COVER N. 482 - SERBIA

Postmark: Novi Sad 21117 24.06.24

Posted on 24th June; received on the 2nd July 2024

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What a joyful set of stamps on this lovely cover.  Amphibians are sometimes not that well looked upon by people due to their often slimy look, but  I find them absolutely fascinating (and this goes well back in time). Hvala najlepše, Antea!

Looking at the three stamps what is immediately apparent is the fine way in which the predominant colours of the three amphibians depicted in the stamps go together. After all we have blue and yellow on the sides and their complementary, green, in the middle, so this would always work great. 

The uncommon viewpoints for the images also add interest to the images and I do find this set quite a fine one.

The three 48 Dinar se-tenant stamps were issued under the theme "Protected Animal Species" on 22NOV2023. From left to right we have:

- Alpine newt (Ichtyosaura aplpensis), a newt species that occurs in much of Continental Europe and the north of Spain, and which has been introduced in Great Britain and New Zealand.

The adults measure between 7 and 12 cm and even if classified as Least Concern by IUCN, pressure on the species due to loss of habitat and predation by other species is on the rise.

- Hyla arborea, the common tree frog, also a species classified as "Least Concern", native to much of Europe. Asia and northern Africa. 

Genetic studies though have resulted in new divisions for the genus which now numbers several species in the general European Tree Frog Family.

- Fire Salamander (Salamandra salamandra), the dandy yellow dotted black salamander which can be found all across central and southern Europe and which is now classified and "Vulnerable" as a consequence of the mortality brought about by a fungal infection by  Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans.

The postmark although very difficult to read hails from Novi Sad, Serbia’s second largest city, with a population of approximately 360,000 inhabitants.

COVER N. 420 - SERBIA

Postmark: Niš 18111 01.03.2024 

Posted on the 1st March; received on the 8th March 2024

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Phantom, that restless wanderer, was in Serbia, it seems and he enrolled the help of a local collector to ship out a bunch of covers, so thanks a lot to Dejan and Alex, for this welcome addition to the collection.

- In an era when every bit of information is enconded in 0s and 1s, being as volatile as electrons are, the need to keep an everlasting memory of things is ever more relevant. National archives fulfil this mission and either in physic or in electronic form they make sure that the past will forever be available for present or future enquirers, be it researchers, students, legislators, lawyers, or any other user who might have the need to investigate it.

Acknowledging this necessity, the Education Ministry of  the People's Republic of Serbia, one of the six republics that integrated Yugoslavia, established the Historic Archive of Niš  on the 24th April 1948.

75 years past that date, the Archive maintains its function as a repository of memory and is Serbia's second most important such archive, after the Archive of Belgrade.

The building in which it is housed is located within the compound of the fortress of Niš, of Ottoman Turkish  origin, built in the early decades of the 18th century.

It's main entrance features on the stamp issued on 24APR2023 a part of a two 48 dinar stamp set dedicated to Niš historical buildings anniversaries. As such, the stamp celebrates the 75 years of existence of the Historic archives, its companion stamp being dedicated to the tercentenary of the fortress in which it is housed.

- The theme for the CEPT Europa common issue of 2011 was "Forests". The Serbian issue, dating of 05MAY2022, comprised two stamps (33 and 66 Dinar) with images of a conifer forest, a forest type which can easily be found in the country. the 66 dinar stamp was used on the cover.

Postage is completed with a 16 dinar franking label.

The stamps were cancelled in the city of Niš.

COVER N. 311 - SERVIA

Postmark: Nis 29.08.2023

Posted on the  29th August; Received on the 6th September 2023

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One of the most common uses of stamps as a vector for dessiminating a country's culture is taking advantage of their inherent travel capacity to showcase national arts, be it painting, sculpture, film, photography, architecture... you name it and I'm sure there is at least a stamp somewhere illustrated with an example of that particular form of art.

The most common though must be painting, what comes as no surprise since the usual squarish format of a stamp lends itself perfectly to this end, and many are the sets issued by postal administrations graced with beautiful reproductions of amazing works of art.

I confess that sometimes it is easy to fall into exaggeration, with the paintings bordered by golden frames and legends that rival in eye catching capacity with the reproduced paintings themselves.

Not in this case. Thank you so much, Markovic. Great cover. Not only there's an aircraft on it, my favoured theme, but also the to stamps with reproductions of beautiful paintings are a great example of the classy sobriety I think the theme demands.

Stamps, left to right:

On 14OCT2022 Pošta Srbije issued a three 30 Dinar stamp set dedicated to the anniversaries of  three Serbian Museums, these being the 175th anniversaries of the Matica Srpska Gallery, in Novi Sad, and the Museum of Vojvodina, and the 75th anniversary of the Institute of Archaeology in Belgrade.

The stamp dedicated to the Matica Srpska Gallery  on the cover (Matica Srpska being the oldest non governmental institution dedicated to the arts in Serbia) is illustrated with the "portrait of Anka Topalović née Nenadović .... the earliest female portrait painted by a woman – the first Serbian academic painter, Katarina Ivanović" according to the gallery's website.

The second stamp on the cover was issued on 27JAN2023, and is illustrated with a painting depicting Petar II Petrović Njegoš (November 1, 1813 – October 19, 1851) ... an Orthodox Montenegrin and Highland Prince-Bishop and head of Old Montenegro and Highland from 1830 to 1851." again borrowing from the notes on the Serbian Post website.

the reproduced painting, dating from the 1940s, was authored by Petra Lubarda, and is part of a private collection.

The last stamp on the cover is dedicated to 100 years of the Serbian national aviation industry and is illustrated with the image of a Soko G-4 Super Galeb (jet trainer and ground attack) in the background and a Soko J-22 Orao (Ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft, a product of industrial collaboration of what was then Yugoslavian and Romania) in the foreground.

Postage on the cover was completed with a  7 Dinar label.

COVER N. 309 - SERBIA

Postmark: Novi Sad 21117 29.08.2023

Posted on the 29th August; Received on the 6th September 2023

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What a nice set of stamps Antea used to send me this letter from Serbia. Thank you so much Antea. I really like them.

Wild flowers are without a shadow of a doubt absolute masterpieces of creation. Their colours, shapes, odours, sizes are a declaration of diversity and if there is one thing that I like is to walk amidst wild flowers covered fields in springtime.

Most of the time they are pretty photogenic also, and another of my pleasures is trying to photograph them. One cannot imagine how beautiful wild flowers really are  until one observes them in detail, and photographs are great for this.

Peonies, for instance, are absolutely lovely... they are so large and contrasting in colour to the bronzish green of their leaves with those fuchsia petals and yellow stamens, that they immediately stand out as a gift of coulour.

 Not the same species on the stamp on the cover, but I couldn't resist getting this shot from my collection of flower photos, to illustrate my thoughts.

and here is the cover:

Stamps, left to right:

This lovely wild flowers of Serbia set was issued as a four 30 dinar stamp se-tenant strip on 13APR2022. Each strip also included a vignette in the central position of the strip, so that the central part of each stamp sheet containing 5 strips was occupied by a vertical illustration also of botanical nature.

The flowers depicted on the beautiful illustrations are the greater pasque flower (Pulsatilla grandis), which blooms in Easter, (hence its name) of the Ranunculaceae family;

Another member of the Ranunculaceae family, the Aquilegia Nikolicii is endemic to the teritory of the ex_jugoslavia;

And yet another Ranunculaceae, the  Pheasant's eye (Adonis vernalis), which althoug existing in Serbia has a far wider distibution, ranging from Spain to the West Siberian plain. Of note is the fact that although toxic, this plant has medicinal uses, namely as a cardiac stimulant.

The last stamp of the strip is a rather curious Peony: the Steppe peony (Paeonia tenuifolia), native to the Caucasus mounbtains. Its compound leaves very dense in number are deeply divided, this being the reason for the flower also being named the fern leaf peony.

Postage on the cover was completed with a couple of 5 Dinar stamps from a definitive set issue on 24FEB2020 also illustrated with images of wild flowers (photographs, this time). The flower, or better, the inflorescence depicted is that of the Common Chicory (Cichorium intybus), another case of a flower that we are all so used to seeing that we don't stop to take a closer look, because if we did.... it is such a beautifull inflorescence... the colour, the delicate lateral petals.... totally amazing.

The Postmark hails from Novi sad a, city on the banks of the danube in the north of Serbia, and I guess it is quite a fittting place for the cover, since Novi Sad means New Garden....

COVER N. 265 - SERBIA

Postmark: NIS 18106 - 29.05.2023

Posted on the 29th May; Received on the 15th June 2023

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And so the list keeps growing: Welcome Serbia and Thank you very much, Slavoljub, for this very interesting cover with this and last year's Day of the Stamp commemorative issues.

I, being quite unlearned in philatelic history and peculiarities, had to go and look over the internet to try and comprehend what was behind the images in the stamps, since the Cyrillic alphabet makes it impossible for me to decipher anything in the legends. 

This of course happens also with the Latin alphabet for languages that have no close proximity with Latin idioms, but sometimes, since I generally know how the consonants and vowels interact, phonological resonance of a particular word can be a clue to its meaning. Trying to do that with the Cyrillic alphabet would first imply learning the correspondences between the two systems,...

In Portuguese we have a saying, though, that claims "Burro velho não aprende línguas"  (an old donkey will learn no idioms) and popular wisdom is time proven (hence the perennity of aphorisms)....but I'm retiring soon, and trying to learn some Slavic language might not be that bad an idea to integrate in the "things to do, now that I might have the time" folder, so who knows if this old donkey will try to break the rule in the future...

My research first led me to conclude that the stamps were issued in commemoration of Stamp day. (by the way...just to make my point,  applying my phonological resonance theory  to the  main title, which reads ДАН МАРКЕ, provided me with something as DAN MARKE, which would be consistent with "day of the mark" or Stamp Day...).

And here my first perplexity for if in Serbia Stamp day is celebrated in May, in my own country it is celebrated on the 1st December, in France in February or March, ... 

Luckily today we don't need to go to the central library to research the encyclopaedia volumes and after some Wikipedia mostly surfing, I found out that the  Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP) had established in 1937 that World Stamp Day should be commemorated on the 7th January, but that countries would have full liberty to choose another date, according to their conveniences.... I wonder is anyone celebrates Stamp Day on the 7th January...?

This first problem solved, I turned to the Post of Serbia website for information on the stamp since whenever release notes are available these help a lot.

And yes, I discovered that the 30 Dinar stamp on the right hand corner,  issued on 13MAY2022 was the Day of Stamp 2022 issue, entitled " 150 years of Serbian Philately Rarity: Milanče Tête-bêche".

The illustration on the stamp is therefore the only existing pair of  1 Serb para stamps in tête-bêche form (although adjacent, one in printed upside down in relation to the other) of the Prince Milan stamps issued between 1869 and 1880, this particular pair having been part of the 1872 issue.

As a matter of curiosity and still according to the release notes, the last time this item was auctioned, the hammer hit the table at 70,000 Swiss Francs.

The two stamps on the left corner are this year's Dan Mark issues (no, not Denmark,..Dan Mark, Day of Stamp, remember?!), but this time I could not count on the help of the release notes because the link on the site pointed to the next in line issue of the Serbian Post, that is, one dedicated  to Nicolaus Copernicus (who himself was certainly a rarity, but not of the philatelic type). 

Looking at the image on the stamp and the translation of the issue title by the Serbian Post "150 years of the first correspondence card of Serbia" I think the issue, a 48 Dinar stamp, issued on 12May 2023, commemorates the 150 years over the first prepaid, pre-stamped card of Serbia, which would have been issued somewhere in 1873.

On top of the postcard featuring a imprinted Prince Milan 10 para stamp and the coat of arms of the Principality of Serbia is also an image of what looks like one of the stamps issued in 1880/83, with an older Prince Milan (from 1882 on King Milan of Serbia), but with no indication of face value....

Postage was completed with the 4 Dinar ATM Label, also on the cover.

The Postmark indicates that the letter was mailed from Serbia's third largest city, Nis, located in the centre south of the country, midway between Bulgaria and Kosovo.