Russian stamp on Pisces sign constellation

Pisces name sign glyph and constellation appear on a Russian stamp issued on the 21st of April 2004.

Pisces is represented by two fishes and is linked to the month of February. The two fishes nearly always swim in opposite directions and are often linked together by a cord from both of their mouths. They usually swim horizontally but can also be shown going vertically. Water is sometimes shown around them, but there can also be a blank undecorated area, and occasionally… the two are suspended above a lake. Occasionally they are mirror images of each other.

Magnificent Birds of The Sundarbans World Heritage

Eid Stamp of United States

The U.S. Postal Service issued a 34 cent stamp on the 1 Sep 2001 at the annual Islamic Society of North America's convention in Des Plaines, Ill. It features gold Arabic calligraphy on a lapis background that commemorates two of the most important Muslim festivals: Eid ul-Fitr, marking the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan and Eid al-Adha, at the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca. During the festival, Muslims wish each other "Eid mubarak," the phrase featured on the stamp. "Eid Mubarak" translates into English as "blessed festival," and can be paraphrased as "May your religious holiday be blessed." This phrase can be applied to both Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. This stamp was designed by the Islamic calligrapher Mohammed Zakariya.

Pakistan and Bangladesh issued Eid stamps. In my opinion, Eid Stamp of U.S. is very nice and famous stamp in all over the world.

New philatelic topical field, Holography and philately: postage stamps with embossed holograms

Collecting postage stamps is a worldwide business and hobby, which begun not long after national post offices started to issue stamps. The very first definitive stamp with a hologram was issued in Austria in 1988. Since then, about 40 countries have issued holographic stamps and the total amount of different postal items with holograms is about 100. In 1999, there were more holographic stamps issued than in any previous years. A chronological review of stamps issued with embossed holograms is given. A detailed description of each stamp is provided with photographs of all postage stamps and souvenir sheets. The use of holograms on stamps seems to be more of a new and attractive decoration rather than a security measure. Holographic stamps have already become a new philatelic topical field.




Acknowledgements:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000SPIE.4149...12B 

http://holographica.blogspot.com/2009/04/hologram-stamped-envelope.html
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AUSTRIA-1988-MNH-STAMP-EXPORT-CONGRESS-HOLOGRAM-/230595450899

Great Stamps on Trigonometric Survey

The question of the size of the earth continued to occupy the scientific minds of the 18th century, and soon after the measurement of the arc of a meridian by Delambre, Borda and Mechain in 1790, an even more ambitious project was conceived, this time in India. In 1799, Colonel William Lambton proposed a plan of a mathematical and geographical survey right across the subcontinent along the 78th E meridian, ostensibly to fix the location of some important points in the country, to aid surveyors in their work and to serve as reference points in a lattice for more detailed mapping. The method used was to be triangulation, and the survey was later called the Great Trigonometric Survey. Begun in 1802, by the time of Lambton's death in 1823 the Great Arc of the measured meridian extended for nearly 700 miles, or 10 degrees. Colonel George Everest took over the survey and completed the longitudinal aspects in 1866.

British interest in lands beyond the Indian borders resulted in surveys carried out by Indian surveyors trained by the British, since the border countries did not allow foreigners to enter. These native surveyors were known as pundits, or men of learning. Two such pundits are honored on the sheetlet comemmorating the Great Arc; they are Nain Singh, who explored and mapped the trade route between Nepal and Tibet and determined the altitude of Lhasa; and Radhanath Sidkar, who determined the altitude of the highest peak in the mountain range, which was later named Everest. The center stamp shows a series of stylized triangles covering the subcontinent.

Acknowledgment : http://library.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/exhibits/stamps/instruments/
The opinion of this article is not my opinion.

Exploring the Solar System : United States, 2000

This space souvenir sheet from the United States Postal Service features exploration of the solar system with five sun-related high face value postage stamps. The sun images include the sun and corona, a cross-section of the sun, the sun and earth, the sun with a solar flare, and the sun and cloads. This beautiful stamp sheet was designed by Richard Sheaff and released by the USPS on July 11, 2000.

The pentagonal postage stamps in this sheet was a first for the USPS; perforation of the five stamps required special perforating dies created just for this issue.

The actual size of this sheet is 185mm x 128mm (7.28" x 5.04").

In my opinion, this space souvenir sheet is one of the nice sheets of the world. Moreover, this is a popular item of primary education. At present, many students collect this for their school assignments. But they are not stamp collectors.

Source  : http://www.collectiblestampsgallery.com/proddetail.asp?prod=SP37

Who's who on indian stamps

Who's who on indian stamps

Slide show encouraging collecting Japanese Stamps

Slide show encouraging collecting Japanese Stamps, covers and post cards. Berryz KoBo & song "Gag 100-Kaibun Aishite Kudasai" courtesy of HP!

Famous stamp: Grameen Bank. What is Grameen Bank?

Bangladesh released commemorative stamps on Nobel Peace Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank on 29th August 2007. Meanwhile, at present government of Bangladesh look up and down him. But, this stamp is very famous in Bangladesh.

The Grameen Bank is a micro finance organization started in Bangladesh that makes small loans,social business, micro credit, to the impoverished without requiring collateral. The system is based on the idea that the poor have skills that are under-utilized. It is currently effective in nearly all districts throughout Bangladesh.

Professor Muhammad Yunus, the bank’s founder, earned a doctorate in Economics from Vanderbit University in the United States. During the terrible Bangladesh famine of 1974 he made a small loan of $27 to a group of 42 families so that they could create small items for sale without the burdens of predatory lending. Dr. Yunus believed that making such loans available to a wide population would have a strong positive impact on the rampant rural poverty in Bangladesh. The main characteristic of the Grameen Bank method of lending is that in order to be considered creditworthy, people need not come and appeal to The Bank, rather the Bank goes to the people. Loans granted by Grameen Bank are repayable in small installments.

The bank began as a research project by Yunus and the Rural Economics Project at Bangladesh’s University of Chittagong to test his method for providing credit and banking services to the rural poor. In 1997, the village of Jobra and other villages surrounding the University of Chittagong became the first areas eligible for service from Grameen Bank. The Bank was immensely successful and the project, with government support, was introduced in 1979 to Tangail District. The Bank’s success continued and it soon spread to various other districts of Bangladesh and in 1983 it was transformed into an independent bank with its own separate legislation. Its success has inspired similar projects around the world. In a country in which few women may take out loans from large commercial banks, the fact that most (97%) loan recipients are women is significant accomplishment. In other areas, track record of Grameen Bank has also been notable, with very high payback rates – over 98 percent.

More than half of Grameen borrowers in Bangladesh, have risen out of acute poverty thanks to their loan, as measured by such standards as having all children of school age in school, all household members eating three meals a day, a sanitary toilet, a rainproof house, clean drinking water and the ability to repay a 300 taka-a-week, (US$4). Grameen Bank has established an interest-free loan program for beggars. With the help of this program 99.98 million taka (US$ 1.47 million) has been distributed among 95 thousand people as of August 2007. The bank has also established an educational loan program that enables borrower’s children to be eligible for admission at universities. 1.26 billion taka (18.3 million US$) has been approved for 27000 students yearly.

Of the total equity of the bank, the borrowers own 94%, and the remaining 6% is owned by the Government of Bangladesh. As of mid-2007, total number of borrowers is 7.27 million, and 97% of those are women. The Bank has 2,459 branches, covering 79,539 villages, with a total staff of over 24,163. Since inception, total loans distributed amounts to TK 338 billion (US$ 5.76 billion). Out of this, Taka 305 billion (US$ 5.76 billion) has been repaid.
On 13 October 2006, the Nobel Committee awarded Grameen Bank and founder Muhammad Yunus the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.”

By - Mohammad Fakhrul Islam. September 2007

The best song on Stamp collecting

Title: Collection Of Stamps
Lyrics to Collection Of Stamps :

I've got one from Spain
and two from Japan
I've got a couple from Israel and Azerbadjan
I've got a plenty from Poland but none from Sudan
or from Fiji or Uzbekistan

You know I can't believe I'm telling everyone that I know
That every stamp in my collection is a place we could go!

And I've got one from Chad
and two from Nepal
I've got a couple from India and Benin as well
I've got a plenty from Poland but none from Sudan
or from Fiji or Uzbekistan
I've got one from Spain
and two from Japan
I've got a couple from Israel and Azerbadjan
I've got a plenty from Poland but none from Sudan
or from Fiji or Uzbekistan

You know I can't believe I'm telling everyone that I know
That every stamp in my collection is a place we could go!

And I've got one from Chad
and two from Nepal
I've got a couple from India and Benin as well
I've got a plenty from Poland but none from Sudan
or from Fiji or Uzbekistan

Source :http://www.lyricsmania.com/collection_of_stamps_lyrics_im_from_barcelona_1.html

Guinness World Records™ for China stamps

On 10 April, 2010, in Luoyang City, China, a new Guinness World Records™ record was set for the most stamps in one series, with 1,000 as the current records.

The stamps in the series entitled Splendid Peonies were released officially from 2006 to 2010. The stamps were released for the annual peony festivals held in Luoyang, which is famous for its peony in the world. Starting from 2006, 200 different stamps were released consecutively each year. The stamps feature the beautiful peonies, with 1000 varieties

At the opening ceremony of 28th Luoyang Peony Festival, the adjudicator from Guinness World Records™ presented the certificate to celebrate this new record. And it was not the first time for Luoyang to get a record, as Luoyang has set several records since 2006, for example, largest martial arts display, longest dancing dragon, largest painting by numbers, most people drawing simultaneously, etc.

Source: http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com

50th Anniversary stamps for first manned spaceflight

The 50th anniversary of America’s first manned spaceflight is being commemorated with the issuance of two stamps. The stamps go on sale May 4.

One stamp salutes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Project Mercury, America’s first manned spaceflight program, and NASA astronaut Alan Shepard’s historic flight on May 5, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Freedom 7.

The other stamp draws attention to NASA’s unmanned MESSENGER mission, a scientific investigation of the planet Mercury. On March 18, 2011, MESSENGER will become the first spacecraft to enter into orbit around Mercury.

These two historic missions—Shepard’s Mercury flight and MESSENGER’s orbit of Mercury—frame a remarkable fifty-year period in which America has advanced space exploration through more than 1,500 manned and unmanned flights.

The Project Mercury and MESSENGER Mission stamps were designed by Donato Giancola of Brooklyn, NY, under the direction of Phil Jordan of Falls Church, VA. A three-time winner of the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, Giancola is known for his cover illustrations for science fiction authors, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Phillip K. Dick, and Arthur C. Clarke. His luminous works for J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have received recognition through more than a dozen awards.

Giancola based the stamp designs on NASA photographs and images. The Project Mercury stamp depicts Shepard, the Mercury capsule Freedom 7, and the Redstone launching rocket. The MESSENGER Mission stamp depicts the MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury.
Source:http://www.worldstampnews.com

United States Stamps & First Day Covers 0001

Commemorative stamps on Nobel Peace Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus

Bangladesh released commemorative stamps on Nobel Peace Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank on 29th August 2007. A special seal was used on the occasion also. Bangladesh Postal Department issued the commemorative postage stamp of Taka 10 denomination and a first day cover valued Taka 6 on the occasion of winning the Nobel Peace Prize- 2006 by renowned economist Dr Muhammad Yunus, also the founder of well-reputed Grameen Bank. Speaking on the occasion, the chief adviser Dr. Fakhruddin said, "It is a moment of great pleasure for all of us."Crediting Dr. Yunus with bringing pride and honour for the country, the chief adviser said the whole nation had celebrated the Nobel Peace Prize win by Dr. Yunus in 2006 with jubilation. Dr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank, he said, are both popular to all for their remarkable contributions in poverty eradication and social development.Recalling their fond memories of university life in Dhaka University 50 years back, Dr. Fakhruddin said, " Dr. Yunus, Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam and myself started our student life simultaneously in Dhaka University and we are happy to be here today at a graceful ceremony." Dr. Yunus said, "I am very happy that the postal department has taken this initiative following an international convention."Referring to the release of postage stamp and the cover, the Noble laureate said, "It will help inspire us all to achieve something great in future." The commemorative stamp and the first day cover are being sold from four GPOs and all other main post offices from the inaugural day. Subsequently, the stamps and covers will be available in all the upazila post offices and sub-post offices. Secretary-in-charge of the Chief Adviser's Office Kazi M Aminul Islam, Press Secretary to CA Syed Fahim Munaim, Post and Telecommunication Secretary Sheikh Khurshid Alam, Director General of Postal Department Mobasser ur Rahman, General Manager of Grameen Bank Nurjahan Begum, Executive Director of Center for Mass Education in Science Prof Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim, Executive Director of Center for Development Communication Muhammad Jahangir and senior civil and military officials were present. Meanwhile, at present government of Bangladesh look up and down him. Source : www.grameen-info.org

Canada’s newest stamp is the BIGGEST in every sense of the word

Like the wildlife definitive that preceded it, the Blue Whale stamp was produced using a combination of two printing techniques: intaglio (for the whale in the foreground) and offset lithography (for the colours in the background).

The intaglio process (which was used to produce Canada’s first postage stamp) was recently reinvented using a new, state-of-the-art laser engraving technology. The image of the whale features the work of master engraver Jorge Peral.

However, of even more philatelic significance is the fact that Canada’s newest stamp is VERY big in every sense of the word at $10, it bears the highest face value ever on any Canada postage stamp. Due to its high $10 face value, several security features have been incorporated on the stamp by the security printers 

At 128 by 49 millimetres (about five by two inches) it is the largest stamp ever issued by Canada Post.

Issued only this past week, the stamp depicts a blue whale which can literally reaching more than 30 metres in length and weigh up to 180 metric tonnes so is the largest animal known to have existed, outclassing even the dinosaurs.

So the stamp is the biggest face value, biggest size and features the biggest animals. Surely a new world record for Philately isn’t it?

The previous highest face value for a Canada stamp was issued in 1997 and featured an $8 stamp.

Canada's newest stamp is the BIGGEST in every sense of the word, 4.8 out of 5 based on 6 ratings published October 15th, 2010.

Source: http://www.worldstampnews.com/2010/10/canadas-newest-stamp-is-the-biggest-in-every-sense-of-the-word/

Bangladeshi Stamp on Bengal Tiger -- the national animal of Bangladesh

China and Bangladesh jointly issued a commemorating stamp here on 28 September 2010, Tuesday to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relationship between the two countries.

China and Bangladesh established diplomatic relationship on Oct. 4, 1975. To commemorate the 35th anniversary this year, the governments of China and Bangladesh decided to issue commemorating stamp.

The commemorating stamp shows Bengal Tiger -- the national animal of Bangladesh. Bangladesh was responsible for the designing and China for printing.

At present, this stamp is the stamp of  highest  postage value. The postage value of this stamp is 50 Taka (US$ 0.70).