Behind the Stamp

Beijing won the bidding for the 2022 winter olympics, meaning lots of construction and lots of stamp issues to cover. China Post was undoubtedly the first with stamps showing the mascots, logo, and winter sports. The winter sports set is a pane of 4, with stamps showing cross country skiing, biathlon (rifle shooting and cross country), alpine skiing, and freestyle skiing, on top of some mountains and with the logo in the corner. They're worth RMB1.20 each. They were released on November 16, 2018 and were designed by Shen Jiahong. Stay home, and stay safe.

Royal Mail released this set of stamps to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Forestry Commission, the British equivalent of the US Forest Service. This set shows six stamps, each showing some forest in Britain. Going clockwise from the top left, the stamps show Glen Affric in Scotland, Sherwood Forest (yes, Robin Hood) in Nottinghamshire, Glenariff Forest in Northern Ireland, Kielder Forest in Northumberland, Coed y Brenin in Wales, and the National Arboretum in Gloustershire. The Forestry Commission was created in 1919, to protect the great forests across Britain, and to prevent deforestation in these forests. Logging was crazy back in the day, and forests were chopped down at increasing speeds.  The Forestry Commission was created to combat that and preserve Britain's forests for generations to come. These stamps were released on August 13, 2019, in East Molesey, London, UK.

In 2019, New Zealand Post released a set of stamps depicting the Te Araroa trail, which crosses the country top-bottom. It travels 3000 km (~1900 mi) from Cape Reinga in the north, to Bluff Point in the south, via Auckland, Tongariro NP, Wellington, the Cook Strait, and the entirety of the Southern Alps. Te Araroa is Maori for "The Long Pathway", which takes several (3-6) months to go the whole distance. Going back to the stamps, there are six total in the set. Going clockwise from the top left corner, the stamps show 90 Mile Beach, Tongariro, Nelson Lakes, Lake Hawea, Stag Saddle, and Karamu Walkway. This stamp was released on September 4, 2019, and was designed by Hannah Fortune. Stay home, and stay safe.

Enjoy the great outdoors, or at least virtually for now. This set features five stamps repeated twice on the paper. The stamps depict activities like building a sandcastle, cross-country skiing, hiking, biking, and canoeing. Fun fact: the full sheet for this stamp uses what I believe is the Rockwell Thin font. Please correct me if wrong. The stamp will be released on June 13, 2020, in Incline Village, NV; it has no set face value as it's a forever stamp. It was designed by Derry Noyes and Gregory Manchess. Stay home, and don't do any of the listed activities until at least July. Please don't.

Urban Transit was the theme chosen for a 2004 stamp set. It features metro and light rail systems from Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. It was released on April 30, 2004, in Toronto, ON. It was designed by Debbie Adams, a renowned stamp designer for Canada Post. Toronto Subway Toronto's subway system consists of four lines going all across the city. It currently has 75 stations, with 39 more in construction. It was opened in 1954, meaning it's the oldest subway in Canada. It's run jointly by the Toronto Transit Commission and the City of Toronto. Vancouver Skytrain Vancouver's Skytrain is a light rail system covering 54 stations across 3 lines. It's the longest rail transit system in the whole of Canada. It was opened for the 1986 World Expo, in which the theme was transportation. It's run by Translink and BC Rapid Transit. Surprisingly it's the newest one on this list. The Montreal Metro is the second oldest metro in Canada, and the ...

Europa Stamps, found all across Europe, are extremely fun to collect. They feature a different theme each year, and each country comes up with a creative stamp to add to the set. For example, in 2018, the year's theme was "Bridges". This week, we have a real fun one to research, Andorra. Andorra's submission was kinda a weird one. If you know anything about their geography, you'll know that they're sandwiched in the Pyrenees and in between France and Spain. That makes government operations weird, also meaning that they release two stamps for every Europa competition, one for French and one for Spanish post. Here, I'll talk about both. Time for a mega-article. Andorra (French 🇫🇷): This stamp features the Pont de la Tosca in Las Escaldes, a town right next to Andorra La Vella, the capital. The bridge crosses the Riu Madriu right next to the lifeline of the country, the Valira d'Orient. It is worth €1.20 and was released on May 5, 2018. Andorra (S...

Europa Stamps, found all across Europe, are extremely fun to collect. They feature a different theme each year, and each country comes up with a creative stamp to add to the set. For example, in 2018, the year's theme was "Bridges". This week, we have the second country/region alphabetically, which is Albania. Albania's entry was very hard to research, as all the pictures were far too blurry and half of the time consisted of me attempting to find these bridges on Google Maps. Anyways, the stamps depict the Gorica Bridge in Berat, and some bridge in Skhoder in the north of Albania. They are worth 200 and 250 Albanian Leks respectively. They were designed by Spiro Vlahu and released on October 25, 2018.

Europa Stamps, found all across Europe, are extremely fun to collect. They feature a different theme each year, and each country comes up with a creative stamp to add to the set. For example, in 2018, the year's theme was "Bridges". This is the start of a series that goes from A-Z for Europa stamps. Each post will feature one country. This week, we have the first country/region alphabetically, which is Åland. Åland's entry for the Europa 2018 stamps features the Bomarsund Bridge, one of only 2 arch bridges in Åland, which connects the municipalities of Bomarsund with Prästö. The stamp was designed by Sandra Henriksson and was released on May 9, 2018 in Mariehamn, the largest city in Åland. Shown: Single stamp (right), FDC (under)