Theme : Zodiac signs 21

Zodiac signs will always be a popular topic on stamps.
There are 12 (originally 13) zodiac signs in a year, according western astrology, and 12 animal signs in a 12-year cycle, according the eastern astrology.

In 2023, Mongolia issued two sheetlets, with one stamp each.
One is dedicated to western astrology, showing the 12 signs, around a circular stamp.

1st sheet - 12 western zodiac signs

In the middle of the circle with the 12 western zodiac signs, we find a round stamp, where the symbol for each sign is placed under the according picture above.

round shaped stamp with 12 zodiac symbols

detail gemini

Above each picture, we also see the star constellation

The second sheetlet shows the 12 animals in the easter zodiac circle.

2nd sheet - 12 asian zodiac signs

Here we find the more older symbols, that described someone's personalty based on the year of birth (starting around 4 February each 'western' year).
The word 'zodiac' is derived from the ancient Greek : zōdiakòs kýklos (ζῳδιακός κύκλος), which literally means 'circle of animals'.

This circle is binary composed, as each year is alternately male or female.
The 'male' years are Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse, Monkey and Dog, where the 'female' years are Ox, Hare (Rabbit), Snake, Sheep, Hen (Rooster) and Pig.

In the middle, we find a round shaped stamp.
Each of the twelve animals surround the central stamp. The animals are depicted as human forms, with the head of an animal.

sheet detail : Rabbit - Dragon and Snake

For the next years, here are the 12 zodiac signs, after that, the cycle restarts.

Jan 22 2023–Feb 09 2024	Rabbit
Feb 10 2024–Jan 28 2025	Dragon
Jan 29 2025–Feb 16 2026	Snake
Feb 17 2026–Feb 05 2027	Horse
Feb 06 2027–Jan 25 2028	Goat
Jan 26 2028–Feb 12 2029	Monkey
Feb 13 2029–Feb 02 2030	Rooster
Feb 03 2030–Jan 22 2031	Dog
Jan 23 2031–Feb 10 2032	Pig
Feb 11 2032–Jan 30 2033	Rat
Jan 31 2033–Feb 18 2034	Ox
Feb 19 2034–Feb 07 2035	Tiger

Odd stamps : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 01 k

After the Giant Panda issue, and the various round stamps depicting Thailands regions, this is the third round emission of this South Asian country.

In 2017, Thailand issued a set of 4 individual round stamps, celebrating the 120th anniversary of the State Railway of Thailand.

4 round stamps of Thailand 2017

The set came in sheetlets of 10 identical stamps (4 sheetlets) and in a souvenir sheet with al 4 stamps.
Also a souvenir sheet with the 4 stamps, was issued.

The border of the square part around each stamp, is different in the individual and the sheetlet' issue.

Souvenir sheet 2017 State Railway of Thailand

In 1890, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) ordered the construction of a railway that would connect Krung Thep (Bangkok) with Nakhon Ratchasima - now the 5th largest city in Thailand.
6 years later, the first part was inaugurated and connected Bangkok with the old captial of Ayutthaya.
This 71 km long distance allowed the public to travel by train for the first time.
March 26 (1896) is considered as the establishment day of Thailand State Railways.

The stamps were issued in 2017 - after the 120th year was accomplished.

Krung Thep (Bangkok) and Nakhon Ratchasima.
Ayutthaya is north of Bangkok
picture from Google Maps

 

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)

Odd stamps : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 01 i

Round stamps are still my favourite stamps.

Turkey issued a set of 4 round stamps, depicting 4 common birds.

Turkey 2011 - full sheet

The first stamp shows us a common Northern Pintale (Duck)

Northern pintale

Nothern pintale (male and female)

On the second stamp, we find a turtle dove

European Turtle Dove

Turtle dove in action

The two higher values are wildlife birds:

First we see a Pheasant

Pheasant

Pheasant

The last stamp is depicting a partridge

Partridge

partridge

Such stamps don't stick together in a sheet without at least a more square or rectangled shape to support them.
For that reason a pic of the back side of the sheet.
It's truly a festival of lines and curves.

back side of the sheet - lines and curves

Theme : Zodiac signs 11c

3/12 Year of the Rabbit (1999)

The third sheet in the Zodiac set, was issued in 1999, this is the year of the rabbit.

The rabbit is one of the most delicate animals among all 12 animals. Rabbits are usually kind and sweet and of course, popular people. Nobody ignores them, for they are good company and know how to make the best of themselves.

1999 Canada : year of the Rabbit, round sheet

A rabbit's home is always a beautiful one cause Rabbit people are famous for their artistic sense and good taste. They are also usually well-dressed. Go check out your Rabbit friend's closet, I bet you will find many expensive and beautiful clothing there.
But even though they are popular and loved by their friends and family, rabbit people are also pessimistic. They are conservative and insecure, and that explains why most of the them don't like changes.

rabbit stamp out of the sheet

Some Famous Rabbits: Harry Belafonte, Ingrid Bergman, Lewis Carroll, John Cleese, Peter Falk, Peter Fonda, James Fox, David Frost, Cary Grant, Oliver Hardy, Bob Hope, Whitney Houston, John Hurt, Michael Keaton, John Keats, Julian Lennon, Arthur Miller, Roger Moore, Tatum O'Neal, George Orwell, Neil Simon, Jane Seymour, Dusty Springfield, Sting, Orson Welles, Norman Wisdom.

Years of the Rabbit : 1903 - 1915 - 1927 - 1939 - 1951 - 1963 - 1975 - 1987 - 1999 - 2011 - 2023

Next : Dragon

Odd stamps : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 01 h

Ever played Lotto?
I didn't start my article asking if you ever WON Lotto, as the change on a positive reply might be more limited.  And chances, that is all about the lottery game.

People have played lottery games for ages.
And we can rufly identify three types of lottery games:

First type is a ticket with a unique number, your ticket has one number, that no one else has.
The winning number can be drawn in advance (your ticket number has to be scratched for example);
or the winning number is drawn after all, or most tickets are sold.
The odds depends on the numbers in play, and the numbers drawn.
If only one number is drawn and there are 1,000,000 tickets, your chance will be one in a million.

Such a type of lottery was already known in the 16th century !
A famous example of this lottery was introduced by Queen Elisabeth I, in 1566.
The tickets were sold over a period of 3 years and on the lottery tickets, the prizes were depicted.
Each participant won a prize, and among the prizes were silver plates, and other valuable commodities. The total amount raized was returned to the winners.
In fact, it was a type of loan the gouvernment needed to raize money for social works.
Rare, because in that era, most 'lotteries' were to raize funds for wars, or other personal interests of the rulers.

Queen Elisabeth I lottery ticket (16th century

Lottery ticket with a fixed number (19th century)

A second type of lottery is with multiple numbers.
Some with numbers that are drawn in advance, or with fixed numbers on your ticket.
Compare to the old Bingo game, where you play with fixed cards with several numbers.
Similar is the Keno game, that was known in ancient China.
It is said that the construction of the Great Wall was partly financed with money raized by Keno players.
In Keno, 20 numbers are drawn out of 80. The chance of winning the Jackpot (all 20 numbers) is aproximatly 1 in 3,535,316,142,212,173,800.000 !

Online (gamble) version of Keno

Finally, the last type, is where you choose your a set of numbers out of a total of possible numbers, hoping those numbers will be drawn at the end of the week.

I can write a lot about the odds, about the types of games, but as i'm not a "lotologist", you'd better find out those things is specialised websites.
Still I want to come to the reason I wrote this article : a special stamp edition of the Austrian post, displaying a lottery ball, on a round stamp! (how original)

25 years of Austrian Lotto (2011)

Attached to the sheet with the stamp, a voucher to get a free lottery chance.

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 : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 01 f

I was nicely surprised by a wonderful set of Malaysian stamps showing coins of Malaysia.
Coins on stamps is a topic that is quite popular among stampcollectors. Also coin collectors sometimes have a small stamp collection with coins on stamps.

For me, this post is extra special, as the stamps are 'round' stamps, so they fit into my collection of 'odd stamps'.

In this set, 3 coins are depicted. There are 6 stamps, two for each coin.
One stamp is showing the front side of the coin, the other stamp shows the back side.

First coin (KM#51) is a 10 sen coin, issued from 1989 on.
On the back a ceremonial table is shown.

10 sen coin (KM# 51) on stamp

The second coin is a 20 sen coin (KM#52) -
The front shows the value, the back shows a basket, containing food and utensils.

20 sen coin (KM#52) on stamp

The third and last stamp, shows a 50 sen coin (KM#53), on the front we see another flower,
the back shows a ceremonial kite.

50 sen coin (KM#53) on stamp

This set of stamps was issued in 2009.
It was followed by another set of coins on stamps, but I tell more about them in my next post.

Odd stamps : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 01 e

Round in Japan,

Japan always was quite traditional in issuing stamps.
The last years however more and more odd shapes appeared from Japanese post.

Just a glimp of what has been issued.
I took a self-adhesive sheet from 2008. In fact it's a set of two sheets depicting 'hello Kitty'.
All pictures of 'Kitty' are in traditional japanese clothes, on various backgrounds.
The first sheetlet has 10 'normal' stamps. Each row shows 2 connecting stamps.

On the second sheet, the topic of today can be found.
Next to again 5 rectangle stamps, not less then 4 round, perforated stamps are placed on the sheet.
at the bottom, there's even a more special stamp.

First to the 4 round stamps.

I only posted 3 out of the four, for the simple reason, one of them is missing in my cancelled collection so far.
The top stamp shows Kitty in spring.  The pink blossoms are out on the threes, and Kitty has flowers on her dress. The second one shows Kitty assumingly in summer. A waterfall is shown and Kitty is sitting in the green grass. On the third stamp, the one that is not shown in detail, but that can be found on the large pic of the sheet, Kitty is sitting outside, while the wind is blowing strongly. Finally, Kitty appears in a winterscene on the fourth stamp. Snowflakes are falling down on Kitty.

Finally the last stamp on the sheet. This toppic is about 'round' stamps, and the last stamp on the sheet isn't quite 'round'.
Japan is one of the few countries that has issued 'oval' stamps so far.
Since there aren't that many oval stamps, I suppose it's ok to add them to the topic of 'round' stamps.

Japan has issued more sheets with round and now and then oval stamps.
It will be an item for another topic on this blog for sure.

Odd stamps : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 01 d

Another 'round up'

Tonga, a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, had issued about 500 stamps between1886 and 1982.
About 130 of them were 'normal' stamps, rectangle with perforation.
All others, were cut into the most inventive shapes.
As i will come to this item later in this series of 'odd' stamps, i will limit this article to a set of 'round' stamps.

In 1963, a set of 6 round stamps were emitted. This set was to commemorate the first gold coinage of Polynesia.
6 values appeared as 'regular' stamps. (YT128 - YT 133)

Along with this set, a bigger shaped set, was emitted for Air Mail. (YT PA1 - PA6) this was also the first Air Mail set of the Isands.
This Air Mail set came in two sizes.

The set is completed by an Official Air Mail stamp (YT SPA 7), and is the highest value in the set.

To be continued...

Odd stamps : 08 Stamps with special cuts - 01 c

Even more round ...

How round is a round stamp, if the perforation is still there?
Technically speaking, those stamps are not really round then, at least not perfectly round.

They exist however! Perfectly round stamps.
They were issued in more countries, but Belgium is the country that i will show here.

On first sight, it's not a round stamp. In fact it isn't, it's a auto-adhesive sheet.
You see a stucture with 9 circles and 20 lines. It shows an iron molecule. The same you might have seen before elsewhere in Belgium...

The Atomium is a monument in Brussels, originally built for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by André Waterkeyn, it stands 102-metres (335 ft) tall. It has nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times.

The sheet above is dedicated to Belgian scientists, and is the 7th sheet in the series : "This is Belgium".
All stamps are auto-adhesive and round.
They are rarely seen on letters or postcards.
Face value per stamp is 70 cents. (now, 2011, 0,71 euro is required for a letter -50g within Belgium)

Detail :

Finally, another round stamp from Belgium.
Issued in 2001, to promote philately.

This stamp is also auto-adhesive and was printed on sheets of 10.