The 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission to the Moon, Brazil

Sometime, at the end of last year, I received this envelope in the mailbox. 

At first glance it looks as if it had gotten chicken-pox or that has been otherwise contaminated. 

 

 The most logical explanation is that it had been struck by some muddy rain, which had affected the front side, the back side, as well as the paper inside the envelope... so basically, everything was wounded here, including my heart since the Apollo stamps were ruined as well and you know how I feel to things astronomy-related. 

I had almost forgotten about it, since i had placed it in a plastic bag and tucked it away in my drawer and found it few days ago while looking for something else.

One of the postmarks had been completely soaked, but the other one has remained perfectly clear, which is quite strange. As you can see, it was sent back in March 2020.. but that was when this whole Covid mess started, mail was being suspended (with a lot of countries it still is), therefore it took so long, 9 months, to arrive... not that mail from Brazil is top-efficient in normal times, but still nine months is something beyond the usual timeframe.

I assume this cover was sent for the SCM group on FB, but for a reason unknown to me, I am unable to see that group any longer - I'd like to believe it is cos of how the whole postal system has gone haywire, and not cos I have been kicked out for some reason  👀 

Im sure we all have some ruined-mail stories. If you'd like, you can share the story in the comments or you can also leave a link to that story on your blog :)

The faults and errors of the Macedonian Post

When it comes to stamps and philately, errors and faults are kinda inevitable. They dont happen frequently (fortunately) and often dont even leave the printing plant.
But sometimes they do, and give reasons for mockery and humiliation as is this last incident of the Macedonian Post.

Namely, every year, Macedonia issues stamps of the "Macedonia in EU" series, and every time different EU capitals are presented.
The last lucky capital to find its place in that series was Zagreb, Croatia's capital. And everything would have been fine, except for one tiny yet huge error.

If you take a look at the map, with the Croatian flag, does it look like a map of Croatia? Ok, you might not know by heart how Croatia looks like but the people who have designed and approved this, surely should have known, right?
Well, obviously not. We are all aware that incompetent people are employed all over the administrative service, and the postal administration aint no exception. I wont talk about the generally poor designs in the last few years, as well as the ridiculous face values - it just shows the lack of real interest of the people behind it all to produce something eye-catching and appealing.
But when you make an error of this kind, you create the basis of something bigger, since  the territorial representation here is offensive.
So the Macedonian Government had to apologize not only to Croatia, but also Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. And yeah, fine, apology accepted, but the damage is done - and not just with the above mentioned countries cos of political reasons, but the world has also seen how lousy and incompetent you guys are - a real shame for the people who should be some kind of ambassadors of the country cos the stamps and philately are not just cute pieces of paper used for postage but they are also one country's representation in front of the rest of the world... and how have we represented ourselves here?

The stamps have been recalled, the people have been fired, but bittersweet taste shall remain, esp. since im not at all assured that the new employees would be any better....

Independence Day, Philippines

After the long silence here as well, and after putting my postcards blog back to life, it would be also fair to show some attention to this guy here before the year comes to an end... and I wanted to share a strange story here with you...


Few months ago I received this envelope from the Philippines with this really nice set of stamps issued in 2017 for their Independence Day.

the backside suggested that it is something for the official Postcrossing site. Even though I prefer written and stamped cards instead of ones sent in envelopes, sometimes people do this for really noble reasons and include something extra besides the usual postcard - the sender as you can see wants to swap covers too, which is why I thought he had decided to put the postcard in the envelope and grant me this really nice cover.

However, once I opened the envelope I was left with some confusion.

First of all the postcard was nowhere to be found (and the basic rule of Postcrossing is that one has to send you a postcard and you shouldnt register anything other than a postcard, not even a folded card).

The absence of postcard wasn't what was strange here, but it was the actual contents as you can see below...

Two envelopes from which the stamps had been removed and which according to the address is something the sender had received and sent them to me as covers supposedly.

I have never complained to the Postcrossing team before on something I had received but this time I really thought the situation called for it... not cos I want to nag them on what I had received but I just dont want to be the bad guy later and have complaints that I haven't registered something I had received.
They said they would look into it and message the sender and see what happens.
Few weeks later, I got their reply, which said that according to the sender, this is not what the person had sent me, but that they had actually sent me two nice covers since I was a collector and have claimed to have included a postcard as well. Being that no one here can prove what had actually happened (even though I can prove from my side 1000% what I had found in my mailbox), the final verdict was that someone had obviously tampered this envelope along the way. ?!?!

I honestly find that hard to believe, cos the envelope really seemed fine, and how would one know that there are envelopes inside so that they cut out the stamps - isn't it more sensible to simply take both envelopes without bothering with the stamp cutting and all? But then, who am I to claim  what had really happened and there is no point in that... at the end of the day, something that was supposed to be really nice, turned out into something really disappointing....

Have you experienced something like this before? Or what is the strangest mail story that has happened to you?
Feel free to share your story in the comments... if you are still visiting this blog after all my absence :)))