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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 Grão-Ducado do Luxemburgo / 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.