COVER N. 268 - AZERBAIJAN

Postmark: Azerbeijan - Baki A71000 - ?-05.2023

Posted somewhere between 14 and 19 May; Received on the 19th June 2023

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Who would have thought? How could I forget to include the country name while addressing this cover to my own self? 

The great thing is that, in spite of it all, it did find its way home, probably because on the back there is also my own full address, this time not forgetting to end it with a capitalised PORTUGAL.

My wife attended a conference in Baku and I couldn't let go the opportunity, so I prepared a couple of addressed envelopes and gave them to her, asking if she wouldn't mind, if the opportunity arrived, to pass by the Post Office and mail them.

This she kindly did, but the lady at the counter, to whom she gave the envelopes to affix the stamps and postmark them, made sure I'd not only get two quite imperfect stamps with missing corners, but she also managed to glue them juxtaposed (what is understandable because there was little available space in the envelope 😀).

My wife also told me that in spite of the sender's address being written on the back of the envelope, she asked her to write her name and address on the front of the envelope, since it seems to be mandatory... pretty unusual, If I may say so, but if those are the rules...

 

Huseyn Javid or Hüseyn Cavid in Azerbaijani, (1882-1941) was a prominent Azerbaijani Romantic poet and playwright who was also a victim of Stalin's purges, being labelled as a counterrevolutionary, in spite of him being a well known and beloved man of arts, and sent to exile in Siberia, where he would eventually die on December 5, 1941, in the village of Shevchenko, province of Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal.

As a matter of curiosity, Javid was the first Azerbaijani poet to introduce the sonnet form in Azerbaijani poetry.

On 16DEC2022, Azerpost issued a single 0,50 manat stamp, commemorative of the 140 years of the birth of the poet, illustrated with his portrait, based on a photograph that is also easily found on internet.

COVER N. 267 - CHINA

Postmark: ? - 03.06.2023

Posted on the 3rd June; Received on the 16th June 2023

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Thanks, Ruinan, for another cover with an interesting set of stamps.

Literature is an essential part of our development. 

It's main benefit is that it allows us to travel when physical means to do so aren't available as only by travelling, or should I say, discovering, can we start to realise that the world extends much further away that our own backdoor, and that the way I see it, might not be the way someone else does. 

Literature can even allow us to travel through time, without the need to invest in a DeLorean. 

Of all the things I have been grateful for throughout my life, the day my father introduced me to the joys of a public library in Faro, when I was just going to primary school, has to rank amongst the top handful. Since then I've lost count of the many, many hours of absolute pleasure I have spent indulging in the almost sacred ritual of pushing my right index over a sheet of printed paper to flip  page after page...

Heroes, villains, places, habits, thoughts, doubts, certainties, discoveries, disquiets, interrogations, solutions.. all this and a huge lot more have i found in Literature, in its many guises. 

The social importance of Literature is acknowledged in many forms all over the world, mainly though the contests as prizes awarded to writers. but to me, the most relevant proof of the attention that is given to literature lies in the work of that most times unsung hero, the Translator, for if the writer is to be blamed for the act of creation, the translator is the one that makes the writer's work travel past the boundaries of idiom, 

A good translation is a comfort to a good book, a bad one is a bed of nails....

And we now face a terrible danger, I feel, not only in the form of automated creation but also of automated translation. 

Some time ago (I think I have mentioned this before, here on the blog) I've bought a copule of Emilio Salgari's Sandokan books in a new Portuguese edition (I had  to read them. It was a personal thing that had been with me since my early teens...). and the translation sucked... I strongly suspect that AI translation was involved and that there was no human revision of the results.... cheap to produce, the more so since the original texts are already in Public Domain, but decidedly cheap in the results...

If this is a sign of things to come, it discomforts me, since I really think a good translation is almost as important as the original text in order to ensure the wok's "travelability" trough the libraries of non speakers of the original language in which it was written.

If not, how on hell would I read a Chinese novel?

The four stamps (3x1,20 + 1 x1,50 Yuan) on the cover are a stamp set issued on 17APR2023. Further to the 4 stamps, a souvenir sheet with a 6 Yuan stamp was also issued.

The stamps and sheet set are the 5th, and probably final issue on the subject "Journey to the West" in a series dedicated to Chinese Classic Literature.

"Journey to the west" or Xi Yóu Ji,  is a classic novel, written in the 16th century, in the Ming Dinnasty,  probably by Wu Cheng'en.

Quoting directly from Wikipedia, on the subject of the 100 chapter novel: "(it) is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang, who travelled to the "Western Regions" (Central Asia and India) to obtain Buddhist sūtras (sacred texts) and returned after many trials and much suffering."

COVER N. 266 - CHINA

Postmark: ? - 03.06.2023

Posted on the 3rd June; Received on the 16th June 2023

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Roses are red, and violets are blue.... so went Sandy Denny's immortal  "Old Fashion Waltz", but to my mind, roses have always been...  rosy.... Bang! This takes me back to Fairport Convention again....and to Dave Swarbrick's Rosie, the perfect soundtrack for this blog entry fuelled by one of the two Covers I received on the very same day from Ruinan in China. Thank you so much, Ruinan!

Back to roses, then.... The humble wild rose, the members of the genus Rosa, that are later declined into hundreds of cultivars....

Here's a photo of a wild rose I took in central Portugal a couple of years ago

 

I confess to have mixed feelings regarding Roses, though. If they do look nice and  sometimes smell very well indeed, some of the cultivars that are so common in urban gardens, have the most  annoying pricks there are (if you disconsider Bougainvilleas...)!

This I know from personal experience, and year after year, when the time has come to prune the shrub, I have a rather unpleasant conversation with a rose  plant that I have in my garden, which is always trying to inflict serious damages on my rather soft and delicate skin! And the worst is that,  most of the times, it is successful in its intent!

The stamps on Ruinan's cover are the four constituents of a set of 1,20 Yuan stamps issued on 20May2020, dedicated to... you've guessed it, roses. Although separated here on the cover, the stamps were issued as panes of four se-tenant, in sheets with two blocks of 4 stamps.

Left to right we have a white rose, a double petal pink rose, a single petal pink rose and a red rose (although it looks as pink as the others, to me...)

Roses are associated with love and lovers and it is no surprise to see hearts and swallows, and swans in the background of each stamp. The main image in each stamp is also encompassed by an embossed heart with little glittering dots on the embossed line. a bit kitschy to my taste, but the rose illustrations are very good.

COVER N. 265 - SERBIA

Postmark: NIS 18106 - 29.05.2023

Posted on the 29th May; Received on the 15th June 2023

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And so the list keeps growing: Welcome Serbia and Thank you very much, Slavoljub, for this very interesting cover with this and last year's Day of the Stamp commemorative issues.

I, being quite unlearned in philatelic history and peculiarities, had to go and look over the internet to try and comprehend what was behind the images in the stamps, since the Cyrillic alphabet makes it impossible for me to decipher anything in the legends. 

This of course happens also with the Latin alphabet for languages that have no close proximity with Latin idioms, but sometimes, since I generally know how the consonants and vowels interact, phonological resonance of a particular word can be a clue to its meaning. Trying to do that with the Cyrillic alphabet would first imply learning the correspondences between the two systems,...

In Portuguese we have a saying, though, that claims "Burro velho não aprende línguas"  (an old donkey will learn no idioms) and popular wisdom is time proven (hence the perennity of aphorisms)....but I'm retiring soon, and trying to learn some Slavic language might not be that bad an idea to integrate in the "things to do, now that I might have the time" folder, so who knows if this old donkey will try to break the rule in the future...

My research first led me to conclude that the stamps were issued in commemoration of Stamp day. (by the way...just to make my point,  applying my phonological resonance theory  to the  main title, which reads ДАН МАРКЕ, provided me with something as DAN MARKE, which would be consistent with "day of the mark" or Stamp Day...).

And here my first perplexity for if in Serbia Stamp day is celebrated in May, in my own country it is celebrated on the 1st December, in France in February or March, ... 

Luckily today we don't need to go to the central library to research the encyclopaedia volumes and after some Wikipedia mostly surfing, I found out that the  Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP) had established in 1937 that World Stamp Day should be commemorated on the 7th January, but that countries would have full liberty to choose another date, according to their conveniences.... I wonder is anyone celebrates Stamp Day on the 7th January...?

This first problem solved, I turned to the Post of Serbia website for information on the stamp since whenever release notes are available these help a lot.

And yes, I discovered that the 30 Dinar stamp on the right hand corner,  issued on 13MAY2022 was the Day of Stamp 2022 issue, entitled " 150 years of Serbian Philately Rarity: Milanče Tête-bêche".

The illustration on the stamp is therefore the only existing pair of  1 Serb para stamps in tête-bêche form (although adjacent, one in printed upside down in relation to the other) of the Prince Milan stamps issued between 1869 and 1880, this particular pair having been part of the 1872 issue.

As a matter of curiosity and still according to the release notes, the last time this item was auctioned, the hammer hit the table at 70,000 Swiss Francs.

The two stamps on the left corner are this year's Dan Mark issues (no, not Denmark,..Dan Mark, Day of Stamp, remember?!), but this time I could not count on the help of the release notes because the link on the site pointed to the next in line issue of the Serbian Post, that is, one dedicated  to Nicolaus Copernicus (who himself was certainly a rarity, but not of the philatelic type). 

Looking at the image on the stamp and the translation of the issue title by the Serbian Post "150 years of the first correspondence card of Serbia" I think the issue, a 48 Dinar stamp, issued on 12May 2023, commemorates the 150 years over the first prepaid, pre-stamped card of Serbia, which would have been issued somewhere in 1873.

On top of the postcard featuring a imprinted Prince Milan 10 para stamp and the coat of arms of the Principality of Serbia is also an image of what looks like one of the stamps issued in 1880/83, with an older Prince Milan (from 1882 on King Milan of Serbia), but with no indication of face value....

Postage was completed with the 4 Dinar ATM Label, also on the cover.

The Postmark indicates that the letter was mailed from Serbia's third largest city, Nis, located in the centre south of the country, midway between Bulgaria and Kosovo.

POSTCARD N.105 - NETHERLANDS

Postcard sent on the 9th June, received on the 15th June 2023

Postcard image: Stamps and Postcrossing 
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It has been a while since I posted a Postcrossing postcard here on my blog. This is mostly due to the fact that I haven't sent that many lately and also to some of the few I have sent having not reached the destination or, most likely, having not been registered by the recipients, something which is rather unpleasant for its consequences...

Luckily, some days ago I received a notification from a postcrosser that one of my postcards had been registered, and that meant I was on the circuit again, so all it took was to wait some days for Mr. Postman to drop a postcard into my letterbox.

So thanks a lot Becky, it felt good to get a postcard again!

Postcrossing needs no introduction amongst people who like to swap postcards and stamp fans. It is a simple yet safe and user friendly postcard swapping platform, and more that that, it is also a meeting place for postcard swappers and collectors, through the forum and blog associated with it.

Created in 2005 by fellow countryman Paulo Magalhães, the platform has today 804,000 + registered users and according to Wikipedia "by January 2023, 70 million registered postcards had been exchanged", what is a clear indicator of the volume of traffic generated ( and of its economic impact).

The impact of the platform is so effective that several postal services have already issued Postcrossing themed stamps. The Portuguese CTT, though,  have not yet contemplated  Postcrossing on their issue programme, what is strange, considering it all started here.... 

The stamp is part of a self-adhesive 5 stamp tariff 1 international (up to 20 g) booklet issued on 03JAN2014 themed on Dutch Icons. Other icons featured, besides the tulip, are windmills, bicycles, Dutch houses and milk cows. The milk cow stamp can be seen here.

 

 COVER N. 264 - PORTUGAL

Postmark: Vila Nova de Cerveira 4920 CTT 13.06.2023

Posted on the 13th June; Received on the 14th June 2023

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Plenty of interesting stuff, sent by Eric with a view to a "special operation" very different from what the expression lately has been disgracefully associated with.

Thanks a lot,  Eric! The wheels are moving...

Supporting this special operation is a pleasure even if  I will only act a middle man, Eric being the generous soul behind it all. Further to him, the procedures  will have to rely on the fundamental contribution of one of my daughters, whom I really need to thank  since she is not particularly into any type of collecting hobby and most time looks at her father's requests as another eccentricity of the old one,  and whom I know has a busy schedule into which she will have to fit her precious collaboration.

But there's nothing she won't do for daddy, right? 😀

On to the stamps

The theme for the EUROPA 2004 issues was "Holidays". Tourism is fundamental to the Portuguese Economy and Tourism and holidays go hand in hand so the Portuguese contribution for the Europa issues highlighted Portugal as a tourist destination. As usual three different souvenir sheets were issued, Mainland Portugal, Azores and Madeira, all of them showcasing reasons for putting Portugal on one's journey plans.

The mainland Portugal souvenir sheet that Eric used, was issued on 10MAY2004 and it comprises two 0,56 € stamps , one presenting Portugal as a cultural tourism destination with a little detail image of one of the Painéis de S. Vicente (which can be appreciated in the National Ancient Art Museum in Lisbon) and the other as a destination for those more sensitive to sun and sand, with an image evocative of the beaches of the Algarve. The legend reads Férias em Portugal or Holidays in Portugal.

On top of the souvenir sheet ERic also used  a 0,70 € stamp, part of a four stamp  (0,30; 0,43; 0,55; 070 €) and a souvenir sheet with two stamps (1 and 2 €), dedicated to Museums in Madeira. The stamp is illustrated with the painting Le Départ, by Madeiran artist Marta Theles (1930-2001), which can bee seen in Madeira's Contemporary Art Museum, located in Calheta, about half an hour drive from Funchal.

The snowboarding 0,03 € stamp is part of the five stamp definitive set issued on 31MAR2016. This was the last set of  a "Radical sports" series started in 2014.

Lastly, the 1,20 € souvenir sheet with a  stamp illustrated  with a reliquary cross from the treasure of  Lisbon cathedral, was issued on 07JUN2005, as part of an issue that also comprised another six stamps, dedicated to the Cultural Heritage of the Filipino Period (the period in which which Portugal was ruled by Spanish Monarchs - 1580 - 1640).

The very neat postmarks hail from the town of Vila Nova de Cerveira on the mouth of the Minho River, which is the natural physical border between northern Portugal and Spain.

COVER N. 263 - CANADA

Postmark: City of Toronto UC - MR 6 1834 / Canada Post Postes Canada Toronto ON Toronto's First Post Office 07.06.2023

Posted on the 7th June; Received on the 13th June 2023

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A rather interesting wild fauna related issue from a country that is undergoing right now a tremedous forest fire ordeal. 

Being a Portuguese, I cannot but feel the utmost sympathy for all the brave men and women that right now are fighting this incredibly huge disaster and I'm very happy and even proud to see that some Portuguese fire-fighters were dispatched to Canada to lend a helping hand. I'm also hoping that weather changes soon and rain comes to the help of all those that have been fighting this disgrace for so long now. The scale is so huge that Canadian smoke is set to arrive over Portugal this coming weekend...

Although otters and grebes do not live in forests, I'm sure a disaster of such proportions affects all the ecosystems one way of the other, so may the beautiful stamps on Jeff's cover be a reminder of the huge task we still have ahead if we want to make sure that Earth will still be an habitable place in a not so far future....

Thanks a lot for the very nice cover, Jeff! 

Earth's day is in itself a way of raising awareness, of reminding, of calling on the attention of us all to the effects of our greed, negligence, stupidity in what concerns our relation with the planet we live in and with its non human occupants. It first was celebrated in 1970... that's 53 years ago... and the obvious, disturbing fact is that in this half century we have  managed to cause seas to dry, glaciers to evaporate, species to become extinct,... yes, there is another side to the coin, as always. Smallpox was eradicated, extreme poverty has declined from 44% of the population in 1981 to 10.7% in 2013;  endangered species were protected and so on and so forth, but population has risen to a staggering 8 billion and just feeding all this people is a gargantuan challenge...

Celebrating Earth, sustainability and biodiversity is more than ever a priority, as all actions taken to this end will keep the flame alive and at least shake our conscience, make us feel uncomfortable, but there is no escaping the fact that if  the questions that  directly impact on us Humans, like access to housing, water, food, income, healthcare, education,  aren't properly and thoroughly addressed, then sustainability and  biodiversity will barely be more than a debating theme  for  the lucky ones who chanced to have been born to a household where all it takes is to turn the tap to see water flowing, for the others, the majority, will still have more pressing needs to cater for... 

The beautiful Domestic Permanent stamps chosen by Canada Post to honour Earth's Day 2023, issued on 18ABP2023, were conceived as embroidered works of art resulting from the creative minds of designer Meredith MacKinlay, and embroider Caroline Brown.  The two images thus created, besides honouring Earth's day also resonate to the fundamental bonds between mothers and their babies, celebrated by Mother's day.

The species chosen were the sea otter (Enhydra lutry) and the red-necked grebe (Podiceps grisegena), highlighting the role mother otters and grebe play in raising their offspring.

A rather interesting short video featuring one of the stamp authoresses can be watched here. 

On the lower left corner of the envelope there is also another recently issued (23MAy2023) Domestic Permanent stamp, commemorative of the 150th anniversary of the famous Roayal Canadian Mounted Police, instituted as the North-West Mounted Police by an Act of the Canadian Parliament on May 23, 1873.

COVER N. 262 - FRANCE

Postmark: 58 - Corbigny - Nièvre  08.06.2023

Posted on the 8th June; Received on the 13th June 2023

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My first EUROPA cover of the year (besides the one I sent to myself, that is). Thank you so much Jean-Pierre.

As much as a common theme for a stamp issue for all the 54 members of PostEurope  (they used to be 56, but Russia and Belarus memberships are for the moment suspended, due to obvious reasons), this year's choice is a strong political statement, and an implicit condemnation of Russia's outrageous aggression against one of its European neighbours.  

In fact, "Peace, The highest value of Humanity", a theme that PostEurope members  agreed on following a proposal from Ukrposhta,  is such a  self-explanatory slogan, that I don't feel anything more needs to be said regarding its significance .

The main motif in the stamps that is used in all issues, irrespective of country or territory of issuance, was chosen though a contest organised by PostEurope amongst its members. 

The winning proposal was presented by POST Luxembourg  and was authored by  Linda Bos and Runa Egilsdottir from "A Designer's Collective".

Quoting from PostEurope Press release:

"The world needs a new Peace symbol, uniting all nations. Cultural differences perchance a barrier for a state of Peace. If only mankind could respect each other's differences by understanding their significance and responding to them with consideration, the world would be a better place. This design shows a visual metaphor for a peacefully integrated, cooperative society in which people embrace each other’s culture. It was inspired by the Celtic Love Knot symbol, with interlocking hearts. The colour palette illustrates all the nations in the world. By adding hands with intertwined fingers, it conveys the message of mutual respect.

A a personal note I should mention the fact that I do think La Poste did the right thing when issuing a single stamp and resisting the temptation to cash in this particular issue, quite unlike our own CTT who further to the usual stamps for mainland Portugal, Madeira and Azores, issued 3 souvenir sheets with single stamps with a face value that is practically unusable, but is almost three times the price of the common theme stamp....

The Postmark hails from Corbigny, a town of about 1600 inhabitants in the Nièvre department of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region.

COVER N. 261 - NEW ZEALAND

Postmark: Carried by NZ Post - 4(?).05.2023

Posted on the 4th(?) May; Received on the 12th June 2023

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It has been a while since I got a cover from elsewhere in my mailbox, but today, my friend Mr. Postman finally delivered something more interesting than the water bill (which I haven't managed yet to receive in electronic format), or a complimentary note from the Fiscal authorities, inviting me to contribute to the cause.... 

I also suspect that mail delivery is getting a bit retarded... we've had some holidays around here, and these might have impacted...

The cover I got today was sent by a fellow collector whom I contacted since I knew he would be interested in a commemorative postmark issued by our postal service. Well, the postmark was issued on the 30th may and I still haven't received my cover, so his, which will be sent to quite a distant destination, will take a good handful of days to reach him, I'm sure...

Stamps. left to right:

- Elizabeth II, the most famous monarch of them all, but for the homonymous butterfly, and in her lifetime, the most proliferous Head of State, due to that very British imperial political construction, the Realms of the Commonwealth.

Also during her lifetime, and even if we do not consider the mandatory effigy in all British stamps, Her Majesty the Queen was profusely portrayed in many stamps celebrating such occasions as her birthday, the anniversary of her marriage, her coronation, the several anniversaries associated with it, and so on  and so forth.

Elizabeth II was a monarch that somehow was almost taken for granted... perpetual... everlasting, no matter what crisis shook the foundations of the Monarchy she led (and there were quite a few....) but time is merciless, and  just as it brings swallows and spring, there is no escaping winter, and albeit somewhat unexpectedly, Queen Elizabeth II passed away in 2022, at the rather respectful age of 96.

In 2021, she commemorated her 95th birthday and the fact was once again marked by several commemorative stamp issues, by several Postal Administrations, New Zealand Post being one of them. 

NZ Post issued on 07APR2021 a souvenir sheet comprising four stamps (1.40; 2.70; 3.50; 4.00 NZD), illustrated with photos of the Monarch in various phases of her lifetime, the 1.40 stamp on the cover showing a rather young Elizabeth, with a frank youthful smile on her face.

- Avatar was a blockbuster. and I haven't seen it. Directed by James Cameron of Titanic fame, it cost in excess of 300 million USD to produce but on the first weekend of exhibition it boxed in 232 million USD ... 

I am not particularly keen on movie stamps even if I understand their sellability. This fact notwithstanding I concede that it is rather more justifiable to have New Zealand, where  many of the scenes of the film were shot, issue stamps related to it, than any other country. (To mind comes last year's Portuguese issue of Lord of the Rings stamps, which to me makes as much sense as ...- please fill in the blanks with your preferred absurdity).

On 01MAR2023, New Zealand Post issued a set of 6 stamps (2 x 1.70; 3; 3.80 ; 4.30; 4.50 NZD) also issued in six individual souvenir sheets, themed on Avatar, the movie. 

One of the lesser value stamps can be seen on my cover.

- And the third stamp on the cover brings us full circle to the British monarchy once again, since it celebrates the coronation of Elizabeth's elder child as King Charles III.

On 03MAY2023, three days before the date of his coronation, NZ Post issued a four stamp set, also issued in souvenir sheet format, (1.70; 3,00, 3.80, 4.30 NZD), featuring several images of King Charles.  This set would be complemented by a souvenir sheet issued on 08MAY2023, celebrating the coronation, comprising six stamps with images of the ceremony. Given that the ceremony had taken place just two days before, they must have run the rotary printer to red hot status.... 

The postmark is rather smudged, and I can see no indication of place of posting in it.

COVER N. 260 - FRANCE

Postmark: 96º Congrès de la Fédération Française des Association Philatéliques 71 Chalon-sur-Saône - 1er Jour -  26.05.2023
Posted on the 26th May; Received on the 5th June 2023

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For some reason "Eric" seems to be a rather recurrent name here on this blog of mine..., in fact, anyone visiting these posts will have already noticed that there is no shortage of  "Thank you Eric" messages in several of the blog's entries.

I should note, however, that this is a case not of double or plural personality, but of my being lucky to have been counting on the continuous and generous support of multiple "Erics", ever since I started this pages. 

For the sake of privacy, I never mention the family name of the friends with whom I exchange correspondence, but I'm sure that when I say "Thank you Eric" he, to whom the message is addressed, knows it.

Both have more than the name in common, in fact: the covers I get from my Eric friends are always immensely interesting, and the one I got today just goes to clearly prove it. 

So, let me just repeat myself..... Thank you, Eric! It is always a great pleasure when a totally unexpected cover pops up inside my letterbox.

The Fédération Française des Associations Philatéliques (French Federation of the Philatelic Associations) was established on the 5th of June 1922, in Paris, then adopting the name of Fédération des Sociétés Philatéliques Françaises (Federation of the French Philatelic Societies).

Quoting directly (but for the translation) from its site:

The FFAP aims at federating the associations of philatelists and collectors, ensuring their connection with their partners, and managing associative philately.

The FFAP federates almost 600 philatelic associations organised into 20 regional groupings and a specialised philatelic associations grouping (the GAPS), for a total of approximately 25.000 members.

The FFAP federates:

- Local generalist associations mostly organised trough geographical affinity, or, occasionally, by professional affinities. These associations are in turn organised into Regional Groupings.

- National associations specialised by collection type, organised into a grouping of specialised associations, the GAPS.

A full centennial of activity promoting philately is of course matter to be celebrated and on the occasion of the 96th Congress of the FFAP, that took place at Chalon-sur-Saône between 26 and 29 May, La poste issued the two commemorative items and postmark that can be seen on the cover that Eric so kindly sent me.

The 1,16 stamp, issued on 26MAY2023, is dedicated to the town where the congress took place,  Chalon-sur-Saône, and is illustrated with a view of  a couple of buildings at the river front, of note being the fact that the building closer to the viewer is occupied in the corner by the town's tourist information office (you can run, but you cannot hide with Goggle maps, nowadays... 😀).

 The other image on the stamp is that of the statue of  Chalon-sur-Saône's most famous son - Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765 – 1833), the man that paved the way for us to keep forever enduring memories of people, places and events, by devising the first permanent photographic process, which he named heliography, given that the light from the sun was used to ensure the exposure of the photo sensitive surface coated with bitumen of judea diluted with lavender oil.

The in-taglio printed stamp is accompanied by a se-tenant vignette with the effigy of another of the region’s illustrious personalities, Marguerite Boucicaut (1816-1887), born in Verjux, just some 13 km as the crow flies from Chalon-sur-Saône.

 Mme. Boucicaut was a rather wealthy person who devoted a good deal of her fortune to philanthropic actions  throughout France in general and her birthplace in particular, having left in her will instructions for the financing of the construction of a town hall,  a school and an asylum for the destitute at Verjux and of a institution for the supporting mothers in need, in Chalon-sur-Saône. (source: the stamp release notes in Philinfo).

The Congress was also the moment for la Poste issuing a new LISA (Libre-service d'affranchissement.) stamp, this time devoted to the 35th Montgolfiades at Chalon-sur-Saône, which will take place in the coming weekend of 23-25 June and which will, no doubt, be a jolly good occasion  for putting to great use the legacy of Nicephore Nièpce!

The commemorative postmark replicates Chalon-sur-Saône Coat-of-arms. 

COVER N. 259 - BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (Pošte Srpske)

Postmark: Banja Luka 78112 19.05.2023

Posted on the 19th May; Received on the 30th May 2023
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"Não há fome que não dê em fartura! " There is no hunger that will not turn into abundance! 

So reads an old Portuguese adaggio, which I'm reasonably sure must not have been used many times, if any, in connection with philatelic covers, but I couldn't help  uttering  it when I opened up my letterbox just a couple of days after receiving my first cover from Bosnia Herzegovina from Eric, for a second one was lying there, waiting to be picked up and opened, sent by.... you've guessed, "The ghost that walks"...

Again, Thank you so much, Alex.

As I've mentioned on my notes about Eric's cover, Bosnia and Herzegovina have quite a complex... everything.  And the Postal Service does not escape the norm, so instead of one operator there are three. 

This time, the cover I received came through  Pošte Srpske, the Postal Services operator for  Republika Srpska, one of the three constituent parts of the State.

Stamps left to right

- 0,75 Convertible Markstamp, part of a set of three issued on 17JUL2014, dedicated to wooden churches. The church depicted is that of  a Church dedicated to the translation of the relics of St. Nicholas in Jelićka, which was classified as "National Monument" by the State Commission for the Preservation of  National Monuments.

- The two dog stamps are part of a nine stamp definitive set issued on 27OCT2022 (=,10; 0,20; 0,60; 1,0; 1,10; 2,0; 3,30; 7,0; 10,0 Convertible Mark) themed on dog races. 

I'm no dog expert so I cannot name the races, but as far as I could understand the 0,10 dog (a Labrador retriever?) is named Uardi and the one on the 0,20, Rea.

- 0,90 CM stamp, part of a set of four (0,90; 1,0; 1,5; 2,0 CM) dedicated to cities of the Republika Srpska, issued on 20SEP2021. This particular stamp is dedicated to the city of  Trebinje.. The images on the stamp are a lilac photo of  Trebinje's old town, with the sillouete of  Gracanica Church in the back and an image of the Monument to Jovan Dučić (1871 - 1943) a Serb poet and diplomat born in Trebinje, in the foreground.

The postmark indicates the letter was sent from Republika Srpska's capital, and the second largest city of Bosnia Herzegovina: Banja Luka.

 COVER N. 258 - UKRAINE

Postmark: Odessa Ukraine 04.05.2023

Posted on the 4th May; Received on the 25th May 2023
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Another unexpected cover from Alex, the wanderer. I have received so many covers from Alex, from so many different places that whenever I get a new one I can't help but think of Lee Falks' famous character, the Phantom, "the ghost who walks", since he seems to be all over the place at the same time 😀.

Vielen Dank, Alex!

Odessa, the beautiful Ukrainian  port city in the Black Sea, whose historic centre as of January this year has been declared both  a World Heritage Site and an Endangered World Heritage Site all at the same time, due to the effective danger that it faces as a result of the Russian aggression that is now on its second year and with no prospects of coming to an end in the near future....

How much longer will Ukraine have to withstand the senseless and unprovoked aggression of its neighbour...? and then, because all wars come to an end, mainly after the weight of the dead begins to be felt past the point of critical mass, (or critical mess, really...), how will the wounds heal, if ever...? Russian leaders  have condemned  several forthcoming generations to endemic hatred... quite an achievement albeit not one to be particularly proud of...

The pre-stamped printed envelope needs no explanation other than the legend it carries under the image of an Ukrainian soldier hand that clasps the shoulder of someone who in spite of having his back turned on us, we all know who he is...."Welcome to hell", so reads the legend.

- The pre-printed U tariff (domestic up to 50g) stamp  is illustrated with the Trident, the National Symbol of Ukraine, exhibiting the colours of the Country's flag.

The other stamps, left to right:

- U + 8  hryvnia stamp, part of a six common denomination stamp sheet, issued on 14OCT2022, under the motto "Glory to the Armed Forces of Ukraine". The stamp is illustrated with  a member of Ukraine's Navy and the image of the Vorontsov lighthouse, what makes  great sense in this particular cover since it is located in the city where the cover was mailed from: Odessa.

- U + 3  hryvnia stamp, part of a six common denomination stamp sheet, issued on 06DEC2022, dedicated to the "Weapons of Victory". On the stamp an image of  a Neptune anti-ship missile launcher. The Neptune made the news for having been the missile that sank the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the  cruiser Moskva. Again, the choice of stamp is not hazardous because the Neptune missiles that sank the Moskva were shot from the Odessa region.

- On the 8th October 2022, the bridge that Russia built, connecting its territory to occupied Crimea, made the news because it was sabotaged, severely impairing its ability to carry both auto and train traffic.

Ukrapost issued a stamp celebrating this fact, demanding an "Encore for the Crimea Bridge". The M tariff stamp is illustrated with an image of the collapsed bridge, whereupon a couple looks into the horizon, mimicking DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in "Titanic".

The small H tariff stamps are examples of the definitive stamp issued on 21JAN22 as part of the Coats of Arms series. It depicts the coat of arms of the city of Bohodukhiv, in the Kharkiv Oblast.

The stamp on the back of the cover is  part of a set of two definitives issued on 27SEP22, and is illustrated with an egg painted with a motif typical of the Vinnytsia region. Its companion Stamp can be seen here.

There's no shortage of postmarks on the cover. Other than the regular postamrk that reads Odessa 1 - Ukrposhta, it contains two nice pictorial postmarks:

 

image Credits: Ukrposhta