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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Republic of Slovenia / Republika Slovenija
The Flag
The national flag became established as a symbol of Slovenian identity back in the 19th century. The Slovenians determined the colours (white, blue and red) based on those featured in the coat of arms of the province of Carniola, and submitted them for the approval of the then ruling Austrian administration in Vienna, where the colours were accepted. The first national flag was hung by Slovenian students in Vienna in March 1848 during a period of revolutionary tumult.
In Ljubljana, the flag was first raised on the building of the Zlata riba inn at Wolfova ulica 8 on 7 April 1848 by the patriotic student Lovro Toman and his like-minded colleagues.
With the appearance of the Slovenian tricolour flag, he was responding to the display of the German flag on the tower of Ljubljana Castle. In memory of this act we commemorate 7 April as the day of the Slovenian flag.
The national flag was finally formalised on 24 June 1991 by the Slovenian National Assembly. Immediately before Slovenia gained independence, the new Slovenian national flag replaced the old flag of the Republic.
The Coat of Arms
Slovenia lies at the crossroads of the Alpine, Mediterranean, Pannonian and Dinaric regions. The diversity in such a small area is also reflected in the symbolism of the Slovenian coat-of-arms.
The coat-of-arms of Slovenia has the form of a shield. The centre of the shield depicts Mount Triglav, as a white emblem on a blue background, with two wavy lines below it symbolising the sea and rivers, and three six-point stars arranged above it in the shape of a point-down triangle. The shield has a red border on the left and right sides, so that it has all three colours which also make up the flag. The lower part of the coat-of-arms symbolises the Slovenian landscape, which encompasses Alpine peaks in the northwest, the Primorska region in the south and the Pannonian Plain in the east.
Source: Symbols of Slovenia | GOV.SI
The Stamp
2,06 €, issued on 09MAY2025, illustrated with a photograph of a Centaur Archer Brooch, part of the EUROPA/CEPT 2025 common issue, themed on National Archaeological Discoveries.
Round brooches made of plated bronze over an iron core are relatively common finds in Slav cemeteries from the eighth and ninth centuries in Slovenia’s Gorenjska region. Notable among them, for the quality of workmanship and, above all, for the depiction of a centaur archer, is this brooch from the Brda cemetery near Bled.
In stylistic terms it belongs to Carolingian art, which drew on illuminated manuscripts. Most comparable artefacts are from sites in the Upper Danube basin and the Rhineland. The figure of the centaur archer developed in Babylonian art before 1000 BC as a symbol of the zodiac sign Sagittarius. It entered Roman and medieval astrological depictions of Sagittarius via Egypt and was later adopted in Christianity.
We will probably never know exactly how this brooch ended up in a Slav grave in the Brda cemetery near Bled. It may have been made by a Christian who based the design on an illustration from an illuminated manuscript. On the other hand, the Slavs, who were pagans when they settled this area in the sixth century and whose Christianisation under the Carolingians had only just begun in the eighth century, probably did not see this design as a Christian symbol but as a pagan one. The centaur archer may have reminded them of Perun the Thunderer, the supreme god of the Slavs, who could also be depicted as a horseman with a thunderbolt or bow in his hand.
Source: Dežela znamk - EUROPA - Centaur archer
The Postmark
Applied in Slovenia's Capital, Lubljana, on 05JUN.2025.
