Lighthouses of India, India

One of the few beautiful covers I received yesterday from India...

this set of two lighthouse stamps was issued by India Post on 23 December 2012, featuring the Alleppey (face value of Rs 20) and the Mahabalipuram lighthouse (face value of Rs 5).

The Alleppey (or the Alappuzha) Lighthouse is situated in the coastal town of Alappuzha, Kerala. It was built in 1862 and is a major tourist attraction. It has been opened to the public since 2007 and visitors are allowed between 15:00h and 16:30h on weekdays. The admission fee is 10 rupees.


The Mahabalipuram lighthouse is located in Tamil Nadu, and has been opened to tourists since 2011. The first light was commissioned in 1887, while it became fully functional in 1904. It has a circular masonry tower made of natural stone. India's oldest lighthouse, built around 640 AD by Pallava king Mahendra Pallava stands next to this modern structure.

Thanks a whole lot to Jinesh for this one!

Easter, Poland

Hello Sunday Stampers, and everyone else...and Happy Easter to all you celebrating it this weekend (here Easter will be at the end of April)

For today's Spring/Easter theme, I've chosen this FDC from Poland with one of the three Easter stamps that were issued in 2012 (the other two come with a face value of 1.55 and 1.95 Zł.

Personally I prefer such cute Easter bunny stamps to the religious ones.
As for this issue, surprisingly, I couldn't really find some additional information...


For more spring/Easter motives, visit today's edition of Sunday Stamps.

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.

Ferns, USA

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'green'...and I honestly couldn't get any greener than this...

The USPS issued this set of fern stamps on March 6, 2014.
Ferns are considered a favourite with gardeners and florists and range from tiny moss-like plants to giants as tall as trees. The ferns featured on the stamps are five of the approximately 380 different species found in North America. Here we have five of them, starting from left to right - Painted fern, Goldie's wood Fern, Autumn fern, Soft shield fern, Fortune's holly fern.
I love the nice clear postmarks on this one...thanks a bunch to Bryon for sending this to me :)

And for more of this eyes-soothing colour, check today's edition of Sunday Stamps.

The 130th Anniversary of the Moldava-Saxony Railway, Czech Republic

Last year my mailbox was delighted to receive this awesome surprise from the kind Radim.
And this is one of the very few FDCs that were actually mailed to me ON the actual date of issue :)

It was issued on 6th of May 2015, to commemorate the 130th Anniversary of the Moldava-Saxony Railway. Designed by A.Absolon who used a 1884 photograph as the basis of his design.

From the website of the Czech post office:

The Moldava Railway, also known as Ore Mountains Railway or Teplice Semmering, is a railway connecting Most and Moldava in the Ore Mountains. It used to connect Moldava with Freiberg in Saxony and although it lost its international significance, it continues to belong to the most beautiful local railways in the Czech Republic.

Between individual stations the train passes through a couple of tunnels and crosses a valley on the third viaduct on the route. Although the times when fast trains from Prague travelled on the railway and continued further from Moldava on their way to Saxony are gone, less traffic does not detract anything from the beauty of this romantic railway. There is no shortage of attractive views on the forty-kilometres-long route.

The railway was built by Prague-Duchcov Railway Company whose main objective was to enable coal exports to the neighboring Saxony. Although the first projects to connect the Most coal basin to Saxony originated as early as the 1860s, the construction was delayed due to financial and technical difficulties. The Most-Hrob section was opened on 15 May 1877; the Hrob-Moldava section had to wait until 6 December 1884. The cross-border connection line to Freiberg in Saxony was opened on 18 May 1885.


(btw, Moldava is a village and municipality in the Czech Republic - and it has nothing to do with Moldova, even though my eyes often keep reading it as such).

Thanks a lot lot to dear Radim for this most awesome FDC with the great First Day postmark too!!

The 100th Anniversary of the Theory of Relativity, Macedonia

On this day, March 14th, 1879, the genius called Albert Einstein was born. Which means that today he would have been 137 years old...if my math is right..

He did a lot of scientific research and work throughout his career, but probably the most famous and maybe most important one is his General theory of relativity, something that Im sure all of you are familiar with...if not, well then please do not ask ME to give you some explanation about it, since, you know, I am a linguist, and things like this are like science fiction to me :) I may comprehend them to a certain extent more or less, but me explaining them...now that is just impossible )

Anyways, just wanted to commemorate Einstein's birthday with this FDC issued by the Macedonian Post on 30 June 2005, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which was published in 1915.
Face value of the stamp is 60 denars, so of course, useless, since for comparison, mailing a postcard is 30 denars, mailing a letter up to 20 grams is 36 denars......

Mental Health, Canada

A post for today's Sunday Stamps regarding the Health and Welfare theme...

For this I've chosen this great Canadian cover sent by Bryon few years ago, with this amazing semi-postal-stamps sheet issued on September 6th, 2011 for the Mental Health series - did you know that Canada issued these from 2008 till 2011, with a 10¢ surcharge that went to the Canada Post Foundation for Mental Health to be used for mental-health research and patient support? The main reason they started it was to eliminate the misconceptions associated with mental illness and establishing the Canada Post Foundation for Mental Health.
According to me it is a great initiative since often Mental Health is like a taboo and mental illness is something people feel ashamed of and just keep that hidden from the others... but it is just as important as the physical health...and those two just have to go together for one's own well-being.

Another interesting thing regarding this issue is that for the first time in history Canada Post invited Canadians to submit designs for a stamp, and also tasked the public to participate in the design selection process through the social media.

Out of more than 300 stamp-design entries, this was the most voted one with over 286,000 online votes..."The Puzzle" by Miriane Majeau - for this design Miriane has said that "Dealing with mental health issues can be like putting a puzzle together. As the puzzle comes together, as you find the right pieces and connect them in the right way, something beautiful and whole is revealed.”

N.B
A semi-postal stamp is also known as a charity stamp, and that is a postage stamp issued to raise money for a particular purpose (such as a charitable cause) and sold at a premium over the postal value.

ps. that other (neglected) stamp was also issued in 2011  for the International Year of Chemistry

thanks a whole bunch to Bryon for this one! :)

and for more stamps on health and welfare, check out today's edition of Sunday Stamps