How to pack Currencies/Bank Notes

 How to pack Currencies/Bank Notes

Hi Friends!
Here is the video for how to pack currencies/banknotes for sending it through the post.

How to pack Stamps and Miniature sheets

 How to pack Stamps and Miniature Sheets

Hi Friends!

Here is the video about how to pack stamps and miniature sheets, especially Mint (Unused).

How to pack coins

 How to pack coins

Hi Friends!

Many of you asked me how to pack coins and send them through the post.  In many countries, it is alright to send them through the post.  For those, 

Hope this will help.

Warsaw Baghdad First Flight

Warsaw Baghdad First Flight

The Ilyushin IL-62 is a Soviet long-range narrow body jetliner conceived in 1960 by Ilyushin. As successor to the popular turboprop IL-18 and with capacity for almost 200 passengers. The IL-62 was the world's largest jet airliner when first flown in 1963. One of four pioneering long-range designs (the others being Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8, and Vickers VC10) it was the first such type to be operated by the Soviet Union and a number of allied nations.

LOT Polish airlines, one of the oldest airlines started its first regular service from Warsaw to Bagdad on 16th December 1972 on this IL-62 air craft.  Below is the first flight flown cover on Warsaw - Bagdad route.  

First Trans-Pacific Flight

First Trans-Pacific Flight

The Southern Cross, a modified Fokker F.VIIb/3m tri-motor monoplane made the first Trans-pacific flight to Brisbane, Australia from Oakland, California - US on 31st May, 1928.  The plane was piloted by Australians Chales Kingsford Smith and Charle Ulm(both appeared in the stamps of below MS).  They landed in Brisbane, Australia on June 9th, 1928.  Rest stops, Refueling were made in Hawaii and Fiji.

The below MS was issued on April 9th, 1978 by Australian Post to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of that historic flight.

Different Aircraft materials

Materials used in Aircrafts

Different aircraft require different building materials. Aircraft can be constructed from wood, fabric, many types of metal,  or even composite materials (e.g. carbon-fiber, fiberglass).

Early aircrafts such as the Wright Flyer were built with wood and fabric. The frame of the Wright Flyer was made from spruce and ash and many surfaces were covered with muslin, a fabric.

Below Roe planes wings are covered with paper

Most airplanes today are made out of aluminum, a strong, yet lightweight metal.

The Ford Tri-Motor (Tin Ghoose)- I am looking for this stamp, the first passenger plane from 1928, was made out of aluminum. 

Junkers F 13 is earlier all metal plane

The modern Boeing 747 is an aluminum airplane as well.

Other metals, such as steel and titanium, are sometimes used to build aircraft. Steel is heavy though, so not too much is used. Titanium is almost as strong as steel, has a medium weight,  is heat resistant, and is corrosion resistant. The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird,  the world’s fastest jet-propelled aircraft, is made of titanium.

                                          Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

I am looking for this stamp, if you have please help me

Composite materials such as graphite-epoxy are strong, but can weigh half as much as aluminum.   These lightweight, customizable materials are becoming more popular.  More than half of the materials used to make the Boeing 787 Dreamliner are composites.

Warsaw Berlin Lufthansa First Flight

Warsaw Berlin(East Germany) Lufthansa

 First flight flown cover

The above cover flown in Ilyushin Il-14, the first Warsaw - Belin - Warsaw flight. You can see Ilyushin Il-14 in the above cancellation.

The Ilyushin Il-14 was a Soviet twin-engine commercial and military personnel and cargo transport aircraft that first flew in 1950 and entered service in 1954.

Deutsche Lufthansa acquired a fleet of Ilyushin Il-14 aircraft. The first flight of the airline took place on 16 September 1955 by which East German Prime minister Otto Grotewohl travelled to Moscow for a state visit. Scheduled passenger flights were launched on 4 February 1956 with the inauguration of the East Berlin-Warsaw service. 

Il-14 was also manufactured in East Germany by VVB Flugzeugbau, in Czechoslovakia as the Avia 14. The Ilyushin Il-14 was typically replaced by the Antonov An-24 and Yakovlev Yak-40.

Carried Covers

My Carried Covers Collection

(CC)

Metro rail carried cover

Palanquin carried cover

Motor cycle carried cover

Chariot Carried Cover

Bullock Cart Carried Cover

Bi-Cyle carried cover

Dak Runner Carried Cover

 Chariot CC

How I organize cards and covers

Hi Friends!!!

I have received lot of messages from Post Crossers and PostCard United friends, asking me about "How to store the Post cards and stamps in a cost effective way" after seeing my huge collection of cards, covers and stamps.  As a beginner myself I don't have exact answer, but here I would like to share my experience with you all.  If you have any other better solutions, please share with me, I will publish it here so that others will also benefit.

I use the below A4 size transparent File sheet with 11 holes to store Post cards and covers.  Group with few of  my friends and buy it in bulk. No need to go for superior quality ones.

File sheet

To organize the file sheets, we need a binder.  I  prefer 2 ring binder over 4 ring, which is easy to turn  when we store more sheets.  4 ring binders often stuck and damages the sheet holes.

Then buy some plastic covers to keep the Post cards and post covers.
If the other side of the card is not important you can skip this plastic cover thing.
I use standard size, square one for cards and long ones for covers.  For bigger/unusual  size cards, I make my own by cutting and folding.  I will discuss that later. In case you are using plastic covers to protect both sides, go for good quality ones because it will be in direct contact with valuable cards and covers, the oil and chemicals should not spoil them in long run.

I use A4 size one sided white papers (back side written/printed things won't be visible) to hold the cards and covers.  This looks clean and if at all I have to share any information about the card or cover, I can write or print it on the paper for future reference.  Moreover we can use both sides of the file sheet.  If you just want to display and no information to be shared, you can use one sided calendar sheets, old magazine papers or flyers.  Will look colourful.

Use 3M scotch tape to stick them on the paper, so that we can peel and take it to other place easily.  Yes!  we need reorganizing frequently. 

This way I am keeping my collection in a well organized manner effectively, I hope.  This is more cost effective than the Photo album, files or 2 divider sheets available in the market.  Here we are not restricted to just 2 per page, you can store more one below the other.  But don't pile them,  in case of duplicates you will not be knowing how much you are having.

In the above page I have stored 4 cards.  These are all for swap, so I just need the partial picture to figure out the card my partner is asking for.
And you can see, small portion of the paper I cut it out and used for some other purpose.  We can reuse them to save money and environment instead of going for a fresh paper.

And we can store them in different orientations.
In the below page, the backing paper is not at all visible, so we can even go for any rough paper, the purpose is just to hold the the cards.

If you have any other alternate ways and need any help, feel free to reach out to me.

Khadi Stamps

 Khadi Stamps

Recently Portugal Post has issued Khadi stamp on the occasion of 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.  This is the second Khadi stamp issued so far.  The first one was issued by India Post in 2011.

Khadi is a handspun, hand-woven natural fiber cloth mainly made from cotton. It is spun into yarn on a spinning wheel called a charkha. It is a versatile fabric, cool in summer and warm in winter.

Khadi has a close association with India's freedom struggle.  Gandhiji started Swadeshi movement for boycotting British Products. This gave life to the handloom native weavers and helped to stop British monopoly.  He started using the charkha himself and encouraged others to do so. This was called Khadi movement.

Below is the Khadi stamp issued by India post on 12th February 2011.

Portugal post's Khadi stamp issued on 2nd October 2019

Sea Planes

Sea Planes

Sea Planes are planes that are capable of taking off and landing on water.  Most of the Sea planes can take off and land on both land and water and are called Amphibious Aircrafts. They are of 2 types.

A Float plane has slender floats, mounted under the fuselage. Only the floats of a float plane normally come into contact with water.  The fuselage remains above water. 

Henry Fabre was the inventor of first successful seaplane Hydravion.  Till 1971, Henry was sailing his float plane.

(You can see Henry Fabre with Hydravion in the first stamp). 

Astra CM Hydro-avion three-seat floatplane version was the world's first scheduled passenger-carrying flights.

In a Flying boat, the main source of buoyancy is the fuselage which is in contact with water and acts like a ship's hull. They have small floats mounted on their wings to keep them stable.

Portugal 150th Birth Anniversary of Gandhiji

Portugal 150th Birth Anniversary of Gandhiji

I have received few new Portugal stamps on 150th Birth Anniversary of Gandhiji. Thanks a lot Jose and Ana for your help.

Portugal Post has issued 2 variety material, One is a Khadi MS and the other one is an ordinary stamp.

The above cover shows Portugal-India Joint issue along with Gandhij single on cover, whereas the below one has Gandhiji single on the cover.  Both are unique  in their own way.

The Gandhi MS is made of Khadi material.  As far as I know, this is the second Khadi material issue so far.  Earlier India Post has issued one.

Ghandhji Mint single

Uzbekistan

550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Devji

550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Devji

Guru Nanak Devji, the founder of Sikhism, visited Haridwar during 1504 A.D.

12 November 2019 is Kartik Purnima, the full Moon night (Purnima) of the lunar month named ‘Kartik’. Guru Nanak was born such full Moon night, 550 years ago.

On 12 November 2019, India Posts released a set of 5 beautiful stamps to mark the joyous event.

Postage stamps have been released earlier on other 9 Sikh Gurus as well.

The above article was written by Tarun Kumar, upcoming Philatelist and Guru Nanakji follower.  His original article indeed a lengthy and informative one.  As and when time permits I will expand his article here.  Till then you can enjoy his full article at,

https://azimvth.org/2019/11/12/in-the-footsteps-of-guru-nanak-515-years-later-on-kartik-purnima-2019/

Once again Thanks Tarun Kumar for the article and stamp pictures.  Have a wonderful and joyful future.

150 Years of Gandhiji's Birth Anniversary Philatelic Materials collection

Not only in India but all around the world many countries are celebrating the "150th Birth Anniversary of Gandhiji".  Below is my collection of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Father of our nation's philatelic issue collection from around the world. 

If your country has issued one and it is not in my below collection, please help with a swap.

Armenia

Benin

Brazil

Bulgaria

Czech Republic

France

Iraq

Lebanon

Portugal

Russia

Slovenia 

Sri Lanka

Turkey

Uzbekistan 

150th Gandhi Birth Anniversary issues I am still looking for...

1 Argentina

2 Armenia - Got it

3 Azerbaijan

4 Bhutan 

5 Bosnia & Herzegovina 

6 Brazil - Got it

7 Bulgaria - Got it

8 Costa Rica

9 Cuba

10 Cyprus (Turkish)

11 Czech Republic - Got it

12 Dominican Republic 

13 Egypt

14 Fiji

15 France - Got it

16 Hungary

17 Indonesia

18 Iran

19 Iraq - Got it

20 Lebanon - Got it

21 Malta - Got 1, looking for other stamps

22 Mauritius

23 Moldova

24 Monaco

25 Mongolia

26 Myanmar

27 Namibia

28 Palestine

29 Paraguay 

30 Poland

31 Portugal - Got it

32 Qatar

33 Russia - Got it

34 Serbia

35 Seychelles

36 Slovenia  - Got it

37 South Africa 

38 Spain 

39 SriLanka  - Got it

40 Sudan

41 Suriname

42 Tunisia

43 Turkey - Got it

44 UAE 

45 United Nations

46 Uruguay

47 Uzbekistan  - Got it

48 Vietnam