Commemorative

Thousands of items are added weekly to PostBeeld’s vast stock. Here we have a very small selection from Nigeria, Brazil, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana and Vietnam: A fine set of mint, never-hinged definitives from 1965. The colourful artwork depicts wild animals native…

Here we have a very small selection of stamp sheets from Great Britain recently added to PostBeeld’s vast stock. Please visit PostBeeld’s website for a more comprehensive view of many more. In 2012 Great Britain hosted the Olympic Games, previously…

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…

In 2023 Great Britain’s Royal Mail issued various philatelic items to commemorate the remarkable 70-year career of the Welsh-born singer Dame Shirley Bassey. Shown above is the cover of a Royal Mail Prestige Stamp Book, an informative 24-page publication written…

Here we have a very small selection of stamps recently added to PostBeeld’s vast stock. Please visit PostBeeld’s website for a more comprehensive view of newly-added items. We begin with a few examples taken from a sizeable addition of stamps…

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…

On 15 April 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean and sank within three hours, with the loss of more than 1,500 lives. Recent events, with the tragic loss of life of those in the OceanGate Expeditions’ “Titan”…

The Spaniard Juan Sebastián de Elcano and the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan were navigators and explorers who jointly sailed under the flag of both Portugal and Spain. Magellan organised an expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, which resulted…

Here we have a very small selection of stamps recently added to PostBeeld’s vast stock. Please visit PostBeeld’s website for a more comprehensive view of newly-added items. In 1906 Mauritania, at that time a French Colony, issued its first postage…

This set of four stamps feature the Isle of Man’s renowned ‘three legs’ triskelion, one of the oldest continually-used national symbols in the world. The ‘three legs of Man’ symbol can be seen everywhere on the Island, on historical buildings,…

Around the World in Eighty Days is a travel adventure novel by French author Jules Verne (1828-1905), that was published in book form in 1873. Jules Verne is often referred to as being the father of science fiction – his books are…

Barbados produced two fine and quite unique stamp minisheets for the 1980 International Stamp Exhibition held in London. As seen above, the 50 cent stamps show the uniforms that were, in 1980, the outfits worn by postwomen and postal inspectors.…

Our last Black Heritage series article brought us up to the year 2019. Now we’ve reached 2023 and the 46th stamp in the series issued by America’s United States Postal Service. So we begin with 2020’s stamp that featured Gwen…

The last set of new stamps showing the late Queen Elizabeth II’s silhouette has been issued by Great Britain’s Royal Mail. This particular feature has appeared on special stamps since 1968. The magnificent prestige stamp booklet at top celebrates the centenary…

There are many postage stamps featuring imaginary characters from children’s stories and in 2002 Australia issued a stamp set showing figures from a book written for kids by Australian author John Marsden. Beginning top left we have: the Gnome; the…

The person featured on the 2017 Black Heritage stamp was Dorothy Height (1912-2010). She fought long and hard for the rights of women, especially women of colour. Height helped to form the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. She was…