Wildlife Conservation, USA

I did Owls for the previous O-post, and here we are with Owls again - how could I not post owls again with such a cover in hand?! :D

Will leave you guessing whose fault it is (though if you are a regular here, I am pretty sure that would be one easy guess :))

Few weeks ago I went bird-watching in our city park here but being it was a daytime activity, no owls were spotted of course but it was really cool nevertheless. And I do hope to have the chance to join one of those nocturnal expeditions and hang out with some owls as well :)

And back to the stamps now...on the right you can see the set of stamps issued on 26 August 1978, under the name Wildlife Conservation, featuring four different owls:

- The great grey owl (Strix nebulosa) is a very large owl, documented as the world's largest species of owl by length. It is distributed across the Northern Hemisphere, and it is the only species in the genus Strix found in both Eastern and Western Hemispheres. In some areas it is also called Phantom of the North, cinereous owl, spectral owl, Lapland owl, spruce owl, bearded owl, and sooty owl.

- The northern saw-whet owl (Aegolius acadicus) is a small owl native to North America.
Weighing from 54 to 151 g, with an average of around 80 g, they are one of the smallest owls in North America.

- The barred owl (Strix varia), also known as northern barred owl or hoot owl, is a true owl native to eastern North America but they have expanded their range to the west coast of the United States and Canada, where they are considered invasive. Mature forests are their preferred habitat, but they are also found in open woodland areas.

- The great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), also known as the tiger owl or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extremely adaptable bird with a vast range and is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas.
Its primary diet is rabbits and hares, rats and mice and voles, although it freely hunts any animal it can overtake, including rodents and other small mammals, larger mid-sized mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates

You know, I never imagine owls as birds which actually feed on anything bigger than a worm, let alone a rabbit...

From what I could see, for all these four owls, the conservation status falls into the Least Concerned category, which is very good.

Now, on the left side, you can also see another owl stamp, this one coming from the 2001 issue, Nature of America, which itself is stunning! The owl featured here is the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia) which is a small, long-legged owl found throughout open landscapes of North and South America. Unlike most owls, burrowing owls are often active during the day, although they tend to avoid the midday heat.

And even though is not an owl, I do have to mention the Old Glory stamp from 1994, which is another O for today - this flag stamp was issued in a set of 6, with a variety of the letter G - the red “G” on the stamp indicates it was printed by Stamp Venturers.
 The United States Postal Service started selling the G rate stamps on December 13, 1994. This series was produced by more printers and in formats than any previous rate change stamps.
The reason this Non-Denominated booklet stamp was issued because of a postal rate change that was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 1995 - I guess the US residents would be more familiar with this than me.

Now last but not least, what makes this cover so special, is the cancellation - this cover was posted in Owl's Head - a small town in Maine, with a population of 1580. I just guess the person cancelling it was feeling kinda anxious at the moment and cancelled this left and right :D But way better than just crossing it out with a pen - that one makes my teeth cringe!

I have one or two more treats of this kind, so just keep on following the Sunday Stamps and will share them with you when the time comes :)

In the meantime, check out today's edition of Sunday Stamps!

I rarely do scheduled posts, so hopefully this one will come out just right :)

Art in Yugoslavia throughout the centuries, Yugoslavia

Well hello everyone!

After some breath of fresh air last week, here we are back to my standard ramblings and modest collections, sorry :D But at least now I have someone to chip in for the times I feel lazy, out of ideas/stamps, or to simply make it more fun and versatile.

Today it is the letter N that is on the menu, and for that occasion I have chosen this set of 6 stamps of beautiful paintings of Nudes, coming from a number of different artists from the former Yugoslavia.

This set was issued on 28 November 1969 and shows reproductions of the works of some of the Yugoslav artists from the XIX / XX century.

The top row of stamps starts with one by Nikola Martinovski (August 18, 1903 – February 7, 1973) who is considered the founder of the Contemporary Macedonian art and here is presented with his painting called Young Gypsy with a Rose.

The middle stamp shows a painting by Sava Šumanović (22 January 1896–30 August 1942),born in nowadays Croatia here, with his painting The girl in the Red Armchair. (1932-1934). He had
managed to develop his own, rather original artistic expression, which he simply called "the way I know and can." Due to innovations and unique style, Šumanović can be described as one of the most prominent Yugoslav painters of the twentieth century as well as a major painter from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

The last stamp in this row shows a painting by Marino Tartaglia (3 August 1894 – 21 April 1984) who was a Croatian painter and art teacher, for many years a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and had also received the Vladimir Nazor Award for lifetime achievement in the arts in 1964.
His painting on the stamp is titled Combing and dates from the year of 1924.

The bottom row starts with the painting Nude Olynpia by Miroslav Kraljević (1885–1913) who was a Croatian painter, printmaker and sculptor, and was one of the founders of modern art in Croatia. He had died at a very young age from tuberculosis unfortunately - he was only 27.

The middle stamp shows the painting Bathing Girl by Jovan Bijelić (30 June 1884 or 19 June 1886 - 12 March 1964) who was a Bosnian-Herzegovian and Serbian painter, and one of the most important Yugoslav visual artists between the world wars. He is also one of the most important representatives of color expressionism.

The last stamp in this series is a painting by Matej Šternen (20 September 1870 – 28 June 1949) who was a leading Slovene Impressionist painter and here is represented with his work from 1914, called Woman on a Sofa.

I do appreciate all types of art, though I cannot say I am a huge fan of this kind. However what I admire about it is the courage of these women posing showing their perfectly imperfect bodies (presumably they were actually posing and these paintings have not been done based on the artists' imagination). It is just really compelling!

So thank you for your attention today and now go over to today's Sunday Stamps edition for the rest of the N-entries :)

It is an M day!

Good afternoon folks, it is a Sunday and a day for new post here at myphilatelicpassion.blogspot.ba. First of all want to say thx to Ana for letting me use her blog and (ab)use her faithful followers.

It is an M day and I would like to introduce you to my unusual stamps collecting topic. There are a lot of people collecting stamps on topics like birds, cats, dogs, art, religion, lighthouses, Olympics etc. You could try to guess and say I collect motors and would be still wrong.

They say stamps are like small ambassadors of their countries but there is one thing older and even more ambassador of one’s country.  As the song says Money, money, money must be funny and for me if money is on stamp it is double funny 😀

Collecting coins and banknotes often goes hand in a hand with collecting stamps and I have been collecting both for quite a while when I came upon idea of collecting this particular topic. Will give it a try display few items and who knows maybe someone finds it interesting enough to start collection of their own.

 

This is oldest stamp in my “Money on stamps” collection Cyprus ¾ Cypriot piastre stamp issued on February 1^st 1928. This stamp is lowest face value and part of set of 10 stamps. Usually I go for mint stamps but average sale value of this set is bit on a high side so for now I have to put up with this nice used example 😁

As mentioned stamp is a part of 10 stamps set issued to commemorate 50 years of British rule of Cyprus, recess printed on watermarked paper, perforation 12. It depicts silver Coin of Amathus. Amathus was one of ancient royal cities of Cyprus and coin has a head of roaring lion, which was city emblem, both sides (it was common practice for this type of coins)

Now something bit more modern and to pay my respects for blog owner 😉 

On April 26^th 2012 Macedonia issued stamp to commemorate 20 years of monetary independence. Stamp has a face value of 50 Macedonian denars and features 1 denar coin and an ancient Byzantine M type coin (picture is not sharp enough to try to attribute it properly and showing only avers so it will remain partial mystery).   

Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia on 8 September 1991, shortly after, on 26th April 1992 the national bank was established and the denar was declared as official currency, few days after first issue of emergency banknotes was put into circulation (these were more like money coupons), in 1993 Macedonia issued first permanent banknotes.

We are all pretty aware of money importance in our daily life, and while it is true you can’t buy happiness but one can’t deny influence money has on every single person living in modern society. 

Changes in monetary system of any country are kind of very important events but forming of monetary union among multiple countries is epic event with tremendous impact on every country involved. 

Everyone would agree that forming European Monetary Union and common Euro currency was event of century. All countries involved recognized importance and many of them issued stamps commemorating Euro currency.

One of my favorite sets was definitive stamps set issued by Vatican in 2004 consisting of whooping 15 stamps. Each of stamps features one European Monetary Union country flag in background and Euro coin design from corresponding country.

Those stamps remind me of UN series issue that has been issued for a quite few years now, so called flags and coins series. It would be too much to display all of it here but just two pics to show off 😃

Even some non EU countries issued stamps featuring Euro currency, like my country (Bosnia and Herzegovina). 

Speaking of my country I decided to share two more issues also money related ofc.

First, there is this set of three definitive stamps issued in  2002 featuring coins of Bosnian medieval rulers king Tvrtko (0.20 face value), Stjepan Tomaš (0.30 face value) and Stjepan Tomašević (0.50 face value), Stjepan Tomašević was also last sovereign ruler of Bosnia before Otoman empire invaded and occupied country in 1463.

And for the end MS issued by Bosnia And Herzegovina but this time Croat Administration (yes, we have three different and independent postal administrations, each one with its own territory and stamps of each are valid for postage only at corresponding post offices)

MS consists of four stamps with two different designs (two stamps of each design), I personally like design of stamps and a fact they are embossed gives them some luxury appearance, and a price of 20 Bosnian marks for a MS is quite luxury if I can notice (equivalent of 10 euro)😒

Stamps feature ancient Daorson coins. Daorson was a capitol of Daorsi tribe. Daorsi were Hellenised  Illyrian tribe. They adopted Greek language and a lot of their culture. They were quite influential tribe in area of river Neretva valley, possessed their own money (as shown on stamps) and quite powerful navy for that period. They left lot of archeological traces throughout Neretva  valley.

So that was all for today, bet you are exhausted now and I’ll let you go and enjoy rest of this Sunday. Maybe I’ll write sometimes again if Ana finds this was up to her strict standards.

And not to forget for some more interesting M-posts, well you know the drill, click on the following link - Sunday Stamps
 
Sincarely,
 
Danijel