Butterflies and Landscapes of Liechtenstein

The Butterflies set was issued 9 September 2009 and is the first stamp issue designed and produced entirely in Liechtenstein. When I received these stamps I figured the must have been printed on heavier paper. But they came with an insert that explained how to remove the stamps from the backing paper which refreshed my memory – these are self-adhesive. Unlike any perforated self-adhesive issues I’ve encountered, these separated from one another with ease. However there is no split across the backing paper so freeing individual stamps once separated from a stamp pane may be difficult.



16 September 2009 also saw the release of the second SEPAC issue from Liechtenstein. The new issue resembles the first SEPAC issue in size, theme and value (1.30 CHF). The new stamp features the Chapel of St. Mamerta in Triesen.

Preserve the Polar Regions Update

After acquiring the Aland Preserve the Polar Regions and Glaciers issue I realize I now have all of the officially recognized stamp issues from this series. I’ve compiled a list with images of each stamp issue and placed it here. This last one gives me a total of 37 countries. India was suppose to issue a commemorative earlier this year as well but apparently it has been delayed until December 19th of 2009. Other countries that were suppose to produce stamps for this series were Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay but I’ve not been able to find any information about these.

My First SEPAC Issues of 2009

On 16 Sept 2009, a number of the postal administrations participating in SEPAC (Small European Postal Administrations Cooperation) issued their second part of the initial SEPAC three part series featuring “Beautiful Corners of Europe”. The first of these issues to come my way was from Aland. It consisted of two stamps. A domestic rate stamp featuring Föglö and a European rate stamp featuring Saltvik. This scenery series from Aland has been on-going for some time now, prior to its inclusion into the SEPAC “Beautiful Corners of Europe” series.



This year, 12 countries are participating in the series

Greenland
Iceland
Faroe Islands
Aland
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Jersey
Gibraltar
Luxembourg
Monaco
Liechtenstein
Malta

San Marino is sitting out. In 2007 both Luxembourg and San Marino did not participate in the series.

Falkland Islands Charles Darwin Commemorative

This year is the birth bicentennial of Charles Darwin. He was born 12 Feb 1809 and several postal administrations have issued stamps to commemorate the occasion. This is also the 150th anniversary of his work “On the Origin of the Species” which first went on sale in November of 1859. It’s interesting to note that the concept of natural selection which is commonly accepted today as… common sense, was considered highly controversial when first proposed by Darwin.

On 23 April 2009, the Falkland Islands issued this beautiful commemorative set. It honors Darwin and his visit to the Falklands in 1833 and 1834 during his famous world-wide scientific expedition aboard the HMS Beagle. I didn’t think much of this set until I saw it against the blue background. Very well done.