United States Virgin Islands: Saint John island

Saint John is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea and an unincorporated territory of the United States. Saint John was first settled by the Taíno Indians who migrated north from coastal areas of present-day Colombia and Venezuela around AD 300. Christopher Columbus, traveling on behalf of the Spanish Crown, is credited with being the first European to see the Virgin Islands in 1493, during his second voyage to the New World.The Danish West India and Guinea Company represented the first Europeans to settle the island in 1718. In 1917, during the First World War, the United States purchased the U.S. Virgin Islands for $25 million from the Danish government in order to establish a naval base.

United States Virgin Islands use same stamps as USA:

Penguins, issued on 01.06.2015.
Pets: Guinea pig, (from set of 20), issued on 02.08.2016.   
Star Trek 50th Anniversary (from set of four), issued on 02.09.2016.


Thank you Leanna!

Legends of Kyrgyzstan - Yeti, and 50th Anniversary of the First Spacewalks

Second postal operator in Kyrgyzstan is KEP - Kyrgyz Express Post, and they have few really, really nice stamps! That's why i ordered this two sets of beautiful stamps.

I've never seen before stamps with Yeti, and these are beautiful!

This series is intended to attract the attention of as many people from the Kyrgyz Republic. It is also dedicated to the Yeti - a peculiar character, well known around the world. In the folklore of Nepal, the Yeti is an ape-like entity taller than an average human that is said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal, Bhutan and China, and also India, Mongolia and Russia. Stories of the Yeti first emerged as a facet of Western popular culture in the 19th century.

At a 2011 conference in Russia, participating scientists and enthusiasts declared having "95% evidence" of the Yeti's existence. However, this claim was disputed later; American anthropologist and anatomist Jeffrey Meldrum, who was present during the Russian expedition, claimed the "evidence" found was simply an attempt by local officials to drum up publicity.

Stamps are issued on 19.05.2016.

Souvenir sheet consists of two stamps depicting the "spacewalks" of the Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov and the American astronaut Edward White. Issue date is 02.07.2015.

Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov became the first human to conduct extravehicular activity, exiting the capsule during the Voskhod 2 mission for a 12-minute spacewalk. At the end of the spacewalk, Leonov's spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum of space to the point where he could not re-enter the airlock. He opened a valve to allow some of the suit's pressure to bleed off and was barely able to get back inside the capsule.

During the Gemini 4 mission on June 3, 1965, Ed White became the first American to conduct a spacewalk. The spacewalk started at 3:45 p.m. EDT on the third orbit when White opened the hatch and used the hand-held maneuvering oxygen-jet gun to push himself out of the capsule. The EVA started over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii and lasted 23 minutes, ending over the Gulf of Mexico. Initially, White propelled himself to the end of the 8-meter tether and back to the spacecraft three times using the hand-held gun. After the first three minutes the fuel ran out and White maneuvered by twisting his body and pulling on the tether.

Very nice of KEP for using one of Yeti stamps on cover!

Map of Algeria

This nice map card has traveled five long months! Algeria is a state in North Africa on the Mediterranean coast. Its capital and most populous city is Algiers, located in the country's far north. With an area of 2,381,741 square kilometers, Algeria is the tenth-largest country in the world, and the largest in Africa. Algeria is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia, to the east by Libya, to the west by Morocco, to the southwest by the Western Saharan territory, Mauritania, and Mali, to the southeast by Niger, and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea.

Stamp is World Day of Autism, issued on 02.04.2016.

Thank you Meriem!

Serbia: Museum Exhibits 2016

Every year Serbian Post have edition Museum Exhibits. Topic for this year is stećak (plural stećci). Stećak is the name for monumental medieval tombstones that lie scattered across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the border parts of Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. An estimated 60,000 are found within the borders of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina and the rest of 10,000 are found in what are today Croatia (4,400), Montenegro (3,500), and Serbia (4,100), at more than 3,300 odd sites with over 90% in poor condition.

Appearing in the mid 12th century, with the first phase in the 13th century, the tombstones reached their peak in the 14th and 15th century, before disappearing during the Ottoman occupation in the very early 16th century. The epitaphs on them are mostly written in Cyrillic alphabet.Stećaks was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016.

Their most remarkable feature is their decorative motifs, many of which remain enigmatic to this day; spirals, arcades, rosettes, vine leaves and grapes, lilium, stars (often six-pointed) and crescent moons are among the images that appear. Figural motifs include processions of deer, horse, dancing the kolo, hunting, chivalric tournaments, and, most famously, the image of the man with his right hand raised, perhaps in a gesture of fealty.

Release date for this fantastic stamps is 3rd November 2016.

Rock of Gibraltar

I have received my first postcard from beautiful Gibraltar! The Rock of Gibraltar is a monolithic limestone promontory located in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, off the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The Rock is Crown property of the United Kingdom, and borders Spain. Most of the Rock's upper area is covered by a nature reserve, which is home to around 300 Barbary macaques. These macaques, as well as a labyrinthine network of tunnels, attract a large number of tourists each year.

The Rock of Gibraltar was one of the Pillars of Hercules and was known to the Romans as Mons Calpe, the other pillar being Mons Abyla or Jebel Musa on the African side of the Strait. In ancient times, the two points marked the limit to the known world, a myth originally fostered by the Greeks and the Phoenicians.

This beautiful stamps are from set The 500th Anniversary of the Admission to the Throne of Henry VIII, issued on 10.01.2009. On first you can see Anne Boleyn, on second Catherine of Aragon, and on third you can see ship Mary Rose, carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII.

Cover with postcards and stamps from Canada

I have received cover from Canada with 3 postcards and some older Canadian stamps.

First postcard is wildlife from Canadian province Nova Scotia

On second postcard you can see HMCS Charlottetown 

HMCS Charlottetown is a Halifax-class frigate that has served in the Royal Canadian Navy since 1995. Charlottetown, assigned to Maritime Forces Atlantic and homeported at CFB Halifax, serves on missions protecting Canada's sovereignty in the Atlantic Ocean and enforcing Canadian laws in its territorial sea and Exclusive Economic Zone. Charlottetown has also participated in several NATO missions, patrolling the Atlantic Ocean as part of Standing Naval Force Atlantic and its successor Standing NATO Response Force Maritime Group 1. Charlottetown has also been deployed on missions throughout the Atlantic and to the Indian Ocean, specifically the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea on anti-terrorism operations.

On third postcard you can AEA Silver Dart 

The Silver Dart was a derivative of an early aircraft built by a Canadian/U.S. team, which after many successful flights in Hammondsport, New York, earlier in 1908, was dismantled and shipped to Baddeck, Nova Scotia. It was flown off the ice of Baddeck Bay, a sub-basin of Bras d'Or Lake, on 23 February 1909, making it the first controlled powered flight in Canada. 

Almost all of these stamps are from first half of 20th century.

Stamp on cover is Chinese New Year - Year of the Monkey, issued on 01.02.2016.
I have received earlier prepaid postcard with same motive. You can see it here.

Thank you Leonard!

Ville de Luxembourg

This beautiful postcard is from capital city of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Standing at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers in southern Luxembourg, the city lies at the heart of Western Europe, situated 213 km by road from Brussels, 372 km  from Paris, and 209 km  from Cologne. The city contains Luxembourg Castle, established by the Franks in the Early Middle Ages, around which a settlement developed. Luxembourg City is the seat of several institutions of the European Union, including the European Court of Justice, the European Commission, the secretariat of the European Parliament, the European Court of Auditors and the European Investment Bank.

Stamp is SEPAC - The Four Seasons, issued on 13.09.2016.

Thank you Stephanie!

Spain: Nerja

Nerja is a municipality on the Costa del Sol in the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. It belongs to the comarca of La Axarquía. It is on the country's southern Mediterranean coast, about 50 km east of Málaga. Under Muslim rule, its name was Narixa, which means "abundant source" and is the origin of the current name. Nerja has been a source of inspiration for expatriate writers and artists, such as Scottish novelist Joan Lingard and French-born author André Launay, Jorge Guillén and Federico García Lorca were longtime visitors and residents of the town.

Stamp is King Felipe VI, issued on 02.01.2016.

Thank you Nina!

Poland: The Witcher

I have received cover from Poland with wonderful The Witcher stamp! If you are gamer, you who this is! The Witcher is an action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by CD Projekt RED. The game is based on the novel series of the same name by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The Witcher takes place in a medieval fantasy world and follows the story of Geralt, one of a few remaining Witchers – traveling monster hunters for hire who have supernatural powers. The game's system of "moral choices" as part of the storyline was noted for its time-delayed consequences and lack of black-and-white morality.

There's a three parts of this video game series: The Witcher, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The Witcher III was released in 2015 and has become one of the most awarded video games of all time. Issued date for this stamp is 16.09.2016.

Turkey: Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial

The Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial is a war memorial commemorating the service of about 253,000 Turkish soldiers who participated at the Battle of Gallipoli, which took place from April 1915 to December 1915 during the First World War. It is located within the Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park on Hisarlık Hill in Morto Bay at the southern end of the Gallipoli peninsula in Çanakkale Province, Turkey.

Stamp is Protected Areas and National Parks, issued on 12.07.2016.

Thank you Burak!

Serbia: Remembering the Victims of the Second World War - Kragujevac 1941

There will be a new stamp from Serbian Post, Remembering the Victims of the Second World War, and it will be released on October 21st,  to mark 75 years of massacre in Serbian city Kragujevac during WWII.

The Kragujevac massacre was the murder of Serb men and boys in Kragujevac, Serbia, by German Wehrmacht soldiers on 20 and 21 October 1941. All males from the town between the ages of sixteen and sixty were assembled by German troops and members of the collaborationist Serbian Volunteer Command and Serbian State Guard, including high school students, and the victims were selected from amongst them. On 29 October 1941, Felix Benzler, the plenipotentiary of the German foreign ministry in Serbia, reported that 2,300 people were executed. Later investigations by the post-war Yugoslavian government came up with between 5,000 and 7,000 people executed, although these figures were never proven reliable. Subsequently, Serbian and German scholars have agreed on the figure of 2,778.

New Serbian stamps: Christmas 2016

Christmas stamps for this year have details from fresco Birth of Jesus, from Gradac Monastery. Gradac Monastery, an endowment of queen Helen was built from 1277 to 1282 during the reign of her son king Stefan Dragutin. It lies on the elevated plateau above the river Gradačka, at the edge of the forested slopes Golija. Gradac Monastery was declared Monument of Culture of Exceptional Importance in 1979, and it is protected by Serbia.

The monastery was devastated at the end of the 14th century. It was partially restored at the end of the 16th century. However, it was finally deserted in the 17th century when the monks, fleeing from the Turks, left somewhere unknown, taking with them the Holy Relics of their founder. In the next 300 years, both churches and the monastery buildings caved in. During the Ottoman rule the monastery was generally with no monks and no roof cover that was removed from the church. In 1910, a protective roof was placed on a monastery church, and during 1963–1975 a complete reconstruction of the main church was performed by the Institute of the Protection of Cultural monuments of Serbia.

Serbia: Stamp day 2016

Every year Serbian Post release stamps dedicated to Stamp day.  

 This year is dedicated to 60 years of Europa CEPT stamps. First Europa stamps are issued in year 1956. First issue of Yugoslavia (Serbia was part of Yugoslavia) was in 1969.

On this stamps you can first Yugoslav Europa stamp from 1969.

On second stamp you can see Yugoslav Europa stamp from 1978, with Golubac Fortress on stamp.

And of course, there is a First day cover. Release date 11.10.2016.

Serbia: Joy of Europe 2016

Here is a new stamp for children's manifestation “Joy of Europe”. Every year one or two children's paintings are selected to be on stamps. This year we have painting by 11-years old Katarina Kovačević.

“Joy of Europe” is the largest and oldest international manifestation of children’s creativity, established back in 1969, on the occasion of the World Children’s Day. In the beginning of the month of October Belgrade welcomes children from many countries of Europe – they dance, sing, act, and above all else they make friends and have a good time. There almost isn’t a single European country whose children, in these 46 years of our Manifestation, have not been guests of the “Joy of Europe”. Founder and patron of the International gathering of children of Europe is the City Administration of the City of Belgrade, and the executive producer is the Children’s Culture Center Belgrade.
 

Release date is 11.10. 2016.

25 postcards from Swat Valley in Pakistan

I have received registered cover from Pakistan with 25 beautiful postcards from Swat Valley and one banknote. Swat Valley has a rich history that dates back over two thousand years. Swat is thought to be the probable birthplace of Vajrayana Buddhism. There are many archaeological sites in the district and Buddhist relics are common testimony to their skills as sculptors and architects. It is said that Swat was once filled with fourteen hundred imposing and beautiful stupas and monasteries, which housed as many as 6,000 gold images of the Buddhist pantheon for worship and education.

 

This rock carving is now damaged by Talibans, as you can see on picture bellow.

There were more than 400 Buddhist sites covering an area of 160 km in Swat Valley before the Taliban's rise to power, but these historical heritages are being systematically targeted by the Taliban and it is feared that their intolerance will not allow for the survival of any traces of Buddhism in Swat.

 I have also received one banknote. It's a one rupee banknote, printed in 1983.

A lot of stamps are used for this registered cover:
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, issued on 11.09.1994.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, issued on 14.08.1998.


Thank you Asim!