A Zing of Colour

1980: Definitives - gemstones (Designer - Neil O Pederson)

The first stamps of Zimbabwe were a reprinting of Rhodesia's 1978 definitives with new values and of course the country's new name. Some featured gemstones, on the left is a garnet (if you are born in January this is your birthstone) and on the right, a citrine which is a yellow variety of quartz, its colour gained because of the iron content of its surroundings (more in depth and informed explanation here). Zimbabwe is rich in Iron Ore

1970: Definitives - Industrial Development (Design - Rose Martin)

so no wonder the pouring of molten metal featured on one of Rhodesia's definitive stamps beautifully captured by the illustrator and cartoonist Rose Martin.  From the golden glow of molten metal to

1971: Birds of Rhodesia (Based on photographs by Peter Ginn)

one of the iridescent wonders of the natural world sat ready to dive or fly by a stretch of water, a Half-collared Kingfisher so called because dark blue patches on either side of its neck form a half collar and found  in Southern and Eastern Africa. The other bird is a Golden breasted Bunting which in contrast prefers dry open woodland and savannah and seen in most of Africa south of the Sahara.

Sunday Stamps II prompt this week is the Letter Z - for Zimbabwe - at  See It On A Postcard

Sunday Stamps - Z

1980: 75th Anniversary of the Post Office Savings Bank

Lets call in to the Umtali Post Office to buy some stamps. Looks like the sort of place one could bump into and chat to people under the veranda. A couple of year's after this stamp was issued the town changed its name from Umtali to Mutare. It has always been a city of change for the original settlement of Old Umtali was moved because of the location of the gold and mineral mining and the so called New Umtali is where the post office was built in about 1895.  It was reported that lions and leopards roamed the streets and indeed a donkey was killed by them outside this post office. Although some colonial buildings remain in Mutare I'm not sure the old post office is one of them because the photograph below is of the Main Post Office today -

The local wildlife makes an appearance on the definitive stamps but I only have one of the set

1980-84: Defintive

of a rhinoceros, pity I don't have the 17c because that featured a zebra. Time to travel on

1990-94: Definitive

to our next destination and take a bus  to the airport

1968-74: Definitive

and we are on the way to Zambia. I wonder if there will be a welcoming dance?

1968-1974: Definitive

Yes there is a vimbuza dancer and from the postmark we must have landed in the country's largest copperbelt town of Kansenshi-Ndola which has an airstrip serviced by Air Zambia.  The Kansenshi Copper Mine is the largest in Africa.  I think I would rather go and see some of the local wildlife

2007: Animals of Zambia (Designer - Gabriel Ellison)

Here is the wonderfully named bat eared fox.  The stamp designer, Gabriel Ellison, was the woman who also helped design Zambia's national flag and coat of arms, was Head of Graphic Arts at the Zambia Ministry of Information and also a prolific designer of Zambian postage stamps which included the definitives from the 1960s to 1980s. She died aged 87 last year and her obituary can be seen here.

An entry the Sunday Stamps II of Z - for Zambia and Zimbabwe - zoom over to See It On A Postcard