Coffee Scented stamps : UAE

A typical day in Southern India starts with the aroma of filter coffee. On many of the highways you will see - "Kumbakonam Degree Coffee available here" - referring to the city of Kumbakonam, where the coffee preparation is unique. They serve the filter coffee in a bronze cup and saucer. Until few years back most of the houses had hand grinding machine to powder the roasted coffee.  

Recently I visited coffee plantations in Coorg, Karnataka.  I learnt about Arabica and Robusta.   I am thankful to Mr. Kenneth Sequeira for sending the Arabica coffee scented Miniature sheet for my Odd and Unusual stamp collection. The top stamp shows coffee beans being roasted, the second stamp shows hand grinder, the third one shows the pot in which arabic coffee is boiled and  the last one shows the cup. If you rub the stamps you can get the nice aroma.  It was issued in the year 2013 by Emirates Post.

An Odd item indeed!  The sheet contains four labels, what seem to be no postage stamps.  They neither show any value, nor the country name.  In the net the official announcement from UAE post is about four stamps of different face values.  But no mentioning of a souvenir sheet, I wonder why? At first I didn't notice that, but my philatelic friend noticed and informed me.

Air show, Year of Snake : Canada

I got my first Year of Monkey stamps on the Envelope from Mr. Mark of Canada. 



He also generously sent me couple of MS and Silver Dart stamp on my theme. Thanks Mark for the nice swap. Especially interesting is the Year of the Snake stamp that has embossed texture for the scales. Two types were issued: the Green international version and the Red domestic version (both seen here)

Gabon

Gabon is the central African country with 1.5 million people.  It got its independence from France in 1960 and French is the Official language of Gabon. LA POSTE issues very limited number of stamps.  The one used in the cover was issued in 2013 for the 100th Anniversary of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital. Mr.James sent this cover from the Lambarene, the capital city of the Moyen-Ogooue province.  Incidentally Albert Schweitzer established his hospital in 1913 at Lambarene.  Thanks a lot Mr. James.

Light House - Glow in the dark: Malaysia MS

Malaysia, which is mainly surrounded by water bodies has many light houses

dating  back to 15th century.  Most of them are erected by  Portugese,  Dutch

and  British.  To commemorate  these  historical  Light  houses,  Pos Malaysia

has issued two series of Light houses.  

The first series was issued in 2004 and the second series was issued in 2013.

I recently received miniature sheets of Light Houses of Malaysia (both series)

from Mr. Joel.

  

Tanjung Tuan Rumah Api(Cape Rachado Light House):

Tanjung in Malay means Cape and Rumah Api means light house.  Tuan Light House is in Cape Rachado, Malacca, Malaysia.  This Light house was originally built by the the British in 1819 and again rebuilt in 1863 after it was destroyed in a war. It was renovated time to time and a modern concrete tower was built in 1990 with RADAR facilities and the tower was painted in white. It is the oldest active light House in Malaysia.  It flashes 3 white lights every 15 seconds (*).

One Fathom Bank (NEW), Selangor :

The current One Fathom Bank lighthouse is actually the fourth lighthouse, built in the vicinity of the sandbank.  It was built in 1998 and the tower is painted with red and white.  It flashes 4 white flashes every 20 seconds. The specialty of this MS is it glows in the dark.  A nice addition to my theme "Unusual/unique stamps".

The older lighthouse is still their at 500 meters away from the new one and Malaysia issued a stamp of the older light house in Light House Series I.  The old light house is preserved well due to the historical values.  

(*) - The duration, color and length of the flashes are used to determine the lighthouse. These are well documented.

Yala miniature sheet

In the year 2013, Sri Lanka Post issued three miniature sheets on Yala National Park. 

Here are the Miniature sheets:

The speciality of this miniature sheets are that they are odd shaped. One shaped like a Sloth Bear, Second shaped like a Leopard and the third shaped like an elephant.  

These Miniature sheets were once again reprinted, but with the Thailand exhibition logo and was issued for the Thailand Exhibition with higher face value.

Slovenia - Austria Joint issue - Postojna Cave

Thanks to Mateja for sending this lovely stamp on cover. Another great addition from my want list. I am looking for Austrian side issue. If any of you ready to trade Please contact me through snail mail.

Postojna Cave is located in Western Slovenia and it is a network of 20 Kilometers of Passages, Galleries, Chambers and of course, a Post office. It is the largest cave in the "Classic Karst". Karst means landscape formed by the dissolution of a layers of soluble bedrock, such as limestone or dolomite. This cave was first discovered in the 17th century and opened to the public in 1819.  

The cave management asked Austria to open a post office inside the cave.  In 1899 August 15th, Austria finally opened the first underground cave post office in the world, near Kongresna Dvorana 500m inside the cave from the entrance. Until 1911 the post office was operated only on special occasions. Even during WWI the underground post office stayed open and continued to operate till 1927.

After the Annexation of this cave to Italy, in May 1927  Italy replaced this stone post office with a new building 1.4 Km away from the entrance.

In the last 196 years, more than 3.5 crore people visited the cave and the Cave Post Office.  It  is the most visited cave in Europe. 

At first the mails carried the special cancellation "Adelsberger Grotte - Postojnska Jama" and after it came under the Italian authorities it carried "Postumia (Grotte)" special cancellation. 

Even though the cave is in Slovenia, Austria Post opened the First under ground cave post office. So no wonder that Slovenia and Austria joint hands to issue the Joint MS on this historical Postojna Cave on 6th April, 2013.

In 1872, railway lines were laid in the cave and railway cars were pushed by the cave guides. Then they used gas locomotive to carry the tourists. In 1884, electricity connections arrived. Today, tourists take the electric train.

The cave was used for many purposes.  It was used as a storage room, a hideout, a bunker, and of course a concert Hall.  During World War II Germans used this cave as a fuel depot.  Since the Italians took all the maps of the cave, the Germans with limited knowledge about the cave were not aware of the back side entrance and they didn't guard it. The partisans took this opportunity to enter the cave through Crna Jama and used the artificial tunnel dug by the Italians to enter the cave from behind and set the fuel alight.  The fire took seven days to die out and it destroyed a huge part of the cave.  After the war, the cave became part of Yugoslavia and remained so until Slovenia gained independence in 1991, making it officially a part of Slovenia.

                             

A.N. Tupolev - Pioneer in Russian Aircraft design

Irina from Russia sent me a card depicting various air crafts with my themed stamps.  Thanks Irina.

Tu-22M3 and TB-7 are strategic Bomber and These stamps were issued by the Russian Federation in the year 2013 to commemorate the 125th Anniversary of Birth of A.N. Tupolev.

Burung Betaluk Wood Pecker M/s from Malaysia

Recently I received a very beautiful Miniature sheet featuring the Burung Pelatuk Wood Pecker. The souvenir sheet is embossed and has the texture of feathers.

The Miniature sheet was issued on 13th January 2013 in Malaysia.

I would like to thank Mr. Joel for the m/s as it suits my theme "Odd shaped and unique stamps".

Given below is the Mind Blowing minisheet.

The rear view where you can see the embossing clearly.

12th January : National Youth Day (India)

Since 1985, Government of India is celebrating "National Youth Day" on 12th January. 12th January is the birth day of Narendranath Datta aka. Swami Vivekananda.

He was an Indian Hindu monk and an ardent follower of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.  He is the one who  extolled Hinduism at the Parliament of the Worlds's Religions in Chicago in 1893, at the age of 30.  He started his opening speech at the Parliament with "Sisters and Brothers of America....". This opening line exemplified the tolerance and brotherhood of Hinduism and he received a standing ovation for more than 3 minutes.

He strongly believed that youth are the pillars of the future.  Once he said that "Give me few men and women who are pure and selfless and I shall shake the world". His quote: "Arise, awake and Stop not until the Goal is reached" is the inspiration for many Indians.

After his foreign tour he returned to India through Ramanad.  The young King of Ramanad, Bhaskara Sethupathi who funded Vivekananda's trip to Chicago, knelt before Swamiji and offered his own head to step on before it touches the Indian soil. In memory of this incident, the site is called "Kunthukaal". From this we can understand that how deep he inspired the youth of our nation, regardless of status in the society.

Shown below are few stamps depicting Swamiji and King Sethupathi. Also shown are commemorative coins issued in 2013.

9th August : Independence Day of Singapore

Singapore, a former British Colony, is one of the four Asian Tigers or Asian Dragon (other tigers are Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong).  During World War II, the Japanese annexed Singapore from 1942 to 1945.  Once again in the year 1945 Singapore came under British control. In 1959 British Government granted Self-Government to Singapore.  In 1963 Singapore merged with Malaysian Federation. unfortunately this lasted only for 2 years. On 9th August 1965 Singapore become Independent country.

In 2013, Singapore celebrated its 48th Independence Day and Sing Post has issued the below special miniature sheet on this occasion.  

The paper on which it is printed is supposed to be 'phosphor coated' with hotstamping. 

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. 

17th July : International Justice Day

July 17, 2014 is celebrated as International Justice Day all over the world. This is the day that marks the entry of the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court (ICC). International Justice Day is also referred to as Day of International Criminal Justice or World Day for International Justice.

On 17 July 1998, the Rome Statute was adopted for ICC.  The ICC can only investigate and prosecute in situations where states are unable or unwilling to do the justice themselves.

Each year, people around the world use International Justice Day to host events to promote international criminal justice.  This day brings our attention towards particular issues like genocide and serious crimes of violence against women etc.

The above stamp was issued in 2013 by Mauritius Post.

3D Stamp : Hong Kong

In 2013, Hong Kong issued a lenticular 3D stamp featuring the different types of buses. 

Euro buses are eco friendly buses that do not cause pollution conforming to European emission standards. The fifth edition of this bus that is Euro-V was released in 2013 December and a stamp was also issued on the occasion. The stamp shows the image of three Euro-V buses against the backdrop of  Victoria Harbour at daytime, noon and night.

Lenticular 3D is a kind of picture that if you tilt it two different pictures are shown. A composite picture is printed on paper and then a plastic sheet with angled grooves is stuck on top of it. These grooves act as lenses and show only a part of the printed picture.

In the above scanned image, we can see the grooves on the stamp resulting in alternate bands.