Stamp Collecting News for Beginners and Philatelists

This Souvenir Stamp Sheet (SSS) brings together all your favourite Disney Characters including Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy and Pluto and comes in an outer envelope with a pop-out stand.

Tags: Australia 

A stamp valuation company Find Your Stamp's Value and StampNews.com have conducted an interesting poll.

The respondents were asked 2 questions:
1. Do you think modern stamps can be valuable?
2. Do you think your grandparents' stamps are valuable?

The U.S. Postal Service will issue a pane of 20 Polar Lights 41-cent commemorative postage stamps in two designs often known as auroras.

The polar lights are a luminous glow seen in the night sky at high latitudes surrounding the north and south magnetic poles. Throughout history the polar lights have inspired a colorful folklore; today they are the focus of many nations.

Tags: USA 

The U.S. Postal Service today reissued the Eid stamp in the Holiday Celebrations series.

First issued in 2001, the stamp commemorates the two most important festivals in the Islamic calendar: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. On these days, Muslims wish each other "eid mubarak," the phrase featured in calligraphy on the stamp, which translates as "blessed festival" or "may your religious holiday be blessed."

Tags: USA 

America voted, and the U.S. Postal Service will deliver the intergalactic results on Oct. 25, when an image of 900-year-old Jedi Master Yoda will be dedicated as a sheet of 20 stamps in New York City at Madison Square Garden. Since this 10 a.m. event is just six days before Halloween, stamp enthusiasts and Star Wars fans alike are encouraged to dress up as their favorite character from the Star Wars Saga.

Tags: USA 

This year's Christmas stamps will be issued on 2 November. The stamps featuring mice in red caps were drawn by graphic designer Marjo Nygard-Niemisto.

Two miniature sheets will be issued at the same time as the Christmas stamps. The Memories of Finland miniature sheet celebrates outstanding years of Finnish independence. The sheet includes eight stamps showing the lives of Finns, using real pictures from Finnish home photo albums. The other miniature sheet is a joint issue with the postal operator of Hong Kong. It is comprised of two stamps, one of which shows modern Finnish crafts and the other ancient craftwork from China.

Tags: Christmas Finland 

Britain's official war artist for Iraq has asked Gordon Brown to intervene to help him complete his plan for the Royal Mail to issue postage stamps carrying portraits of British soldiers killed in the conflict.

Steve McQueen, the Turner Prize-winning video artist who was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to cover the Iraq war, said that Royal Mail rebuffed the project even though most of the families who have lost sons in Iraq support it.

Tags: United Kingdom 

In honor of trailblazing newsman Ruben Salazar's relentless efforts to chronicle the complexity of race relations in Los Angeles, the U.S. Postal Service in 2008 will issue a commemorative stamp of the former Los Angeles Times reporter and columnist.

Tags: USA 

Austria honors the 200th anniversary of the birth of world renown naturalist painter Friedrich Gauermann with a stamp issue depicting a painterly study of mountain wildlife.

Tags: Austria 

An Post unveiled a new postage stamp commemorating the influential 19th century rebel James Fintan Lalor.

The revolutionary, journalist and writer born 200 years ago was a key figure in Irish history and inspired the likes of Padraig Pearse and James Connolly.

Tags: Ireland 

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Bar Association in Korea, a new stamp is issued.

Featuring a lawyer protecting a delicate bird in his hand, this stamp was designed to convey the "image of a true lawyer."

Tags: Korea 

Schellen-Ursli, the mountain farmer's boy firmly rooted in his era yet with timeless graphic appeal, has finally made it onto a Swiss stamp.

Schellen-Ursli is the book almost all children in Switzerland know.

Tags: Switzerland 

This set of six stamps, a miniature sheet and Prestige Booklet depicts Gibraltar's prehistoric landscapes at times of lowered sea levels and also during periods of global warming when the sea reached up to 8 metres above present levels, making the Rock an island.

Tags: Gibraltar 

The Bible stamp issue, which has been postponed twice at the request of the Icelandic Bible Society, will appear in October on the occasion of a new translation of the Holy Book into Icelandic.

Tags: Iceland 

2007 sees several major postal anniversaries. The Centenary of Gibraltar relinquishing control of the British Postal Services in Morocco; the 150th Anniversary of the Gibraltar Post Office; the 150th Anniversary of the Introduction of British Postage stamps in Gibraltar and the 150th Anniversary of the inauguration of the first British Postal Agency in Morocco.

Tags: Gibraltar 

On 25 October 2007, the United Nations Postal Administration will issue six commemorative stamps in a mini-sheet format in the denominations of 41c, 90c, F.s. 1,00, F.s. 1,80, ˆ 0,65 and ˆ 1,15 on the theme "Space for Humanity—50th Anniversary of the Space Age".

Three souvenir sheets and a personalized stamp sheet on the same theme will also be issued on that day.

Tags: United Nations 

Canada Post has honoured the Law Society of Saskatchewan and the Law Society of Alberta with the simultaneous release of anniversary stamps. The official launch ceremony occurred at Government House on September 13, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. when Official First Day Covers were made available.

Tags: Canada 

Spain Post and Greece Post have teamed up to issue a new set of stamps depicting Asclepius.

Asclepius is the demigod of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology.

The stamps were issued simultaneously by both postal administrations on 13 September.

Tags: Greece Spain 

Presented on this issue of five stamps are the major botanic gardens from across Australia - Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

With nearly 40 per cent of Australians over the age of 15 visiting a botanic garden at least once a year, they are the second most popular cultural venue in Australia (after the cinema). The stamps celebrate the beauty of plants through differing seasons and the diversity of specific garden types.

Tags: Australia 

With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service marks the 60th anniversary of a groundbreaking World War II-era legal case in which a group of civic-minded Hispanic parents in California successfully sued to end segregation in their schools. According to stamp art director and designer Ethel Kessler, the illustration by Rafael Lopez, a native of Mexico City who maintains his studio in San Diego, California, "masterfully integrated the look of the Mexican muralists with the idea of looking forward to the light." The stamp typography is by Greg Berger.

Tags: USA 

In the series "Switzerland through the eyes of foreign artists", the English artist James Peel has followed the tracks of four British authors whose works reflect their stay in Switzerland. The result is four stamps paying homage to landscapes that served as inspiration for a generation of artists.

CHF 0.85 Monch
CHF 1.00 Lauterbrunnen
CHF 1.30 Genfersee
CHF 1.80 Reichenbachfall

Tags: Switzerland 

An Post issues a 55c stamp on 12 September to celebrate the 150th anniversary of archaeological discoveries made at San Clemente Basilica, Rome by Irish Dominican Priest, Fr. Joseph Mullooly, who was born in Lanesboro, Co. Longford in 1812.

Tags: Ireland 

A four-stamp set featuring motor-cycle models of yesteryear is being issued by the Philatelic Bureau of Maltapost on 12 September.

The set, designed by Joe P. Smith, is offset printed by Printex Limited of Qormi on Maltese Crosses watermarked paper. The stamps, which will be available in sheets of ten, are 44mm x 31mm in size, with a perforation of 13.9 x 14.1 (comb).

Tags: Malta 

With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service calls attention to the importance of jury service, a cornerstone of democracy in the United States.

By showing a diverse group of twelve representative jurors in silhouette, art director Carl T. Herrman and stamp designer Lance Hidy emphasize that the American jury system provides for trial by one's peers.

Tags: USA 

The castle series, issued year after year, is once more available with two new stamps. Thanks to these minute pictures and the nature of stamps, these castles travel the world and are universally known.

This year's issue depicts the castles of Almenar and Villena.

Tags: Spain 

On the occasion of the Day of Sport, the Austrian Post Office is dedicating a stamp to Nikole Hosp, the overall ladies' Alpine World Cup winner in the 2006/07 season.

It was in the last Alpine World Championship race in Aare that the girl from Bichelbach in the Ausserfern in Tyrol won her first gold medal through a victory in the Giant Slalom.

Tags: Austria 

On 6 September 2007, An Post issued 4 'Celtic Cats' stamps. Illustrated by Martyn Turner, the stamps feature the artist's impressions of images representing a Kilkenny Cat, a Celtic Tigress, a Fat Cat and a couple of Cool Cats.

Tags: Ireland 

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Diana, Princess of Wales, two of the most iconic figures of the late 20th century, are depicted together on a special postage stamp issued to commemorate the 10th anniversary of their deaths in 1997. The death of Mother Teresa in Calcutta on September 5, at the age of 87, was overshadowed by that of Princess Diana who was tragically killed in a car accident in Paris a week earlier on August 31, aged 36.

The 50p stamp was released on August 31 this year by Ascension Island, a United Kingdom Overseas Territory in the mid South Atlantic (a vital air base during the Falklands conflict). Produced in sheetlets of eight, the stamp depicts a photograph of Mother Teresa and Princess Diana taken when they first met in February 1992, at Mother Teresa's convent in Rome.

Tags: United Kingdom 

Glenn Gould passed away in 1982 at the age of 50, but music afficionados worldwide still recall his virtuoso performances at the piano – as well as his insistence on playing the piano while sitting on a chair made especially for him by his father. This great artist, who graced a Millennium Collection stamp in 1999, will be recognized once again on September 10, when Canada Post dedicates a $2.50 commemorative envelope to his genius.

Tags: Canada 

A stamp marking the 50th anniversary of the Special Air Service (SAS) has been launched in Perth.

The stamp recognise the SAS motto - Who Dares Wins - and the diverse operational theatres the Australian SAS have operated in over the years.

Tags: Australia 

Children and Christmas have always been inextricably linked – so who better to design 2007 Christmas stamps than younger generation? It's an idea that turned into a nationwide competition, which yielded more than 17,000 entries. Only five were destined to become the stars of these stamps – and be seen by millions around the world.

Tags: Christmas New Zealand 

The latest in the range of an animal theme, Birds is the first of a proposed series of three issues that examine UK species that are endangered, but thanks to the efforts of conservation groups and the public, are now on the way to recovery.

Continuing the series of animals on stamps, the Birds stamp issue comprises of ten 1st class stamps in a se-tenant block featuring UK bird species that although on the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) endangered list, are showing signs of recovery. Each stamp features a photograph of the bird together with its common and scientific name and a statistic referring to the species' increasing population.

Tags: United Kingdom 

The Stamp Issuing Office of the Principality of Monaco will issue on October 1, 2007, two commemorative stamps belonging to the 2nd Part of the 2007 philatelic programme:

0,54 ˆ - CHRISTMAS 2007

As being a Concordat State, this typical theme of Christmas remains a source of inspiration for those artists who create colourful illustrations.

Design: Luigi CASTIGLIONI
Printing process: Offset and serigraphy
Size of the stamp: 30 x 40 mm vertical
Sheet of 10 postage-stamps with illuminations.

0,85 ˆ - SEPAC (Small European Postal Administration Cooperation)

The Small European Postal Administrations took the initiative in realizing a joint issue stamp every two years to ensure a larger circulation of their products. For the first time this year the theme is "landscape".

Design: Patrice MEROT
Engraving: Yves BEAUJARD
Printing process: 3 colours steel-engraving
Size of the stamp: 52 x 40 mm horizontal
Sheet of 6 postage-stamps with illuminations.

Tags: Monaco 

On 6 September 2007, the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU) will issue commemorative stamps on the theme "Humanitarian Mail". UNPA will issue three stamps (in a mini-sheet format) and UPU will issue a stamp in Swiss denomination. A special joint silk cover will also be released on the same day.

Tags: United Nations 

Pabay will issue a new stamp and cover on 4 September to coincide with the Royal Mail series 'endangered species'. The stamp will feature the White-tailed Eagle.

Tags: United Kingdom