October 2009... the first time since last January when I decided to follow a whole year.


I flush at once the dolls on 19 October. Advantage: some of the minoritary first day of sales outside Paris. The topic is of no interest to my personal self. It merits a little note though: thank to the people in charge that make engraver Elsa Catelin perform intaglio printing on offset picturing. The result is far from Martin Mörck's sport cars for Danmark, but Phil@poste is trying something...

I go past Hansi's artwork, pseudonym of Jean-Jacques Walz, an Alsatian illustrator known for his pro-French positions at a time when Alsace was a German Empire territory between 1870 and 1918. It will surely please Alsatians, especially with the chosen traditional costume topic. Perhaps something more "Résistant" would have better put its artwork in context, but I will not here replace art politic history specialists.


Resistant during the 1870 War (in preparation of the one hundred and thiry years anniversary of that war and its Third Republican consequences?), Juliette Dodu.

A master subject to attract collector's money: a French resistant to a German invasion, a heroin of the Posts and Telegraphs administration - PTT nostalgia... when a French newsweekly is putting a mediatic final to a popular referendum against the privatisation of La Poste.

Pierre Jullien already wrote what he is thinking of this stamp and I largely second his motion: why the Irish colour in the background? And you really need a pre-mobile phone historic culture to understand that Juliette spied on German telegraphic messages.

Plus an historiographic problem (even if the French Wikipedia's references came from a television-linked author: for Guy Breton, the decorated resistant might not have resist at all. He said it doesn't exist archives of our verdict to the death penalty, nor of the Prussian hereditary Prince, later Emperor Friedrich III's grace.

All this (design and historic): the fault of the designer Claude Perchat and the engraver Marie-Noëlle Goffin? Of Phil@poste pleased to have an easy subject to sell to old collectors? Of the Minister in charge of the philatelic program and of the polician from La Réunion or the Loiret who lobbied for the stamp?


Let be the 12 October stamp for the centenary of the monument put in front the Universal Postal Union's headquarters in Bern. A France-Switzerland joint issue honoring its sculptor: René de Saint-Marceaux (1845-1915).

There, my opinion diverged greatly from Pierre Jullien's point of view.

A topic that goes outside the habits despite the UPU for all season topical diarrhea. That may be because of the Swiss touch (thanks to Silvia Brüllhardt): the artwork and the artist are both represented on the stamp, very rare on French stamps.

Secondly, with September stamp about Eugène Vaillé - an important unknown person before the efficient noisy lobby done by La Poste's Museum Friends Society, philatelists have finally "their stamps", about their passion. Even if the Vaillé stamp design is closer to the desperating classicism of a Juliette Dodu.

Finally, it is not because nineteenth century "official" artists were quickly forgotten by the masses that they are to be forgotten for all. Personally, I would like that some contemporary artists avoid posterity.

Enfin, ce n'est pas parce que les artistes « officiels » sont vite oubliés par la masse qu'il faut les oublier complètement. Personnellement, je souhaiterais bien que certains artistes contemporains évitent la postérité. Outre-noir...

And for that stamp, Phil@poste goes with the violins again to be sure the collectors came to buy: one intaglio printed portrait one! There are not resting, Boulazac's in house engravers.


Yet, on this joint issue, it is the Swiss Post that is considering its collector's money:

Screen capture of the news page in French, Swiss Post's website (initial address, 2 October 2009).

The Swiss gemini will a service stamp, only usable on mail posted at the Uuniversal Postal Union headquarters...

So, only one stamp is of my interest and will relay the Avignon one on my cards to Switzerland and European Union postcrossers.

Already, on a commercial page for the Paris Autumn Stampshow, a catastroph is announced for November: an infamous two stamp minisheet with two different rates, with the vice to choose an expensive and less common one...

Tourism in Switzerland

Questionning with this advert postcard from the Tourism Office of Switzerland:

with markings and labels of La Poste (it is one of my last mail following me after my one year old move to the South). On the upper right corner, print on the card, a stamp-like picture of the Matterhorn and a cancellation:

« Taxe perçue / P.P. / CH-3030 Bern »
(taxe perçue = port payé = postage paid)

The commercial continues with this illustration to look like real mail: a touristic stamp on a postcard? Switz postmark for high number of mail sending? It is plausible for the mark, less for the picture surrounded with teeth.

Communication... for a beautiful country though.

Philatelic winter

It is cold. In France at least. Ideal weather for this stamp of Switzerland issued just before Spring though, on 4 March 2008.

Surrounded by a rain of stamped flakes, the character is Lars, the little polar bear, created by Hans de Beer, a Nederlandese writer. Lars has knew success in German speaking countries. He was the star of a television animated series and, two times, of a movie.

The philatelic use of characters from the children's literature is regular when comic art was accepted by adults, certainly best underscored by the Post of Belgium since 1979. In France, postal service director Françoise Eslinger estimated that this choice for the France's stamp day issue was too high a price in rights to pay to attract the same adult philatelic public. She is not wrong and asked to the French Philatelic Associations Federation (FFAP) to choose a new topic for the 2010 Stamp Day. But the same fact did not bother her for the Smilers booklet issued in September for a handful of years now.

Golden Flower in Switzerland

Thank to a Postcrossing, this definitive Swiss stamp arrived at home : its denomination indicates it is valid for a postcard sent to an European country.

A tour inside the Swiss Post website helps to retrieve lots of intels :
* the blue stamp is in the list of valid stamps inside the pdf file "Ordinary stamps 1977+". It was issued in 2002 with another red one, that is valid for a worldwide card. The same year, you can look for one already-seen-on-this-blog insect.
* Europe, Swiss postal rate-ly speaking (.pdf) goes to Russia, Turkey and Greenland.
* The prioritary letter less than 20 grams to Europe needs a 1,30 Swiss franc stampage (around 0,79 € or 1,08 USD). Economic rate is not interesting in this case : 1,20 CHF (0,73 € or 0,99 USD).

A more profound research finds the initial presentation of this stamp : "Special stamps for card sent abroad". These bleu and red stamps are sold in booklet of six, with a discount (0,60 CHF for a six-blue-stamp booklet, 0,80 CHF for the red version). The discount is made possible because these two stamps can only be used for postcards, not letters (read the message inside a booklet).

The illustration is the emblem of the Tourist office of Swiss.

These stamps help greatly the foreign tourists in Swiss, with a discount. We all are not patient or interested enough to take time and discover the philatelic state of a post office during our holidays.

An award for the quality and content of the Swiss Post website.

Postcrossing

Postcrossing is a website that has been helping the exchange of postcards sent by postal ways since 2004.

The principle is simple : you must send a card to another user, writing a code on it to avoid giving your own adress. When he receives it, he records the code on the site. For each recorded card you sent, you can wait for a card to be sent to you by a third user... and so on.

More than 660'000 cards were exchanged since 2004 thank to Paulo Magalhaes' site.

If you don't fancy chance to receive cards, you can go on the website's forum and participate to voluntary exchange depending on countries, card's topics, etc.

Philatelicly, you receive recent stamps of Europe and North America (the technological inegality in the world is visible on the 660'000 card map).

Here are the stamps of the first "official" (i.e. with the help of the blind exchange) postcard I received from Switzerland.


The Switz Post prints the name of the stamp designer and the printer (Enschedé for the insect, Banknote Corp. for the Pro Juventute on the right).

To me, for two weeks, the pleasure to receive cards competes with the one to prepare and stamped cards.

French Post thinks it will issue the first lenticular stamp in Europe

Claude Jamet explains the secrets of the lenticular stamp that the French post will issue the next 6 September 2007 for the Rugby World Cup. Tiny lenticules reflect images on a single stamp, varying with the inclination angle. Basically, you watch a short animation.

La Poste says on its Émotion du courrier website that it is the "first European lenticular stamp" (« 1er timbre lenticulaire européen »).

Screen copy on Tuesday, June 26th, 8pm Paris time.

But, with the second 2007 number of La Loupe, the philatelic bulletin of the Post of Switzerland, is included a presentation of the two 27 April 2007 lenticulars stamps for the centenary of the Museum of Communication.

Worse, Netherlands' Post issued two lenticular stamps in February... 2006 ! honoring speed skating olympic champions Yvonne Van Gennip and Ard Schenk.

If the French stamp (cool and adapted for the topic) is a first European something, is it for the number of pictures incorporated ?