My National Covers

Every now and then I have the opportunity to add what I call a "National Cover" to my collection.

These are nothing fancy. In fact they are but covers that I print  at home with the flag and coat of arms of a specific country and which I then either send to a fellow collector who is willing to help or give to friends or family or take my own self whenever travelling abroad, in the hope that these might find a way to a local post office to get a stamp and a postmark.

I will be adding these to a new "My National Covers" section in this blog.

If you don't see your country here and are willing to help me add your own country's national cover to my collection, please email me at pnsoares1@gmail.com. 

You'll get a cover from Portugal (if you want I'll be happy to print a Portuguese National Cover just like the ones I print for myself, although in a somewhat larger envelope) and a printed envelope with the relevant symbols printed, so that you can then return it to me.

Thanks a lot.

Note: Whenever possible I will try to transcribe the flag and coat of arms information from the relevant national site. Failing that I'll transcribe from Wikipedia.

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 Republic of Slovenia / Republika Slovenija

The Flag

The flag of Slovenia is the white–blue–red Slovene national flag bearing the coat of arms of Slovenia. The ratio between the width and length of the flag is one to two. 

The colours of the flag are, in the following order, white, blue and red. Each colour occupies a horizontal band covering one third of the flag. The coat of arms is positioned in the upper left canton of the flag such that it is positioned with one half in the white band and the other half in the blue band.

Source: National symbols | GOV.SI

There are two sources for the white-blue-red colours of the Slovenian national flag. For its national ethnic banner Slovenia had adopted a copy of the Russian flag, to show solidarity with fellow Slavic peoples, at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Even earlier, however, the Holy Roman emperor had granted a coat of arms to the “Crown Land of Carniola,” which was then a part of the empire. This coat of arms featured a white shield bearing a blue eagle with a red-and-white checkered crescent on its breast.

Source: Flag of Slovenia | Meaning, Colors & Design | Britannica

The Coat of Arms

The coat of arms of Slovenia is in the form of a shield. The centre of the shield depicts Mount Triglav, as an emblem in white colour on a blue background, with two wavy lines below it symbolising the sea and rivers and three golden six-point stars arranged above it in the shape of a point-down triangle. The shield features a red border on two of its sides. The coat of arms is designed in accordance with a set standard of geometry and colour.

Source: National symbols | GOV.SI

The coat of arms of Slovenia is an emblem[1] that consists of a red bordered blue shield on which there is a stylised white Mount Triglav, under which there are two wavy lines representing the sea and the rivers of the country. Above Mount Triglav, there are three golden six-pointed stars representing the Counts of Celje.[2] It was designed in 1991 by Marko Pogačnik and adopted on 24 June 1991.

Source: Coat of arms of Slovenia - Wikipedia

The Stamp

The stamp on the cover is part of Slovenia's 2025 EUROPA issue on the common theme of  Archeological Discoveries, comprising two stamps (1,79 and 2,06 €) issued on 09MAY2025.

It depicts a Centaur archer brooch.

Round brooches made of plated bronze over an iron core are relatively common finds in Slav cemeteries from the eighth and ninth centuries in Slovenia's Gorenjska region. Notable among them, for the quality of workmanship and, above all, for the depiction of a centaur archer, is this brooch from the Brda cemetery near Bled.

In stylistic terms it belongs to Carolingian art, which drew on illuminated manuscripts. Most comparable artefacts are from sites in the Upper Danube basin and the Rhineland. The figure of the centaur archer developed in Babylonian art before 1000 BC as a symbol of the zodiac sign Sagittarius. It entered Roman and medieval astrological depictions of Sagittarius via Egypt and was later adopted in Christianity.

We will probably never know exactly how this brooch ended up in a Slav grave in the Brda cemetery near Bled. It may have been made by a Christian who based the design on an illustration from an illuminated manuscript. On the other hand, the Slavs, who were pagans when they settled this area in the sixth century and whose Christianisation under the Carolingians had only just begun in the eighth century, probably did not see this design as a Christian symbol but as a pagan one. The centaur archer may have reminded them of Perun the Thunderer, the supreme god of the Slavs, who could also be depicted as a horseman with a thunderbolt or bow in his hand.

Source: Poštna znamka

 

The Postmark

The Postmark was issued at Ljubljana, the country's capital. 

My thanks to my wife who kindly went through the trouble of  including a visit to the Post Office during her busy work stay in Ljubljana.