Cool Timeline
Stamp Errors Part 11 – Richard or Adolph Wagner?
As the second highest value of a stamp series in honour of famous musicians/composers, this stamp from Paraguay appeared on July 1, 1980 with an edition of 35,000 copies. The stamp shows a reproduction of the painting ‘Dancers, Green and Pink’ by Edgar Degas in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,…Read More
Salvaged Mail
It was 03:30 on Christmas Day 1954 in driving rain when a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Boeing 377 Stratocruiser aircraft crashed on landing at Prestwick Airport, Scotland. Twenty-eight of the thirty-six on board were killed. A horrible accident and a terrible loss of life. However some items survived the disaster,…Read More
Recently Added to Stock
PostBeeld continues daily to add hundreds of new stamps to its vast stock, hopefully with many items of interest to its customer base. Here is a small selection: Vanuatu, the independent island group in the South Pacific Ocean, issued this fine set if birds native to the islands in 1999.…Read More
Black Heritage – Part 6
Scott Joplin (1868-1917) was an African-American composer pianist and music teacher. Joplin achieved fame for his “ragtime” compositions and was known as the King of Ragtime. During his brief career, he wrote over 100 original ragtime music pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. He began publishing music in 1895 and publication of…Read More
Merry Xmas Everybody
Before we continue with this article featuring a selection of 2020 Christmas stamps, I would like to take the opportunity to offer seasonal greetings from all of the staff here at PostBeeld to all readers of the Freestampmagazine and all visitors to the PostBeeld Webshop and Freestampcatalogue.
Polish Education Matters
This Polish stamp sheet was issued in 1946 with education as its subject. The letters B, I and E in the bottom right corner of the stamps indicate that Poland was then a member of the International Bureau of Education (BIE = Bureau International d’Education). What is now known as…Read More
A Greener Link
The opening of the Ceneri Base Tunnel in December 2020 will mark the completion of the New Rail Link through the Alps (NRLA), turning the dream of a flat rail link through the Alps into reality. The NRLA provides Switzerland with modern, high-performance rail infrastructure on Europe’s north-south corridor –…Read More
Space, the Final Frontier
The Soviet Union amazed the world on Nov. 3, 1957, with the launch of the small satellite Sputnik 2. On board was a small dog, Laika, the first animal to actually orbit Earth. Unfortunately Laika was doomed to die during the event as there was no recovery capability at that…Read More
In the Gutter
From the Great Britain Royal Silver Wedding set of 1972 until the 1979 Christmas set, the printer Harrison & Sons Ltd. placed what have become known as “traffic lights” in the gutter margin of stamp sheets, giving rise to the term. They also exist with the large format Great Britain…Read More
Stamp Errors Part 10 – It Wasn’t International
On May 13, 1970, two special stamps were issued in the German Democratic Republic (DDR) for the 25th anniversary of broadcasting in the GDR. The two stamps were printed as a pair. The 10 Pfg. has shortwave antennae in front of a globe incorporating the emblem of Radio Berlin while…Read More