COVER N.156 -  SLOVAKIA

Postmark: FDC 1.1.2000 / Bratislava 5 16.08.22
Posted on 16th August; received on the 22th August 2022
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A First Day Cover from Slovakia, updated with more recent stamps for expedition. Nice! Thank you so much, Venco!

The first set of stamps issued by Slovakia on the very first day of the new century - 01JAN2000 -  was a se-tenant pair, with face values of 10 and 12 Slovak Koruna, dedicated to the "Splendours of our Homeland".

The 10 Sk stamp on my cover depicts the Dunajec River Gorge in the Pieniny Mountains, which constitutes a natural border between Poland and Slovakia, and is famous for the wooden raft descents that take place daily. This fact is highlighted in the stamp that features a view of the gourge with a wooden raft navigating the waters and the legend Prielom Dunajaca (Dunajec River Gorge). 

The stamp is cancelled with a postmark that features a view of the city of Červený Kláštor, wherein the administration of the Pieniny National Park, where the Dunajec river gorge is located, has its headquarters.

To post this interesting FDC to me, Venco used two more recent stamps:

1 Euro stamp, issued on 30MAR2020 honouring the  200th Anniversary of the birth of Andrej Sládkovič, (1820-1872) who, according to wikipedia, was a poet, critic, publicist, translator and Lutheran priest.

T1 100g (Domestic up to 100g) stamp, part of a two stamp set with the same denomination issued on 09OCT2008, dedicated to wooden churches as part of the "Beauties of our Homeland” series.  Of note is the fact that these stamps were issued as part of a minisheet, which contained two perforated rows, each with the two stamps and a label between them also featuring the image on a wooden church.

As usual with Slovak stamps the designs are wonderful and I especially like the wooden church drawing. 

The regular Postmark on the two "operative" stamps tells us that the cover was mailled from the country's capital, Bratislava.

COVER N.155 - MAURITIUS

Postmark: Illegible
Posted on the 6th July (?); received on the 19th August 2022
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And step by step, the list of countries grows. Mauritius, an insular state of the Indian Ocean, located to the  Northeast of the Island of the Reunion. composed of the Islands of Mauritius,  Rodrigues, Agaléga and St. Brandon, and also claiming sovereignty over the island of Tromelin, from France, and the Chagos Archipelago, from the UK.

A huge Thank you! to Marie Anne for letting me add another country to the Atlas!

Stamps, left to right:

Being an insular state it comes as no surprise that  Mauritius post on 09OCT2017 decided to issue a 4 stamp set in souvenir sheet form with 3, 4, 23 and 33 Mauritian Rupee denominations, dedicated to local sea shells.

The stamp on my cover, the 4 Rupee one, depicts a cowrie (Cypraea sp.). Cowries are famous for having been used as money and, I learned today, for being at the origin of the word porcelain, derived from the Italian “porcellana”, which was how Cowries were called in the idiom of Dante. 

ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization is a specialised agency of the United Nations established in 1947, whose creation was set forth  by the   Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944 and which was preceded by the its forerunner, PICAO, the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization whose establishment was also established by the said Convention.

ICAO's mission is "To serve as the global forum of States for international civil aviation. ICAO develops policies and Standards, undertakes compliance audits, performs studies and analyses, provides assistance and builds aviation capacity through many other activities and the cooperation of its Member States and stakeholders".

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Organisation, Mauritius Post issued a 25 Rupee stamp on 07DEC2019. The stamp is illustrated by what I believe to be two photographs of  Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, (named after the Republic’s first Prime Minister) the main Mauritian airport, one contemporary and the other probably at the time of independence, but this is just me guessing ....that or the smaller b&w picture might also be of the country's other airport, named Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport, located in Plaine Corail on the island of Rodrigues. (which, by the way, is named after the Portuguese explorer Diogo Rodrigues).

On the 22nd July 2021, the first Mauritian satellite was sent to orbit as part of the payload of  Mission: CRS-22/SpX-22 executed by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from he Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Its mission was threefold: 1) Acquire satellite technology; 2) Collect pictures of the Republic of Mauritius and exclusive economic zone; 3) Experiment communication with regional islands (e.g emergency purposes such as cyclones and tsunamis).

To celebrate the event, Mauritius Post issued on the 07OCT2021 a 41 Rupee stamp with the image of the box shaped satellite orbiting the blue planet over Mauritius Island.

COVER N.154 - ALBANIA

Postmark: Zyta Post -  Tiranë 11.08.2022
Posted on 11th August; received on the 19th August 2022
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Albania... Shqiperia, once the most secluded country in Europe, sort of the North Korea of the Western Hemisphere, and now a candidate to becoming a EU member, which ranks high on my list of "want to go and see" places. 

Thank you so much for making it possible for me to add another country to the List, Eric. I was very pleased with it.

The theme for the EUROPA stamp emissions of 1995 was Peace and Freedom, and I'm sure it touched deeply in Albania which was just some 4 years away from having become a multi-party republic and yet but two from the civil war that would erupt in the wake of economic disaster. Luckily these days are now history and Albania has been climbing the ladder, as its jump from position 85 in 2000 to position 69 in 2019 in the Human Development index clearly indicates.

On 10AUG1995, Albanian Post issued 2 stamps (50, 100 Leke) and an imperforated souvenir sheet (150 Leke) as the country's EUROPA stamps issue, the souvenir sheet being the one Eric used on my cover.

The stylised image of a person with open arms welcoming Peace and Freedom, which is written in the legend. dominates the stamp.

The other two stamps were designed around the same idea, with stylised hands welcoming an olive branch (50 Leke) and a white dove (100 Leke), both well acknowledged symbols of Peace and Freedom.

The Postmark indicates that the cover was mailed from the country's capital Tirana.

 COVER N.153 - CHINA

Postmark: 22.07.2022
Posted on 22 July; received on the 17th August 2022
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I have written here before of how glad I am every time I receive one of these classic air mail envelopes with their red white and blue striped borders. I have also written about of how I like to see an elegant handwriting, the more so since my own is nothing less than awful. So this beautiful and carefully composed cover reunites the best of three worlds: a classic air mail envelope; addressed in a beautiful handwriting and a full set of interesting stamps plus an extra... Excellent. Thank you so much Xu!

The silk road network stretched from China to Europe allowing commerce to flow between these so far off extremities until the 15th century, when the Ottoman  empire ceased trading with the West. By then, though,  a new route had been opened,  through the discovery of the sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, one of the great sea faring feats of the Portuguese.

Along the 6,400 Km of the road, many were (and still are) the places of wonder that are nowadays source for countless documentaries and travel magazine articles but as usual, increased wealth such as the road would generate along its way, through trade, would generate  artefacts since they are essential to all activities and  some of them rather than having a functional nature would be but clear indicators of the  wealth of their possessors.

China Post, on 12JUN2021 issued the set of  four 1,20 stamps dedicated to Cultural treasures of the silk road that Xu used on my cover and they depict 4 such artefacts. Left to right: a celadon plate with chrysanthemum pattern from the Song Dynasty; a silver container of the Han dynasty; a celadon jug with date palm design from the  Tang Dynasty, and a  glazed  vase, of the five Dynasty era.

The last stamp on my cover was issued on 03DEC2008 and as far as I could understand from Stampworld catalogue and Colnet, is a stamp dedicated to Calligraphy and is entitled "Harmony”. The original stamp contains a se-tenant label that is missing from the stamp om the cover, with what I presume is the writing for "Harmony" in Mandarin. 

COVER N.152 - CANADA

Postmark: City of Toronto UC - MR 6 1834 / Canada Post Postes Canada Toronto ON Toronto's First Post Office
Posted on ?: received on the 16th August 2022
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I love things that fly, be it butterflies, dragonflies, damselflies, (I confess that even some types of ... flies, tickle my fancy) coleoptera, gyrocopters, helicopters and all types of aircraft.

As such it is always a pleasure to receive a cover laden with stamps related to aviation, such as the one I got from Jeff, from Canada. Thanks a huge lot, Jeff!

The three stamps that literally made my cover fly, are part of a five P (Permanent Tariff) stamp souvenir sheet issued  by Canada Post on 27MAR2029, to celebrate achievements of Canadians in the field of aviation.

And of these, nothing would be more famous, I guess, than the short lived Avro Arrow. A son of the cold war, ...( hhh..did it ever end, really..😞) ...and conceived as a Mach 2 capable interceptor to counter the Warsaw pact menace flying over the north pole route, the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow started to be developed in 1955 drawing on the experience gathered from the Avro CF-100 Canuck.

Flight testing of a first prototype began in 1958 and the aircraft, from the  beginning, promised to be a solid platform delivering all that was expected from it, in terms of manoeuvrability and speed.

The development program progressed all through 1958 with the 2nd iteration of the design, the MK2 version equipped with more powerful engines, being ready to be test flown in early 1959, when the sort of questions that are universal to democracies - the ability to question political decisions, options for public funding spending, - but also, I suppose,  the less that optimal effects of corporatism in the public agencies, particularly in the branches of the armed  forces, brought the project to an absolute halt, the government giving the order not only to stop the development of the aircraft but also to destroy all the prototypes already built as well as any pre-production aircraft, tools, plans... the works…

So much so that when an example of the Arrow was needed to put in a museum, a replica had to be made from scratch by volunteers….only to be left to decay at the will of the elements when the Canadian Air and Space Museum where it was kept closed doors in 2011… but it found another home where it now resides in full glory at the Canadian Air and Space Conservancy at Edenvale Airport, Ontario.

This scope of the strange decision taken by the Canadian cabinet is pretty difficult to understand, the more so since it impacted greatly on Canada’s  air industry and it generated a lot of controversy in the country, the Avro Arrow to this day being a theme for discussion amidst aircraft fans.

Elsi Mcgill. I confess my ignorance. Can't remember having ever read her name, so I turned to Wikipedia and learned that she was "the world's first woman to earn an aeronautical engineering degree and was the first woman in Canada to receive a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering".

Known as the "Queen of the Hurricanes" for her role as Chief Aeronautical Engineer at CanCar, the Canadian Car and Foundry Company  during the 2nd World War when the company built Hawker Hurricanes under licence, she would also direct her endless energy after the war at the cause of women's rights, having been named for  Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada in 1967.

The last quarter of the 20th century saw a huge progress in ultralight and lighter that air aviation. The Lazair family of ultralight aircraft is one such example with the distinctive feature of being based on a twin engined design. Offered in kit form from 1974 to 1984, hundreds of Lazairs of the several types the basic design originated were built with many still flying in Canada and the US..

The other two stamps included in the souvenir sheet are dedicated to William George "Billy" Barker, VC, DSO & Bar, MC & Two Bars (3 November 1894 – 12 March 1930), the most decorated Canadian Air Ace of the 1st World War , who lived to tell the tale, and  to Clennell Haggerston "Punch" Dickins OC OBE DFC (12 January 1899 – 2 August 1995), a pioneer Canadian Pilot, who also served during both world wars and later, with De Havilland Canada would be instrumental in the development of the most famous of the Canadian bush aircraft, the De Havilland Beaver.

COVER N.151 - GREECE

Postmark: Illegible
Posted on ?: received on the 16th August 2022
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Greece, the country that invented  Democracy, the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…as Churchill once qualified it....

Ευχαριστώ so much, George, for such a nice addition to my cover Atlas, in which a new label can thus be added. Also a great many thanks for all the nice covers included. Much appreciated.

Stamps left to right:

The 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games took place one again where it all started, Athens, between June the 25th and July the 4th.

Calling on the attention of philatelists and public in general to the forthcoming event,  Hellenic Post issued  on 18MAR2011 a five stamp set dedicated to the event, the lowest value stamp of which (0,02 €) highlighting the Games' Volunteers Program can be seen on my cover.

The fiftieth anniversary of the Agricultural bank of Greece, established in 1929 and since 2013 integrated into the Piraeus Bank, in the wake of the crisis the swept through the banking system, particularly in Southern Europe,  was celebrated with this 3 drachma stamp issued by the Hellenic Post on 24NOV1979, that is illustrated with the bank's logo and a line drawing of its headquarters.

On 14JUL1980, the Hellenic Post issued a six stamp set (4, 6, 8, 10, 14, 20 Drachma) celebrating national anniversaries and events. The 8 Drachma stamp on my cover remembers the Theriso revolt  which took place between 23 March – 25 November 1905, an instrumental step towards the integration of Crete (then under Ottoman suzerainty) into the Hellenic Republic, something that would occur in 1906 but would only be internationally acknowledged in 1913.

The very fisr stamp emission of 2015 of the Hellenic Post was a set of five stamps (0,01; 0,20; 050; 0,72 and 2,62€) dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of the ESIEA - Journalists Union of Athens Daily Newspapers, a Trade Union established in 1914. each stamp, with the exception of the highest value one, which bears what I'd think is the logo of the Union and a quote in greek, which unfortunately I cannot decipher, is illustrated with the effigies of what I also believe are journalists well known to the Greek Community. Om my particular stamp these are Pavlos Palaeologos and Dimitris Psathas 

The postmarks., unfortunately are completely illegible.

COVER N.150 - GERMANY

Postmark: Wriezen 16209  9-08-22 
Posted on the 9th August; received on the 16th August 2022
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August has been a very rich mail month. This time it is a cover with quite interesting stamps from Germany... Thanks a lot Siegward.

At the time of writing, the stamp in the upper right corner is part of the most recent emissions of Deutsch Post which have occurred on 04AUG22. 

The 1,60 € stamp celebrates the 11th general Assembly of the World Council of Churches, an inter-church Organization that strives to further the cause of Christian ecumenism,  congregating all churches of the creed, although not counting with  the Roman Catholic Church as one of its full fledged members (even though it participates in the assemblies with observer status).  The  Assembly will take place in Germany for the first time this year, from 31 August to 8, September in Karlsruhe under the motto "The Love of Christ Moves, Reconciles and Unites the World".

Deutsche Post each year issues a stamp with a surcharge that is allocated to the funding of environment protection causes. This year the "Für den Umweltschutz“ (For the protection of the environment) stamp, issued on 02JUN2022, is dedicated to the white continent, "Protecting uniqueness together" is the motto inscribed in the beautiful 0,85€ + 0, 40€surcharge stamp that shows a map of Antarctica and an image of one of its most celebrated inhabitants, the emperor penguin.

The 0,05 € stamp is part of the "World of the letter" definitive set, first instalment, issued on 02_DEC2021. This set is composed of 5 stamps with 0,5€; 0,85€;  1€; 1,60€; 2,75€ denominations, respectively illustrated by images showing letters as lotus flower; bird; ship; kite and boat by lighthouse.

Of note is the fact that all the stamps include the now customary graphic code that allows tracking of the item the stamp has been applied to.

COVER N.149 - INDIA

Postmark: Ahmedabad Philoatelic Bureau 1-08-22 
Posted on the 1st August; received on the 12th August 2022
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A nice cover from India with a vibrant souvenir sheet. Thanks a lot Dilip.

India is not colour shy, In fact colour seems to be everywhere, so much so, that there is even a colour festival, the now famous Holi, that celebrates the arrival of the spring. 

India is also a very diverse country, in terms of geography, nature, socio-economics, culture, natural and human heritage. It thus comes as no surprise that such diversity might be transposed to a stamp to celebrate "Vibrant India". 

And this is exactly what happened in 2015 when the  India's Department of Posts launched a stamp design  competition with a view to the creation of a stamp that might highlight the Country's many facets. Of note is the fact that the rules of the competition stated that no computed generated designs were admissible. About a thousand entries were submitted and the result was the souvenir sheet that graces the front of my cover, issued on 25JAN2016, India Republic Day, containing a 25 Rupee stamp and featuring several iconic images of India such as the Taj Mahal or the country's national bird, the peacock.

With so much space on the front of the cover being taken by the lovely souvenir sheet, Dilip added the stamp need to complete the relevant tariff to the back of the envelope.

The 5 Rupee  stamp used was issued on 14JAN2013, honouring Aditya Vikram Birla (1943-1995), a prominent Indian Industrialist.

COVER N.148 - USA

Postmark: Harrisonburg Post Office  JUL-22-2022 / Richmond VA 230 
Posted on the 22nd July; received on the 12th August 2022

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A simple yet nice cover with three carefully arranged stamps and two cancellations. I really wonder why post offices often run letters that were already cancelled manually through cancellation machines, what most of times results in "overcancelled" stamps.... not the case here though, luckily.

Thanks a lot Jewel, for your carefully laid out cover

Stamps:

Otters in Snow, This the theme chosen by the USPS for a set of 4 self-adhesive se-tenant "Forever" stamps issued on 12OCT2021, featuring illustrations of the cute and elusive mammal in its river dwelling iteration (Lontra canadensis) which can be told apart from its cousin, the sea otter (Enhydra lutris), by the fact that they have a much longer and broader tail in spite of being much smaller in size than the latter.  Two of these stamps are on the cover.

On !$APR1982 the USPS issued a set of 52 20 Cent stamps, dedicated to each of the US states' official bird and Flower. My cover features the stamp of the official bird - Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) - and flower - Violet (Viola sp.) - of the state of New Jersey.

I confess that my recently rekindled interest in stamps has only now made me aware of this lovely set, which I would be more that happy to have in my collection, because the images on the stamps are really very beautiful.

COVER N.147 - ITALIA.

Postmark: Pratovecchio Poste Italiane 20-07-22 
Posted on the 20th July; received on the 11th August 20227th July 2022

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Some more mail from Roberto, from Italy. Grazie mille, Roberto

Roberto used the following two  self-adhesive Tariff B (domestic, up to 20g) commemorative stamps to mail  his letter to me:

- Stamp issued on 26JAN2019 to celebrate the centenary of the birth of soccer player Valentino Mazzola. I, not being a soccer fan, had to go and see and I learned that tragically there is a link between Mazzola and Portugal, since he was a member of the Torino Football Club team whose members would sadly loose their lives in an  airplane crash on a flight between Lisbon, where they had played against Benfica, and their hometown, on the 4th May 1949.

- Stamp issued on 19MAR20222, to celebrate 800th Anniversary of the University of Padua, established in 1222, what makes it even older than our own University of Coimbra, set up in 1290. An existence of 800 years is quite a feat for any institution but to think that a university has been spreading knowledge for such a long time, is really something to celebrate. My congratulations to the beautiful city of Padua and to its University!

 COVER N.146 - LICHTENSTEIN.

Postmark: 9403 Mauren Fürstentum Liechtenstein 04-08-22 
Posted on the 4th August; received on the 11th August 2022

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Upon returning from my quick summer trip to neighbouring Spain, I was quite happy to find my letterbox hadn't been left untouched and that quite a few covers had been slipped through the slot by my good friend Mr. Postman.

One of them was the one that Vural sent me from one of Europe's smallest states, thus providing me with the chance to add another entry into my list of  countries represented in this humble blog of mine. Thanks a lot Vural.

Lichtenstein is but 25 km long, nested between  Austria and Switzerland but it is one of the richest countries in the world, with a strong economy rooted in industry. I read on wikipedia that it is one of the countries with the most  multinational companies per capita, what is linked to historic fiscal reasons as often is the case with other small  countries.

I once, on my return from a road trip to Munich, had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours in its capital, Vaduz, where, to my surprise, I heard my own language being spoken in a couple of souvenir stores.  I  also remember a brief  passage through the postal museum, even though, at the time, stamps were not a primary concern. 

Stamps left to right:

0,90 Swiss Frank  stamp issued on 03JAN2022. Of note is the fact that this was originally part of a four stamp set issued in 2021 dedicated to songbirds, and what is even more noteworthy is that its face value was downgraded, what comes as a surprise, since price corrections usually go the other way. In fact, the original 2021 stamp had a face value of 1 Swiss Frank.

0,90 Swiss Frank stamp issued on 03JAN2022, as part of a 4 stamp set dedicated to bee species. The bee depicted in this particular stamp is the Andrena hattorfiana, and endangered solitary bee species that is present in most of Europe (although not in Portugal, I believe).

The nice postmark includes a line profile  of a landmark within the commune of Muren, I presume, from where the cover was mailed.