Brazil : 03b Early issues - Republic issues

After my introduction to the 'Southern Cross' in my previous article, now to the real reason why I posted it.

The southern cross is not only present on the flag of Brazil, it was a topic of the first stamps that were issued after the republic was declared in Brazil.

There are 8 stamps with the 'Crux' issued in 1890.

1890 issue

One stamp, emitted in 1887 has this cross too, but the stars are way bigger.

1887 issue with big stars

A stamp similar to the set of 8 bares the name 'Brazil' in stead of 'E.U. do Brazil' - emitted in 1889.

This 100 réis stamp with "Brazil" in stead of "E.U. do Brazil", is rare. (not in my collection)

"Brazil" in stead of "E.U. do Brazil"

So roughly said, there are 10 different 'Cruzeiros'.

The 8 stamps of the 1890 set, consist of the following values :
20, 50, 100, 200, 300, 500, 700 and 1000 réis.

The highest values are also the most valuable stamps.
However, these stamps were issued in various perforations:

Most common is perf 13-14

A second type is perforated 11-11.5 (here the 1000 réis is inexpensive)
The 100 réis in this type will be in my next post, as it’s has many plate errors.

The third set of perforations is mixed : 11-11.5 x 13-14 (500 réis as most expensive).

Type 1 : perf 13 - 14

T1 - 50 réis

T1 - 100 réis

T1 - 200 réis

T1 - 300 réis

T1 - 500 réis

T1 - 1000 réis

Type 2 : perf 11-11.5

T2 - 20 réis

T2 - 50 réis

T2 - 200 réis

Type 3 : mixed perforations 11-11.5 x 13-14
rare and more expensive

to be continued...

Brazil : 03a Early issues - Republic issues

When you put your collection aside for a while, and go outside at night, you should have a look on the stars.
Depending on where you are on earth you will see the northern or the southern hemisphere.

This southern hemisphere was described in 1500 by physician-astronomer Mestre João Faras in his letter of May 1, 1500, to King Manuel I of Portugal from the newly discovered land of Brazil.
The smallest of all constellations (Crux); was than described as "Las Guardias" (the Guardians).

'las guardias' (now Southern Cross)

The constellation might be the smallest, it's one of the most important on the southern hemisphere, as it helps us to find the South.

southern hemisphere  - determinating the South

northern hemisphere - determinating the North

The Crux (Southern Cross) is the most important constellation.
If you continue the virtual line between the α-star and the γ-star, and you take the bisector between the α-star and the β-star of the Centauri constellation, the crossing of those 2 lines will indicate more or less the south. α-centauri is the nearest start to Earth, after the Sun.


For the north, you have to prolonge the last part of the 'Urs Major' (Big Dipper / Great Bear) 4 and a half times, you can find the north.

The 'southern cross' can be found in many flags of countries of the southern hemisphere:

southern cross on flags

And of course, for the purpose of this topic; also on the flag of Brazil...

can you find the southern cross on the Brazilian flag?

The reason for this article will be clear in my next post...

Odd stamps : 09d hologram stamps

I was going through my collection and I found this hologram stamp.
It's a a Canadian stamp (actually a pair of stamps) with a holograpic image of the Space Shuttle.
Yeah... that's history by now.

The first stamp (without hologram) is a picture of Earth, and a sattelite in orbit.
The shields of the sattelite are in silverfoil print.
The other, smaller stamp shows a holograpic image of Earth, with the Space Shuttle.
Two fine stamps, designed by Debby Adams and issued by Canadian post.

two stamps, with one hologram

holographic image of Earth and Space Shuttle

I'm looking for more...

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...

Odd stamps : 09b hologram stamps

There aren't many countries that have issued holographic stamps or stamps with holograms.
But with a little bit of research, you can still find lots of great stamps for your collection.

In this second post, some more holograms:

First item is a sheet from Finland.
The sheet has 3 stamps and a hologram.
Infact the hologram itself isn't a stamp, but if the sheet was used completely on a letter, it can be found as an postally used philatelic item.

What's more special albout this sheet, is that it is cut like a "tangram" a game with 7 geometric shapes, put together as a square. Each of the single shapes can be formed by putting the other shapes in a certain order.
Also other forms can be made by putting each piece in another place.
A nice game and major brain-breaker.

Finland sheet with hologram

Finland - detail of the hologram

Another European country that has used holograms on stamps, is Germany.
In this set, dedicated to scientific discoveries, several stamps were decorated with holograms.

Two German semi-postal stamps on space science

Jupiter encountered by a comet

map of the sky, seen under gammalight

Science doesn't have to be boring as you see...