Theme : Tintin (Kuifje) 09

It has been a while again, but today I'm happy to add a new item to my theme collection.

This time, the postal services of the Pricipality of Monaco, issued a stamp on Tintin in 2012.
Besides French, the official language, Italian, Occitan and Monégasque are spoken in Monaco.
The reason for this issue is, that the editor of the Tintin comic books has issued it's third album in Monégasque language.

The album "de schat van Scharlaken Rackham" or "Red Rachham's Treasure" was issued in 1944, as the 12th Tintin album. The story is the second part of the two-part adventure 'The Secret of the Unicorn" (1943) and it's the album where professor Calculus is introduced.

Tintin and Red Rachham's Treasure (1944)

The Monégasque version of the album Red Rachham's Treasure (O Tresoru de Rakamu u Russu), is the third album issued in this language.
Previously also "The secret of the Unicorn (Le Secret de la Licorne)"
and "The Castafiore Emerald (I Ori da Castafiore)" were translated into Monégasque.

Stamp and left hand corner of the sheet (Monaco)

The stamp was issued on November 21, 2012; but the stamp self mention "2013" several times, as can be seen on the left hand corner of the sheet.
Also the micro text under the central image refers to 2013:

issued in 2012 ...

I hope many more translations will follow, and more nice Tintin stamps as well...

Odd stamps : 06 i Stamps on cotton / silk

For my next item, we go to Taiwan.
Officially, Taiwan is a province of the People's Republic of China.
Many Taiwanese people consider themselves however as being citizens of the 'independent' island of Taiwan, or the so called Republic of China.

Map of PR China, Taiwan (R.O.C. in red)

For any political interpretation, you'll have to search elsewhere, here I'm only talking about the beauty of the stamps, issued by this country.

And this truly is a beautiful stamp/sheet!

Most stamps/sheets printed on silk are already an example of exquisit printing.
Here, the stamp is superb.

silk sheet / stamp of Taiwan

If we look in detail, we see a beautiful bird, printed in embossed silk, with gold overprint.
To see the embossed printing, a picture of the back side shows us more :

back side of the sheet, bird and chinese characters are embossed

On the border of the sheet, we see some fibers hanging loosly.

loose fibers

If we zoom in into the stamp, we'll discover the fine design and embossed printing, together with the gold print on the back ofhte bird.

stamp out of the sheet

detail of the stamp

This sheet is truly a piece of art and as far as I'm concerned, to be nominated for the most beautiful stamp of the year.

If any Taiwanese reader of my blog, is willing to send me a postally used copy of this sheet, I'd be very happy.

Theme : Zodiac signs 13

The theme of zodiac signs has always been popular.

The fact that there are 12 zodiac signs (which is an easy number to make sheets) - gives lots of possibilities for stamp designers.

Canadian postal services once more made a lovely sheet on this topic.

full sheet zodiac signs Canada

Each of the 12 stamps are printed in black and one colour.
If you'd put each stamp next to the other, they form the colours of the rainbow.
(how convenient for my blog).
Starting with red (Aries) to violet (Pisces)

zodiac signs Canada, detail

But there is more to discover :
If we look at the designs line by line, we see the same backgrounds :

Row 1 : element Fire

1st row : signs related to the element Fire

Row 2 : element Earth

2nd row : signs related to the element Earth

Row 3 : element Air

3rd row : signs related to the element Air

Row 4 : element Water

4th row : signs related to the element Water

Let's pic out my sign to show in detail:

On the stamp we see a picture symbolizing the zodiac sign and a picture of the star constellation.
The same picture of the star constellation is repeated in the border of the sheet.

Gemini constellation in the border of the sheet

Another 'must have' from Canada.

Odd Banknotes - 07 Thailand

Once more, for my collection of odd banknotes, I will take you to Thailand.

In 2004, Queen Sirikit celebrated her 72nd birthday.
Counting in 'cycles' of 12 years, this means the 6th Cycle Birthday Anniversary.

The banknote that was issued for that occasion, is in fact a banknote with 2 front sides.
At first, I even thought that 2 different banknotes were issued.

Side 1 shows the royal couple, King Rama IX is standing and his wife, Queen Sirikit is sitting next to the king.

Side 2 shows the queen alone, with scenes from her life.

side 1

side 2

Thai people honour the royal family very much.
Also the banknote design has been well overthought.
For example, the size of the note is 72 x 162 mm.
It's the queen's 72th anniversary and 1+6+2 = 9 fererring to King Rama IX.
The serial numbers on the banknote start at 0000001 and end in 7299999.
Again we see the 72 and the number 9.

Mark the serial number, it starts also with a '9' : typical for the commemorative notes issued under King Rama 9.

young Queen Sirikit of Thailand