Saturday, May 16, 2015

Dresden, Germany

This is a stamp and commemorative envelope commemorating French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's very famous children's book "The Little Prince". He wrote the book while living in exile in the United States in 1942. Around the time of its publication, he left for North Africa to join the Free French Air Force. His plane disappeared during a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean in July 1944 and he was never seen again.


Saturday, May 9, 2015

Belgium, Earth Hour

From Essen in Belgium. One of the best machine cancels I've seen in a while. The stamp is from a sheet issued by bpost last year to commemorate Earth Hour.


This stamp is watermarked in a unique way. Under UV light, a power switch symbol can be (somewhat) seen in the middle of the Earth and the designers name and year are visible in the bottom right corner. 





Sunday, May 3, 2015

World Skills, São Paulo, Brazil

World Skills International is a non-profit association of agencies responsible for professional skills development in countries around the world. They do this through promotion, collaboration, training and competition. And the range of trades covered is huge: from engineering to restaurant services. This year the biennial competition event, which was first held in 1950, is being held in São Paulo, Brazil.