Friday, March 31, 2017

Map postcard from Cyprus

My first postcard from Cyprus is this beautiful map. Cyprus is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, and southeast of Greece.

On 15 July 1974, a coup d'état was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis, the incorporation of Cyprus into Greece. This action precipitated the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, which led to the capture of the present-day territory of Northern Cyprus the following month, after a ceasefire collapsed, and the displacement of over 150,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots. A separate Turkish Cypriot state in the north was established by unilateral declaration in 1983; the move was widely condemned by the international community, with Turkey alone recognizing the new state. Northern Cyprus has it's own postal system, and that's why i need to find somebody from Northern Cyprus for my collection ;)

Three nice stamps without any postmark:
Theodosis Pierides (1908-1968), issued on 04.02.2015.
EUROMED Issue - The Mediterranean, issued on 09.07.2014.
Refugee Stamp, issued in 2016.


Thank you Anna!


Monday, March 27, 2017

Cover from Croatia


I received a cover from Croatia full of postcards and some stamps.

Stamps used on cover:
Croatian Ethnographic Heritage (three from set of five), issued on 30.09.2008.
Virovitica - Overprint (from set of two), issued on 19.07.2010.
Greetings to the Sun (from set of two), issued on 01.06.2016.

All these various Croatian postcards are from coastal region.



Olive industry is ancient and very important in Adriatic area





I also received some used and mint stamps. These are some of them.


Thank you very much Nedjeljko!


Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Uranus and Neptune

I received this nice postcard with views of two planets:  Uranus and Neptune.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. Uranus is similar in composition to Neptune, and both have different bulk chemical composition from that of the larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. For this reason, scientists often classify Uranus and Neptune as "ice giants" to distinguish them from the gas giants.  It is the coldest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System, with a minimum temperature of −224 °C. The interior of Uranus is mainly composed of ices and rock.

Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun in the Solar System. In the Solar System, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times the mass of Earth and slightly larger than Neptune. Neptune orbits the Sun once every 164.8 years at an average distance of 30.1 astronomical units (4.50×109 km).

Stamps:
Marianne, issued on 15.07.2013.
Joint issue with Republic of Korea, issued on 06.06.2016.


Thank you Alexia!


Monday, March 13, 2017

Serbia: Fauna 2017 Protected Animal Species - Owls

This years theme is owls: Athene noctua, Tyto alba, Asio otus and Otus scops.

The little owl (Athene noctua) is a bird that inhabits much of the temperate and warmer parts of Europe, Asia east to Korea, and north Africa.A. noctua has an extremely large range. It has been estimated that there are between 560 thousand and 1.3 million breeding pairs in Europe, and as Europe equates to 25 to 49% of the global range, the world population may be between five million and fifteen million birds.

 The barn owl (Tyto alba) is the most widely distributed species of owl and one of the most widespread of all birds. It is also referred to as the common barn owl, to distinguish it from other species in its family, Tytonidae, which forms one of the two main lineages of living owls, the other being the typical owls (Strigidae). The barn owl is found almost everywhere in the world except polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalayas, most of Indonesia, and some Pacific islands.

The long-eared owl (Asio otus, previously Strix otus) is a species of owl which breeds in Europe, Asia, and North America. This species is a part of the larger grouping of owls known as typical owls, family Strigidae, which contains most species of owl. The long-eared owl hunts over open country by night. It is very long winged, like the similar short-eared owl, and glides slowly on stiff wings when hunting. Its food is mainly rodents, small mammals, and birds.

The Eurasian scops owl (Otus scops), also known as the European scops owl or just scops owl, is a small owl. This bird breeds in southern Europe eastwards into western and central Asia. It is migratory, wintering in southernmost Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. It is rare any distance north of its breeding range, usually occurring as a spring overshoot. It is unlikely that this nocturnal owl would be found outside the breeding season when it is not calling. It breeds in open woodland, parks and gardens. It lays 3-6 eggs in a tree hole.




Serbia: 25th Anniversary of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC)


New issue by Serbian Post, dedicated to 25th Anniversary of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) came into existence as  a unique and promising model of multilateral political and economic initiative with the signing of the Istanbul Summit Declaration and the Bosphorus Statement by the Heads of State and Government of the countries in the region, on 25 June 1992.

Today BSEC serves as a forum for cooperation in a wide range of areas for its 12 Member States: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.



• BSEC covers a geography encompassing the territories of the Black Sea littoral States, the Balkans and the Caucasus with an area of nearly 20 million square kilometers. The BSEC region is located on two continents;

• BSEC represents a region of 335 million people, reaching an intra-BSEC trade volume of USD 187 billion annually;

• After the Persian Gulf region, it is the second-largest source of oil and natural gas along with its rich proven reserves of minerals, metals and other natural resources;

• It is becoming Europe's major transport and energy transfer corridor.