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...

Theme : Tintin (Kuifje) 08

It doesn't happy too often that I find a new item for my theme collection.
But today I found.

I wrote about Tintin stamps, issued by the Netherlands in my previous posts, http://rainbowstampsandcoins.blogspot.be/2011/04/theme-tintin-kuifje-2.html

To celebrate two Dutch cities : Hattem and Urmond, who were commemorating their 700th anniversary in 1999 and 2000, the two Tintin stamps were placed on two individual covers and cancelled with a special cancel.

This cancellation is double special as the dates are Dec. 31, 1999 and Jan. 1, 2000.

two covers in special album

Let's have a closer look

1999 - cover :

cover Dec. 31, 1999

Special cancel city Hattem

Hattem is a city in the Dutch province : Gelderland; (central-east) and got it's city rights in 1299.
In 1999 they celebrated their 700th anniversary.

location of Hattem

2000 - cover :

The second cover, is cancelled in Urmond, on Jan. 1, 2000.

Cover Jan. 1, 2000

Special cancel village Urmond

There are no written documents that state that Urmond got city rights in 1300.
The oldest remains date from the 12th century, but the (now) village itself, claims to have the rights since 1300. Therefore, the cancel on Jan. 1, 2000 (also 700th anniversary).
Urmond is now part of the Dutch city 'Stein', in the province Limbourg.

Location of Urmond (city Stein)

Both covers are presented in a cardboard cover, holding the two covers.
On the front and back page of the cover, "Millennium Wissel" - Millennium Change is printed.
On one side with 1999 - 2000, on the other side 2000 - 1999.

printing on both sides of the cover

Theme : Tintin (Kuifje) 07b (duo stamps)

Tintin is a success story, postal services do know that too.
The duo-stamps that were issued by the official postal services sell good.

As I told you before, the duo-stamps are in fact 5 stamps + labels that are sold for the price of 10 stamps.
The labels are very nice and "gefundenes Fressen" for theme collectors; but a bit of a rip off, as you aren't buying stamps actually.

But for the purpose of this blog of course... I bought the duo-stamps so that I can inform you all on my topic of Tintin-related stamps.

 I guess you all won't mind.

5 duo stamps : Tintin in danger

back side of the set

to be continued...

Theme : Tintin (Kuifje) 07a (duo stamps)

Collectors of Tintin stamps will be very interested in this issue,
yet, it's not really a Tintin-stamp...

It's a so-called 'personal' stamp, issued by belgian postal authorities.
This is a weird, but logically solved solution to 'personal stamps' that are appearing more and more these days.

First of all, there are no so-called 'personal stamps' in Belgium.
At least there are personal lables, additional to 'official stamps'.

Belgium made a smart move not to start issuing tons of 'private' issues that will never appear in catalogues.
They simplye made a neutral stamp and attatched a label to it that can be used as a 'personal stamp'.
The only official stamp is the white and red stamp on the right hand side.
The second part, is a personal label that can be ordered through the website of the belgian post.

5 duo stamps : Tintin airplane

back of the set

But now comes the tricky part ...
Anyone can order 'personal' labels with the real stamp attatched to it.
Except, postal services have emitted "duo" stamps on their own as well.
These are exactly the same as the 'personal stamps' ; i.e. offical stamp with personal label.

The 'officially' issued 'personal stamps' are emitted for special occasions such as weddings, birth, new year, ...
or for famous belgian comic book characters, like Tintin.

But only the white-red stamp is a real stamp.
Question is now, is this a set of 5 stamps now? or is this 5 similar stamps with 5 different labels?

Fact is, theme collectors, and collectors of belgian stamps, want those 5 'duo-stamps' for their collection, but forget that they are paying 10 times the price of 1 stamp and they receive 5 identical catalogised stamps.

to be continued...

Theme : Tintin (Kuifje) 06

On the day of this posting, August 29, 2011, a brand new sheetlet is issued by the belgian postal services.
Dedicated to the most famous Belgian ever.
Yes Tintin (Kuifje) is Belgian.

Since Spielberg decided to make a movie (or even a couple of movies) dedicated to 'our' hero, the hype only gets bigger.
The issued sheet is also dedicated to Tintin on the (television) screen and shows us a set of 10 different stamps with pictures taken from the albums or from the televisionseries or movies from the past.

The first line shows us two pics from the album : The Crab with the Golden Claws 
(album 1941 and animated movie 1947)

Second line, shows us an excerpt from the album : The black rocks
(album 1938 and animated movie 1961)

Third line is taken from two movies : The secret of the golden fleece (1961) and  The blue oranges (1964)

Second last line came from the very popular album : Tintin and the prisoners of the sun
(album 1949 - movie 1969)

Finally, the last line refers to the album : The blue lotus (album 1936 - animated movie 1991)

Theme : Tintin (Kuifje) - 05

Belgium has a history of railwaystamps that is more then unique. They were used until 1987 for parcel post.
After that date, regular stamps could be used for sending parcels.
In 2003 a new type of stamp was introduced for parcel post: "Kilopost", stamps without facial value, only mentionning the weight of the parcels. Going from half a kilogram upt ot 30 kg.

However, the Belgian Railways Company (NMBS/CFNB), emitted after 1987, and until now, labels that look like belgian stamps. Face value is printed in Euro, but those 'stamps' only are emitted in benefit of the B-holding (the new logo of the Belgian Railways).
On top of that, all those labels are extremely exensive. Labels of 3, 4, 5 euro, are no exeptions.

Yet, and that's why I'm posting it here, in 2007 a souvenir sheet was dedicated to Hergé, the father of Tintin.
The sheet came in two versions, one numbered 1 - 4200 (very rare and expensive) and a "cheaper" version without numbering.(30.000 copies).

You will not find it in a regular catalogue, as they are just labels, without any postal value.
Cancelled versions are CTO, since they can't be used for parcel post.
Still despites of all non-arguments, it's a piece worth having in my collection.
But for once, I don't mind being cheated by the postal services.

the sheet, with an € 8,50 label

a specially designed envelop

signature of Hergé on the envelop

B - HOLDING ... NOT the belgian postal services!

The Tintin "stamp"

Theme : Tintin (Kuifje) - 04

Belgium isn't the country that rings a bell when talking about "famous people".
In fact, most of Belgians famous inhabitants are imaginary people.
'Hercules Poirot' the detective in Agata Christy's novels; the 'smurfs' by Peyo; and of course Tintin.

Tintin, that's what this topic is about.
One of the most popular albums of Tintin, is "Destination Moon", which was followed by the album "Explorers on the Moon".
 Both albums were issued in 1953 and1954. Very remarkable, if you know that the first manned space flight occured much later, and the first man on the Moon, not less then 15 years later!

 

But since this topic is about stamps, i'll show you a belgian sheet, that was emitted in 2004.
It's dedicated to both albums, and 3 of the 5 stamps, including the sheet itself, were taken out of the albums.
The first two stamps show Hergé and a scale model of the rocket of Tintin, another stamp shows a sketch of one of the albums pictures.

The full sheet is decorated with a picture of the rocket, leaving Earth.
Hergé must have done a lot of research. Images that are 'know' to anyone of us, were not that obvious in the early 50's. As no one ever had left earth at that time.

Theme : Tintin (Kuifje) - 03

In one of the albums of Tintin, the reporter goes to Africa.
At that time, no one made any remarks about the album.
Recently, there are voices that are more critial about the album and the view of Hergé on Africa and the Africans.
Of course people are depicted very stereotypical, but after all, it's a comic book, not an encyclopedia.
African native people are treated in a rather racist way or at least depicted as unknowing, simple minded. And several attempt to stop the selling of the album were unsuccessful.

The reason why I posted this item, is certainly not to insult or to reopen any discussion.
It's a nice stamp, made by belgiums most famous comic book designer, father of the world know Tintin.

The stamps were issued in a souvernir sheet and a single stamp.
It was a joint-issue with Congo, Belgiums former colony. Both countries issued the same stamp and sheet.

Theme : Tintin (Kuifje) - 02

Although a Belgian hero, Tintin appears on stamps in The Netherlands and France too.

The Netherlands dedicated a sheetlet to 'Tintin on the Moon'

The French postal services depicted all main characters on a sheet of 6 stamps.
Next to Tintin and Snowy (Milou in French), professor Calculus (Zonnebloem in Dutch, Tournesol (Sunflower) in French), captain Haddock, the detectives Thomson and Thompson (Jansen en Janssens - Dupont and Dupond, Bianca Castafiori 'La Castafiori' (the famous Milanese nightingale) and finally Chang, the Chinese friend of Tintin, who made his appearance in 'The blue Lotus'.

Theme : Tintin (Kuifje) - 01

Tintin

Tintin (Kuifje in Dutch), is a reporter living in Brussels. His first assignment is to the former USSR. Later he also visits Africa, Tibet... He's a passionated boxer too. His best friend, captain Haddock, who's lost without his whiskey, a would-be-hero, but always on Tintin's side and the smart dog Snowy (Bobby in Dutch)
Tintin was created by the Belgian designer Georges Rémi (Her-gé).

Hergé was born in 1907, and  grew up during the first World War.  He grew up in a middle class family, and was much influenced by his catholic background. His interests in politics, combined with the politic situation of Europe at that time made his albums subject to discussion. Most of his albums have a political undertone and should be placed against a more right-winged background. In the album 'The blue Lotus' he was inspired by the Chinese-Japanes war in 1934. In 1942, 'The mysterious Star' was released, knowing that the newspaper he worked for (Le Soir) was under nazi-German influence. The vilains are the Americans and a jewish oil tycoon. In a reviewed version, the names were changed into more neutral ones. On the other hand, the album 'King Ottokar's Sceptre' which was released before the second World War, can be seen as a protest against nazi-germany. His first album, Tintin in the USSR was released in 1929, the last album : 'Tintin and the Alph-Art' in 1986, 3 years after Hergé's death.

Hergé always tried to design his albums with a high sense of perfection, realistic backgrounds, cars, .... but on the other hand, with lots of stereotypes as well. This led to a 18+ rating for the album 'Tintin in Africa' since it was considered to be racist - of course all faced to the time and the ideas of that era.

As Tintin is one of the few Belgian heros, several stamps and commemorative coins were dedicated to Hergé and Tintin. Not only in Belgium, although the sheet of 25 stamps, released in 2007 is truly among the best sheets ever emitted in Belgium.