COVER N. 569 - ERITREA

Postmark: Asmara 24.02.205

Posted on the 24th February; Received on the 8th April 2025

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You don't expect to receive a letter from Eritrea often.... not unless you are friends with the Ghost Who Walks, the elusive Phantom, whom gossip has it that he was seen recently in Asmara.....

Danke sehr, Alex. And double thanks for letting me add another country to my list!

Eritrea became independent in 1993 and has never had legislative elections ever since, what says a lot about the type of political regime that rules it.

A former Italian, then British colony and later annexed by Ethiopia, Eritrea, located in the horn of Africa and having for neighbours Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti, it is also one of the poorest countries in the world, occupying position 175 in the raking of  the Human Development Index, which numbers 193 countries (2022 data).

The Phantom used a single stamp souvenir sheet with a face value of 10 Eritrean nakfa, issued on 29DEC1997.

This stamp is part of a large issue comprising two 9 x 3 nafka mini-sheets plus 2 x 10 nafka souvenir sheets, dedicated to "Great underwater marine life".

The stamp on the cover bears the image of a Powderblue Surgeonfish (Acanthurus leucosternon), an Indian ocean dweller of the Acanthuridae family.