Odd stamps : 01i Perfumed stamps

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Now the days are short and the nights are longer, we try to make it cosy at home.
Regardless if you turn your house into a lighthouse or not, lights add to create a nice atmosphere in your home.
So far, there are no stamps available that turn lights on in your house, but there's another option.

It has been a while, but I posted already some stamps with a frangrance.
The stamp(s) I present today fulfill your seasons' wishes.

The stamps were issued by Estonia, in november 2016.

The low value (€ 0.65) shows a bisquit in the shape of a snowflake, topped with ice sugar.

Estonia 643 - Christmas stamp 2016

The high value (€ 1.40) looks like a christmas three, but consists of a pile of figurines, (humans and animals) holding lights.

Estonia 644 - Christmas stamp 2016

The first stamp does not only shows a bisquit, it also smells like one.
It was printed with a fragrance of ginger and cinnamon.
Both stamps are autoadhesive, and to preserve the scent, it is best to keep them in a sealed (transparent) container.

See also my other post on this fragrance :
http://rainbowstampsandcoins.blogspot.com/2013/12/odd-stamps-01e-perfumed-stamps.html

Odd stamps: 01i Perfumed stamps

Writing this article, the end of the year is getting closer.
Time or some typical rituals that people like to maintain, when the darkest days are passing by.
Houses get overwhelmed with lights and f(l)aked christmas trees are draged into our houses.

Not only objects and music are typical for this time of the year, also some typical smells seem to have a preference for December and January.

It's the smell of cinnamon that also appears on two stamps of Estonia, one of the Baltic countries.

The highest value shows a pile of people and animals, forming a christmas tree with lights.
The second value is a cinnamon cookie in the shape of a snow flake.

The smell of cinnamon is strongly present, but in order to keep it like that, it's better to store the stamp in a separate holder. The stamps were issued in 2016 already, but are still spreading their fragrance.

The days that only love letters were perfumed is over, although I don't know many people who sniff their letters...

Odd stamps : 02e Silver / golden stamps

Estonia is one of the three Baltic states, and is therefore often named together with Latvia and Lithuania. It is the most northern Baltic Republic.
The language of Estonia however is more related to Finnish, than to the other two countries.

The country has a long history, and they declared their independency already in 1918, by the end of the first world war. Its true independency was rather short, as it came under Russian influence.
In their attempt to fight for an own republic, they fought with Germany against Russia.
This resulted in being put under Russian influence after the war.
In 1990, the Sovet Union dissolved and many states regained their independency again.
So happened in 1991 with Estionia.

The silver € 10 stamp, commemorates the (1st) independency of 1918.

€ 10 silver stamp Estonia 2018

Silver is vulnerable to oxygen, and therefore, the stamp is issued in a plastic box.

At the back of the stamp, a sticker is placed to make the stamp adhesive.
Opening the box, in order to use the stamp, would result in discolouration, and lost of the image at the front of the stamp.
The image is rather simple, we see the coat of arms of Estonia, and 100 written as 18.

This special stamp has a limited edition of only 40,000 copies.
They were printed at the Dutch printing office of Joh. Enschedé.
For the design of the stamp, all credits go to Indrek Ilves.

Indrek Ilves, showing an enlarged stamp

Estonia celebrates its independency day on Febrary 24.

Microstates : 17 Hiiumaa (bogus)

Before you think that my collection only consist out of 'fake' stamps, I want to assure you, that's not the case.
I'm bringing a lot of 'fakes' or 'cinderellas' under your attention, but believe me, it's just a fraction of my collection and altough it's in the picture here, it's not the main topic I collect.

In this post, I bring you to one of the Baltic states, Estonia.
Estonias postal history started in 1919 and was interrupted from 1920 to 1991, when the Soviet regime took over the country during the occupation.
It's the smallest of the 3 Baltic states, but the language isn't baltic, but part of the Finno-Ugric language familiy (so more related to Finnish and even Hungarian). 

Estonia - Hiiuma in yellow

Hiiumaa island

Next to the mainland, Estonia has 2 large islands, Saaremaa and the smaller Hiiumaa.
Hiiumaa (also the name of the province, formed by Hiiumaa island and Kassari island), has about 10.000 inhabitats. The name is derived from the two estonian words 'Hiid' (holy wood) and 'maa' (land), and it's clear that this island is known for it's forrest. The capital city of the island is Kärdla, on the northern side of the island.

Flag of Hiiumaa

Being a real island, with sufficient inhabitants, it could have been possible that a local postal service was erected, like the UK did in Guernsey, Alderney or Jersey. Unfortunatly, there's no real separate, local post on the island, so the 'stamps' from Hiiumaa are nothing more then nice cinderellas.

Again, we'll find a lot of thematic images on the labels.

sheet of Hiiumaa

detail

Theme : 1st issues : 03 Estonia

Who said that the first stamp of a country is hard to find and always expensive?
Not for Estonia.

Estonia was part of the Russian Empire until the end of the first World War.
It was independent until the start of the second World War, and was occupied by Germany and later on the Sovjet Union, until it regained independency in 1991.

Since the first stamp was printed in 1919, it's not really a difficult stamp to find, and above that, it's not an expensive stamp at all.

The stamp is unperforated and is part of a set of 4.
The second stamp also was emitted with perforation.

Estonia 001 MNH

Estonia 001 cancelled

Odd stamps : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 02 g

I almost forgot to share with you, one of the most beautiful triangular stamps I have.
For this last item on 'triangular' stamps, I take you to the Baltic region, showing airmail stamps of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Where african countries use triangular stamps mainly for revenue stamps (tax); the Baltic area has this preference to use triangular stamps for airmail. At least, in a time where airmail stamps were different from regular 'land mail' stamps.

In a way the purpose was the same. One look at the letter could tell you what kind of mail it was.
As revenue stamps draw the attention in Africa, here the airmail stamps will surely have drawn the attention.

Estonia :

Latvia :

Lithuania :

A more detailed look will be posted later, when I talk about the Baltic Countries in particular.