POSTCARD N.187 - GREENLAND.

Postcard sent on the 04 August; received on the 19th August 2025.

Postcard image: The Schooner Activ

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The Flying Dutchman... the ship that will never dock again.... condemned to err across the mighty oceans forever...

No, it is not the Flying Dutchman caught on camera, but the image on the postcard could not be more  fitting, with all that backlit aura of mystery as the bow breaks the surface of the sea somewhere out there.... after all it was sent by none other than my friend the Flying Dutchman himself :-)

Hartelijk dank, Eric and please extend my thanks to Wolfgang, for his help dispatching the postcard from the cold shores of Greenland, the "land that's never green, where there's ice and snow and the whalefishes blow, and where day life seldom sins, brave boys, where daylight seldom sins...." as so masterfully sang  Judy Collins and Theodore Bikel  on an old vynil album I had bought a long, long time ago....

If the Photo on the card reminds me of the Flying Dutchman, well the stamps on its back made me think of Philip Glass... Quite a nice and pleasing minimal repetitive structure, isn't it :-)?

The 4+0.5 Krone charity stamp is part of a two stamp set (both stamps with the same facial value) issued on 17JUN1993.

The stamp on the postcard celebrates the 70th anniversary of the presence of the Red Cross in Greenland while its companion in the set, the 50th anniversary of the Greenland Scouts movement.

Not being able to confirm it, I'd think that  the 0.5 Krone charity tax would go to the Red Cross.

I quite like the layout of the stamp with the Greenland flag mimicking a sun on the horizon, framed by mountains, flown over by a procession of doves carrying the red cross in their beaks. Quite nice.

The Postmark is unfortunately illegible, so I cannot grasp wherefrom it was sent.

UPDATE: Eric came to the rescue and told me that the Potscard had been sent from 3950 Aasiaat, on the west coast of the Island.

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.

COVER N. 288 - GREENLAND

Postmark: 3980 Ittoqqortoormiit 30.06.2023

Posted on the 30th June; Received on the 26h July 2023

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Now this was a great surprise.  A cover as full of interesting stamps, postmark, cachets, signatures as  can only be expected from a letter coming from a truly fascinating place.

Thank you so much, Roland. What a nice addition to the collection.

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.

Scientific research usually does not come cheap, the more so when carried out in remote and not easy accessible locations, so funding of such long term ventures sometimes calls on the creativity and resilience of those in charge so as to ensure that the future of the project is not compromised.

Well aware of this reality, the Karulev project managers came up with the idea of securing some funding by selling the Project's own covers, adorned with the cachets of the project itself and the year's campaign and the signatures of the project leaders. The covers are then dispatched from Greenland, the place where the field work takes place.

Stamps:

- Between 2018 and 2022, Tusass Greenland issued yearly souvenir sheets with a two stamp set dedicated to "Fish in Nordic Waters".

The 11.50 Krone stamp is part of the 2022 and last issue of this sets and is illustrated with the image of  one of the most famous nordic fishes, the Atlantic Herring (Clupea harengus).  The companion stamp to this set, with a face value of 16.00 Krone, was the equally abundant and well known Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus).

- 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 not sure at all.

Tusass Greenland  has been issuing  on a yearly basis stamps set with reproductions of these savings stamps. 

The 11.50 Krone stamp was issued on 28FEV2022 as part of a set that comprised another  14.50 Krone stamp, illustrated with reproductions of the 1957 School savings stamps.

The envelope features on the top left corner the cachet of the Karuplev Valley project, the cachet of the 2023 expedition being placed under it.