This article was originally published in December 2013:
The United States Postal Service (USPS, which is heavily in debt) is destroying an entire run of stamps because the activities illustrated on three of the stamps in the fifteen stamp series have been deemed unsafe by the Presidential Council for Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. The stamps were made to support a campaign driven by First Lady Michelle Obama to fight childhood obesity.
The stamps in question depicted children performing a cannonball dive, skateboarding without kneepads, and doing a headstand without a helmet.
USA 2013
The unsafe depictions came to light after USPS Marketing chief Nagisa Manabe asked Michelle Obama to take part in a first day ceremony for the stamps. That was apparently the first time the stamps had been reviewed by the American Sports Council.
Here we have a very small selection of stamps recently added to PostBeeld’s vast stock. Please visit PostBeeld’s website for a more comprehensive view of newly-added items.
Laos 1961
We begin with a few examples taken from a sizeable addition of stamps from Laos. The stamps above, from 1961, feature the Pathet Lao, officially the Lao People’s Liberation Army, a communist political movement and organisation, formed in Laos in 1950. The group succeeded in gaining political power in 1975, after the Laotian Civil War.
Laos 2003
Then in 2003 the above stamps were produced with the theme ‘Stop Hunting’.
Laos 1994
And in 199 Postes Lao, issued this World Wildlife Fund ‘Threatened Species’ stamp set depicting the Sun Bear (Helarctos malayanus). The sun bear is the smallest of the world’s eight living bear species. The sun bear is only found in the wild in south-east Asia.
Ecuador 2019
Then a great selection from Ecuador, something to tantalise your taste buds and something to possibly make your skin crawl! Above, a beautiful stamp set featuring traditional food dishes from the country spanning the Equator. And the stamp sheet below shows: a Puna Island scorpion, commonly found in Ecuadorian coastal areas and known for its appetite for eating cockroaches; the Weak scorpion, found in the tropical shrinking rainforests of Ecuador on both sides of the Cordillera de los Andes. With the deforestation and the advance of agricultural land, it is under threat of extinction; a Chulla scorpion, quite common in the city of Quito and its surroundings; a Thick tail scorpion, characterised by having a much widened tail. It was discovered on the western slopes of the Pichincha volcano, in 2013; Morona Santiago’s scorpion, currently known only to dwell in the Amazonian province of Morona Santiago, southeastern Ecuador, it was discovered as a new species in 2007 by the scientist Wilson R. Lourenco.
Ecuador 2014Austria 2011
In 2011 Austria produced stamps celebrating anniversaries of the country’s museums. Seen here is the ‘Universalmuseum Joanneum’ in the city of Graz, which celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2011 and is considered the biggest of its kind in Central Europe. About 5 million items in 20 collections form the basis of diverse exhibitions and events.
Austria 1924
New in stock mint and never-hinged youth welfare and anti-tuberculosis charity stamps from Austria, issued in 1924.
Niger 1959
Then we have a fine 1959-issued definitive set from Niger with the theme Fauna Protection.
Below, some great 1950s airmail stamps from Morocco and Togo respectively.
Morocco 1952Morocco 1955Independent Republic of Togo 1957Ivory Coast 1959
Ivory Coast architectural achievements stamps from 1959 featured the Place de la République (or Place de l’Indépendance), known as Place Lapalud before independence, the road and rail bridge Pont Félix-Houphouët-Boigny and the Ayame Dam.
This stamp set was issued by the Dutch postal service postnl in 2023 and entitled ‘Typically Dutch’. The images seen on the sheet show: a vase with tulips, a carrier pigeon with a letter, a carrier bicycle with plants, a coffee pot and cup with a half-eaten stroopwafel (very sweet cookie), a lighthouse, a herring, canal-side house facades, a whipped-cream cake. a caravan and a cheese board. Five of the 10 images are also used on the stamps for international destinations shown below: the herring, the vase with tulips, the lighthouse, carrier pigeon and coffee pot with cup and cookie.
Netherlands 2023
The designs were hand drawn by artist Sanny van Loon. The illustrations are in the middle of the stamps, against a background with diamonds or stripes in different shades of turquoise. On the stamps above the destination International has been added to the left side of the stamp. The stamps for domestic use have a gold-yellow perforated border. The border of the International stamps is dark blue. These are the successors to the white-blue 3D icons stamps seen below, which have been in use since 2014.
Daniel Defoe’s book “Robinson Crusoe” is regarded as the first true English novel. It is also the first novel with a first-person narrator. Crusoe ends up on an uninhabited island where, after some time, he experiences various adventures with his native friend ‘Friday’. Defoe’s work was published in 1719 and was inspired by the story of the shipwrecked Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk who was rescued in 1709 after a four-year stay on a desert island and whose adventures were recorded by William Dampier, a largely forgotten figure who was the most important English maritime adventurer of the 17th century. Dampier was the first person to circumnavigate the world three times, the first Englishman to reach and map parts of Australia and New Guinea, and the first English best-selling travel writer.
Ascension Island 2015
Ascension Island produced a set of stamps in 2015, the 300th anniversary of the death of William Dampier (1651–1715). His ship, the Roebuck, foundered and sank close to Ascension Island in 1701.
Monaco 1994
Robinson Crusoe’s Island (originally Más a Terra and also called Juan Fernandez Island) is the largest island within the Juan Fernandez Archipelago. The other two islands are Alejandro Selkirk and Santa Clara, about 674 km. off the coast of Chile. The Chilean government changed Más a Terra to Isla Robinson Crusoe, with the intention of attracting tourists.
Chile 1974
Above, the Juan Fernandez Archipelago stamps show the islands and some of the flora and fauna found there. Below, from Chile in 1965, the stamp shows Robinson Crusoe looking out from the Juan Fernandez Archipelago. There is said to be a huge treasure on the island (from 1715) which has caused great controversy over the years between treasure hunters and the Chilean authorities.
Chile 1965
Finally we have a postcard with Robinson Crusoe Island franking.
In the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries, travelling via the railway was the most comfortable and practical way of covering the often great distances between towns and cities. The first stations were built in the 1830s and by the end of the 1870s there were almost 700.
United States of America 2023
This beautiful stamp sheet, produced by the United States Postal Service, was issued in March 2023. It features five historic railway stations, still in existence in the United States, on a sheet of 20 stamps. The designs were digitally painted with the aim of highlighting the deep history and complex architecture of each station. The company engaged by the USPS, Down The Street Designs, created the superb Art Deco-themed artwork for the stamps.
United States of America 2023
Th stamp at the top of the strip seen here shows San Bernardino station, officially opened on 15 July 1918. At that time, it was the largest railway station west of the Mississippi River.
Below is Tamaqua station in Pennsylvania. Built in 1874, more than 40 passenger trains stopped at the station daily during its peak years in the first half of the 20th century. The Tamaqua Railroad Station was added to the ‘National Register of Historic Places’ in 1980.
The station on the middle stamp has to be among the most beautiful in the world. The amazing Art Deco structure was completed in 1933 in Cincinnati, Ohio and known as Union Terminal. Follow this link to find out more about the Terminal: https://www.cincymuseum.org/union-terminal/.
Then we have the Point of Rocks station, built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1873. It is situated at the junction of the B&O Old Main Line (running to Baltimore) and the Metropolitan Branch (running to Washington D.C.). The Metropolitan Branch also opened in 1873 and became the principal route for passenger trains between Baltimore, Washington and points west.
The last stamp depicts Richmond Main Street Station, built in 1901. It is known by locally as The Clock Tower and is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
At the end of June PostBeeld owners Rob Smit and Caroline Groenhof and current staff celebrated the 40th anniversary of the founding of the company and the opening of the first PostBeeld shop in Haarlem.
In 1996 Rob had the foresight to place the company’s website on the Internet. In 2016, Rob posted an interesting article on the company’s postzegelblog.nl website outlining part of the company’s history to that date. Here’s the English version of that article:
“At the time, this was not as obvious as it may seem. Very few small businesses had a website, let alone a webshop. Even for large companies, the website was often no more than a business card and even domain names of their own brand name were not always registered. See the example below for klm.com in 1997. Google did not yet exist. To find something on the internet, Altavista or Askjeeves worked best.”
KLM website 1997
"In 1995 I had already thought, considering the possibilities of that new medium, that the future of PostBeeld would lie on the internet. I had always been interested in new technology myself. When the first Texas Instruments programmable calculators came on the market in the 1970s, I immediately bought one. In 1979, when I was 18 and in higher education, I bought my first computer - a Tandy TRS-80 with 16k memory!
Despite the fact that Tandy then had shops all over the Netherlands, there were only two places where you could buy computers. Eindhoven was too far, so I went to Amsterdam with my mother. There was a choice between a model with 4k or 16k memory, a difference of about 300 guilders (then the currency in The Netherlands) in price, but I still went home with the 16k model (at a cost of something like 2300 guilders) and immediately bought a dot matrix printer for 1200 guilders. It was a lot of money that I had earned trading stamps. Of course I could also have bought a collection of stamps for it, but I felt that this purchase was wise.
In retrospect, it was indeed one of the best investments I've ever made. At school I did learn some programming in Basic, but having my own computer at home gave me much more programming knowledge and, above all, a basic understanding of how computers work and what you can do with them. As mentioned, I was at that time trading stamps and quickly built a stamp database. I wrote down the numbers of what I bought and sold. In the evening I sat down at the PC, retrieved the database via a cassette player from a cassette tape, typed in the changes and wrote it back to cassette tape. I always had an overview of what I had and of how much I had sold each stamp."
Tandy TRS-80
"In 1983 I opened my shop in Haarlem. The TRS-80 was already hopelessly outdated by then, so a computer with a built-in hard disk and floppy drive was put on the counter, followed in early 1984 by a second in the office, connected to each other via a real network. The TRS-80 still had its own programming language and could not communicate with other computers. In the meantime there was MS-Dos, which made it possible to exchange data between different computers. In 1984 I started building a new database with descriptions in English, the basis of which is still used for our internet site today.
When the internet came into the picture in 1994/1995 I had a shop in Haarlem and a shop in Hoofddorp. The PCs in both stores exchanged changes in stock every evening, so that even then it was always possible to see what was in each shop. We also printed stock lists per country or theme at the request of customers and sent them to collectors in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, where we also advertised. The customer could then order from the stock lists, which we naturally processed via the computer. In fact, the database and the working method were already in place for an online store. In 1995 I decided to close my shop in Hoofddorp and to sell via the internet from the Haarlem store.
As mentioned, the database was already there and an internet site was quickly built. No shopping cart yet, no images yet, but a choice of tens of thousands of items that could be found quickly through search options by country, theme, year or price. That was absolutely unique at the time, especially in this industry. The euphoria in the company was therefore great when it started to take off and we even soon received an order from Argentina. As a small local stamp shop, we were now able to help customers all over the world. Internet was great!
A lot of time was invested by me and my employees in further website development and construction. A shopping cart was soon added to the website which made shopping even easier, in 1997 we started adding images. The website was made in several languages. Then in 2002 we introduced Freestampcatalogue.The rest of the story has actually been visible to everyone thanks to the internet and is still visible via the WaybackMachine (https://web.archive.org/). Below is an overview of what the front page has looked like over the years."
"In the past 20 years we have had considerable ups and downs in development. In most cases it came down to us having lots of ideas, but finding it difficult to realise them, or with major delays or problems. Our current website runs on a tailor-made Magento system in combination with a back office system that runs on Expression Engine. This combination has already caused many headaches, and we even ran into serious problems last year (2015) when our developer dropped out because the PostBeeld project was seen as too complex and extensive for the company. We now have a developer who spends most of his time working with PostBeeld, which means that we can now apply our new ideas. This is necessary because we still have many plans for further development."
On 15 April 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean and sank within three hours, with the loss of more than 1,500 lives. Recent events, with the tragic loss of life of those in the OceanGate Expeditions’ “Titan” submersible vehicle whilst attempting to visit the site of the wreck of the Titanic has once more brought the ship into the news. There have been many articles and books written on the subject of the Titanic and its sinking and in 1997 the very successful film “Titanic” was released.
Maldives 1998
What is not often discussed is the operation of the postal service that existed on the ship. The RMS in the ship’s title stood for Royal Mail Steamer, indicating that the Titanic was contracted to carry mail. Later RMS would become Royal Mail Ship. The Titanic had a Post Office and Mail Room, complete with five workers, deep in the ship. The postal staff’s function was to sort most of the mail which had been brought on board the ship – 3,364 bags in total – and to deal with any letters which were posted on the ship by passengers and crew. The postal workers, British citizens James Williamson and Jago Smith and US citizens William Gwinn, John March and Oscar Woody, were celebrating Woody’s 44th birthday when the ship struck the iceberg. However, they soon realised that the Mail Room was flooding and so attempted to move 200 sacks of registered mail to the upper decks in the hope of saving them. They even forced several stewards to help them, as a survivor later recalled:
“I urged them to leave their work. They shook their heads and continued working. It might have been an inrush of water later that cut off their escape, or it may have been the explosion. I saw them no more.“
Alderney 2012
Above is the cover of a stamp booklet that contained four of the 65p stamps seen below on the Guernsey/Alderney 2012 issue.
Alderney 2012
And the Alderney stamps above show: 36p – Leaving Southampton; 47p – Sailing past Alderney; 48p – The grand staircase; 52p – Orchestra plays final tune; 61p – Captain Edward J. Smith; and 65p – Lifeboats leaving the ship.
Hungary 2012
In 2012 Hungary’s Magyar Posta issued a special embossed stamp sheet in commemoration of the Titanic and the Hungarian Dr. Árpád Lengyel, surgeon of the British steamship RMS Carpathia, the first ship to arrive to help the survivors of the disaster. The sheet shows the Titanic moving towards the iceberg, and parts of the ship are shown within the perforations. In the top right-hand corner of the sheet is a portrait of Dr. Árpád Lengyel with the Carpathia in the background.
Isle of Man 2012
The 2012 stamp sheet from the Isle of Man features artwork, actual photographs and memorabilia. Captain Edward John Smith’s portrait can be seen on the 68p stamp.
Central African Republic 2011
And to commemorate the centenary of the Titanic disaster the Central African Republic issued two stamp sheets featuring children who survived the sinking of the ship. The English child holding the doll is Eva Hart (1905-1996) with two American girls below and right, Dorothy Gibson and Ruth Elizabeth Becker.
The young boys on the 2700F stamp are Michel ‘Lolo’ and Edmond Navratil (follow this link for the children’s fascinating story https://cherbourg-titanic.com/en/2011/12/les-enfants-navratil-les-orphelins-du-titanic/#:~:text=Michel%20Navratil%20and%20his%20two,children%20into%20a%20life%20raft). The background artwork on the sheet shows part of the interior of one of the ship’s First Class cabins, a cherubin from the main staircase and the ship’s helm. The helm’s full inscription reads “Brown’s Patent Telemotor Rosebank Ironworks Edinburgh”. In the 1870s Andrew Betts Brown invented and patented the “Telemotor”, an innovative mechanism which allowed for the removal of the dozens of complex gears and chains that had previously clogged up space on steamships between the wheelhouse and engine room. Using hydraulic technology, the steam valves of the rudder engines could be connected to the main wheel in the wheelhouse. On massive ships such as the Titanic, where the wheelhouse was situated hundreds of feet away from the engine room, as seen in the diagram below, the telemotor was a crucial piece of kit.
The Spaniard Juan Sebastián de Elcano and the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan were navigators and explorers who jointly sailed under the flag of both Portugal and Spain. Magellan organised an expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, which resulted in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed by Juan Sebastian Elcano, who took over the command of the last remaining ship of the five that had set out on the expedition after Magellan was killed in the Philippines in an attack on a native settlement. The aim of the expedition was to sail west and find a route around southern America to reach the Spice Islands. The fleet discovered what is now the Strait of Magellan and, enduring much hardship, was the first to cross the Pacific Ocean. Reaching the Moluccas in late 1521, Elcano’s ship – the Victoria – sailed across the Indian Ocean and finally reached the Atlantic. Although the ship arrived laden with spices, the expedition’s original crew of 285 had been reduced to 18 undernourished and weakened seamen. Correios de Portugal, S.A., the Portuguese company that operates the national postal service of Portugal in 2022 produced stamps and the stamp sheet shown here to commemorate the achievement.
Here we have a very small selection of stamps recently added to PostBeeld’s vast stock. Please visit PostBeeld’s website for a more comprehensive view of newly-added items.
Mauritania 1906
In 1906 Mauritania, at that time a French Colony, issued its first postage stamps. Above we have a set of ‘Postage Due’ stamps from 1906. The same designs were often used for other French Colonies, as seen below on the Senegal stamps also from 1906.
Senegal 1906Mauritania 1913
The design of the Mauritania definitive set seen here, depicting natives crossing part of the Sahara Desert, was used from 1913 until 1938.
Mauritania 1960
Mauritania gained independence from France in 1960 and celebrated the fact with its first stamp issues on January 20, 1960.
Mauritania 1960
And this beautiful definitive set from 1960 features traditional activities and animals native to Mauritania.
Mauritania 1967
A lovely trio of bird airmail stamps from Mauritania (1967) featuring (left to right) a Black Crowned Crane, a Great Egret and an Ostrich.
Switzerland 1929
I particularly like the design of the 1929 Switzerland airmail stamps seen above.
Switzerland 1845
The Basel Dove, as seen on the stamp above, was issued by the Swiss canton of Basel on July 1st 1845, with a value of 2½-Rappen. It was the first tricolour stamp in the world and the only postage stamp issued by Basel. At the time each canton was responsible for its own postal service. There were no uniform postal rates for Switzerland until the establishment of a countrywide postal service on January 1st 1849. The Zurich and Geneva were the only other cantons to issue their own stamps. The stamp, designed by the architect Melchior Berri (1801-1854), featured an embossed dove carrying a letter in its beak, with the inscription “STADT – POST – BASEL”. The stamp is printed in black, crimson and blue, making it the world’s first tri-coloured stamp. It was valid for use until September 1854, by which time 41,480 stamps had been printed.
Switzerland 1945
The central design of the stamp sheet produced in 1945 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the “Basel Dove”features two 10c denomination Swiss stamps with the embossed Basel Dove. The inscriptions read “Pro Juventute” (“For the Children” in Latin), and ”Centenary of the Basel Dove” in German, French, and Italian.
Guyana 1991
One for the Disney collectors. Issued by Guyana in December 1991 for the Albertville, Canada 1992 Winter Olympics.
Moldova 2008
Flora stamps from Moldova in 2008 feature, from left to right, the May lily (Maianthemum bifolium), liverwort (Hepatica nobilis) and the white waterlily (Nymphaea alba).
Moldova 1996
An earlier fauna issue from Moldova (1996) shows, on the 0.09Leu the common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus); 0.10L a grey goose (Anser anser); 2.20L turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur); and the wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos).
Morocco 2019
Fine butterfly and moth stamps from Morocco 2019.
Mexico/Colombia 2018
And above a joint issue Mexico/Colombia (2018) and below another, Mexico/Canada (1995), featuring native fauna.
Mexico/Canada 1995Seychelles 1969
And lastly, a very fine definitive set from Seychelles issued in 1969, depicting scenes and characters from the islands’ history.
This set of four stamps feature the Isle of Man’s renowned ‘three legs’ triskelion, one of the oldest continually-used national symbols in the world. The ‘three legs of Man’ symbol can be seen everywhere on the Island, on historical buildings, coins and banknotes and commercial company branding. This is the first Isle of Man stamp issue to feature the monogram of King Charles III, Lord of Mann. The Sovereign’s monogram, consisting of the initials of the monarch’s name, Charles, and title, Rex – Latin for King, is shown beneath a representation of the Crown.
Isle of Man 2023
The stamp booklet above commemorates a century of Manx racing on the Isle of Man Mountain Course. The stamps were created in collaboration with author David Wright and local graphic designer and illustrator Tracey Dean. The Manx Grand Prix, or MGP, as it is now known, was originally a single race named the Amateur Motorcycle Championship aimed at amateur riders, as opposed to the mostly professional riders who competed in the Tourist Trophy (TT) races on the same world-famous 37¾-mile Isle of Man Mountain Course.
Isle of Man 2023
Waterfalls are the subject of this 2023 issue. These stamps feature, in order of value high to low, the spectacle of the long narrow ribbon of the Rhenass Falls; Glen Maye; in a secluded inland location on the west coast is the Spooyt Vane (White Spout), the highest waterfall on the Island, at around 50 metres (164 feet); the Inneen Vooar (the Big Girl) is one of the highest falls on the Island at over 40 metres (130 feet); the Laxey Quarry Falls and on the Island’s east coast Ballaglass Glen.
Isle of Man 2023
The six stamps above showcase the works of Isle of Man-based artist Michele Tramontana. A key member of the Manx art scene, Michele has lived on the Island for over 50 years. The top row of 80p stamps featuring the artist’s watercolour paintings are entitled Still Waiting, Sun Setting Peel and Douglas Harbour. Below, left to right are Low-tide Castletown, Ramsey Upper Harbour and Sun Setting Port Erin.
