Some great additions to stock this week include many fine fauna and flora stamps from Albania. Illustrated beautifully, these Albania bird stamps show a European Crested Tit, an Atlantic Canary, a Common Linnet, a Rock Thrush, a Goldcrest and a Eurasian Blue Tit.
Hundreds of other items have been added from Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, Sierra Leone, North Korea, Yemen etc., etc. Apologies for the lack of resolution on some of the published images, but if you click on them you will see better quality pictures.
Protected fauna stamps from the DDR, 1962. Top left the Red Wood Ant (Formica rufa), the 10 pfennig shows the Least Weasel (Mustela nivalis), then we have the Common Shrew (Soricidae) and on the 40 pfennig the Brown Long-eared Bat (Plecotus auritis).
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mercedes-Benz in 2001, Maldives produced the above stamp sheet. Cars featured were the 1933 Model 290, a Model 5 from 1933, the 1953 300SL Coupe, a 90 HP Wooden Skiff from 1911, the 1968 280SL and a 1937 W125 Grand Prix.
Above and below we have airmail Paris-Dakar Rally stamps from Mali, issued in 1983. They show Mercedes vehicles – above a race car from 1914, a 1929 SSK and a 1954 W196 model. Below a stamp sheet indicating the route of the race, the included stamp showing 1983’s winning vehicle – a Mercedes-Benz 280 GE, driven by the great Belgian racing driver Jacky Ickx and French actor Claude Brasseur.
The Paris-Dakar Rally was first held in 1978–79. It covered around 15,000 km (9,300 miles) and was considered among the most gruelling rally events. In 2009 the competition was renamed the Dakar Rally and relocated to South America after its organisers cancelled the 2008 race, because of terrorist threats in Africa.
Here a North Korea minisheet from 1985, celebrating 60 years of Mercedes-Benz.
In 2005 severe river flooding affected many parts of Europe and this overprinted charity stamp from Austria was issued in 2006 to help victims of the flooding in that country.
Great ‘hunting dogs’ stamps from Romania, 2005.
Jamaica stamps from 1988 here feature the 1988 Winter Olympic Bobsled team, whose story was rather exaggeratedly told in the film ‘Cool Running’ and below, iconic West Indian cricketers from the past. The stamps show an 18th Century belt buckle, the engraving on which is thought to be a slave playing cricket. The players are Jackie Hendriks, Karl Nunes, George Headley, Allen Rae and Michael Holding.
In 1946, just after World War II, the French military administration – in what was then Allied Forces-occupied Germany – organised part of the territory bordering France as the Saar Protectorate. After a referendum in 1955, it joined the Federal Republic of Germany, becoming a state in 1957. Saarland had its own currency, the Saar Franc, and the territory issued postage stamps until 1959. The stamps shown here were produced for the 15th Olympic Games, held in Helsinki in 1952. This was the first and only time Saarland competed in the Olympic Games as an independent nation.
Attractive set of 1987 America’s Cup sailing competition stamps here. The 1987 America’s Cup, held in the Australian city of Fremantle, was the twenty-sixth challenge for the America’s Cup. The American challenger Stars & Stripes 87, sailed by Dennis Conner, beat the Australian defender Kookaburra III, sailed by Iain Murray.
Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the formation of the United Nations, Vatican City issued this item in 2015.
Here is a stamp sheet for petrolheads and automobile enthusiasts alike. In 1991 Maldives celebrated the life and creations of Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988). Classic Ferraris from the past are featured. There are two Testarossas, a 1966 275 GTB, then race cars – a 1951 “Aspirata”, 1952 Type 375, a 1958 Dino 246, a 1975 312T and Nigel Mansell’s 1990 Formula One car.
The image on the two “Les couleurs de Marianne” minisheets above was designed by Eve Luquet, to date the only female designer of France’s Marianne stamps. Engraved by Claude Jumelet, the image – “Marianne du 14 Juillet” – is seen on definitive stamp series issued in France between 14 July 1997 and 2005.
