Famous people

The stamp depicted on the left was issued by Ascension Island in 1979 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of the great British explorer, cartographer, navigator and Royal Navy Captain, James Cook. In both of the stamp sets…

October the second was the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the most influential men of the 20th Century, Mahatma Gandhi (born 1869 – assassinated 1948). In commemoration India Post have issued the fine stamp sheet containing seven…

In 1792 a book written by the lady whose portrait adorns the above stamp issued by Great Britain in 2009 became the first book to be published in the English language on the subject of what we now might call…

I’ve long been fascinated by the incredible feats of the brave and extremely tough men who set off from Europe and Scandinavia in search of fabled lands. It’s possible that those featured in this article were preceded by unknown explorers…

Below you can see just a small selection of stamps recently added to PostBeeld’s enormous stock of stamps. Please visit the website if you wish to view more. If you are a particular collector of Germany, Thurn and Taxis stamps…

The beautiful pictographic map by the artist William Henry Jackson seen in this article shows the first United States of America Pony Express mail delivery route, a distance of 1,800 miles, from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. It has…

Investigating the origin of the English-language term “Gordon Bennett”, once commonly used as an expression of surprise, I came to the conclusion that there does not seem to be a definitive explanation. Various theories abound. What is certain is that…

Just added to stock at PostBeeld are some interesting stamps from the Dutch Dependencies. The Queen Wilhelmina 1901 Curacao overprints below are among them.

In 1955 Hungary became the first country in the world to issue a “metal” stamp. And below you see an example. Aluminium foil glued to paper was used in the production process.

The stamp to the left is part of a stamp set that show portraits of various members of the British royal family. Many stamp collectors will recognise the people depicted but the faces will be a mystery for others.

There’s a philatelic link between the author Ian Fleming, creator of the James Bond spy character 007 and a historic bridge in Turkey. In 2014 the Channel Island Alderney issued a set of stamps entitled “The Life of Ian Fleming”.

In the first edition of the German magazine ‘Das Magazin für Briefmarken-Sammler’ from May 1863, there was an advertisement which announced the appearance of the “Briefmarken-Polka für das Pianoforte” (The Postage Stamp Polka for the Pianoforte) by J. V. Hamm,…

The above stamp was issued by Hungary in 2010 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Hungarian Grand Prix for Formula 1 racing cars. As with so many stamps, there is a historical significance attached to that particular issue. In…

In June a modern German rarity that was not supposed to exist was auctioned by the firm Christoph Gaertner in Berlin. Incredibly, the stamp was sold for 150,060 euros! Only four single examples are known to exist. The 5-stamp set…

In 2014 the town of Dinant, and particularly the ”Association Internationale A. Sax”, celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of the inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax.

Jacqueline (Jackie) Cochran (1906-1980), was an American pilot who held more speed, distance, and altitude records than any other flyer during her career. In 1935 Cochran became the first woman to enter the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race but had to…