CN22 - From Taiwan

On a previous post I've talked about the new Portuguese PO rules for sending letters abroad. To see that post click here.

I've received some messages about it and a fellow collector from Taiwan sent me images of their CN22 form. Thank you all.



As you can see it's very similar to the Portuguese one. The difference is that in Taiwan they only need to fill it when sending small parcels or letters containing something inside such as coins or large quantity of stamps.

I would like to receive the same form images from other countries and to know your sending rules... email me at stamp.friends@gmail.com Thank you!!

Portuguese Forever Stamp

Forever Stamp!

Issue date:

2007/11 /07

Portugal issued 2 new forever stamps (without face value) and valid even if postage increases. This set celebrates the "Comunidade Ismaeli em Portugal".

First Day Cover

The left stamp is marked with N 20grs - Normal mail up to 20gr inside Portugal. The right one has an I 20grs -  Normal mail up to 20gr, outside Europe.

The other forever stamps that Portugal has are:

A 20grs - Fast Mail (Correio Azul) inside Portugal up to 20 grs

E 20grs - Fast Mail (Correio Azul) Europe up to 20 grs

How many different forever stamps do your country's PO have issued?

Iceland... Too many stamps!

On a previous post I've shown you a cover with lots of stamps and that I've considered to be a bad example of a philatelic cover, do you remember? To see the post click here. But to compensate your philatelic eyes, I'm showing you a very good example.

This cover was sent from Ireland to Taiwan in 1982. It has 22 stamps on a A4 format sized envelope. Please take a closer look and see that all the stamps were hand cancelled.... what an enormous work the postal clerk must have had!

Do you think that your local postal clerk would do this favour to you? Or would it be impossible?

Sanjusangendo Hall - Japan

Above you can see a front view of a Japanese Postcard showing "A thousand and one images of Buddha" at Sanjusangendo Hall in Kyoto.

Sanjusangendo is a Buddhist temple in Higashiyama District, built in 1164. Some interesting images here.


On the back you can see 4 stamps. The left 2 stamps are from a set of 4 about "Wedding of Crown Prince" issued on April 1959.

Crown Prince Akihito and Princess Michiko FDC

The last 2 stamps were issued on the Philatelic week years 1968 and 1972.

Double Cancellation

Germany
Double Cancellations

I'm sorry for not having posted in the few days but for professional reasons my internet access is limited.

Today I have a cover sent from Germany to show. The s/s was issued 2007 depicting World heritage, Limes. Official info here (only in German language).

"A limes (or the Limes Romanus) was a border defense system of Ancient Rome."

According to WIKI: The most notable examples of Roman limites are:

• Hadrian's Wall - Limes Britannicus
• Antonine Wall
• Upper Germanic & Rhaetian Limes, part of the Limes Germanicus
• Limes Arabicus, the frontier of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea facing the desert
• Limes Tripolitanus, the frontier in modern Libya facing the Sahara

This s/s was double cancelled... 1st by hand and then machine cancelled! Presently this situation is getting more frequent everyday since letters usually pass through automatic distribution machines.... and that's a pity!

See you soon in the other side of the Lime!

CN 22 Customs Declaration...

Recently Portugal started to ask everyone that sends a letter to outside EU to fill the CN22 form, apparently without any criteria regarding weight or size.

Do you know this form?

Today was my 1st time filling one... I think that the postal clerk also didn't know for sure how to fill it and in which situations should one be used!

For us, stamp collectors, how should we use it? In every sending?

And what do you write there? Letter? Stamps? and which value? no value? facial value? catalogue value?

Many times I don't know the value since I'm sending some stamps as an exchange! Well... Maybe you can help me! At least I sure hope so...

Nigeria.... too many stamps...

2 days ago I wrote about covers with many stamps on... a fellow collector sent me a scan of another example. Thank you George!


This cover was sent in 1993 from Nigeria. What do you think of it? I'm not a big fan of overlapping stamps on a cover and I've said it before... but the number is a plus, isn't it?

If I would to grade this cover I would give it a NO... a not good philatelic example! Hope you agree.... lets see what do you have to say about it!

See you next time in a post office nearby!

Lindner...

Ultimately do your stamps
really belong to you?

How do you preserve your stamps? I'm an unconditional fan of Lindner philatelic materials. Do you know them?

Don't worry that I don't earn any percentage for publicizing it!

I believe that our stamps belong to us at a particular moment in time and when we decide to part from them they will certainly belong to someone else... in the end they are like works of art... they belong to the society, to the world and it is our job to collect them in the best conditions possible, right? And In my opinion Lindner is one of the best brands there are.

Hope you can see bellow some stamps with the cancellation showing a phrase of the 50 years of Lindner.

Netherlands.... too many stamps...

Hello! Bellow you can see the nice surprise I've received in the mail today... a cover from Netherlands with an incredible number of stamps on it... It's a very good example of a collectible item, don't you agree?

If you have similar items please email me some pictures to stamp.friends@gmail.com and I'll show them on future posts!

Thanks!

Joint Issue China-Mexico

ANOTHER VOLCANO...
NOW FROM MEXICO

Issue date:
22 Nov. 2007

Top Stamp - Gongga Shan:

The highest mountain in Sichuan, China. It is situated in the Daxue Shan mountain range. It is the easternmost 7000m peak in the world and the third highest peak outside of the Himalaya/Karakoram.

Bottom Stamp - Popocatépetl:

Is an active volcano and the second highest peak in Mexico. Popocatépetl comes from the Nahuatl words popōca 'it smokes' and tepētl 'mountain', thus Smoking Mountain.

Thank you Blog Contributor Soccer.

Portuguese.... Volcano!

Volcano in Azores!

Capelinhos Volcano commemorates his 50th anniversary of activity and now erosion!
It's reduced to 40% of its original size of 1957.

Issue date:

2007/09 / 27

(cancellation of Lisbon)

Stamps:

€ 0,30

€ 0,75

Souvenir sheet with 1 stamp:

€ 2,45

How many of you collects Vulcanology related stamps?

French Space Stamp

My 1st November post... Wow!!! Xmas is really getting close, isn't it? And that will soon be a topic to explore. Please visit again soon!

Well... back to today's post... I've received a letter with the French Space Stamp. Thank you Eric. Please don't forget to visit his great blog here.


This stamp was issued on 5 Oct. 2007 to commemorate the 50th ANNIVERSARY of the SPACE CONQUEST. And as Eric also pointed out on his blog it shows 5 Space Historic Events... Sputnik, Apollo module, Spot 5 satellite and Ariane 5 and Soyuz launchers with the European map on the background. A beautiful stamp no doubt at all.

On the left of the stamp you can see a postage meter / label that the postal clerk prints on the same paper as the ATM - paper plane design.

See you all soon!