European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (EYID) 2008

"The European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (EYID) 2008 recognises that Europe’s great cultural diversity represents a unique advantage. It will encourage all those living in Europe to explore the benefits of our rich cultural heritage and opportunities to learn from different cultural traditions."

More details at: http://www.interculturaldialogue2008.eu/

Day of issue :

2008/ 10/ 23

Stamps:

€0,31

€0,47

€0,67

€0,80

"The Portuguese post office (CTT Correios de Portugal) is commemorating the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue with a stamp issue celebrating a society of diversity, rich in different heritages, a result of the meeting of realities, so similar and yet so different, just like the world and Europe themselves."

100 Years of Demarcated Wine Regions

Issue day:

2008/ 10/ 02

Stamps:

10 stamps x €0,31 – 280 000 each

BUCELAS WINE (2 stamps)
COLARES WINE
CARCAVELOS WINE
MOSCATEL OF SETÚBAL (2 stamps)
DÃO WINE (2 stamps)
GREEN WINES (2 stamps)

"The history of the Portuguese civilisation is closely bound with the history of wine-growing."

"In 1907/1908, the government introduced a system of official regulations for the various “designations of origin”, which established the principles protecting and governing wine production and trade, “demarcating” or delimiting the geographic areas of the various designations, in particular for the Generoso or fortified wines of the Douro region, Madeira, Carcavelos and Setúbal and the Pasto or table wines of the Vinho Verde (Green Wine), Dão, Douro and Colares regions. Two years later, the Bucelas region was also demarcated."

Very beautiful set of stamps, don't you think?

See you soon... for me it's time for some real wine tasting from my cellar :) Take care!

Ascension Island New Issue

Botanists & Plants 2008

Do you like Plants? If you're a plant lover you will surely like the new Ascension Island stamps set!

The earliest visitors to Ascension during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries found very few plants growing on the island.

Today the colourful profusion of flowering plants and trees which now cover much of Ascension is the result of introductions from around the world.

35p - Valerius Cordus was a German apothecary whose detailed botanical studies advanced pharmacology in the early 16th century.The genus Cordia (BORAGINACEAE) commemorates his name. Cordia sebestena is known as the Geiger Tree or Anaconda.

40p - Born in Warwickshire Nehemiah Grew practiced medicine in Lo don where he became famous for his work on plant anatomy. The genus Grewia (TILIACEAE), which commemorates his name, is native to tropical Africa, Asia and Australia. The common names for Grewia occidentalis are Starflower and Four Corners.


50p - The French botanist, Charles Plumier, after whom the genus Plumeria (APOCYNACEAE) was named, was born in Marseilles. Plumeria rubra is perhaps more familiar to people as Frangipani or Pagoda or Temple Tree.

£2 - Carl Peter Thunberg was born in Sweden and went on to study medicine at Uppsala University, where he also became a pupil of Linnaeus. The genus of tropical plants, Thunbergia (ACANTHACEAE), is named after him. Thunbergia grandiflora is known as Bengal Clockvine or Bengal Trumpet.

More details of the issue here.

Cuban Birds!

Birds... Birds... And more Birds...

I'm a member of some stamp groups and forums... and the other day I was surfing one and I saw an amazing scan that the author of the post allowed me to show to you all:

It is a set of stamps and a s/s issued in 2001 by the Cuban Post to celebrate the 2001 Word Stamp Exhibit in Hong Kong!

What do you think of this set? Very bright colours and vivid images... 5 stars! I really liked this issued and wanted to share it with you.

Do you collect bird stamps? If so, what attracts you in them?

See you soon...

Portugal NEW Issue

Internacional Polar Year

Issue date
2008/06/23

Stamps
€ 0,30 – 280 000
€ 0,52 - 230 000
€ 0,61 – 230 000
€ 1,00 – 230 000

Souvenir sheet with 1 stamp
€ 2,95 – 60 000

“Polar birds that visit the Portuguese coast”

"Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea), which migrates annually from the Arctic to the Antarctic, passing over Portuguese waters.

Sanderling (Calidris alba), which nests in the High Arctic in such remote locations as Greenland, Siberia and Ellesmere island.

Wilson’s Storm Petrel (Oceanites oceanicus), which nests on the islands of the Antarctic, is another quintessential representative of this icy continent.

Razorbill (Alca torda), which nests on Arctic cliffs and spends its winters off the Portuguese coast. A species that dives for food, it is frequently entangled in fishing nets, causing large numbers to be washed up lifeless on Portuguese beaches."

For more details please click here.

Beijing Olympics 2008

8th August 2008 is the official starting date of the 29th Edition of the Olympic Games 2008 in the Chinese city of Beijing.

To the games, this year Portugal will send 46 athletes competing in several different events shown on the stamps bellow.

Issue:
2008/04/30

Stamps:
€ 0,30 - 335 000
€ 0,30 - 335 000
€ 0,75 - 255 000

Souvenir sheet:
with 4 stamps of € 0,75

Ovibeja

ALL THE WORLD's ALENTEJO

The Southern Association of Sheep Breeders organised the largest agricultural fair held in Beja (Portugal) from 26th April to 4th May 2008.

For more details please click here.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of this Fair they issued one personalized stamp (picture bellow)


The Portuguese Postal Office issued a Postal Stationery valid inside Portugal:

Thank you Rosendo (Portugal) for sending me all this great philatelic items.

Portuguese culture: new issue

Important Figures in
Portuguese Culture

Issue date:
2008/04/18

From left to right and top to bottom:

José de Mascarenhas Relvas (1858-1929). Proclaimed the Portuguese Republic from the balcony of Lisbon City Hall on 5th October 1910.

Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira (1908). World’s oldest working film director celebrates his 100th birthday this year.

Father António Vieira (1608-1697). A Jesuit priest, missionary, diplomat and orator, António Vieira is also considered one of the greatest prose writers in the Portuguese language.

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992). Born in Lisbon to a family who encouraged an interest in painting, literature and music at an early age, she moved to Paris in 1928 to study sculpture, which she immediately abandoned in favour of painting.

Aureliano Lopes de Mira Fernandes (1884-1958). University professor and mathematician, Aureliano Fernandes was born in the Municipality of Mértola.

Ricardo Jorge (1858-1939). Doctor and writer, was born in Oporto, where he graduated from the Medical-Surgical Faculty. He had a brilliant career as a university professor and was appointed to the chair of Hygiene and Forensic Medicine.

The miniature sheet on butterflies of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands release by India Post recently.

Euro Judo 2008

European Judo
Championship

For the 1st time, Portugal will be the set of the most important Judo event in Europe (11-13 April 2008). The chosen city is Lisbon and the place is the Atlantic Pavilion on the former EXPO area!

This competition is the last qualification event for the Olympic Games of Beijing. They expect 450 athletes from 50 different European countries.

Issue date:

2008/04/07


Stamps:
€ 0,30 – 280 000
€ 0,61 – 230 000

Perforation:
11 ¾ x Cross of Christ


Souvenir sheet with 2 stamps
€ 2,45 – 60 000

International Year of Planet Earth

PORTUGAL: NEW ISSUE

The International Year runs from January 2007 to December 2009, the central year of the triennium (2008) having been proclaimed by the UN General Assembly as the UN Year.

The Year’s ultimate goal of helping to build safer, healthier and wealthier societies around the globe is expressed in the Year’s subtitle ‘Earth science for Society’.

You can read more here.

To commemorate it, this year 2008 Portugal issued the following set of stamps:

Issue date:
2008/03/25

Stamps:
€ 0,30 – 280 000
€ 0,45 – 230 000
€ 0,61 – 230 000
€ 0,75 – 200 000

FDC:
C6 - € 0,55

MY FRIEND:

PROTECT THE EARTH!

Registered cover sent within India.

This is a registered cover send within India
with a block of three definitive stamps showing
the tiger.

October's CONTEST

Free Stamps

Hello stamps fans!

Yes, I know that it's a strange name... but if you can use the sentence "sports fan" to great someone why not using also "stamps fans" or the more erudite way "philatelic fans"! ehehe!

I was going through my stamps and found a nice set of stamps from Mongolia... don't know if it's a complete set or not but they are about moths and butterflies! Which ones do you like most? Moths or butterflies?


I prefer butterflies and you know what? If you tell me which butterfly I like the most... that may or may not be on the stamps shown... I'll send you this set for free! 1st correct answer to stamp.friends@gmail.com wins the stamps! So what do you say? Need a hint? Ok... I can do that. It's a butterfly that in one moment you are seeing it and in the other you are not! Easy, isn't it?

Take care!

2007 Russia WWF Stamps

Unauthorised issue from RUSSIA

with the WWF Panda Logo

Russia issued recently this very interesting set about endangered species with the WWF (panda logo). But fellow WWF collector ..... and yes, I'm also one... beware... yes! beware! because according to GROTH AG and I quote: "This issue has not been authorised by WWF International and Groth AG. They did not receive the contract to use the WWF Panda Logo." So If you have decided to buy it... and I'm surely not telling you to not buy it... remember that it isn't an official WWF issue!

This isn't the 1st issue where something like this happens... so what do you think? Licit issue or not? Album or garbage bin material? Let us know your opinion...


PS. Stamp Collectors from Holland to help me with the Mooi Nederland S/Ss so far: ZERO!!
I'm very disappointed to see that none read my blog!!!

Netherlands fragment...

Mooi Nederland

I'm showing you a fragment of one s/s issued last year 2006 by The Netherlands. It belongs to the issue Mooi Nederland: Schoonhoven.

Since which year did they start to issue the Mooi Nederland s/s? Do you know how many different ones were issued?

It is the 1st time I contact with this kind of s/s issues and I was very impressed by their design... Do you have them for trade? Please let me know since it's a collection I would like to start!

Were they also issued in FDCs?

So many questions to my readers... Hope you can help me!

Thank you in advance.

Portugal... MY STAMP!

Started yesterday 9th Oct. 2007 a new amazing service provided by the Portuguese Postal Office... But what service is that?

They call it MY STAMP and it's the 1st personalized stamp service in Portugal! But what makes it so amazing? Well... nothing really... it's very similar to many others that we know about from around the world and in my opinion it comes rather late comparing to other European countries.

But why would someone need this kind of stamps? Trusting PO publicity you should use them to free your creativity and make new stamps at your image... Well at 1 Euro per stamp with a postage value of 0.30 Euro it's an expensive creativity, wouldn't you say? But I think it can be very nice to a topic collector to make some stamps about designs that are worldwide unavailable in the topic he collects, don't you?

Dear readers... does your country makes these? Do you collect them? And if so why?

And another interesting question... do you think I should order some? On which topic? You can even send me images with your own ideas... I'll be waiting!

Thank you all!

Australia... World Champions?

A lovely miniature sheet.....

So how did England do against Australia last night... and France next week... exciting times... Just think of the next miniature sheet... which country will issue it!?

A380 and Tajikistan

Yesterday I was talking to a fellow collector and contributor to this blog about Airplaine stamp collections particularly the Airbus A380.

Today I found this image of what I believe to be a new stamp set from Tajikistan depicting the 1st flight of A380.

(I'm sorry for the small size of the image)

Michael... If you're reading this... Have you ever seen these stamps? Could this be an official issue of the Tajikistan Post Office? Although I can't find it in their 2007 Issue Calendar...

Well... stranger things have happened in the WORLD OF PHILATELY! eheh!

See you next time, same place!

American Heritage...

Portuguese....
American Heritage

The past day... 25th September, Portugal issued one of its best stamp set ever. It's called American Heritage and according to our Post Office "this stamp issue illustrates the enormous heritage from the American continent that arrived in and was transformed by Europe between the 16th and 19th centuries".

Issue date:

2007/09 / 25

Stamps:

3 x € 0,30

€ 0,45

€ 0,61

€ 0,75

Souvenir Sheet with 1 stamp
€ 1,85

What do you think of them?
My favourite stamps from Portugal year 2007!

SPACE... the final frontier

50th anniversary of the launch of the
1st satellite - SPUTNIK

Few days ago some fellow collectors and Blog contributors talked about the stamp set that soon will be issued by the Australian Post office... and what a nice set that is... but space collectors everywhere rejoice! This is a great year for us... several countries are issuing SPACE related stamps... now it's time for the United Nations Postal Administration.


This set is to be issued on 25th October 2007, 3 weeks after the 50 year anniversary of SPUTNIK's launch on 4th October 2007.

Take care!