COVER N. 684 - ROMANIA

Postmark: 601170 Onesti 1 26.01.2026

Posted on the 26th January;  Received on the 5th February 2026

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Another infrequent visiting country to my blog. And one whose stamp issues I find always quite interesting. Great. Mulțumesc mult, Nicolae.

Traditional pottery is one of the most widespread forms of handicrafts all over the world, due to its obvious  functional utility. And yet, it is also one of the most diverse forms of handicrafts, often being a showcase for traditional decorative art, with stable and time honoured patterns and drawings, much like tapestry, bus also with new and contemporary interpretations of traditions and designs.

Portugal also has its fair share of time honoured traditional pottery designs, very different from one another according to the regions wherein they are produced... but today it's Romania we talk about and judging from the stamps on this cover, the regional diversity of  traditional ceramic dishes decorations in Romania is also quite obvious.

Highlighting this fact Poșta Română issued in 2007 two sets of four stamps dedicated to Romanian Ceramics. On the cover we have a mix of stamps from these two sets, the top two (2,10 Lei and 70Bani) issued on 13APR2007, and the lower two (80 and 70 Bani) issued on 07JUN2007.

Following the same order, the dish in the 2.10 Lei stamp is typical of the Izei Valey, located in the Maramures Region, in the northwest of the country, which, by itself, justifies a visit, with its amazing wooden churches and monasteries and the uncommon, to say the least,  Merry Cemetery .

The 70 Bani stamp features a dish from the town of Vlădești, in the Vâlcea region, centre south of the country.

The 80 Bani stamp bears the image of a dish decorated with a pattern typical of the town Viștea, in the county of beautiful Brașov, Transilvania, in the centre of Romania.

the second 70 Bani stamp features a plate decorated in the style of the town of Oboga, in the Olt Region. in the South of the country.

Finally, the Large plate on the carrier sheet features a soup dish from Luncavița, in the Tulcea region, in the centre east, very close to the borders with Moldova and Ukaine.

The 10 Lei stamp dated of 28FEB1992, is part of a six stamp set (4; 5; 8; 10; 30; 45 Lei) themed on fish, features a Romanian Darter (Romanichthys valsanicolas), a critically endangered species, endemic to a very restricted area in southern Romania.

Postmark from the town of Onesti, in the Moldavia Region, centre east of the country.

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.44 - Romania

Postmark:  Oneşti 1, Ghiseu 1  06OCT21
Posted on the 6th October; received on the 13th October
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Romania! Thank you, Nicolae, for allowing me to add another country to my cover collection!

One of the last summer trips I took before the pandemic was to Romania, where my wife and I sojourned for about a forthnight, travelling around the country. and what an experience it was. Romania is really a great country with warm and kind people and full of interesting sites to see be it man made or natural. There's much more to see and enjoy than the "mamoothal" parliament building built by the infamous dictator which on par with Dracula are perhaps the 2 most iconic things that come to everyone's mind when thinking of Romania. Magnificent monasteries, amazing wooden churches, fortified medieval churches, a good-humoured graveyard, an amazing mountain road, mountains, bears what is not to like...? And then there's this:

My suggestion? Go there, get out of Bucharest and travel around. You'll love it!

Knowing I like stamps with local costumes, Nicolae used as the main stamp on this lovely envelope a stamp issued on 11SEP2013 with people wearing traditional costumes. This was a joint emission with Poland and I was lucky enough to already have received the Polish version on another cover I have in the collection. 

The Romanian costume featured on the left side of the stamp is typical of the region of the Bistrita-Năsăud, whose capital Bistrita, I had the pleasure of visiting on my journey through Romania, while the Polish costumes, on the right, are typical of the Krakow region.

The remaining two stamps that Nicolae used were issued on 21AUG1970 and are part of a 6 stamp set dedicated to Roses. Other than the Vienna Charm (35 Ban) and the Pink Lustre (55 Ban) varieties, the set also included the Iceberg (20 ban); Piccadilly (1 Leu); Orange Delbard (1,5 Leu) and  Sibelius (2,40 Leu) varieties. I really like the design of all of these stamps and it is amazing that I am now receiving a cover stamped with stamps that were issued when I was 10 years old...

The very clear postmark states that the cover was mailed from the city of Oneşti, a region on the centre East of the country.