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.
Long before the days of kids spending hours glued to their Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox computer gaming consoles, stamp collecting was an extremely popular hobby for children. Postage stamp issuing authorities around the World constantly release stamps aimed at the young or young at heart.
In the first edition of the German magazine ‘Das Magazin für Briefmarken-Sammler’ from May 1863, there was an advertisement which announced the appearance of the “Briefmarken-Polka für das Pianoforte” (The Postage Stamp Polka for the Pianoforte) by J. V. Hamm, with images of 42 colourful stamps, published by C.F.W. Siegel in Leipzig.
The above stamp was issued by Hungary in 2010 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Hungarian Grand Prix for Formula 1 racing cars. As with so many stamps, there is a historical significance attached to that particular issue.
In 1986, after a failed attempt to host a race in the former Soviet Union, then Formula 1 franchise owner Bernie Ecclestone signed a contract in London for the first five years of the Hungarian Grand Prix. A track was quickly built and the first race was held on August 10th, 1986.
PostNL issues a ‘Life in the North Sea’ commemorative stamp sheetlet today. This contains illustrations of plants and animals found in the North Sea region, drawn by four scientific illustrators from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden.
In June a modern German rarity that was not supposed to exist was auctioned by the firm Christoph Gaertner in Berlin. Incredibly, the stamp was sold for 150,060 euros! Only four single examples are known to exist.
The 5-stamp set shown top featuring film stars Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe and Jean Gabin was issued the German Bundespost in 2001. But the set originally printed included a stamp with a publicity shot of Audrey Hepburn, taken to advertise the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
In 1968 the Falklands Islands issued the attractive definitive set of stamps shown below. They featured flowers native to the Islands.
Then in 1971, as Great Britain was about to adopt a decimal currency system, the stamps were reissued overprinted with the new value amounts.
In the late 1970s a fascinating series of articles written by Mr. K. Kouwenberg about the history of Stamp Collecting, appeared in the Dutch magazine Philatelie. This series has been the source of inspiration for PostBeeld owner Rob Smit to rewrite the history of stamp collecting in instalments. This is Part 22.
In 2014 the town of Dinant, and particularly the ”Association Internationale A. Sax”, celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of the inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax.