COVER N. 609 - DENMARK - GREENLAND
Postmark: 8913 taSIILAQ 5 08.07.2025
Posted on the 8th July; Received on the 17th July 2025
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After a somewhat tribulated and unfortunately shortened summer road trip to the Baltic States, which will have to be completed sometime in the future since I do not like to leave matters unfinished :-) I returned to my usual desk, only to find that my scanner/printer is in need of rest also, so I had to send it to be serviced...
I'll try to make do with phone pictures of the covers, which I will replace for scans at a later stage. And so let's get on with it, since I have decent stash of covers that await their turn....
The first one is again one of Roland's marvellous and very generous sendings, from scientific missions of the Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Artique, this time from Greenland, where GREA has been studying the lemming populations, on what must be now the 38th expedition to the site.
Un grand Merci, Roland!
According to its website the Karupplev Valley Project is a long term German-French scientific project, running under the auspices of the University of Freiburg and the Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Artique, initiated in 1988, with the aim of providing new insights into the processes that govern cyclic fluctuations of lemming populations in high-arctic ecosystems.
Inside the cover I could find a report for the 37th expedition, of the summer 2024, which makes for quite interesting reading... and had that strange effect of making me sad for not being a scientist on a mission to Greenland... :-)
Incidentaly, Roland had already sent me another cover from the same project, a couple of years ago.
As for the stamps,
The 4 Krone stamp is part of a two stamp set issued on 31JAN2025, dedicated to plants of Greenland (4; 19 krone). It features a painting of a Dwarf fireweed (Chamerion latifolium), a member of the Onagraceae family, which the stamp release notes inform us is apt for human consumption, since the leaves, shoots, flower and fruit are edible and particularly good in salads.
- As far as I understand, from 1927 to 1967 Greenlanders had access to a savings scheme that entailed the acquisition of coupons (stamps) to be collected on a savings book that once completed could be redeemed. The System would later include a school savings programme that run from 1957 to 1976.
As a matter of curiosity, I have a faint, (very) idea that there was one such programme here in Portugal too, but I'm cannot confirm this now, at all.
Tusass Greenland has been issuing on a yearly basis stamps set with reproductions of these savings stamps.
The 23 Krone stamp was issued on 27FEV2023 as part of a set that comprised another 5 Krone stamp, illustrated with reproductions of 1957 School savings stamps.
- The 1.10 Krone stamp was issued on 01MAY1979 and is dedicated to Greenland's Home Rule, dated of the same year which transformed the hitherto Danish colony into an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm.
The envelope features on the top left corner the cachet of the Karuplev Valley project, the cachet of the 2025 expedition being placed under it.
The flying grouse (?) is probably GREA's logo, but I am not sure of that.