COVER N. 241 - PORTUGAL

Postmark: Filatelia 2675 - Odivelas -  24.04.2023 

Posted on the 24th April; Received on the 27th April 2023
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It is rather nice to see that whenever I receive any ordered products from the philatelic section of the Portuguese Post, they are mailed back inside envelopes with actual stamps on top of the "postage paid" pre-printed marking  of the official CTT envelopes.

This time, the kind people at the philately office went even further and sent me some airmail stickers I had asked for in a rather nice cover through Correio Azul (Blue mail - next day delivery - the 25th was an holiday here), as the corresponding sticker indicates. So let me revert to my precious mother tongue to express my most sincere

Muito Obrigado!

 

I quite like the CTT logo. The Postal service in Portugal just completed 500 years of existence in 2020, and has such, throughout its long operational life, many have been the changes . Still, for me and as far as I can remember, the image of the Correios, Telégrafos e Telefones, as the service was named when I was a lad, long before its privatisation and its re-designation as CTT  Correios de Portugal, S.A., has always been and will always be, that of the valiant postilion galloping and blowing his horn.

The original image of a postilion of the logo, created by the Portuguese painter Jaime Martins Barata, from which the current one derives, was selected in 1953, and slighty modified in 1964 and 1983.  In 2004 it would receive a more profound updating (the logo on the envelope corresponds to this version)  followed by another slight revision in 2015. 

I have to say that the very modernist logo of  1935 was a smasher too.... 

Wasn't it?

Here's the Postilion logo evolution in its 1953; 1964; 1983;  2004 and 2015 guises.

               

By way of disclaimer, I shall say that the logos were copied from available references (mostly from here) on the internet, so I expect them to fully respect the originals.

The 0,86€ stamp on the cover is part of the 1st group of  definitive stamps themed on Portuguese numismatics,  comprising 5 stamps (053; 0,78; 0,86; 0,91; 2 €) issued on 03AUG2020.

Although CTT's Philatelic service is based in Lisbon, the postmark is from Odivelas, a city that is part of Lisbon's Metropolitan Area.