Monday, June 29, 2009

Jan Mayen Cover

Jan Mayen is a small volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean between Greenland and Norway and even though it is part of the Kingdom of Norway, the closest part of Norway is some 1000 km away. There are no civilian settlements on the island but the Norwegian Armed Forces mans a research station there year round. It took a couple of month to get my cover cancelled (slow delivery or perhaps a slow post office) but only two weeks to get it back to Canada. The cancel turned out perfect. I used a pair of Preserve the Polar Region stamps from the Norwegian souvenir sheet. I didn’t want to remove them from the sheet but I wasn’t too sure how the cancel would look against its grey background so out they came.

Jan Mayen is located at 70°59′N 8°32′W putting it just above the Arctic Circle.


Jan Mayen Cover

Jan Mayen Cancel

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Covers

Over the past month I've received a few covers from fellow European collectors:



Eric from France sent me this cover with several recent engraved stamps. I've always liked stamps produced this way and LaPoste does a really good job with them.



Adolf from Germany sent me a cover featuring a stamp that commemorates the Luther memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg. It was cancelled at the International Stamp Show in Essen (May 2009).



Andre from Portugal sent along a cover bearing some stamps from Portugal's "exotic fruits" series. I really need to get back to Portugal for a visit some day soon.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

New San Marino Issues

The 2009 Europa issues from San Marino were recently issued (8 May). With San Marino stamps I either like them or hate them but I’ve enjoyed the last few Europa issues, including this one. I also liked the “Sammarinese Ceramists“ set issued 20 Feb 2009. It’s a series of three stamps that commemorates/brings awareness to the production of ceramic art in San Marino. So far it is my favorite San Marino issue of 2009.

San Marino Europa 2009 Astronomy

Sammarinese Ceramists