There is a city called Paris in Texas and this postmark commemorates the April 8 total solar eclipse. Paris (Texas) was in the path of totality. They actually have a sort-of replica of the Eiffle Tower. It's much smaller than the real tower and this one has a cowboy hat on top. You can see it in the postmark. The stamp on the right is a solar eclipse stamp from 2017. It's printed with thermo-sensitive ink that disappears to reveal the surface of the moon when the ink gets warm.
From the Swedish city of Gothenburg. This is a large cover with a large booklet pane from the 1989 "Polar Research" booklet. The stamps were issued to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The stamp on the left is a 2012 hairy violet.
I've received a few covers from the UN, from the office in New York. These two from Vienna arrived on the same day. On the first cover is a 2022 stamp showing Montecatini Terme in Italy, from a series about European spa towns. And on the right is a 2018 World Health Day stamp.
The city of Niagara Falls is an hour and a half drive away for me. Around the other side of Lake Ontario. They were not right in the middle of the path of totality but close enough to enjoy three and a half minutes of darkness during the solar eclipse that was visible across parts of Mexico, Canada and the US on Monday. I sent this cover down to the main post office last week and it came back with a nice postmark dated 08 April 2024 - the day of the Eclipse.
The city of Niagara Falls is known for the famous horseshoe-shaped waterfalls on the Niagara River. Also some casinos, an indoor waterpark, and an overpriced entertainment district. Something to do for everyone. It was always fun to go down there when my kids were small. Personally though, I prefer touring the nearby wine region. Just across the river is Niagara Falls, New York. They have their own waterfall but it's not as nice :P
Canada Post issued this stamp last month to commemorate the Eclipse. It's an ok stamp but I kind of expected a bit more. It was advertised as having a "glow in the dark" effect but it's really just a faint UV activated glow around the moon. I would have liked to see an actual glow in the dark effect.
I was in Toronto on the day of the Eclipse. To get under the path or totality I would have had to drive south-west towards nearby Hamilton, Ontario. But the cloud cover was pretty thick across the region all day. For a brief moment the sky opened up and we did get a quick view of the eclipse but mostly it just looked like a cloudy day that wanted to rain. I had a clear view of the horizon to the south and west and I could see the ominous shadow of the moon being cast onto the cloud cover as it traveled westward over Lake Ontario, south of the city. And then just like that, it was over.
The stamp on this FDC from South Korea is from a set of six that together depict a set of folding silk screens that display a gathering at the royal palace to celebrate the marriage of King Heonjeong to his second wife Queen Hyojeong, in 1844.
First-day postmarked in Paris. These stamps featuring the character Pikachu from the massively popular Pokémon franchise sold out shortly after I purchased them, just after they were issued on Feb 27. There was also a collectors booklet of four international stamps issued and another domestic booklet of related stamps planned for June. Why did La Poste feel the need to issue a stamp featuring a Japanese video game character? They occasionally issue a stamp that features something that interests French children, either now or at one point in recent history. And Pokémon certainly fits that category.
When my children were younger they were keenly interested in Pokémon and they even spent a few years playing the collectible card game and video games competitively. We used to travel around to different cities in the region playing in tournaments to earn points for an invitation to the world competitions late in the summer which they managed to do twice. I did not play but some parents we knew did. Most of the participants at these Pokémon tournaments are adults. The top prize at the Pokémon Worlds Championship is $50k USD.
From the city of Shimida in the Shizuoka Prefecture. The Kanaya post office is in what was the town of Kanaya before it was amalgamated into Shimida in 2005. The stamps were originally produced for "Philatelic Week" in 1999 but were reissued in a different layout for the Phila Nippon stamp exhibition held in Tokyo of 2001.
You can just barely make out the Malmö postmark on the middle stamp, under the round postnord postmark. The stamp on the right is from a 2016 set that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. In the middle is a stamp from a 2015 set about European honey bees. And on the left is a 2010 stamp from a set featuring marine life in the waters around Sweden. It was a joint issue with Canada.
Sent from the commune of Amilly, about an hour and half drive south of Paris. The Puffin stamp is part of the bottom third of a 2012 stamp sheet that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the LPO: Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux. Puffins can be found in France, on islands off the coast of Brittany. Upper right is a lesser kestrel (a small falcon) from a 2000 set about threatened bird species. And below that is a 2013 year of the snake stamp.
The stamp on the right is a 2019 Europa bird stamp featuring a white-throated dipper: a small aquatic bird that can be found all over Norway. And on the left are a pair of tourism booklet stamps from 1998 featuring a scene from a fishing boat in Alesund.
Some OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return stamps from 2023 decorate this tidy cover from Alaska.
I know spring is coming when I start to get covers with flower stamps in my mailbox. Although it has felt like spring here off and on for the past couple of months. We barely had a winter.
On this cover from Whanganui are stamps featuring the Queen of England and one of her mother. Clockwise from upper left, a 2001 stamp from a set commemorating the Queen's 75th birthday. This particular stamps shows the Queen during a Royal visit to New Zealand in 1986. A stamp from a 2023 memorial set. A 1997 stamp commemorating the Queen's 50th wedding anniversary. And a stamp from a set issued in 2000 showing the Queen Mother at age 7, from a set commemorating the 100th birthday of the Queen Mother.
A pair of semi-postals from the 1980's make an appearance on this cover from Riva San Vitale, Switzerland. On the left is a 1985 children's charity stamp with the theme "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" and to the right is a 1987 national interest charity stamp showing an antique wardrobe. And the final stamp on the right is 2022 river landscape stamp that shows the Aare river near Rubigen in the Canton of Bern.
Annual spring greetings stamps on this first-day cover from Osaka. On the left is are horsetails and on the right are violets.
This FDC commemorates Algerian customs officers and the difficulties they face protecting the borders of Africa's largest nation.
Lots of stamps on this cover with a Torino philatelic bureau handstamp. From left to right: a 1974 stamp commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Italian financial police, a 1974 stamp commemorating the European Athletic Games, a pair of 1975 stamps commemorating the Holy Year, a 2009 stamp commemorating the 200th birth anniversary of Charles Darwin, 2023 Europa stamp and a 2004 stamp commemorating the 600th anniversary of the University of Turin.
Some savage postal employee thoroughly defaced the wonderful stamps on this nice cover from Mauritius. I wonder sometimes if it's just done out of spite. From bottom left to right, a cowrie shell from a 2017 sea shells set, a 2022 stamp commemorating the 200th anniversary of the municipal theater in Port Louis, a 2023 stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the State Bank of Mauritius, and a Mauritius Blue Pigeon from a 2022 extinct species definitives set.
The stamps on this cover from Colnago, Italy, commemorate Vismara, a cured meat company that has been in operation since 1898. And Cirio, a company that has specialized in canned tomato products since 1856.
If you look closely at this image from Google you can see the sign hanging at the corner of the building.
On this cover from Japan is a pair of 2024 "Record of Nature" series 4 stamps. The stamp on the left is a porcupine and on the right is some kind of dog. And in the FD postmark is an image of a badger.
Pratovecchio is a Tuscan commune in the province of Arezzo. I was amused by the placement of the address above the additional 0.05c to make the international letter rate. The stamps are a pair from 2020 that commemorate the establishment of Italian publishing company Casa Editrice Libraria Ulrico Hoepli SpA in 1870 and the Marietti Publishing House in 1820.
I love these stamps. And the postmark. The flatbed scanner doesn't reveal the shinny hotfoil applied to some stamps but my phone picks it up perfectly. The gold foil really pops and the iridescence of the silver foil shimmers nicely with the changing angles of light. The first-day postmark completes the cover perfectly.
A cover with Brazilian stamps featuring Argentinian comic strip character Mafalda; a middle-class progressive six year old who continuously expresses concern about humanity and world peace. The comic strip was published between 1964 and 1973.
A set of 2020 stamps from Brazil highlighting the fashion industry. From left to right: Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen, designs by Brazilian fashion artist Filipe Jardim and a camera owned by Brazilian photographer Bob Wolfenson.
This stamp sheet from Hong Kong is from a 2023 set that shows images of the post office headquarters in Hong Kong over the years. The stamp on this sheet shows the most recent building opened in 2023 at Kowloon Bay.
Posted from Åland's capital Mariehamn. On the front of this cover is a colourful Year of the Dragon sheet issued 2023. Additional postage is on the back: Year of the Rat stamps from 2019 featuring harvest mice and a Year of the Rabbit stamp from 2022.
