Nice postmark on cover from Canoe, Canada

 

Canoe, British Columbia, is a semi-rural community in British Columbia within the larger City of Salmon Arm. The Secwepemc peoples were known to use the mouth of Canoe Creek as a site to launch dugout canoes for travel around Shuswap Lake. The town at Canoe was established in the late 1800s, as the Canadian Pacific Railway was being completed and British Columbia joined confederation with Canada. The Canoe post office opened in 1909, and Canoe has been marked on official maps since at least 1915.

Thank you, Trevor!

Europa Stories & Myths on cover from Germany

 

Wonderful FDC Europa 2022: Stories & Myths from Germany, issued on 5th May.

Thank you, Holger!

Cover from The British Indian Ocean Territory!

 

This cover is one best surprises in my mailbox this year, sent by my dear friend Wolfgang from Austria. BIOT is a British Overseas Territory of the UK situated in the Indian Ocean halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia, with total land area of just 60 square kilometres. The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 km2, the site of a Joint Military Facility of the UK and the USA.

The only inhabitants are British and U.S. military personnel and associated contractors, who collectively number around 3,000. The forced removal of Chagossians from the Chagos Archipelago occurred between 1968 and 1973. Today, the exiled Chagossians are still trying to return, saying that the forced expulsion and dispossession was unlawful, but the UK government has repeatedly denied them the right of return.

Since the 1980s, the Government of Mauritius has sought to regain control over the Chagos Archipelago. A February 2019 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice called for the islands to be given to Mauritius. Since this, the United Nations General Assembly and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea have reached similar decisions. 

The Universal Postal Union (UPU), a UN agency in charge of the world's postal policies, voted to block the use of UK stamps from the remote archipelago. All post from the Chagos Islands must now bear stamps from Mauritius, so i was lucky to receive this cover, cause this maybe not possible anymore in the future. 

 On this cover you can see stamp with beautiful reef manta ray and very clear blue postmark from post office in Diego Garcia, and big black postmark of BIOT post office with BIOT coat of arms. 

Thank you so much Wolfgang for this beautiful surprise!

 

Local police on FDC from Åland Islands

 

Thank you, Kimmo!

Mars 2020 launch on cover from Cape Canaveral, USA

 

My friend Trevor Ashman designed this cover dedicated to Mars 2020 launch, when rocket Atlas V carried rover Perseverance and the small robotic coaxial helicopter Ingenuity to their mission to Mars. USPS made this awesome postmark to celebrate this event in Cape Canaveral. 

 

 

Thank you, Trevor!

Successful docking of the Crew Dragon Endeavour with the ISS

 

Crew Dragon Endeavour is a Crew Dragon spacecraft manufactured and operated by SpaceX and used by NASA's Commercial Crew Program. It was launched into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket on 30 May 2020 and successfully docked to the International Space Station on 31 May 2020 as part of the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission; this was the first crewed flight test of a Dragon capsule, carrying Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. It is the spacecraft used in the first crewed orbital spaceflight from the United States since STS-135 in July 2011 and the first crewed orbital spaceflight by a private company. On 2 August 2020 it returned to Earth.

 

This nice cover is designed by Trevor Ashman to commemorate this unique event. He sent his covers to Houston cause of this awesome special postmark. Thank you very much, mate!

Two German prepaid covers with ATM labels and special postmark

 

Last year i received these two fantastic prepaid ATM covers, with special postmark dedicated to 200 years of discovery of Antarctica by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. Both covers are prepaid covers with printed design of ATM labels issued in 2008 and 2010. There's also additional labels from 2017. Both covers have beautiful special postmark dedicated to Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian naval officer, and his discovery of Antarctica 200 years ago. 

Thank you so much, Holger!

Europa 2020 - Ancient Postal Routes on cover from Åland Islands

 

The 2020 Europa stamp theme was ancient postal routes, and the Åland contribution shows the Postal Boat Race across the Sea of Åland. Following the ancient postal route between Åland and Sweden, the Race is arranged in June every year in remembrance of the Åland and Swedish postal-farmers’ obligation to convey mail as well as passengers in all kinds of weather. Starting in 1638, the conveyance of mail continued for almost 400 years until early 1900s.Stamp is issued on 8th May 2020.

Thank you, Kimmo!

Ancient Postal Routes on registered FDC from Romania

One of best stamps designs for Europa CEPT 2020 theme Ancient Postal Routes was done by Romanian Post and this is one of best covers i received during dull days of lock-down when international postal traffic was largely stopped.  Thank you, Mihnea!

Europa CEPT 2020 Ancient Postal Routes on cover from Germany

 

This years theme for Europa CEPT stamps is Ancient Postal Routes, and German Post issued this souvenir sheet with one stamp on 7.5.2020. for this join issue of all European postal operators. This cover was sent of first day of issue with nice special postmark with postal horn.

Thank you, Jens!

Year of the Rat on FDC from China

An interesting Chinese legend about the ranking of the Rat goes that the Chinese supreme deity Jade Emperor held a birthday party and would decide the order of the zodiac animals according to their arrival times. Originally, the hardworking Ox departed early and should be the first one to reach. However, the Rat hid in the Ox’s ear and jumped down when arriving, occupying the first place. Thus the Rat had since been the No. 1 in the 12-year cycle and represents spirit, wit, alertness, delicacy, and flexibility. This year is Year of the Rat and Chinese post issued this really cute stamps set on 5th January. 

Thank you, Xu Wei!
 

Eastend, home of Scotty the T.rex

Eastend is a town in southwest Saskatchewan, Canada. It is situated approximately 55 kilometers  north from the Montana border and 85 kilometers from the Alberta border. The town is best known for the nearby discovery of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed "Scotty" in 1994. The town has used the discovery of this fossil as the main centerpiece in the construction of a museum called the T.rex Discovery Center, which opened on May 30, 2003. The center is operated by the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, and contains the RSM Fossil Research Station. And you can see beautiful postmark dedicated to Scotty the T.rex on this postcard.

Thank you, Trevor!

Leap year on cover from USA

I received one more cover dedicated to Leap year, but this time from USA. A leap year is a calendar year that contains an additional day added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year or seasonal year. Because astronomical events and seasons do not repeat in a whole number of days, calendars that have the same number of days in each year drift over time with respect to the event that the year is supposed to track. By inserting an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected.On this cover from Miami you can see stamps dedicated to Year of the Rat and in the middle definitive stamp with American eagle.

Inside cover was this FDC dedicated to wild orchids. There are more than 30,000 species of wild orchids in the world. And these two stamps are from set of ten stamps which shows orchid species from USA.

Thank you, Mike!

Giant sausage replica from Mundare, Canada!

Here's interesting postcard with giant sausage replica from Mundare, Canada. Mundare is a small town in central Alberta. The Canadian National Railway tracks run through the town. Mundare was named after William Mundare, a railway station agent. It is also home of the world's largest garlic sausage (on postcard), which cost about $120,000 to build and erect.

Mundare have interesting postmark, but this one is little bit smudged and upside down, probably during machine cancelling.

Thank you, Trevor!

Ferari's World title in year 2000 on cover from Modena!

The 2000 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 54th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. Michael Schumacher became Ferrari's first World Drivers' Champion for 21 years having clinched the Drivers' title at the penultimate race of the season. Ferrari successfully defended its Constructors' title.

Inside cover was this beautiful old postcard from Modena  Modena is, along with Turin, one of Italy's main centers of the automotive industry, with a rich history and tradition in this field. The iconic Ferrari brand was founded in Modena by Modenese legendary car tycoon Enzo Ferrari, and today is headquartered just outside the city, in the suburb of Maranello. Several other Italian luxury automobile manufacturers such as Pagani, Lamborghini, and Maserati are headquartered in the Modena area.

On this stamp you can see winning car Ferrari F1-2000. The chassis was designed by Rory Byrne, Aldo Costa and Nikolas Tombazis with Ross Brawn playing a vital role in leading the production of the car as the team's Technical Director and Paolo Martinelli leading the engine design. The car was a direct development of the F300 and F399 from the previous two seasons, using the same basic gearbox and a new engine with a wider V-angle (90 degrees vs. 75 degrees in the 048 engine); this new wider angle improved and lowered the centre of gravity of the car. It also featured improved aerodynamics over the F399 most noticeably a flatter underside of the nose area, which put it on par with that year's McLaren MP4/15.

Thank you so much, Gabriele!

TAAF: Cover from Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean - Glorioso Islands

The Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean consist of four small coral islands, an atoll, and a reef in the Indian Ocean, and have constituted the 5th district of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF) since February 2007, though sovereignty over some or all of the Islands is contested by Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Comoros. None of the islands has ever had a permanent population.

This cover was sent from Glorioso Islands. It's a group of French islands and rocks totaling 5 square kilometers. The archipelago consists of two islands, Grande Glorieuse and Île du Lys, as well as eight rock islets. They form part of a coral reef and lagoon, and they have an Exclusive Economic Zone of 48,350 square kilometers.The islands are today nature reserves with a meteorological station garrisoned by The French Foreign Legion.


Thank you so much Eric!

Canadian flag and nice postmark on postcard from Ralston

I received this postpaid postcard with Canadian flag adopted in 1965. Red is symbolic of England and white of France, the colors having been used representatively by those countries in the past. The maple leaf represents unity across the entire country- regardless of birthplace.

Postcard is sent from Ralston with this very nice postmark! The Crown Village of Ralston is located to the east of Highway 884 on CFB Suffield within Cypress County in southern Alberta, Canada, approximately 3 km north of the Hamlet of Suffield and the Trans-Canada Highway.


Thanks, Trevor!

Arctic cover from German research vessel Polarstern on MOSAiC expedition

RV Polarstern (Polar Star) is a German research icebreaker of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven. Polarstern was commissioned in 1982 and is mainly used for research in the Arctic and Antarctica. On September 20, 2019, she sailed from Tromsø, Norway, for a 12 to 14 month-long Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition across the Arctic. She settled in an ice floe on October 4, 2019 and will drift in it past the North pole eventually reaching open water in the Fram Strait. This fantastic cover was sent on 13.12.2019. and i received this cover two months later.

 For the first time a modern research icebreaker will operate in the direct vicinity of the North Pole year round, including the nearly half year long polar night during winter. In terms of the logistical challenges involved, the total number of participants, the number of participating countries, and the available budget, MOSAiC represents the largest Arctic expedition in history. During its one-year-long journey, the central expedition ship, the research icebreaker Polarstern from Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), will be supported and resupplied by the icebreakers Akademik Fedorov and Kapitan Dranitsyn (Russia), Oden (Sweden) and Xue Long II (China). In addition, extensive operations involving helicopters and other aircraft are planned.


Thank you so much, Jens, for this fantastic cover!

French Southern and Antarctic Lands: Cover from Tromelin (Scattered Islands)

The Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean consist of four small coral islands, an atoll, and a reef in the Indian Ocean, and have constituted the 5th district of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands  since February 2007. This cover is sent from Tromelin Island, a low, flat island in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometers north of Réunion and about 450 kilometers east of Madagascar. Tromelin has facilities for scientific expeditions and a weather station. It is a nesting site for birds and green sea turtles. This beautiful FDC dedicated to Tromelin was issued on 7.11.2019. You can also see machine cancellation added 2 months later by French Post. On the bottom of the cover is signature, possible by postmaster, I'm not sure.


Thank you so much, Axel!

National Handicraft Day on FDC from Algeria

Algerian post issued this souvenir sheet dedicated to National Handicraft Day on 9.11.2019. On this sheet you can see two paintings which depicts making of milk product leben and preserving of leben inside chums, and this chums are in a focus of this issue. One was made from leather, other one is from bottle gourds or calabash.


Thank you, Zine!