Xilinguole Grasslands, Inner Mongolia, China

At first, the thought of finding a suitable match of a stamp and the letter X may seem a bit intimidating and discouraging and you think to yourself, "I will probably opt out of this week's edition".
And then the small electric bulb hits your head and the word "China" crosses your mind! Bingo! It reminds you that there are all these Chinese places and names that when transcribed into English, the magical letter X is right there at the beginning!
So first thing solved, now the question is, do I actually have such a stamp? After a short while, the answer appears on this envelope below, so yes I do! And seems I will be taking part in this Sunday Stamps edition after all! Truth to be told, the rule is that letter X could appear anywhere in the name, but you know, the perfectionist in me just wasn't content with posting something Mexican or related to boxing or so...

So anyways, the important stamp to look at here is the green one in the middle.

It was issued on 24th July, 1998 as a souvenir sheet and portrays the Xilinguole Grassland, one of the world's largest grasslands, located in the central area of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Covering a total area of 10,786 square kilometers, the Xilinguole National Nature Reserve was established in 1985 and is the first grassland nature reserve in China. UNESCO placed it on its list of International Biosphere Reserves in 1987.

Its name means "river on hilly lands" in Mongolian.

For more entries on the intriguing letter X, visit today's Sunday Stamps edition!

Modernisation of Rail Transport, Malaysia

I don't know how come I have never posted anything from Malaysia before, so it is time to change that....

Malaysia issued this set on October 10, 1998, to promote the modernisation of their railway transport.

And there are 3 stamps here for that occasion, where on the first stamp with a face value of RM 1, you can see the KTM Komuter, which is a commuter rail service brand in Malaysia operated by Keretapi Tanah Melayu. It was introduced in 1995 to provide local rail services in Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding Klang Valley suburban areas.
Nowadays it is the most profitable passenger service offered by KTM, with approximately 46.957 million passengers per annum.

The middle 50 sen stamp shows the Star LRT - a light rapid transit (LRT) system network in Klang Valley, operated by Rapid Rail, a subsidiary of Prasarana Malaysia. It is the first standard gauge light rail transit network in Malaysia which commenced services in 1996.

The last, 30 sen stamp shows the Putra LRT, which is its former name and is now known as the Kelana Jaya Line. It was opened in 1998. Operated by Rapid Rail as well.


I often wonder how come that even in 2016, our railway transport is not even close to what some countries had decades ago.

St. Valentine's Day

Since the day kinda calls for it, let's post something related to St. Valentine's today...not because I am actually fond of it...on the whole contrary I hate it how commercialized this holiday has become and the whole fuss created around it (in general I absolutely dislike such days)..and then on the other hand, it is a Catholic holiday but people over here are like celebrating it too cos it makes them feel important (and Christmas is still celebrated on January 7th.....)
But despite my overall despise related to this day, the stamps issued to commemorate it are nice and I think they are worth posting....there is another Christian saint related to this day, St. Trifun, the protector of the viticulture and the horticulture and today is the day when the first vines are being pruned...but of course, no stamps related to it, so I have to stick to St. Valentines for that, despite my feelings towards it (Maybe I am being hypocritical here, I don't know =))

Anyways, I wanted to present you two different issues here...one coming from Finland (the FDC above), issued for St. Valentines on February 3rd 1998 (the sheet was designed by Marleena Ansio). To me it is just adorable! I love it!! And there are some words/phrases in Finnish, that I absolutely don't understand =)

The other issue comes from France, and it comes on a cover, sent by Eric. It was issued on January 23, 2015 and designed by  Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (and therefore here we have the Castelbajac heart). It should be noted that Castelbajac is actually a fashion designer, designer, author and costume designer  and from what I have read, a very famous one, but me has never heard of him until now :)

The set consists of two different stamps (on this FDC you can see one of them), where you can see two stylized faces in profile, touching their respective nose, reminding an Eskimo kiss, hence the French pun "exquis mots".

On the necks of the two characters, the sketched hands recall the wings of the "dove of peace" by Picasso.
Castelbajac has created these stamps using the flagship colors that symbolize his work and universe : blue, yellow and red.

If you take a look at the bottom left corner, you will see Castelbajac's signature, his initials JCC with a crown on top...pretty neat :)

I don't know how eligible my post is for today's Sunday Stamps since it is all about the colour red, but I'll give it a try...I hope I won't be kicked out =)

For more red stuff, click on the link below!

Sunday Stamps 

125 Years of the Macedonian Railways, Macedonia

This could probably be considered as my favourite Macedonian FDC...no need to explain why :)

It was issued back in 1998 when I was only admiring stamps and went to the philately in order to get them for my letters to my penpals...my mum was the one in charge of getting the stamps for the collection...but she never got FDC's....and not so long ago, during my last stamps-shopping, I was more than happy and excited to add this FDC on my purchase list :D

As the title says, the issue is commemorating the 125 years of the Macedonian Railways, and on the picture you can see the railway line from Skopje to Thessaloníki in Greece, showing the stops in Veles, Gradsko and Gevgelija...Gevgelija is also the border-control town if you are going by train and it also acts as a rail depot between Macedonia and Greece.

Details about the stamp on the left:

Face Value: 30 denars (equals to 0.50 euros)
Sheet: 9 stamps
Perforation: Comb 13 1/4
Size: 30 x 40,5 mm
Printing Technique: multicolour offset
Motif: The Railway station in Gradsko, showing a locomotive, while the background shows a Turkish bond.

Details about the stamp on the right:

Face Value: 60 denars (equals to 1 euro, more or less)
Sheet: 9 stamps
Perforation: Comb 13 1/4
Size: 40,5 x 30mm
Printing Technique: multicolour offset
Motif: The first locomotive in Macedonia

Comics, Great Britain

A cover from another *used-to-be-penpal*. Karin from Scotland.

I really like this stamp and I wish i had the whole set. Its a set of 5 stamps issued in 1998 showing Comics (without Disney). Funny this separation is...Comics with or without Disney.
On my stamp you can see Peter Cook, who was a famous British satirist, writer and comedian and a very influential figure within the British comedy itself, described as "the funniest man who ever drew breath".
The stamp has a nice clear cancellation from 27 April 1998, postmarked in Glasgow. Only it is upside-down :)

Development of the Railway, Yugoslavia

This is one of the most precious and greatest postal items I own....shouldnt be hard to guess why!

Its a booklet of stamps...on the subject of RAILWAYS!!! Just A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!
It was issued back in the now distant 1998 in the back then Yugoslavia, so you could call it a rarity too :)
On the upper picture you can see the front and the back side of the booklet, while on the bottom one, you can see the booklet from the inside.
The booklet contains 6 stamps, all with a single value of 2.50 dinars, while the booklet itself cost 15 dinars.

"The appearance of the railway is one of the most important events of the 19th century and it represents the turning point not only in the history of the traffic, but also in the history of the whole society. The most important elements of the railway, the iron road - the gage and the steam engine were known much earlier but it was the most famous English engineer, George Stivenson who succeeded i uniting all those elements in one functional totality.
The first railway in the world was put into circulation on 27.09.1825, between Stockton and Darlington in England. The first Stivenson's locomotives attained the velocity of 18km/h and they could pull the trains of weight of around 100 tons. but it was only the beginning of an incredible development. Around the middle of the 19th century the fastest locomotives passed the limit of dreams of 100 km/h. The culmination of development of steam locomotives was achieved by the years of thirty of this century when in England they reached the speed of 202 km/h. In this period the most powerful steam locomotives of all times were constructed in America. They pulled easily the trains of weight of over 6000 tons. The inventions of the electric and diesel motors were the base for the construction of the more effective electric and diesel locomotives. After the Second World War, these locomotives replaced almost completely the popular steam locomotives in the traffic. The most impressive event, after the construction of the first railway for great speed in the world in Japan in 1964 was the development of the electric traction. Big trains called "bullets" ran on this railway by the speed  of 210 km/h. The railways of this kind are being built in many countries last years. French excel in this field with their famous train TGV which achieved a new world record of 515 km/h.
The railway employees in our country always tried to keep pace with the development of the railway. The experiments on the aerodynamic locomotives for great speed were made in our country way back between the two world wars. Nowadays, the construction of the railways for great speed is also planned on all major directions in our country and the first works have already begun.
Motifs on the stamps represent development of the railway in the continuity."

- from inside the booklet