History

Japan’s first European trading partners were the Portuguese, who reached Japan in 1543. However, the Dutch became Japan’s sole European trading partner for nearly 250 years, starting in 1609 and continuing until Japan reopened its doors to the West. From 1633,…

Collectors of butterfly stamps consider the issue seen here to be the world’s first butterfly topical postage stamp. In 1891, the Kingdom of Hawaii issued a 2¢ dull violet Queen Liliuokalani stamp. Liliuokalani (1838-1917) was the only Hawaiian queen to…

In 2025, to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the home of modern British astronomy – London’s Royal Observatory Greenwich – Great Britain’s Royal Mail has produced some very fine items. The Miniature Sheet seen here has four First Class stamps…

A small selection of stamps added to PostBeeld’s stock recently can be seen below. Please note: for each country featured in the article, there will have been many more stamps added to PostBeeld’s freestampcatalogue.com website. This souvenir sheet from the…

If one of your favourite topics is parachuting here we have a small selection of stamps which might be of interest. The items in the article do not include stamps featuring paragliding, of which there are also many. The 5th…

Great Britain’s Royal Mail has issued eight new square First Class stamps telling the story of some of the United Kingdom’s popular myths and legends – from the heroic Beowulf to the legendary Loch Ness Monster. Artist Adam Simpson’s beautiful…

The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed on the 6th of December 1922 to end the Irish War of Independence and declare Ireland as an autonomous state, free from English rule. The south of Ireland would now embrace twenty-six counties, then known…

We see all over the world that postal services are pouring all their creativity into issuing stamps in all kinds of shapes and, literally, flavours. This is primarily to encourage collectors to include these special issues in their collection. We…

Dear readers/PostBeeld clients, in case you are not aware PostBeeld holds an online auction that takes place on the first day of each month. Bidding is always possible from the 16th day of the previous month. In the auctions PostBeeld…

The year 2021 marked the 100th anniversary of an organisation – the Royal British Legion – founded in England to support members and ex-members of the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. Many postage stamps have been issued…

This 2024 stamp issue – the subject being the Sri Lankan Kandy Esala Perahera festival – is the widest stamp ever produced according to its issuer, the Sri Lankan Postal service. The stamp measures 205mm x 30mm. The Esala Perahera…

We have recently acquired a great collection of African stamps. Here is a small selection. In 1999 Senegal issued a great variety of stamp sheets covering many subjects. That above features space exploration rockets. The top row (left to right)…

World-renowned scientists feature on the stamp sheets and definitives produced by Paraguay in 1965. The imperforated stamps above include portraits of Einstein and Galileo. Born in March 1879 in Ulm, Germany, Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics…

There were so many great stamps issued by France last year I find it difficult to make a small selection for this article! Above and below: could these be the first postage stamps depicting electric bicycles? Please enlighten me if…

The two Austrian stamps in this article feature the Universalmuseum Joanneum in Graz, Austria, considered the biggest of its kind in Central Europe, comprising nine buildings of historic interest available for its five million items in 20 collections. The Kunsthaus’s futuristic…

Daniel Defoe’s book “Robinson Crusoe” is regarded as the first true English novel. It is also the first novel with a first-person narrator. Crusoe ends up on an uninhabited island where, after some time, he experiences various adventures with his…