In 1955 Hungary became the first country in the world to issue a “metal” stamp. And below you see an example. Aluminium foil glued to paper was used in the production process.
The stamp to the left is part of a stamp set that show portraits of various members of the British royal family. Many stamp collectors will recognise the people depicted but the faces will be a mystery for others.
Before we begin with trickery and deceit I want to refer back to the ‘Stamp Polka’ described in The History of Stamp Collecting Part 22. Alas, up to now I have not been able to find a picture of the “Briefmarken-Polka für das Pianoforte” (The Postage Stamp Polka for the Pianoforte) sheet music front page, but I received the image below from Jan Vellekoop – the Dutch version of the Stamp Polka, published in 1864.
In many warm countries the colourful shirts on the stamps below are common attire for men. Many other men living in cooler climes may have one or two of these spectacularly-decorated items of clothing sitting in their wardrobes, waiting for the summer months or their annual holidays. Typically known as Hawaiian shirts, U.S.A. issued the stamps in 2012 with the Hawaii greeting word “Aloha”.
There’s a philatelic link between the author Ian Fleming, creator of the James Bond spy character 007 and a historic bridge in Turkey.
In 2014 the Channel Island Alderney issued a set of stamps entitled “The Life of Ian Fleming”.
If you are a regular visitor to the magazine you will know that every now and then we feature what might be considered to be an unusual subject for a postage stamp. This brief article concerns what many people think is a very important British institution – the Public House, more commonly known as the pub.
It’s happened before and it will happen again – postage stamps being used as a medium for propaganda.
Recently, North Korea exercised “The month of the fight against American imperialism” and also commemorated the beginning of the Korean War (1950-53).
Below are some examples of the hundreds of stamps recently added to PostBeeld’s vast stock.
A few attractive booklets from the Channel Islands including this from Guernsey:
Italy has for many years promoted tourism by way of beautifully illustrated postage stamps. In this second article we feature some of the later stamps with the theme of tourism.
The Postal Services Palace here on the left was built on the place of Constantin Vodă Inn, in Romania’s capital Bucharest, between 1894 and 1900. The imposing neoclassical edifice served as headquarters of the Romanian Post Office until 1971, when it became Romania’s National History Museum.