COVER N. 638 - FRANCE

Postmark: Vendée Globe TAAF - District de Kerguelen 1er Jour 07.11.2024 

Posted on the 11th November 2024; Received on the 29th September 2025

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Totally unexpected and for that even more appreciated, a cover from the frozen south with a truly outstandingly beautiful stamp lands in my letterbox.

Un énorme Merci, Jean-Pierre!

The Vendée Globe yacht race is not for the faint of heart, nor for the inexperienced; in fact, the solo round the world unassisted race, that takes place every 4 years following the course of the ancient clippers in the southern seas, has got to be the most demanding single handed yacht race in existence.

And if all the circuit is downright tough to handle, the segment between the 40 and 50 degrees south, beginning after the Kerguelen Islands where the roaring forties and the furious fifties blow, must be where the fun really begins, and it will last for quite a long time, for the sailors will only come out of it on their way back after re-entering the Atlantic passing alongside Cape Horn.

Entering this segment is what I believe is called passing through La Porte des Glaces, the theme for the amazingly beautiful 2,58€ stamp, issued on 07NOV2024, on the occasion of the start of the 2024-25 race, that took place at the bay of les Sables d’Ollone on the, 10th November.

The illustration in the stamp, done in France’s national colours, shows one of the outlandish sailboats that take part in the race passing in front of a rock formation that is known as the Kerguelen arch, though today only the pillars of the arch subsist, since the arched part itself collapsed in the beginning of the 20th century.

The stamp carries the Vendée Globe logo on the lower left corner and the legend Vendée Globe La Porte des Glaces.

On the upper right corner, above the face value indication, the stamp carries the issuing place – District de Kerguelen - within the scope of the Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises, as indicated in the upper frame.

As usual with covers from the TAAF, a stamped small rectangle indicates the coordinates of the posting place, in this case Port aux Français, the permanent scientific base that France keeps in the Kuergelen Islands.

The First day postmark shows the same vessel of the stamp navigating against the wind, barely touching the surface of the sea, just like in the illustration of the stamp. 

  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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 Grand Duchy of Luxembourg / Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg

The Flag

The first known flag was carried by Count William of Luxembourg in 1123. It was barred, i.e. horizontally striped, probably yellow and red.

The current Luxembourg flag is made u of three horizontal bands of red white and sky blue

In order to tell the Luxembourg and Dutch flags apart, a pragmatic solution was adopted: the Dutch blue is ultramarine and the Grand Duchy's blue is sky blue (Pantone colour code 299C).

Source: National symbols - Luxembourg

The coat of arms of Luxembourg, modified many times, was devised in the years between 1235 and 1239 by Henri V, count of Luxembourg.

The now official version contains the following essential elements: barruly of argent and azure in ten parts and a lion rampant gules, crowned, armed and langued in gold with a forked tail crossed in saltire

There are three grades of the Grand Duchy's coat of arms: the small, the medium and the great coat of arms 8 [the latter being the one printed on the cover]

Source: National symbols - Luxembourg

The Stamp

The tariff E 50g stamp on the cover is part of the 2022 Europa (C.E.P.T.) common issue themed on  “Stories and Myths”. The full set comprised 2 stamps (L 50g + E 50g) and was issued on 17MAY2022.

The stamp on the cover is inspired in the tale of Melusina, who, legend has it, was the wife of count Siegfried, who, in 963, established the country with the acquisition of the “Bockfiels” (Bock promontory).

The good count fell in love with the beautiful young woman he came upon one day while hunting in some cliffs  and he proposed to marry her. She accepted on  condition that she would never have to leave the cliffs where he had found her and also that he could not go see her on Saturdays. 

To make it possible to abide by her sweetheart's wishes, the count acquired the promontory -  and there he ordered a castle to be built, named Lucilinburhu, (you get the connection, right? )

There they lived in perfect harmony, so much so that Melusina gave birth to seven children.

One Saturday, though, the count could not resist curiosity any longer and decided to take a peep into the keyhole of his wife's chambers and saw her coming out of her bath, only to discover that she had a fishtail (for she, of course, was a mermaid).

When Melusina realised her husband and broken her promise, the earth literally fell from her ... tail.. and she was engulfed by the cliffs, never to be seen again.

The legend says that Melousina appears on the cliffs every seven years waiting to be saved by someone, but so far no one managed to do it....

The Postmark

I personally posted this envelope in Luxembourg city. I asked the lady at the Post Office counter to manually postmark the stamp, but she answered me it was not possible to do so and that I should drop the letter into de letterbox on the outside in order for it to be processed, and that's what I did...

The mechanical postmark contains a vignette dedicated to The International Confederation of Childhood Cancer Parent Organisations (ICCCPO), with the slogan "Een häerz fir kribskrank kanner" (A heart for cancer patients) and the URL for  the Luxembourg Associate  of ICCCPO, Fondatioun Kriibskrank Kanner: https://www.kriibskrankkanner.lu.

 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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 República Italiana / Repubblica Italiana

The Flag

The tricolour became Italy’s national flag in Reggio Emilia on January 7th 1797, when the Cispadane Republic, at the proposal of Deputy Giuseppe Compagnoni, decreed “that the Cispadane Standard or Flag of Three Colours, Green, White and Red shall become universal and that these three Colours also be used in the Cispadane cockade, which must be worn by everybody”. But why precisely these three colours? In the Italy of 1796, which was swept by the victorious Napoleonic army, almost all the numerous Jacobin-inspired republics that had supplanted the old absolute States had adopted flags featuring three bands of equal dimensions and of varying colours, which were clearly inspired by the French model of 1790.

Also the “Italian” military divisions, which were established at the time to support the Napoleonic army, had standards fashioned in the same vogue. More specifically, the regimental banners of the Lombard Legion were coloured white, red and green, three colours that were deeply rooted in the Region’s collective heritage: the white and the red were taken from the age-old municipal coat of arms of the city of Milan (a red cross on a white field) while the green was taken from the uniforms of Milan’s Civic Guards, which had been green as of 1782. The same colours were later adopted for the standards of the Italian Legion, which grouped together the troops of the regions of Emilia and Romagna, which was probably the reason that spurred the Cispadane Republic to confirm them as the colours of its own flag. At the heart of the white fess, the emblem of the Republic, a quiver containing four arrows, surrounded by a garland of laurel decorated with a trophy of arms.

...

The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed on 17 March, 1861, and its flag continued to be the one that was customary prior to the war of independence. However, the lack of an ad hoc law on the national flag, which instead only concerned military banners, led to the development of several variants, which were often arbitrary.

It was not until 1925 that the models of the national and State flags were prescribed by law. In the State flag, which was to be used in the residences of the sovereigns, the seats of Parliament, and in institutional offices and diplomatic missions, the coat of arms was defaced with the royal crown.

After the birth of the Republic, a presidential legislative decree of 19 June 1946 provisionally established the new flag, which was later confirmed by the Constituent Assembly in its session of 24 March 1947 and incorporated into Article 12 of the Constitutional Charter. The normally arid wording of the session’s minutes reveals all the emotion of that moment: “PRESIDENT [Ruini] – I put to the vote the new formula proposed by the Commission: The flag of the Republic is the Italian tricolour: green, white and red, in vertical bands of equal dimensions”. (The proposal is approved. The Assembly and the public in the gallery rise to their feet. A loud, prolonged applause echoed in unison).

Source: Italian Tricolour Flag

The Emblem

The emblem of the Italian Republic is characterised by three elements: the star, the cog-wheel, and olive and oak branches.

The olive branch symbolises the nation’s will for peace, embracing both internal concord and international brotherhood.

The oak branch that rims the right-hand-side of the emblem embodies the strength and the dignity of the Italian people. Moreover, both plants are among the most typical of Italy’s forest species.

The steel cog-wheel symbolises work and represents the first article of the Constitutional Charter: “Italy is a Democratic Republic, founded on work”.

The star is one of the most ancient emblems of Italian iconography and it has always been associated with the personification of Italy, crowning its head with its bright shine. This was how it was represented in the iconography of the Risorgimento and in the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Italy (the so-called “big star”). The star later characterised the first republican decoration during the reconstruction: the Star of Italian Solidarity, a decoration awarded to Italian military expatriates who made an outstanding contribution to the reconstruction of Italy after World War II.

Source: The emblem

The Stamp

Queen Elizabeth II (1926 – 2022) ruled the United Kingdom for almost 71 years, what makes of her the longest reigning queen in history.

One year past her death, on 12SEP2023, Poste Italiane honoured her memory with a single "B 1" tariff  (up to 50g Europe and Mediterranean bassin) stamp, which is quite illustrative of her long reign through a  clever and quite distinctive use of her effigy, under which her royal seal is also included. 

The Postmark

Unfortunately, the cover was not hand delivered at the Post Office but rather deposited in one of Poste Italiane's letterboxes. Later it was fed through a cancelling machine, but something went wrong and  the main part of the  cancel fell off the envelope, with its waves falling on the left side of the cover....

I thank my dear wife for having found the time to go through the trouble of getting the stamp and looking for a letterbox to send the cover, amidst her very tight working schedule.

As to the stamp, a foreign monarch is is not  a particularly adequate theme for a stamp meant to be used on a "National Cover" but I am sure my wife did her best and  insofar as it is an Italian stamp, all goes well that ends well. ;-)

COVERS N. 636/7 - NORWAY

Postmark: Lillehammer Maihaugen 13.09.2025 

Posted on the 13th September; Received on the 25th September 2025

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Two almost identical covers from Norway with the return of two of my first circuits. I think I have to apologise for having closed two circuits with the same fellow collector. I must have misread my notes. Anyway, I'm sorry, but I am also very thankful to Egil both for his covers and for all the nice stamps he enclosed in the circuit letters.

 

Marine life is a theme that has been chosen a few times by the postal services provider of Norway (Posten, nowadays) for some of its stamp series and understandably so in a country where the sea and sea related economy play an important part.

Starting in 2004, an annual series that would run up to 2007 was initiated, the  stamps being illustrated with photographs of local maritime fauna. 

On the covers we have examples from two of these annual issues. 

As such, the Aesop Shrimp (Pandalus montagui) and the Edible Brown Crab (Cancer pagurus), were issued on 221SEP2007, as part of a 4 Tariff A (Domestic) self-adhesive stamp set (incidentally, an 11 Krone stamp in the series was also issued in the same year, on 02MAY2007).

The Cuckoo Wrasse (Labrus bimaculatus), on the other hand, was issued on 29MAR2006, as part of that year's 3 stamp set of the series.

As stated above all of the three species featured in the stamps can be found in the seas of Norway.

 

The beautiful and very clear pictorial postmark was applied at Maihaugne, an open air museum in the city of Lillehammer,  which includes several hundred historical buildings in its collection, preserving the culture and traditions of Norway.

POSTCARD N.188 - CYPRUS

Postcard sent on the 3rd September; received on the 9th September 2025.

Postcard image: Images from a Cyprus village

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Michal was in Cyprus on holidays and he kindly sent me a postcard with images from Cyprus, with a decidedly Mediterranean look. Moc děkuji, Michal.

Not much to say about the images on the postcards, apart from noting their Mediterranean aura... in fact I would not question it if the legend in the postcard would read South of Spain, or Portugal, or Malta...

The only thing I find a little different from what I'd see here, is the oven, and only because of its "façade" design, since I would not expect more than a door in it, in our local versions, and maybe  a different colour, since ours tend to be made in red or orange of yellowish bricks....

The Butterfly stamp featuring a Cigaritis acamas cypriaca, a member of the Lycaenidae family that can be found from North Africa and the Near East to India, and also being present in Cyprus, was issued on 12FEB2020, as part of a three stamp set (0.34; 0.41; 0.64 €) dedicated to Butterflies of Cyprus.

To the left of the butterfly stamp there's the Refugee stamp that is mandatory in all postage in Cyprus, the value of which is meant to help maintain the Refugee Fund created by the Cypriot Government to deal with the problems caused by the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974.

The Refugee stamp, mandatory in any posted object, was established in 1971, with a value of 10 mils. 

From 1984, the refugee stamp started to be denominated in Euro with a value of 1 cent and, from 1989 on, it has become an yearly issue, always with the same design but with a different background colour. Staring in 2008 it's face value was increased to the current 2 cents.

As usual with postcards from Cyprus, the post office didn't bother to obliterate the stamp, so I have no clue as to where or when the postcard was sent.

UPDATE:

Michal tells that his postcard was posted with the help from a friend, whom I also thank for the collaboration,  from the beautiful city of Limassol, Cyprus second largest, located in the south of the island, on the 3rd September.

COVER N. 635 - U.S.A.

Postmark: First day of Issue 250 Years of Delivering Washington  DC 20066 23.07.2025 

Posted on the 23rd July; Received on the 10th September 2025

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A.W. agains sends me the perfect philatelic cover. Thank you so much for another beautiful FDC, A. W.!

Even before its independency, the United States of America, already had its own Postal Services, which were established in the  Second Continental Congress which took place in Philadelphia on July 26, 1775,    its first postmaster being none other than the prolific Benjamin Franklin.

250 years after, the United States Postal Services still fulfil its universal service obligations, having processed and delivered in 2024  approximately 112.5 billion postal pieces and 7.3 billion packages.

Honouring this rich history of public service, USPS issued on 23JUL2025 a great pane of 20 "Forever USA" interconnected stamps, which combined show an illustration of mail being delivered in a town throughout the four different seasons of the year.

Appropriately, since Autumn begins today, the 22nd September, the five stamps in the row of the pane that A.W. picked up to grace the envelope he so kindly  sent me, represent the season of the warm leaf colours and, of course, you can find my friend Mr/Ms. Postman/Postlady in each of the individual stamps.

The Postmark hails from Washington D.C.

COVER N. 634 - ROMANIA

Postmark: 5407 TG Mures OPE M. S 01.09.2025 

Posted on the 1st September; Received on the 9th September 2025

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Christopher Columbus sails from Târgu Mureș to my letterbox, thanks to a fine Romanian cover, Mulțumesc mult, Anna Maria!

In my personal ranking of  road trips in Europe, the days I spent travelling through Romania some years ago,  occupy quite a high position. 

I absolutely loved the country, full of great scenic beauty and amazing historical sites, but I do have one regret: on the last day of my stay in Bucharest, I remember trying to find a post office open to buy some stamps and for some reason I don't remember now, I could not find one.

Still I managed to send a postcard from Bran, after the inevitable visit to its famous castle, since I managed to buy a card and a stamp at one of the  stalls, in front of the restaurant where I remember having had a great bowl of soup.

Since this was some years before the Covid epidemic, I did not yet have my covers blog nor was I really interested in collecting stamps. Still, whenever I went abroad I would send me a postcard and buy a few local  stamps as a souvenir of the journey, and I was sad not to have bought Romanian stamps since they are generally quite interesting.

And so are those on  the cover Anna Maria sent me.

2006 marked the 50th anniversary of CEPT/Europa common themed issues. The postal administrations of several countries - some not even European - chose to commemorate this fact with celebratory issues.

Poșta Română was one such case, having issued on 22AUG2005 a 4 x 4,75 Leu stamp set in se-tenant form, both in perforate and imperforate versions, all stamps being illustrated with the effigy of Christopher Columbus  (Cristofor Colum, in Romanian).

In two of the stamps the illustration space is shared with an illustration of one of the ships of Columbus most famous expedition of 1492.: The Carrack Santa Maria,  originally La Gallega, is featured on the stamp on the left end of the three stamp row  in the cover, while the stamp on the right end includes an image of the Pinta, I believe, a caravel.

The stamps also pay homage to the Genovese (?) Spanish (?) Portuguese (?) navigator and explorer, since 2006 marked the 500th anniversary of Columbus passing, in Valladolid, Spain.

The Postmark indicates the cover was send from the beautiful  city of Târgu Mureș, in Transilvania, which I well remember, especially for the very large Orthodox Ascension Cathedral on one end of a very long the square which had another orthodox church at the other end - the Annunciation Church.

COVER N. 634 - FRANCE

Postmark: 50 ans Radio France Premier Jour 42 Saint-Etriènne 29.08.2025 

Posted on the 29th August; Received on the 6th September 2025

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What a fantastic cover. I was absolutely blown away by what I found inside the very big and unexpected envelope coming from the Post Office Services at St. Etiènne, France.

The Haddock Captain in me shouted "Tonnerre de Brest! Mais qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ????

Inside the large envelope another, smaller one, but still quite large, loomed.... Damn! I had never seen a one stamp souvenir sheet this big… 14.3 x 18.5 cm… standard framing size….

And then just a tiny legend on it. "50 ans Radio France", “on Air”...

What to make of it? Beautiful as the illustration might be, I could not make sense out of it… I immediately realised it had to do with the celebration of the 50 years of Radio France, but I did not even know what Radio France was (well, of course, a radio station, but its history???) let alone the rationale for the bande dessinée / video game illustration….. I was totally in awe and lost in perception.

And yes I was also totally grateful to Eric for such a fantastic addition to my collection. Un énorme Merci, mon ami!

The history of Radio in France goes back to 1897, when Eugène Ducretet successfully transmitted radio signals between his workshop and the Panteón, located some 4000 metres away.

Ducret would later install a radio transmitter on the 3rd stage of the Eiffel tower and pursue his experiences, what led to the iconic tower being saved from dismantling since it provided a perfect emplacement for the antennae that would ensure an ever growing communications range, which would prove paramount during the 1st world war.

Regular broadcasting from Radio Tour Eiffel, the first to do it in the Hexagon,  would go on from 1922 until 1940.

After the second world war, radio broadcasting, as in many european countries, Portugal included, became a state monopoly and in 1975, during the Presidency of  Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the radio broadcasting sector was reorganised, a new umbrella state entity - Radio France -  being created, tasked with the mission of Informing, Educating, Disseminating Knowledge and Entertaining the French Public at large.

50 years later, Radio France keeps doing so, in spite of the substantial evolution and modification of  the radio broadcasting panorama, which now encompasses all the small and not so small regional, ex-pirate and corporate radios that fill the ether, not always with anything worth listening to (but that's my usual grumpy opinion about media in general, these days...).

Today, Radio France is responsible not only for 7 broadcasting networks, but also for maintaining two orchestras and two choirs, as part of the tools to duly fulfil its mission.

On 29AUG2025 La Poste issued the phenomenal one 1,39 € stamp  miniature sheet on the cover, celebrating the 50 Years of Radio France, which Eric tells me is the biggest single stamp sheet ever issued in France,  if not in the whole wide world, I would suspect.

The image is rich in symbolism but I confess I had to go and look at the release notes to understand it (and Eric also provided some clues) since a foreigner not familiar with the theme, such as I, would have trouble reading all those not readily decipherable semiotic hints.

And my conclusions, perhaps due to my "outsider" status, do differ slightly from the official explanation of the image, and this I find also great, for such is the beauty of art!

At the fulcrum of the image lies Radio France's headquarters building - La Maison de la Radio - designed by architect  Henry Bernard  and inaugurated in 1963 as the headquarters of the then RTF - Radiodiffusion-télévision française - itself  classified as an Historic Monument, as well as a 3D representation of the company's logo. So far, so good...

Now, as I see it, the image presents the building, lying on its side, as some sort of spacecraft travelling through the air under the power of a light that pulses at the vanishing point of the perspective, which also occupies a position in relation to the hexagonal window that can be interpreted as an allegory to the location of Paris, where Radio France Headquarters are located,  in the French hexagon.

The propelling waves are the signal transmission waves, of course.

What I don't really get is what are the three human figures doing. Just like the general ambience of the drawing, they are reminiscent of video game or comic book characters, maybe progressing through some obstacle course... who knows....

The author of the drawing, Ugo Gattoni,  Eric told me, is the same artist who created the colourful and exquisitely detailed  Paris Olympics Poster.

The First Day Postmark which replicates the logo for Radio France, was issued at Saint Étienne, a  city in the Loire département, some 60 km southwest of Lyon, with a population of  approximately 173 thousand inhabitants.

COVER N. 633 - NORWAY

Postmark: Søgne A  4640 28.08.2025 

Posted on the 28th August; Received on the 4th September 2025

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What a treat! This cover would fly all by itself, so many are the aircraft stamps on it. The all things that fly, (damselflies and butterflies included) nut in me  was really pleased to get this one.

Tusen takk, Kjell!

Stamps:

Beginning with the four stamp souvenir sheet:

Norwex 80 was an international philatelic exhibition that took place in Oslo between 13 and 22 June 1980.

Calling on the attention of stamps fans to the event, on 05OCT1979, Postverket, the then existing Norwegian Postal operator  (I believe....) issued the 4 stamp (1.25; 2; 2.8; 4 Krone)  miniature sheet on the cover, dedicated to important moments in the history of Arctic aviation in Norway.

when together the image in the background of the stamps forms a map section projected form the North Pole, the on each individual stamp an image of an aircraft associated  with an important milestone flight is superimposed into it.

Left to right, top to bottom:

Dornier Wal N-25, one of the 2 aircraft in which Roald Amudsen and  Lincoln Ellsworth (who would be the navigators for the mission) tried to become the first to fly over the North Pole, in 1925.

Unfortunately, the mission was unsuccessful in its ultimate aim, and the crew of six of both aircraft had to return home on the N25, (the N24, was lost on landing on ice), after spending almost four weeks on the ice, working to prepare a makeshift  take off strip so that the surviving Dornier could take to the air again.

Norge, an airship designed and piloted by Italian pilot and engineer Umberto Nobile, in which he,  Amudsen, Ellworth and 13 other members of the expedition plus Nobile's pet dog were the first to verifiably fly over the North Pole, on the 12th May 1926.

Loening C-2-C Air Yacht in which Thor Solberg made the first flight from the United States to Norway, in 1935

SAS Douglas DC7C, which made the first flight on the Polar Route from Oslo to Tokyo in 1957.

The 15 Krone stamp on the top left corner of the cover is part of a three stamp set (14; 15; 27 krone) issued on 18MAY2012, celebrating the centenary of aviation in Norway, which began in 1912 with a Rumpler Taube flight piloted by Hans Dons, this aircraft being the subject of the 14K stamp.

The 15 K on the cover bear the image of a Douglas DEC3, while  the 27 k is illustrated with a photograph of a current day glider.

The three stamps were issued integrated in a miniature sheet.

The 4 krone stamp illustrated with a  Douglas DC9 about to land atop a Boeing 727 😀 was part of a mini sheet issued for the already mention Norwex, on 13JUN1980, the first day of the exhibition.

The last stamp on the cover, with a facial value of 4.5 Krone, was issued on 08MAY1987 as a one stamp souvenir sheet, for a joint issue Norway Somalia, celebrating the red cross and red crescent activity.

The postmark was applied at Søgne, in ths south of Norway.

COVER N. 632 - CANADA

Postmark: Canada Post Postes Canada Canoe B.C. 21.08.2025 

Posted on the 21st August; Received on the 2nd September 2025

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Hanukkah and Diwali, two different celebrations, from two different religions, both having a common symbolic fulcrum: light!

Thank you very much, Edward, for a cover with no less than 4 stamps and a nice pictographic cancel.

I won’t elaborate over the signification of the Hanukkah and the Diwali Festivals, since I am not at all versed in the fundaments of both the Jewish and Hindu religions, agnostic that I am. Suffice to say that both festivals play a very important part in the traditions of both religions, 

As I read, Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of the oil in a very small container having been enough to keep a menorah alight for eight days in the  Temple in Jerusalem after it had been taken by the Jews over from the Greeks, and takes place on the 25th day of Kislev, which may occur at any time from November 28 to December 27.

On its part, Diwali, celebrates the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and is celebrated during the months of  of Ashvin and Kārtika—between around mid-September and mid-November.

The “P” (permanent) tariff  stamps on the top row are the traditional Hanukkah issues of the Canadian Post for 2022 and 2024.

On the left we have the  07NOV2022 stamp which, according to the release notes, “reflects the joyful spirit of the festival through a vibrant, contemporary interpretation of the flames on an eight-branched menorah”

On the right is the 14NOV2024  issue featuring a 19th-century peacock-themed hanukkiyah (menorah) that was rescued from a burning synagogue in Germany during Kristallnacht in 1938.

The bottom row “P” tariff stamps are dedicated to the Diwali Fest, also an annual tradition of the Canadian Post.

On the left, we can see the 15OCT2024 issue, which, according to the release notes, “highlights Lakshmi Puja, which for many is the most important occasion of the celebration, often falling on the second or third day.

Traditions vary during this time, but many people light small clay lamps called diyas and perform rituals to invite Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity, into their homes to bestow good fortune. Inspired by depictions of Lakshmi, the stamp design features three of her hands – one is showering coins, another holds a lotus flower and the third holds a diya.”

Finally, on the right we have the 06OCT2022 issue. Illustrated with an oil burning lamp.

Again referring to the release notes, “one of the many tales surrounding the origins of Diwali relates to the diya (small clay lamp) at the heart of the design. According to an ancient legend, when the venerable Prince Rama and his wife, Sita, returned home from exile, jubilant villagers illuminated their path with dīpāvali (rows of diyas), from which the word Diwali is derived. To this day, rows of lamps, candles and lights burn in homes and temples during the festival”.

The Pictorial cancellation was applied at canoe, a semi-rural community, part of the city of Salmon Arm, in British Columbia, 

COVER N. 631 - AUSTRIA

Postmark: Correos Antigua Guatemala 18.08.2025 

Posted on the 18th August; Received on the 1st September 2025

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It has been a while since I last added a new country to my list of postal services present in my collection, but thanks to the friendly help of Lisa, and most of all, the never abating support from my friend The Flying Dutchman, I can tick another box with the addition of Guatemala to the collection.

Muchas Gracias Lisa,  Hartelijk dank, Eric!

Nonetheless I do have a "National Cover" from Guatemala, that I have yet to post here in my "National Covers" section.

Marta, my daughter got it from the Postal Museum at Guatemala city in one of her travels. Still, at the time, there were no postal services to Portugal, so she got me an uncirculated stamped and postmarked cover.

Nowadays, thankfully, postal services have resumed so here is the first Guatemalan cover in my blog:

The cover includes three definitive stamps of the Fine Arts (Textiles) series initiated in 2010, showcasing patterns of the exquisitely elaborated patterns of Guatemalan woven textiles.

The 4 and 5 quetzal stamps are the 2020 reprints of the 15DEC2010 original issues, while the 25 quetzal stamp dates of 14APR2015.

Postmark from Antigua, a World Heritage Site town, in the South of the country.

Located some 40 km away from Guatemala city, La Antigua was the capital of the Captaincy General of Guatemala during the Spanish colonisationera, an administrative division of the Spanish empire which included what is now Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and the Mexican state of Chiapas. 

COVER N. 631 - AUSTRIA

Postmark: Illegible 

Posted on ?; Received on the  27th August 2025

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It is not the fault of the person sending the letter, of course, but whenever I look at an envelope with a stamp on it without a clear or at least positively visible postmark,  I can't help but feel that there is something missing there. 

Postmarks are as essential to a letter as the punched hole in the bus ticket of yore was to one's journey; they are proof of intent, the confirmation of  a travel history and the indication where it all began... without them, a letter is still a letter, of course, but it is not the message... it is the messenger that's somehow lacking...

A postmark is an essential element of a cover, and it transcends the mere functional aspect of its presence. It is a graphic compositional element, be it an elaborate first day or commemorative cachet or the humble day mark applied at the post office desk, and its presence or lack of it, does impart on the envelope a mark of dignity and purpose that, to me, makes quite a difference.

All this about this nice cover I got from Austria that does have a postmark on it, albeit so subtle that at first look does not seem to be there.

As I said, of course, it is not the sender's fault and I was quite happy to receive it, as usual. Danke sehr Patrik!

The one 2,10 € stamp souvenir sheet on the cover, was issued on 24AUG2019. Themed on Historic Postal vehicles. it is illustrated with a scene depicting one of the carriages of the K.k. Express Post, in the Mariahilf line.

The Kaiserlich und Königlich Express Post was an early form of express mail service in the Austrian Empire, founded in 1823. The Mariahilf Route was one of the routes established by this service, connecting with Vienna to other important cities like Brno, Prague, and Pressburg. These routes used four-horse coaches designed to transport up to twelve passengers and cover distances quickly for the time.

COVER N. 630 - ALGERIA

Postmark: First Day Postmark in Arabic and regular postmark issued at Kouba - 20.07.2025 

Posted on the 20th July; Received on the  20th August 2025

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A large First Day Cover from Algeria, full of goodies inside. شكراً جزيلاً, Hocine!

- Born into an Afro-Caribbean family in the French island of  Martinique in the Caribbean, Franz Fanon (1925-1961) a distinguished psychiatrist and anti-colonialist, would pursue his early studies in Fort-de-France on the same Island.

At the early age of 18, with the second world war raging,  he joined  the Free French Forces and he would see combat action in Europe, having been wounded while fighting in the Voges.

After the war Fanon graduated from the University of Lyon as a Psychiatrist and he would pursue studies into the psychological effects of colonisation upon black people, which would become the central theme of his first book, "Black skin, white masks", published in 1952.

The following year,  Fanon would go to Algeria, where he worked at the  Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital.

His strong anti-colonialist convictions led him to enroll in the FNL, the Algerian National Liberation Front, to fight for the independence of Algeria,  and resign from  his functions at the hospital where he was ironically tasked with treating French soldiers and officers who performed acts of torture against locals, whom he also had to treat.

Having developed Leukaemia while in exile, in Tunis, he would later travel to the United States to seek treatment, but he would eventually die in  Bethesda, Maryland, in 1963.

On the occasion of the centenary of his birth Algérie Poste issued on 28JUL2025 the celebratory 25 Dinar stamp on the cover, illustrated with Franz Fanon portrait.

The First Day postmark replicates the illustration of the stamp.

- The 7th Natural Gas Exporter Summit  took place in the city of Algiers, on the 2nd March 2024. 

The summit brought together Heads of State and Government from Member Countries, including Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela, from Observer Members, namely Angola, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mozambique, and Peru, and from Guest Countries, including Italy, Oman, Senegal, and Tunisia. 

The conclusions of the summit were summon up in what became known as the Algiers Declaration expressing the leaders’ resolve to “promote natural gas as an abundant, affordable, flexible and reliable energy source, and harness and develop more environmentally-friendly, efficient and sustainable natural gas technologies”.

On the occasion of the Summit, Algérie Poste issued on 29FEB2024, the 50 Dinar stamp on the cover, illustrated with the logo of the summit.

The cover was posted at Kouba, a suburb town of Algiers, the capital or Algeria, in the North of the country.

COVER N. 629 - PERU

Postmark: Peru Serpost S.A. Lima - 06.07.2025 / Fiesta de Amancaes 2025 Serpost S.A. Lima   24.07.2025

Posted on the 14th July; Received on the 11th August 2025

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My third cover from Peru and what a beauty is it. I have said before, I just can't resist an airmail envelope with the colourful frame around it, the more so when it is so uncommon to my eye as this one~, framed in the colours of the Peruvian banner. Muchísimas Gracias Ligier! 

Something strikes me odd regarding the amazing pictorial postmarks... the dates... the one on the stamps reads 06 July, while the other on the corner dates of 24 July.... strange.

Ligier posted the letter with stamps from a definitive series, issued on 13JAN2020, but these are quite colourful and eye-catching:

The 20 sol stamp features a view of Peru's most famous site - Machu Picchu;

The 3.60 sol stamp is illustrated with the flower of the Cantua (Cantua buxifolia) Peru's National flower (and one of the national flowers of Bolívia, also), an evergreen andean shrub that can reach 4 metres in height, 

The postmark over the stamps features Peru's coat of arms, while the pictorial postmark on the left lower corner of the envelope celebrates the Festival of the Amancaes.

The 3 days of  showcasing Peruvian culture, its gastronomy, music, traditions, handicrafts, take place each year in Lima, on and around St. John's day, celebrating the amancaes flower - Ismene amancaes - a member of the Amaryllidaceae family,  native to the coastal hills of Peru.

COVER N. 628 - POLAND

Postmark: Gdansk 50 - KE - 14.07.205

Posted on the 14th July; Received on the 11th August 2025

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A very fine cover, as usual, from Roman. Dziękuję bardzo!

As usual, Roman took the time to write a few explanatory and highly appreciated notes regarding the stamps he used on the cover.

The very beautiful 3,90  Zloty stamps with a dancer in traditional costume (which also featured in cover #372) were issued on 08NOV202 in commemoration of the 75 years of the celebrated Mazowsze Ensemble  - Państwowy Zespół Ludowy Pieśni i Tańca "Mazowsz -  The Polish National Song and Dance Folk Ensemble, founded in 1948.

In his notes, Roland included this photo of the Group, singing Carrols in the Polish Parliament in 2013...

... and he adds that the costumes are typical of the Lowicz region, a town located  between Warsaw and Lodz.

While on the theme, Roman also included a postcard evocative of the Chodsko Folk Festival, the most important and oldest such event in the Czech Republic. (Previous note here saying it was in Poland was incorrect as my good friend Michal (Moc děkuji, Michal) let me know.

Quoting Michal directly: "Chodsko" is the name of a border region near the German border. It is an area of great historical significance. In the Middle Ages, the inhabitants of this region enjoyed many privileges precisely because they guarded the turbulent border with the German lands of the time.

Today, the area is known for its folklore, bagpipe music (the picture shows a typical bagpiper from Chodsko), and really famous folklore festivals.

Postage was completed with 2 more stamps:

-  20 grosz definitive stamp of the flowers and fruits series,  issued on 06JUL2016, bearing the image of a Saffron plant, Crocus sp, one of my favourite flowers.

- 2 Zloty stamp commemorative of the 150th anniversary of UPU - Union Postale Universelle, issued on 30OCT2024, remarkable in the fact that it does not follow the general design standard of the various stamps issued by several postal administrations to mark the occasion.

As usual with Roman's sendings, the postmark hails from Gdansk.

COVER N. 627 - NORWAY  

Postmark: Stathelle 1 3960 - 01.07.2025

Posted on the st July; Received on the 7th August 2025

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Another cover with quite a few stamps on it from up North, and a country not very much represented in my collection,  Tusen takk, Kai Arne!

Stamps;

Musk oxen (Ovibos moschatus) are synonimous with the arctic, so it is fitting that an issue dedicated to Norwegian fauna should include a photo of such a distinctive dweller of the arctic regions.

The fauna issue for 2011, dated of 03JAN2011, which concluded an annual series initiated in 2006, comprised two stamps (17 and 27 Krone). The animal depicted on the 27 Krone companion stamp in the set was the quintessential arctic dweller, the Polar bear (Ursus maritimus).

Sigrid Undset (1882 – 1949) was a Danish-born Norwegian writer who was the recipient of the 1928 Nobel Prize for Literature.

She is featured on a portrait painted by Norwegian painter Anders Castus Svarstad (1869 –1943), replicated on a 2 Krone stamp issued on 01OCT1982 as part of a two stamp set dedicated to writer's birth anniversaries. The companion stamp in the set features a painting of another Norwegian Nobel Literature Prize winner (1903) - Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson (1832 — 1910), painted by Erik Werenskiold (1855 – 1938).

The CEPT/EUROPA 1977 theme for the common issue was "Landscapes".

Norway's entry comprised two stamps (1.25 and 1.80 Krone), issued on 02MAY1977. The 1.80 Krone stamp on the cover, featured a photograph of Huldefossen waterfall, located in the. Sogn og Fjordane county

The Lion Rampant 40 Ore definitive stamp is probably the 31MAR1941 reprint of this stamp, which was first issued in 1927, bu I am not sure about this.

Postmark from Stathelle 1, a town in Telemar county, on the South of the coutry.