Behind the Stamp

Australia- home to dogs and spiders that murder you, and bears that fall out of the sky. That's one part of it. The next part of it is where the people live - the southeast! Home to cities like Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra, people ACTUALLY LIVE HERE (or at least more than 5). There's this one highway that goes from Sydney all the way to Adelaide - the Prince's Highway. Built in 1920, it's an almost 2000 kilometer long route that goes from Sydney thru Wollongong, Melbourne, Geelong, Adelaide, and ending at Port Augusta, SA. Stamp Description The stamps feature the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong, and Mount Gambier, featuring a vintage style poster for each. Under that, the city name and the caption "Princes Highway 1920-2020" with the value on the bottom. In the Mount Gambier stamp, it shows two people sitting on a hill overlooking the Blue and Valley Lakes; in the Geelong one, it depicts Waterfront Park, looking out towards the harbor; f...

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 ...

The World's Fair 1986 was held in Vancouver, Canada, with the theme of "Transport and Communications: World in Motion, World in Touch" Over 80 countries were in attendance at the fair, which lasted from May 2, 1986, to October 13, 1986. The four stamps feature different symbols of the event, showing a satellite, Canada Place, the monorail, and Science World, in no specific order under geometric patterns. The satellite stamp is worth 39 Canadian cents, and shows a satellite to the corner, with a satellite dish in the middle, adjacent to an old timey telephone. The words in the top left corner say "Communications, Vancouver" with the Expo 86 logo in the opposite corner. The Canada Place stamp shows Canada Place from the harbor, with the iconic very pointy roof with the Pan Pacific hotel in the back. There's a simple pattern of repeating maple leaves on top. In the top left, it says "Canada Pavillion/Pavillion du Canada, Vancouver", with the logo in...

The Royal Philatelic Society of the UK celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019, hosting a huge exhibit in Stockholm, affectionately called "Stockholmia", a huge convention from May 29, 2019, to June 2, 2019. It consisted of over 300 contestants, using up 27,392 album pages in the displays. The stamps show many place in Stockholm, like the city hall, as well as antiques like rubber stamps. They are complemented with a contrail spelling "hello". Released May 29, 2019, in Windsor PO.

On December 10, 2019, the long-awaited Taipa Line of the Macao Light Rapid Transit (MLRT) opened to the public for service. This occasion was commemorated by Macau Post, creating a set of stamps for the trams. It shows a MLRT tram running across an elevated railway, similar to the ones in Vancouver. Released December 10, 2019. Shown: First Day Cover

Singapore is a very small city-state, but is completely packed with surprises. Those include many parks, and around 5 million people in 280 miles squared. Those parks include Admiralty, East Coast, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio, and Labrador parks, which were all featured on the Singapore National Day 2019 - Parks stamps. They all depict ordinary citizens who are having fun in the parks, surrounded by nature. Released August 9, 2019 in, well, Singapore.

These 5 stamps depict the five largest cities in Australia: Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide (Set 1), Sydney, and Perth (Set 2). There are postcard pictures on every stamp, with Sydney Harbor facing the south on the Sydney stamp, the north bank of the Yarra River in Melbourne, the north side of the Brisbane River in Brisbane, the Karrawirra Parri/River Torrens facing the Adelaide Oval on the north side in Adelaide, and Elizabeth Quay Island on the northern side of the Swan River in Perth. Issued 9/20/19 (set 1) and 9/23/29 (set 2).

The Transcontinental Railroad was one of the greatest engineering feats in US history, with two sections meeting up at Promontory Point in Utah. That was in 1869. Operated by Union Pacific, it's still in good shape and freight trains run on it. The railroad was built by a variety of people, mostly immigrants, from anywhere you can think of. It's been 150 years since the 'Golden Spike' got hammered in, and USPS has released a new sheetlet to commemorate. The sheetlet shows two trains, the Jupiter and No. 119. They carried passengers to Promontory Point, the location of the Golden Spike. First released March 11, 2019.

In Canada, hockey is a great part of culture (and cliches, understandably). Teams compete in two leagues, the NHL (National Hockey League), and the Canadian Hockey League (the amateur league). The CHL consists of three regional divisions, the Western, Ontario, and Quebec leagues. Some US teams are also included in these leagues. This trophy has been there for 100 years, and is named for the veterans of war. First released in May 18, 2018

In 1969, the Woodstock Music Festival was held in the small town of Bethel, New York. It was a three day party, with around 500,000 people in attendance! There were over thirty performers in Bethel, both famous and obscure. Woodstock is often said to be the most famous rock festival in history. It was a 'dramatic expression of youth counterculture'. And now, fifty years later, the USPS has created a sheetlet to commemorate the festival. It was first released on August 8, 2019 and was designed by Antonio Acala, art director.

In 2018, the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system celebrated its 50th birthday, as it was founded in 1968. USPS made a sheetlet commemorating the NWSR's 50th birthday. They released a sheet of 12 stamps depicting different WSRs. In the background is the Merced River of California. It shows (on row 1) the Merced River, the Owyhee River, the Koyakuk River, (on row 2) the Niobrara River, Snake River, the Flathead River, (on row 3) the Missouri River, Skagit River, the Deschutes River, (on row 4) the Tlikakila River,   Ontonagon River, and the Clarion River. It's still commonly confused with the National Parks and Monuments, etc. The sheetlet was released on May 21, 2019 in Bend, Oregon.

The MacLehose trail is a 100 km trail covering crossing Hong Kong from Sai Kun to Tuen Mun. It was named after longest serving governor of Hong Kong, an avid hiker, and established of the country parks, Sir Murray MacLehose. The trail was officially opened on October 26, 1979. These are the second in the Hong Kong trails series. The trail is split into ten parts, covering 200 posts. These stamps were released on October 24, 2019.

Formally called the "Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area" this metropolitan mega-city consists of 9 districts in Guangdong province and the two special administrative regions, Macau and Hong Kong. It depicts landmarks in all the districts (Zhaoqing, Foshan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Macau, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Hong Kong, and Huizhou). It was released on September 26, 2019. The landmarks are, respectively, the Seven Star Crags of Zhaoqing, the Century Lotus sports center of Foshan, Zhongshan First Bridge, Kaiping Diaolou of Jiangmen, the Ruins of St. Paul’s of Macao, Zhuhai Opera House, Canton Tower of Guangzhou, Shenzhen Civic Center, Dongguan Central Square, Golden Bauhinia Sculpture in Hong Kong, and Daya Bay Petrochemical Industrial Park of Huizhou.