Postcard from Israel

Cover from Belgium

FDC from Portugal

FDC from China

New stamp and FDC from Latvia

In the new postage stamp with value Ls 0.45 is represented Latvia orienteer and in the European championship orienteering sport logo. The postage stamp artistic author is Girts Griva.

Postage stamp 200 000 copies made in the France enterprise Cartor Security Printing.

Together with a postage stamp an envelope and special seal of the first day is given out also. In locality cards are the envelope of the first day evident, an orienteers substantial instrument – compass and championship logo;also in a compass is the special seal represented.

Latvia hosts European Championships and first World Cup round
The early season events are past and the big Tvåmila and Tiomila relays have also taken place; many top competitors have also been training for this year’s World Championships in the Czech Republic and competing in the Moravian Open Championships. Now the world’s elite are looking forward to the first international championship event of 2008, the European Championships, in which the three individual finals also form the first round of the 2008 World Cup.
Ventspils, a harbour town in Latvia beside the Baltic Sea, is the event centre for the championships and the venue for the sprint races and the relay. In the middle and long distance races, high technical skills will be needed to cope with the very detailed sand dune terrain in the area, whilst one of the main physical challenges will be the marshes, which amount to 20% of the area in the long distance final and a significant part of the middle distance areas. The sprint races will be held in the town, with a good mix of urban area, parkland, dunes and beach, whilst the relay terrain is based around an old army base on the edge of the town, using coniferous forest along with complex duneland.
110 women and 137 men representing 29 countries will be taking part. Each nation can enter 6 runners per class and 2 relay teams of 3 per class, and the current European Champions have a ‘wild card’ entry in addition. There are qualification races for each of the 3 individual race formats with the top 17 from each of 3 heats in each class going through to the finals.

Cover from Czeck rep.

Date of publication: 05.03.2008
Face-value: 10.0 Kč
Print sheets: 30 stamps
Imprint dimension: 40 x 23 mm

Art design: Otakar Karlas
Engraving: Bohumil Šneider

This issue is designed to promote the World Stamp Exhibition PRAGA 2008 which is to be held on September 12-14, 2008 at the Prague-Holešovice Exhibition Grounds. The Navrátil's mural used on the stamp is also to commemorate the 90th anniversary of foundation of the Postal Museum in Prague (18.12.1918). J. Navrátil (1798-1865) was the most famous Prague decorative painter dominating in murals for town-houses and houses for aristocrats and the emperor. The nice two-floor house at Prague 1, Nové mlýny 2, the seat of the Postal Museum, is the original residential part of the former mill located at this site. In the 19th century it was the property of a rich miller and art benefactor Michalovic who asked his friend Navrátil for its decoration. The so-called Theatre Saloon displays 16 scenes from historical legends and theatre plays, e.g. Oldřich and Božena, Libuše's Judgement, Vilém Tell or Bath Servant Zuzana Carrying the King Wenceslas IV Over the Vltava River. We can admire the last one on the postage stamp. Located in the same room is also Navrátil's self-portrait used on the first day cover. The third saloon, the former dining room, displays paintings of romantic landscapes including Alpine scenes as remembered by the author from his travelling in Austria, Italy and Switzerland. These murals belong to the last murals painted by Navrátil in Prague. The postage stamp will be issued in the form of printed sheets and booklets of 8 stamps and 4 coupons.

Date of publication: 05.03.2008
Face-value: 10.0 Kč
Print sheets: 50 stamps
Imprint dimension: 30 x 23 mm
Art design: Otakar Karlas
Engraving: Bohumil Šneider

The postage stamp designed for Easter correspondence features the "Mourning over the Dead Christ", a detail from the panel altar painting created by the Master of the Vyšebrodský Cycle before 1350. This anonymous artist who belongs to the founders of the Czech Gothic panel painting is named after the alter in the South Bohemian Cistercian monastery at Vyšší Brod. The Cistercian order was famous for the cult of Mary. The completely preserved cycle of feasts, probably in the original form of a square retable, displays nine scenes of the Christ's life, from the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary up to the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The form of the painting combines the western linear concept with Italianising softening shapes. The work on canvas mounted on lime wood panel is the property of the National Gallery in Prague. The Vyšebrodský Master's cycle includes paintings such as, e.g. Madonna of Veveří, Strahov, Kladsko as well as murals in the vestry of St. Thomas Church at the Lesser Town in Prague.

FDC from Portugal

FDC from S.Korea

FDC from Malaysia

Cover from Switzerland

Cover from Croatia

FDC from India

Postcard from Australia

FDC`s from China

FDC from Russia

Cover from Taiwan

FDC from France

Postcard from Malaysia

Cover from Ukraine

Cover from Finland

Cover from Spain

Covers from Canada

FDC from Russia

FDC from Sweden

FDC from S.Korea

Date of Issue: April 22, 2008
Quantity: 1.6 million stamps each
Denomination: 250 won
Design: Spacecraft collecting and delivering letters,The world in the post box
Printing Processand Colors: Photogravure, six colors, Offset, five colors
Size of Stamp: 36mm x 26mm, 26mm x 36mm
Image Area: 36mm x 23mm, 26mm x 36mm
Perforation: 13
Sheet Composition: 5 x 4, 4 x 5(216mm x 140mm, 140mm x 216mm)
Paper: White Unwatermarked
Original Painter: Lau Tsun Yin (Hong Kong, China), Hamzah D. Marbella (Philippines)
Designer: MO, Jiwon
Printer: Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation

A red post box stands at the corner of an alley, a familiar sight. Now, new IT technologies are dominating the world to be applied to all aspects of our lives. Then, in the next 10 years, 20 years, or 50 years, how will the postbox evolve?
Korea Post held “The 2008 International Postage Stamp Design Contest” under the theme of “the mailbox of the future.” A total of 5,327 works were submitted and 15 award-winning works were selected for the Grand Prize, Award of Excellence, Honorable Mention, and Special Prize. The “Special Stamp for the Mailbox of the Future” features pictures selected as Grand Prize and Award of Excellence, both of which give a glimpse of the abundant imagination of the kids. Lau Tsun Yin (age 8) from Hong Kong, the winner of the Grand Prize, expressed the future mailbox as a spacecraft that has many protruding arms like a jellyfish. In his picture, the postman in the spacecraft collects and delivers the mail using these long arms. Hamzah D. Marbella (age 7) from Philippines, the winner of Award of Excellence, is conveying this message: despite the noteworthy advancement of computers and electronic telecommunications, the countless letters in the post box will make our future world beautiful and fill it with peace and love. It is hoped that the future post boxes imagined by our kids will be realized some day.

FDC from Czech rep.

Date of publication: 07.05.2008
Face-value: 17.0 Kč
Print sheets: 8 stamps
Imprint dimension: 40 x 23 mm
Art design: Marina Richterová

The Association of European Public Postal Operators PostEurop declared "Writing Letters" as this year's common theme for the postage stamp issue EUROPA in order to promote written correspondence. In the past writing letters significantly cultivated the language and contributed to a better and more precise formulation of ideas. In today's world of mobile phones and e-mails hardly anyone will find the time for a handwritten letter. Despite the present massive spread of computers, a handwritten news still remains an expression of a special attention. Correspondence of leading authors is published as an organic part of their work, e.g. the correspondence of B. Němcová. These days waiting for a letter from a friend is rather a curiosity. We get an occasional card with Christmas or Easter greetings or from a holiday trip. The spoken word dies out, but a letter remains.

Cover from Korea

FDC from Estonia

Denomination: 9.00
Date: 30.04.2008
Print: ofset
Designer: Triin Heimann
Perforation: 14 : 14¼
Sheets: 2 x 5
Quantity issued: 220 000
Printing house:AS Vaba Maa


PostEurop has picked the letter as the theme of this yea’s Europa stamp. The letter is a missive from the sender to the receiver and for its delivery postal services have been set up in all world countries today. Regular postal carriage in Europe started on the initiative of Franz von Taxis in 1495 on the Vienna-Brussels route. Estonia received its first regular postal link with Sweden 1638. For the linguistic expression of the contents of letters men have devised sign systems that have developed from ancient pictograms and cuneiform signs into powerful and supple instruments of human communication. Whether alphabetic, syllabic or hieroglyphic, writing can express the whole range of human thought and can besides take highly artistic forms. Although e-mails are winning more and more popularity today, the traditional “hard copy” letter is still very much alive and kicking as the millions of letters postal systems daily deliver to addressees prove.

FDC from Russia

Date of issue: 29th April 2008.

Designer: A. Drobyshev

Paper: chalky

Printing process: offset

Perforation: frame 12 : 12 1/2

Size of a stamp: 30 x 42 mm.

Size of the Souvenir Sheet: 70 x 90 mm.

Printing run: 100.000

Michel catalogue number: Block110 (1461)

15 (R). multicoloured. 225 anniversaries of the fleet to Russia on Black sea.

Latvia : Lighthouses

Date of issue : 10th May 2008.