COVER N. 364 - POLAND

Postmark: Miasto Smoka (City of the Dragon) Orneta 09.11.2023

Posted on the 9th November; received on the 21st November 2023

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Puff, the magic dragon, meets Dino on this Polish cover, courtesy of Roman, whom I thank, as usual. Bardzo dziękuję, Roman!

Orneta is a town in northern Poland and the fact that its coat of arms is occupied by a flame thrower, can be traced to the a legend according to which, in ancient, ancient times, there lived a Dragon  in Orneta who would eat all living creatures he could set its eyes upon.

Eventually, the mean creature would be defeated by a brave knight, but its spirit would live on forever in the city's coat of arms, which can be seen on the beautiful pictorial postmark with which the stamps on the cover were cancelled.

On to the stamps:

It all seems so long time gone now and yet...

Just last weekend, one of my daughters phoned saying she was not feeling that well and that she probably had a cold... given that she was to be visit her grandparents I told her "you'd better do an auto-test, just in case".... Bang on... two stripes on  the tester window.

Now just three years ago this would be the sort of news we were all trying to avoid.... 

Today,  in spite of all the usual theory of conspiracy advocates that did and still do their best to negate science, massive vaccination has completely changed the way we deal with the virus, with no more mandatory confinements and the ability to live our lives as normally as we used to before the crisis erupted.

In some countries, Postal administrations were also in the front line trying to raise awareness to the vaccination effort, such as it happened in Poland and in Portugal also.

On 15JUL2021, Poczta Polska issued the 4.7 Zloty with the legend Ostatnia Prosta  #szczepimysie, which I believe translates into "The final stretch - #wevaccinate".

Well done..., says I, who have already gotten my yearly shot, last October.

Dinosaurs... every now and then the craze surfaces, triggered by a movie, a scientific finding, or a toy, as it was the case in the 90s with "Jurassic Park", or an exhibition here at the natural history museum at around the same time which was, at the time, the most visited exhibition in Portugal, ever....

On 25NOV2020, Polska Post issued a three stamp set themed on the prehistoric creatures, illustrated with side images of a particular member of  the order and of its skeleton.

The 3.30 Zloty stamp on the cover is dedicated to the Coelophysis, a small biped carnivore dinosaur that lived  215 to 208.5 million years ago in the territory of what is now the United States of America.