West Berlin issued its own stamps from 1948 until German reunification and in 42 years they issued 800 stamps, this set was the last one issued in 1990 on the theme of Posts and Telecommunications. Happily each stamp is marked with what it is so first we have Railway Mail in 1900 with the distinctive green mail vans. The letters were sorted on board and had a special oval cancellation with train number, route and date. Next are telecommunications in 1900. I wonder, are that man's arms out to catch the workers if they fall off as they precariously hang on the lines.
The stamps of West Berlin could also be used in West Germany and the separation of the postal systems was only symbolic and indeed they used the same post code system. The stamp shows a mail van being loaded in 1930.
Another small stamp issuing entity is the 61 square kilometres of San Marino, possibly the world's oldest republic. They issued two stamps for the 2013 Europa Postman's Van theme designed by the artist Stafano Morri, I love how the letters are stacked up in the car. It is a vehicle from the beginning of the 20th Century parked in front of the city of Porta San Franceso
Next is a classic VW van of the 1950s in the colours of the San Marino flag loading its large letter in front of the Parva Domus, which is near where mail used to be sorted.
The large letter theme is continued in this Romanian issue of the winged par avion bi-plane zooming over the countryside and someone delivering a letter from his penny farthing with a horse and cart in the background. The sheet was designed by the artist Victor Telibassa
Our jolly postman waves an air mail letter from his van as imagined by
Aleksandra Ubukala in this Polish issue for the 2013 Europa theme. I like the little sketch on the sheet's margin.
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| 2013: Europa Postman's Van |
And lastly a happy postman makes his way up a Swiss mountain road on his Electric Trike Kyburz DXP as shown on this Maximum card, fully loaded and letters and postcards stacked for delivery.
11 comments:
Wow, all of them are wonderful and very different in style. I like the way you looked and them some closely and shared the tiniest details. The last postwoman seems very happpy!
Did the Royal Mail have stamps for the Europa Postman's Van theme?
Fine collection you have shown us.
Fun stamps! Once again I love the Romanian biplane. Also the oversized letters in San Marino.
Thank you for joining us this week!
I love all those stamps. I will have to look at some of the other Europa stamps from 2013. I didn't realize that was the theme until I was working on my French post this week.
i love those berlin stamps, they are just lovely! and just look at that a maxicard! i love it!
A fantastic collection!
A delight for the eyes, all of these wonderful illustrated stamps! Thank you for sharing!
A fantastic display! I confess to coveting those San Marino stamps.
A great collection of stamps on the theme (I could only find one). I love the oversize letter in the San Marino one too, but I confess I admire the cartoon-like figures in the first two; the man on the right seems to be applauding his colleagues’ efforts.
I had such a hard time with this theme this week, and then there is your wonderful collection!! I love them all (and had not seen any of them before)
Yes Bob Royal Mail hid away a miniature sheet on 'work horses' (which included a royal mail van) as part of 2013's classic autos set. They redeemed themselves a little when later issuing a self adhesive version in a book of 1st class stamps together with a mail sailing ship.
Violet Sky. I must come clean this was an easy theme for me because I like to collect stamps to do with the mail!
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