Theme : Zodiac signs 24 d

In this post, I present the last 3 issues in the series of 12 Zodiac sheet/stamps from Liechtenstein. 

For the 2019 issue, we see the Year of the Ox.

2019 - Year of the Ox sheet

Again we see a different design in sheet and individual stamp.

2019 - Year of the Ox

 The second last sheet and stamp are dedicated to the Year of the Tiger, and was issued in 2020.

Here again, the choice for two different designs was made.

2020 - Year of the Tiger

Finally, in 2021, the series ended in this style, with a sheet for the Year of the Rabbit.

2021 - final issue - Year of the Rabbit

The design of the stamp, is different from the image of the sheet, and in 2021, the price of the individual stamp went from € 2 to € 2.30.

2021 - Year of the Rabbit

With this emission, the circle of 12 zodiac animals was completed. In the following years, new stamps were issued, but not in the same style.
As this new set started in 2022, it will take until 2033 to complete all 12 issues.
That will be topic in the future I guess. 

Theme : Zodiac signs 24 c

In 2017 in Liechtenstein, another sheet was issued in the series of zodiac signs.

2017 - Year of the Dog

For this issue, the individual stamp is clearly another design than the design of the sheet.
Each stamp had a face value of € 2.

2017 - Year of the Dog

Also in 2018, the Year of the Pig, the price of the stamps remained € 2.
The sheet, in the shape of a pig, is different from the design on the stamps.

2018 - Year of the Pig

2018 - Year of the Pig

In 2019, the set was extended with a sheet for the Year of the Rat.
Sheet and stamp have a different design, but in my opinion, the sheet resembles more to a mouse than to a rat.

2019 - Year of the Rat sheet

 

2019 - Year of the Rat

 

3 more issues to go ...

Theme : Zodiac signs 24 b

The story of the Liechtenstein zodiac stamps and sheets continues in 2014 with the year of the Ram.
Here translated as the year of the 'sheep'
The sheet itself, is a larger version of the stamp. The cut out parts on the stamp, are replaced by gold foil on the sheet.

2014 Year of the Ram

The sheet has 4 identical stamps with the very fragile 'ram' design. 

2014 - Year of the Ram

In 2015, the year of the Monkey was celebrated.
A new sheet with 4 monkey stamps was emitted.
Again the sheet has the same shape as the individual stamps. The gold foil on the sheet, becomes the cut out on the individual stamps.

2015 - Year of the Monkey

Year of the Monkey stamp

The issue of 2016 went up from € 1.90 per stamp to € 2.
The same style of design continued for the Year of the Rooster.

In this issue, the design of the individual stamp is different from the image of the sheet itself.

2016 - Year of the Rooster

All stamps were only emitted in sheets, in order to obtain an idividual stamp, the sheets had to be broken.

to be continued...

Theme : Zodiac signs 24 a

For the next set of posts, I had to wait 12 years...
Liechtenstein started emitting zodiac stamps in a specific sheet, in 2011, and the last sheetlet was sold to the public in 2022, 12 years later.
The beauty of this series, is that each individual stamp is 'carved out' of the paper.
This makes the individual stamp not only fragile, once used on a cover, it becomes nearly impossible to remove it without damaging the stamp. Also cancellations will be hard to read, as most of the paper just simply is not there.

The serie started in 2011  with the year of the Dragon.

Zodiac sheet 2011 'Dragon'

Each year, the zodiac stamp is issued in a sheetlet, continging 4 identical - perforated - stamps.

1 of the 4 identical stamps of 2011

On this first sheet, next to the 4 stamps, only a lunar calendar is included.

Lunar calendar on the 2011 sheet

The shape of the sheet is nicely rectangular, which makes only the stamps 'special'. The same goes for the 2012 edition.
In 2012, the year of the snake is celebrated.

2012 - Year of the Snake sheet

The sheet has the 4 identical perforated stamps and a picture of 2 snakes.

one of the 4 identical 'snake' stamps of 2012

In the image above, the background of the stamps is yellow, due to the paper behind it.
In reality it is a see-through stamp because of the cut out image.

The sheet ouline changes in 2013, with the 'Year of the Horse'.
Now, not only the stamp has a cut out design, now also the sheet itself has the shape of a horse.

2013 - Year of the Horse sheet

From 2013 on, not only the stamps require to be handled with care, also the sheetlet itself is fragile.

1 of the 4 'horse-zodiac' stamps

Not only zodiac-sign collectors will love this set of stamps/sheets, also collectors of 'odd stamps' must be thrilled over this emission...

... to be continued...

Odd stamps : 06 p Stamps on cotton / silk

Once again, a new smooth stamp/sheetlet from Thailand.
Depicting two pets, a dog with a cat on his back, and printed on velvet paper.
Touching the stamp/sheetlet, it feels like petting the animals for real.

This sheetlet of 25 baht, is only issued on 300,000 copies. A rather small number for a country with almost 70 million people (2024).
It was issued on February 2024 to commemorate the 'Love your pet - day'.
The stamp was printed on velvet paper, to promote philately.

In the bottom corner of the sheetlet, we see a qr-code which leads to the website of the Thai post.
For those who don't speak phasa Thai (Thai), the site is also available in phasa Ankrit (English):

Thailandpost.co.th

to be continued....

Theme : Alphabets - 03

It took me a while, but finally I was able to find the complete set of the alphabet, used in Colombia.
The alphabet is the same as in all Spanish-speaking countries, and is the standard Latin alphabet, extended with some additional characters.
I could call it the 'Spanish' alphabet, but since the stamps are issued in Colombia, I'll name it the 'Colombian alphabet'.

The set consists of 30 stamps; 29 with characters and one with the message 'Learn to write'.
The set comes in 3 rows of 10 stamps each.

30 stamps on the 'Colombian alphabet'

The first stamp invite us to 'learn to write' and then the A-B-C starts:

A for Águila, B for Búfalo, C for Cóndor

Each of the stamps depicts an animal (except for the W and the X) - there are no animals starting with a W or an X in Spanish, so 'wagon' and 'xilófono' are used.

The 'CH' is considered a separate consonant, written with two letters C+H. The word 'chimpancé' is pronounced the same as in English.
Also the 'LL' is unknown in the English alphabet. In Spain it will be pronounced as 'lj' but in South America 'sj' is a more common way to pronounce the 'LL'.
If the animal is named 'lama' you could say in Spanish : la llama se llama Llama...

N and Ñ

Also typical for the Colombian (Spanish) alphabet is the 'Ñ' which we see in the country name 'España'. Because the 'ñ' is so typical for the alphabet, it is nowadays used on spanish stamps as a security mark.
The 'ñ' is cut out of many stamps as a security mark.

the 'ñ' cut out of the stamp

The full set of 30 stamps has been given a catalogue value of € 30, about $ 1 each.

to be continued...

Odd stamps : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 01 j

It has been a while since I posted some round stamps.

Round stamps are not an exception anymore, but still the shape is special.
It will not easily fit in standard albums, with individual holders and in classic albums, it tend to roll away.

Today I present a special set of stamps, that were issued in 2005.
Two round stamps depict the two Giant Pandas Chuang Chuang (male) and Lin Hui (female) from the People's Republic of China. Both pandas are ambassadors of friendship in the so-called Panda-Diplomacy of the P.R.China.

A panda showing his tongue,
and a panda eating bamboo

 

They are residents of the Chiang Mai Zoo since October 2003. The pandas are on 'loan' from the Zoo of Chengdu and will help to learn Thai about wildlife conservation.
Both pandas were supposed to return in 2023, but unfortunately, on September 19, 2019, Chuang Chuang passed away, aged 19.

The sudden death of the Giant Panda, has put some stress on the diplomatic relations between both countries, as millions of people in China (P.R.) questioned the cause of death of the male bear.
Chinese experts arrived later on to investigate the case.

Apart from the two individual stamps, also a souvenir sheet was issued.

2005 Thailand Giant Panda sheet

 

This issue was the first round emission in Thailand, followed by the emblems of the different regions in 2007 (see previous posts)

Theme : Alphabets - 02a Thai alphabet - part 1

One of my favourite modern stamps is a set of 44 alphabet stamps, issued by Thailand.
They were all depicted in two sheets, one of 24 and one of 20 stamps, in 2011.

The Thai alphabet has more letters then the latin (western) alphabet, 44 consontants and 15 vowel symbols that can be combined into 28 vowel forms in total.
In addition to this, Thai is a tonal languages, the tone in which a word is pronounced, changes the meaning of the word.

All consonant signs are being displayed in the central stamps.
In the border of the first sheet, we see 24 stamps of 1 baht.
The alphabet starts with Ko/Kai (of Go/Gai) - like the G in the french Garçon.

Sheet 1 : K/G ko/kai to th/thong

Each letter refers to a word, this makes it easier to remember Kai/Gai means 'chicken'

Ko/Kai - Go/Gai  - ก ไก่ (chicken)

Cho/Chang -ช ช้าง (elephant) 

The second sheet continues with N to H

Sheet 2 : N no/nu to H ho/hu

Po/Pla - ป ปลา (fish)

Lo/Ling - ล ลิง (monkey)

The vowels are partly included in the consonant sound - ba/da/fa/ga/ha/ja/ ....
The vowel signs or combinations, alter the original vowel - bo/do/fo/go/ho/jo/ ... and are less important than in western alphabets.
Therefore, this system is called an abugida, in which vowels have a lower status than consonants and its notation is secondary.
Unless a specific vowel is written or diacritics are added, all consonants have their own specific vowel sounds included. MBK* will be read as MoBoKo, unless mentioned otherwise.
*MBK is a shopping mall in Bangkok.

ล - L(o)
◌ิ - i
ง - ng
The ล which is normally 'lo' becomse 'li' because of the ◌ิ which is placed on the proceeding consonant. That's why it should be pronounced as : 'ling' (monkey): ลิง
Each stamp is issued as a 1 baht stamp.
Sending a postcard within Thailand used to be at the rate of 3 baht.
Sending a letter to Europe, you'll need 15 baht, which results in very colourful covers.

to be continued...

Currency Today : Venezuela 14

In this post, I present the last two Venezolan notes (at this moment).

200 BsS and 500 BsS

Again 2 new designs were used.
The 500 note has Simón Bolívar on the front side, but now he is depicted from the right hand side.

The back side of the notes puts two more vulnerable animals in the picture.

reverse side of 200  BsS and 500 BsS

The parrot on the 200 BsS note, is a large parrot or small macaw.
The bird is not that uncommon in captivity, and often found as pet. However in the wild, the Guacamayo is vulnerable.
Although the picture on the banknote is only one colour, the Guacamayo/Papagayo Militar/Verde is known for its colourful, but predominal green plumage, resembling a military uniform

Guacamayo on 200 BsS/VeS

Guacamayo or Papagayo Militar or Verde

The last note in the 2018 set, is a 500 Boliváres Soberanos note (equivalent of 50,000,000 Boliváres fuertes).
As it is the highest denomination (for now), it shows the national hero Simón Bolívar on the front side.
At the back, an endemic bird is depicted. This is the only animal on the banknotes that is not endangered of vulnerable.

Venezuelan Turpial

The Venezuelan Turpial or Tourpial is the national bird of Venezuela.

Venezuelan T(o)urpial

In 2015, there was an international beauty contest in Tokio, Japan.
Each miss represented her country in a dress that referred to her country.
Edymar Martínez did this in a 'turpial' dress. I don't know if the dress made any difference, but she won the 2015 Miss International competition.

Miss (Turpial) Venezuela - Miss International 2015

Edymar Martinez representing Venezuela poses in a national dress during the 55th Miss International Beauty Pageant in Tokyo, Japan, November 5, 2015. Photo: Reuters

Currency Today : Venezuela 13

Moving on to the 5th and 6th note in the 2018 set of Venezolan banknotes.
50 BsS and 100 BsS (or 5 and 10 million old BsF).

50 and 100 Boliváres Soberanos

Again two new designs :

50 BsS :
Date of issue : January 15, 2018.
Signature G

100 BsS :
Date of issue : March 22, 2018
Signature G

Signature on 100 BsS/VeS

At the back side:

reverse side of 50 and 100 BsS

Two of Venezuela's endangered animals:
on the 50-note the legenda underneath the animal says 'Cunaguaro'.
In Spanish, it refers to two types of animals:
1: the Leopardus Pardalis or Ocelot,
2: the Leopardus Tigrinus or Tigrillo/Oncillo.

Since the Ocelot is not an endangered animal, we see the Oncillo or Tiger Cat on the note.
This animal is vulnerable and lives in mayor parts of Venezuela, as well in almost the entire country of Brazil.

Tiger Cat or Oncillo

Tiger Cat in action

on the  100-note we see a brown spider monkey.
The animal only lives in Colombia and partly in Venezuela, and now is critically endagered.
It is considered to be in the top 25 of most endangered primates.

Brown spider monkey

lovely animal on the edge of extintion

to be continued ...