COVER N.192 - SURINAME

Postmark: Paramaribo Suriname 02.12.2022

Posted on the 2nd December; Received on the 29th December 2022
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Nothing short of a complot, I am told: two kind friends united efforts so that I could add another country to my Philatelic atlas. Thank you so much Eric and Roland, this was a great Christmas gift!

Suriname, the smallest South American country, independent since 1975, with a total population of about 613,000 as of 2021 according to the world bank data, where Dutch is the mother tongue for 60% of its nationals, as a result of its past as a Dutch colony.

With an economy relying heavily on the mining industry, producing such products as gold, bauxite and oil, Suriname maintains strong links with the former coloniser both in economic and cultural terms (the idiom , I'm sure,. playing an important part in this reality) although, I found out, the Netherlands do not rank in the top three places of the podium of export partners, these being occupied by Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Belgium,   

The importance of the relationship with the Netherlands is however apparent in its position  as the second most important source of imports to Suriname, after the United States and before China, who ranks as third.

Suriname, as all South American countries located at comparable latitude is a biodiversity hotspot, most of its territory (90.2) being occupied by dense rain forest, thus making it the country in the world with the highest forest cover. 

The special relationship wit an European country is also easy to grasp although in an indirect way from this very nice cover, absolutely laden with stamps.

Europa stamps were first issued in  1956, the year when the postal administrations of the founding six members of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) decided they would annually issue stamps with a common design.

Celebrating half a century of Europa issues is a fact that one would not be surprised to see happen in Europe but seeing it take place in upper South America, can only be put in context if one considers the historical economical and cultural  bonds between Suriname and the Netherlands, one of the six countries participating in the first Europa issue.

As such, on the 4th January 2006, Surpost, the Suriname Postal Administration, issued a souvenir sheet with three stamps with a face value of  1, 2 and 9 Surinamese Dollars, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the fist EUROPA common design stamp emission.

The stamps replicate the designs of the Netherlandic issues of 1956 - a scaffold supporting a tower made from the words EUROPA; 1958 a dove flying over the E for Europe, and 1959, a circular chain made of 6 elements - these being presented inside a frame that includes the name of the emitting country, the legend EUROPA 1956-2006 and the face value of the stamp.

This souvenir sheet can be seen in the centre of the cover although the images on the sides of the  frame - a Douglas DC8 from Suriname Airways and a Boeing 747 from KLM - are hidden by groups of the same stamps that are included in the souvenir sheet, albeit in se-tenant form,

Completing the postage needed to mail the cover to this side of the Atlantic is a se-tenant pair of 1,5 Surinamese Dollars stamps that were issued on 14SEP2011, dedicated to the charming Azalea flowers.

The stamps are obliterated with very large postmarks from the capital city of Paramaribo