Odd stamps : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 01 g

I don't know if the sun has something to do with it, but I'm in a 'round' mood today.
It's not really about the sun that I'm going to write, but at least we're up in space.

The first man in space was the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
In English we would call him an astronaut, and the Chinese would even say a taikonaut.
Whatever you call him, he was the first man ever leaving the earth' athmopshere and entering space.

In fact, it wasn't ment to be at first. However his colleague's name : German Titov wasn't sounding "russian" enough and that gave him the chance to meet history in April 1961.
Although he was the first human in space, some living animals get the credit of being in space before him.

Already in the late 40's of the 20th century, some fruit flies were launched into space (1947).

Yury Gagarin used to joke: "I could never understand if I was the first human or the last dog in space". The dogs Dezik and Gypsy were the first to travel to space on a rocket launched successfully in 1951. "The most lonely and unhappy dog" was Layka ("Barker" in Russian, a term used for several breeds of dogs) who went to space in 1957 on Vostok, which at that time didn't have the slowdown and heat protection systems. Layka had a one way ticket. She was a stray dog captured on the streets of Moscow, trained, and sent up into space. She died only a few hours in, due to overheating and panicking.

Layka - on a romanian (CTO) stamp

The first living thing to complete an orbit and return alive were two dogs named Belka and Strelka ("Squirrel" and "Little Arrow" in Russian).

Belka & Strelka

They were launched by the USSR in 1960 and spent a day in orbit before their capsule was returned to Earth with the dogs still alive. They landed safely on a designated territory on August 19, 1960.

Belka & Strelka - bulgarian stamp

The dogs on the orbit were followed by apes, cats, tortoises, mice, birds, fish... A whole zoo travelled to space over the past 50 years.


But now back to my intended topic ...
Yuri Gagarin was honoured 50 years after his flight, with a round stamp issued by Sri Lankan post.
In the same year of his flight, (1961) he also visited Sri Lanka, so the stamp is a double celebration.
For the stamp, a round shape was selected (lucky me) and the sheetlet has 12 round stamps and 3 round labels with pictures of Yuri Gagarin.

We see Gagarin depiced the way he was dressed as an astro-/cosmonaut.

Yuri Gagarin photo

Yuri Gagarin stamp

On the 3 labels we see Gagarin dressed as a (decorated) civilian, and in an air force uniform.

3 labels with Yuri Gagarin

Gagarin numerous decorations

Yuri Gagarin died in an MiG 15 training jet, on March 27,1968 at the age of 34.
He was burried in the Kreml in Moskou.

Odd stamps : 07 c Stamps (sheets) with special cuts

There is so much to post about 'odd' stamps...
And in one of the previous articles I wrote something about 'odd shaped sheets'.
The stamps on those sheets are regular, square or rectangle stamps, but the sheets have odd shapes.

Nowadays a stamp is more then before an item to impress collectors, or even to impress foreighn postal administrations.
Having an odd shaped stamp in your emission, is surely a guarantee to sell more, and to attract new collectors.
And I of course, see it as my duty to get those stamps and sheets for you, my dear followers.

I'm presenting 2 unique sheetlets with a special cuts, from Bosnia Herzegovina.
Both were emitted in 2011.

The first one doesn't look that special at first sight.
It looks rather 'spacial', well because it depicts Yuri Gagarin and we see the Vostok 1 who brought him in space on April 12, 1961.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this remarkable event, Bosnia i Herzegovina (the former Yugoslavian Republic) published this sheetlet.

Bosnia i Herzegovina (2011) - 1st man in space

We see a round shape in the left corner, that follows the shape of the earth, but when looking at the rocket, we see that the special cut is very nice.

detail of the rocket - special cut

Very impressive and beautiful.

But in the same year (2011), Bosnia i Herzegovina emitted another, even more impressive sheetlet.
This time on domestic birds.

The idea is similar to the previous sheet, at first you see a normal sheet, but at the left corner, there's a special cut. But this time, the cut follows the shape of the leafs and the bird.

Bosnia i Herzegovina (2011) - domestic birds

The choice of the colours of the sheet could have been better, as the main bird nearly dissapears between all the green-grey-brown shades, but the sheetlet itself is a collectors' item!

detail of the branch and bird - special cut

Impressive, stamp collecting is fun again.

to be continued...