Lunar New Year Souvenir Sheets - Canada

Brenda VR of Canada has sent me a lovely cover with the Year of Dragon Souvenir sheet issued by Canada Post on 2012 and inside she has enclosed the Year of Rabbit Souvenir Sheet.

The dragon Souvenir sheet is embossed and has touches of Gold foil on head and scales. 

The year of Rabbit Souvenir sheet was issued in 2011, January.  The rabbits and the circle around them are embossed and it has a thin gold foil to make it look like a typical Chinese embroidery.

Thanks Brenda for the swap and helping me to enhance my "Unusual and Unique stamps" collection.

Dinosaurs Series - Korea

Korea Post has issued a 3 series of Dinosaurs called "The Age of the Dinosaurs" starting from 2010 to 2012.  Each series has illustrated two herbivore and two carnivore of that era except the 3rd series which depicted one Omnivore, one Carnivore and two Herbivore.

The first of the 3 Mesozoic Era is called "Triassic Period", which is considered as the first dinosaur appearance period is depicted in the 2010 "The Age of the Dinosaurs" series.  The plant eating living things are called Herbivorous animals. 

The herbivorous Plateosaurus and Riojasaurus appeared in two stamps and Carnivorous (Feeding on other animals is called Carnivorous) Herrerasaurus and Coelophysis appeared in other two stamps.  

The second series which is issued in 2011, illustrates Jurassic Period dinosaurs.

They are herbivorous Scelidosaurus and Stegosaurus and Carnivorous Allosaurus and Dilophosaurus. 

The third and final of this series is Cretaceous Period is the theme for 2012 "The age of the Dinosaurs".  It has the image of the Ominivorous (Feeding on both plant and other animals is called Omnivorous) Oviraptor  and Carnivorous Tyrannosaurus and Herbivorous Pachycephalosaurus and Protoceratops.

The beauty of the "The Age of the Dinosaurs" series lie on its Dinosaur shaped perforation.  It is the first country and as far as I heard it is the one and only Se-tenant stamp with animal shaped perforation.

The rose colour Dinosaur at the center is the Perforation.  You can see that clearly in the below picture.

27th June : Dublin Fire Brigade Anniversary

On 27th June, 2012  An Post has issued four 55c stamps to commemorate 150th Anniversary of  Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB).   The four stamps effectively portrayed the role of fire fighters in Premises, on Chemical fire spot, Road accidents and in Water rescue.  Nearly one million Irish people feel safe due to the fully trained paramedic fire fighters of Dublin.

Every year 27th June is celebrated as DFB  Anniversary Day.

I am very thankful to Mr. John of UK for this wonderful set of stamps.

Braille Stamp - Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Post issued a beautiful elongated Braille stamp on 17th June 2012.

The stamp was issued to commemorate the Centenary of  the Ceylon school of Deaf and Blind-Rathmalana . You can easily feel as well as see the embossed Braille texture.

Given below is the stamp:

And a cover with the Braille stamp on it:

The Braille script on the stamp mean the words "I Love You".

Legacy of Loom - stamps from Malaysia

Today, my day began when I looked in at my post box and found a set of five stamps inside a wonderful cover. The set featured the Legacy of Loom. 

Issued by POS Malaysia on 12th January 2012, this set looked great in my People at Work collection. All thanks to Irene Ang from Malaysia.

Below is the cover and set of stamps that I received.

World's first Queen Elizabeth black and white hologram stamp

Island of Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands and is predominantly loyal to the British monarchy.  Even though Jersey has its own currency British pounds are also very much in circulation.  Jersey has its own  financial, legal and judicial systems but United Kingdom is responsible for the defense of Jersey.  

On 1st June, 2012 Jersey post issued the very first official Achromatic Holographic portrait of  Her Majesty, The Queen as part of Diamond jubilee celebrations.  Achromatic means free of colour, which means black and white only.

In this portrait she is wearing a black colour dress with white pearl necklace. The diadem she is wearing in this portrait has 1333 diamonds and 169 pearls. This diadem is the one she is wearing in almost all the British stamps and she worn this for her coronation procession.  The same portrait is appearing on the 100 pound Jersey notes.

Chinese zodiac dragon: Liechtenstein

Chinese Zodiac Signs are popular all around the world. The zodiac year plays key role in one's astrology. It is a twelve year cycle and each year is represented by some animal.  It starts with Rat year and goes on with Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and finally Pig.

These Lunar based Chinese Zodiac New Year usually falls between last week of January and first week of February of the Gregorian Calendar.

Silhouette, is an art of cutting the outline of the design, where as the inner structure is featureless.  It is made of single color, usually black against the light background color, usually white.  The finished work looks like a shadow image of an object.  It is a French folk art.

Filigree is an art of making small pores inside the design to give a unique look. Usually Filigree has done on gold and silver wares.  Karim Nagar, Andhra Pradesh in India is the home for this Filigree Work.

You can see the combination of Silhouette and Filigree work in many Chinese artifacts.  They have done filigree silhouette on mediums like leather, paper etc.,

Liechtenstein Post has issued few stamps using this Filigree Silhouette technique and the pores are done with the help of latest laser technology.  They used Red color for the stamps because in China red is the symbol of luck.

The above miniature sheet was issued on 14th November 2011.  The zodiac cycle and the letters are printed using Hot Gold Foil printing process.

The above miniature sheet was issued in 12th November 2012.  I have scanned the miniature sheet with a green paper in the back, so that the pores are visible.  The letters are printed with hot gold foil printing method.  Below is the reserves side of the stamp.

The "Year of the Horse" miniature sheets were issued on 11th November, 2013. 

Austria Post: Madagascar 3 - Puzzle stamp

Austria Post issued a self adhesive Miniature Sheet on 05 October 2012. It is a 4-piece jigsaw puzzle based on the movie "Madagascar 3".The stamp was issued to mark the international premiere of this movie. The stamp depicts the poster of the movie showing the characters from it. The characters are Marty the Zebra, Alex the Lion, Melman the Giraffe, Gloria the Hippopotamus and The Penguins - Skipper,Kowalski,Rico and Private. 

Among them my most favorite character is Alex the Lion.  Before this DreamWorks Animation have already released two movies- Madagascar 1 and Escape to Africa. 

Below is the stamp issued by Austria Post.