Philately Week 2024 from Tokyo's Toshima City

The stamps in this part of the 2024 phliatelic week sheet depict the 17th century Edo period screen "Weavers and Dryers". The postmark commemorates the Nadeshiko Stamp Club Exhibition held at the Toshima stamp museum on November 30, 2024.

Iconic Irish Voices

The stamps on this cover are from a set of four that feature famous Irish musicians who passed away in 2024. On the left is Ireland's greatest accoridan player Séamus Begley. And on the right is Christy Dignam, lead singer for the Irish rock band Aslan.

Dungeons and Dragons, USA FDCs

First day postmarked in Indiana. They came to me on the same day and would have been held up by the Canadian postal strike. The USPS is still not accepting new mail bound for Canada until the backlog is cleared. These four Dungeons and Dragons stamps were from a set of 10 stamps issued on 1 August 2024 in a sheet of 20 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the game. 

Silver Jewelry from Åland: first mail in over a month

A pair of 2024 booklet stamps from Åland featuring silver jewelry art. The stamps make use of silver foil to give the text a nice shimmer.

Other than ad mail, this is the first letter to be found in my mailbox since the postal strike ended on December 17th. It would have been nice to open my mailbox on that date and find a month's worth of covers waiting for me. But that wasn't the case. It's going to take a while for Canada Post to get through their backlog. Probably a very long while. 

The strike was ended by government intervention, after they determined the two side were too far apart in their negotiations. But it's only temporary. Unionized Canada Post employees are allowed to strike again in May when their temporary work agreement ends. 

Canada Post Strike - Waiting for a Christmas Miracle

We are now into the fourth week of a postal workers strike in Canada. The union wants higher wages, better benefits and job security. And Canada Post wants to compete with all the gig-worker driven delivery services that have sprung up over the last few years which means they need more output from a cheaper labour force. Canada Post is a crown corporation which means its direction is overseen by the government but it operates on its own. And for the last 6 years it has been losing money. Last year it lost almost $750 million (CDN).

 
This strike has gone on without any clear sign of a pending resolution. Unlike previous postal strikes, this one doesn't seem to be getting the same public attention. Small businesses and rural customers are feeling it the most. But the outcry over the lack of mail delivery just doesn't seem to be there this time around. So maybe this is the tipping point for Canada Post. The two sides are so far apart in their negotiations that it will likely take government intervention to get the mail moving again.

I really miss checking my mailbox everyday. Even if the strike ends tomorrow, it would take several weeks... months perhaps, to clear the backlog. No circuits coming in or going out. No stamp exchanges. Not even junk mail. It sucks.

Argentina National Parks

A cover from Buenos Aires with 7500 pesos of postage on it. That's a lot. It's slightly more than the international letter rate for Denmark. Here's a postcrossing thread I came across with a discussion about postage rates in Argentina. Looking back over covers I've received from Argentina in the past, I can see the increases getting larger and larger as the years go by. Inflation is so high in Argentina. The postal rate increase so fast that multiple older stamps are always needed to make the current postage rate.

The stamp on the left is a 2023 stamp that recognizes the National Plan for Telecommunications Networks. It was originally a 2014 stamp that has been overprinted with a new value, going from 50c to $500, The others are all national park definitives from 2023, except the last stamp on the right which is from 2024: Laguna Blanca National Park, Jaramillo Petrified Forest National Park, Federal Campo San Juan Park, and Baritú National Park.

Sendt til udlandet fra Danmark

Not much happening on this cover from Taastrup, Denmark (there is a large Postnord terminal there) but the stamp caught my attention. It's the first cover I've received from Denmark with an "Udland" stamp on it. Earlier this year Postnord declared that all stamps produced prior to Jan 1 were no longer valid for domestic mail because they were purchased before a 25% VAT for postage stamps was introduced. Apparently the same will apply to international bound mail at the end of the year. New stamps now bear the word "Innland" on domestic rate stamps and "Udland" on international rate stamps.

This stamp is from a 2024 sheet of two (with two sheets in the issue) that feature portrait engravings. On this stamp is an image of Danish poet and author Tove Ditlevsen, based on a photograph by Erik Petersen, engraved by Martin Mörck

It's surprising to see how postage rates have increased in Denmark this year. The international letter rate was increased to 50 DKK. It covers letters up to 100g but that rate also applies to postcards! By comparison, 50 DKK is currently more than enough for three international 20g letters from Canada, or four from the US.

Colourful Flowers, Japan FDC

Another floral FDC from Osaka. This time it's a pair of recently issued rose stamps.

Birds from Suzhou, China

Lots of bird stamps on this cover from Suzhou. The pair on the upper left are peafoul stamps from 2004. And the group on the right from 2005 are birds at the Xianghai National Nature Reserve in north-eastern China. The stamp in the lower left corner is from a 2022 set showing images of pigeons.

Living Legends of the Philippines

I can almost make out parts of the text in the postmark that would tell me where this came from. But not enough. The stamp on the right commemorates former basketball player Ramon Fernandez. It is from a 2021 souvenir sheet called "Living Legends of the Philippines". And the stamps on the left are definitives that feature phrases in different languages spoken in various regions of the country. It was not immediately obvious to me that this was from the Philippines. I think the Canadian air mail sticker caught me off guard. 

Florianopolis, Brazil

This cover from the Brazilian coastal city of Florianopolis comes to me with three stamps from a sheet of nine from 2020 that feature celestial bodies from our solar system. From left to right, the Sun, Earth and Mars. It's hard to see but the dark lines in the stamps that trace the paths of the planets around the sun are highlighted with a varnish. 

UPU 150th Anniversary, Algeria FDC

The 150th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) was October 9, 2024.