16th April - National Orchid Day

Orchids are a widespread family of flowering plants that are very colourful and fragrant. Each year on April 16th, National Orchid Day recognizes this beautiful family of flowering plants. The creators  of this day,  Mike and Faith Young, were volunteers at an orchid reserve in Mexico. They chose this day as Orchid day to remember their late infant daughter, Orchid Faith, who they lost on the same day in 2014, with their favourite flower - the Orchids.

Though it is started in 2015 at Mexico, the orchid lovers from all around the world started adopting April 16th as Orchid day.

Below, is a beautiful and colourful miniature sheet on Orchids issued by India on 8th August 2016. India is home to 1256 species of Orchids.

CEE App code Stamp - Ireland

On an Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, a group of Irish nationalists proclaimed Ireland's Independence from the United Kingdom. The Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army  made a Proclamation and it was read out by Patrick Pearse outside the General Post Office on Sackville Street.  

Though the Rising failed in military terms, the principles of the Proclamation to varying degrees influenced the thinking of later generations of Irish politicians.

Since the rising happened on an Easter day, it is called Easter Rising.

To commemorate 100th year of this event on January, 2016 An Post (Ireland Post) introduced 16  stamps under the 8th Definitive stamps series.  The stamps have been grouped as Leaders and Icons, Participants, Easter week and the Aftermath. 

These stamps features Augmented Reality, and when scanned by a smartphone with the CEE APP, will play the below video.

Disclaimer:  I have compiled whatever I have read and understood through the Internet.  If anything wrong please email me, I will make the changes.

World's first self adhesive glass stamp : Austria

Another special stamp by the Vienna Porcelain Manufacturer Augarten, World's first self adhesive Glass stamp.  Earlier Augarten designed and manufactured the world's first porcelain stamp.  The glass stamp was issued by Austria post on 10th June 2016.  This stamp portrays Virgin Mary weeping over the dead body of her crucified son, Jesus by using reverse painting technique.

Thanks a lot Jo for constantly enhancing my Austria Odd and Unusual stamps collection.

Below is the stamp inside the special pack.

Reverse side of the pack

                                     

Evolution of Flight - First Prize Winner!!!

I am happy to announce that I won the First Prize in the Junior Category  (under 18) for my thematic exhibit - "Evolution of Flight" during the recently concluded SIPA Diamond Jubilee National Level Exhibition.

Thanks to timely advice and help from my friends in various philatelic forums, I was able to refine my presentation skills.

If you are interested, I have attached a scanned copy of the exhibit here. Feel free to share any feedback in the comments.

Bamboo chips on stamp: Taiwan

Another wonder from Cartor Security Printing.  On 13th January 2016, Taiwan issued a fan shaped Miniature sheet on the theme Calligraphy and Paintings. 

Hand-held fans are still quite popular in the Far-East. These hand held fans are of two types, foldable and unfoldable.  Unfoldable fans are usually made with Palm tree leaves and foldable are made with bamboo strips.These fans are decorated with paintings and poems and indicative of culture and artistic style.

Below Taiwan Miniature sheet depicts a 7 character regulated verse written by Wen Zhengming in running cursive script.  To attract and highlight their culture to the modern generation, these scripts are printed on bamboo strips and the stamp is in the form of a fan.  

The 7 character regulated verse reminds me of our Thirukurral written by tamil poet Thiruvalluvar.  All 1330 couplets (Kurals) have 7 words, 4 in the first line and 3 in the second line. 

Thanks, Yvette Lin for sending this unique awesome miniature sheet for our swap.

Olympic postmark - Singapore

Joseph schooling made Singaporeans proud by bagging the first ever Olympic Gold medal in the 100m men's butterfly stroke at the recently held Rio Olympics 2016.

He also made an Olympic record by finishing it in 50.39 seconds.  To honour this hero SingPost (Singapore post) introduced two commemorative Postmark designs.

I am lucky enough to get one design featuring a gold medal with the title "Singapore's 1st Olympic Gold", today.  Thanks Joel for sending this beautiful cover with the postmark.

The other post mark features the record time inside the timer.

Hope I will be lucky to get this one too.

Apple Shaped stamp: Armenia

The World Stamp Show was held in New York from May 28th to June 4th, 2016. There were around 50 countries and more than 100 philatelic association participated in this event.  To commemorate this event many countries issued stamps, Special covers and Souvenirs.  Armenia's HAYPOST participated in this event and issued two souvenir  sheets, one for the New York stamp show and the other one for the Rio Olympics.  New York is fondly called as the Big Apple. HAYPOST aptly issued an apple shaped stamp.  Recently I got this nice looking Miniature sheet from Danny Meng from America.  Thanks Danny for the Souvenir sheet, nice addition to my Odd and Unusual stamp collection.

Reverse of the Souvenir sheet,

Scented Stamp - Spain

On 16th March,2016 On the Occasion of Easter (Semana Santa), Correos (Spain post) has released 4 stamps under the topic "Traditions and Customs".  Yolanda, who always send some interesting thing from Spain surprised me by using one of these stamps on the cute little Cat picture post card.  The uniqueness of this stamp is, it is incorporated with the smell of incense.  In her earlier mail she used the other scented stamp from this 4 stamp series.  Two more to go to complete this series.  Thanks Yolanda, My Spain's "Odd and Unique" stamps collection is growing with your surprises.

Earlier she sent me the "Charming Villages" and "Burnt effect on Stamp".

Charming Villages - Spain 2016 stamps

This year 2016, Correos Post issued a set of 4 stamps under the theme "Charming Villages".

The stamps are self- adhesive, but the mind-blowing feature of these stamps are that the reverse side of the stamps pretend to look like a mini-postcard :) .

The 4 stamps depict Albarracin, La Alberca, Alcala del Jucar, Santillana del Mar respectively. 

Thanks Yolanda for the wonderful stamps. In addition to that, it is so nice of you for using a scented stamp and an elongated stamp on cover. The stamps have found their place near the other "gift" you sent earlier. You can view it at:

  http://philateli.blogspot.in/2016/04/burnt-effect-on-stamp-spain.html

Reverse side of the stamp:

Front view of the stamp:

Burnt Effect on Stamp: Spain

For the 75th Anniversary of the burning of Santander (a city in Spain) in Feb-1941, Spain Post, Correos issued a stamp on Feb 15th, 2016. It has an interesting burnt effect on one side and depicts the old and new cities side-by-side. 

Interestingly, it seems Santander fell prey to flames once earlier as well - in 1893 - when a ship loaded with dynamite blew up and fire destroyed much of the city. See the newspaper report here!

Thanks Yolanda for the unique stamp :)

Ice Crystal : Holographic stamp, Finland

Finland Post(Posti) has issued "Ice Crystal" stamp on 22nd January, 2016. This winter stamp is printed on the holographic foil, to make it reflect different colours of the spectrum at different angles to look like a real ice crystal.  The scanning can't do the justice to the real beauty of this stamp.  Mrs.Katri Viinanen  has kindly used this glow stamp on my cover.  Thanks Katri, Nice addition to my Odd and Unique stamp collection.

Mahamaham, Kumbakonam - Special Cover

Kumbakonam  is situated between two rivers Kavery and Arasalar in the southern part of Tamil Nadu, is famous for its ancient temples and for the Mahamaham Festival.  It was once a capital city of Chozha Empire.

Hindus believe that taking dip at Holy rivers such as Ganga, Yamuna, Mahanathi etc would wash their sins. This was based on one of the mythological incident where once the holy rivers of India went to Brahma, the God of Creation and asked him, "How they can wash their sins while others (the earthly) leave their sins by taking dip in them?". Brahma told the holy rivers to meet near the Kumbakonam tank on the full moon day of Masi month (Tamil Month) to get rid of their (holy river's) sins. This event is referred to as "Mahamaham" and happens once in 11 or 12 years. 

Masi month starts by mid February and retreats by mid March.  Since Hindus believe that all holy rivers meet in Kumbakonam and the idols of all the main deities of Kumbakonam are given a dip at the tank. 

Thus all Hindus like to visit this auspicious  place during the Mahamaham Kumba mela to take a dip. Last time it happened was  in 2004. This year(2016) it happened between February 13 to 22nd. 

To commemorate this occasion India Post released a special cover. I am lucky enough  to get the below cover for my collection.  The cancellation depicts the star Leo and the orbit of the constellation.  Hindus worship all rivers as Goddesses,  so the Women Empowerment stamps fits nicely for expressing the occasion on cover.

Balloon Carried Cover : India

On 3rd of January, 2016,  India Post has released a special cover to commemorate the 2nd Tamil Nadu International Balloon Festival held at Pollachi, Tamil Nadu.  Limited edition of 1000 covers were printed and each cover is numbered.  The cover was carried in the balloon and it has the despatch cancellation at the front and delivery cancellation mark at the back of the cover.  Nice addition to my Flights of Fancy.