A small selection of stamps added to PostBeeld’s stock recently can be seen below. Please note: for each country featured in the article, there will have been many more stamps added to PostBeeld’s freestampcatalogue.com website.
This souvenir sheet from the United Nations Postal Administration features images of the United Nations pavilion at the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, Japan. The exposition is open until October 13th 2025. The stamps on the souvenir sheet show close-up photos of the pavilion and are denominated in three different currencies. The $1.65 for use from the post office at U.N. headquarters in New York City; 2.50 francs for use from the post office at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland; and €1.90 for use from the Vienna International Centre in Vienna, Austria.
Above, two quite rare air mail stamps issued by Spain in 1953. The 25ptas shows Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (1510-1572), a Spanish explorer and conquistador, best known for leading the successful expedition that established Spanish control over the Philippines in the 16th century. The 50 ptas stamp has a portrait of Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863–1923), one of history’s most brilliant artists and yet despite his exhibitions attracting vast attendances his stunning oil paintings are still not widely known outside Spain.
From Belgium 2004 is this fine set of bird stamps. They depict, in order of value: 0.01Euro cent, the Common Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos); 0.40c a Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata); 0.44c the Western House Martin (Delichon urbicum); 0.55c a Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius); 0.65c Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus); 0.75c European Golden Plover (Pluvialis apricaria); and the €4 stamp has an Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo).
This minisheet from Portugal, issued in 2000 features old photographs of cod fishermen.
As part of the movement to gain independence from the Soviet Union, on the 23rd of August 1989 approximately two million inhabitants of the Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – joined hands forming a human chain from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius. The Baltic Way was organised by the national movements of the Baltic states: the Estonian Rahvarinne, the Latvian Popular front of Latvia and the Lithuanian Sajūdis.
The participants gathered in the cities and villages where the campaign was to take place or drove to the less inhabited Baltic territories where the Baltic Way was to wind through. According to the news agency Reuters, the campaign gathered 700,000 people in Estonia, 500,.000 in Latvia and 1,000,000 in Lithuania.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the peaceful protest, the postal authorities of the three countries: Lietuvos paštas; Eesti Post; and Latvijas Pasts, issued special stamps and postmarked covers.
In 2024 Syria produced this item to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the International Chess Federation.
In 2014 Ecuador and Peru had a joint issue for the 15th anniversary of the 1998 Brasilia Peace Agreement that ended a territorial dispute between Ecuador and Peru. Because of the size and location of the contested area, it had remained a source of regional instability and continental tensions for decades. Above is a first day cover from Ecuador and below the stamp from Peru.
