All posts by Gilly Christmas

Previous Editor of Flight. BSS website developer. Live in Hampshire, England. Been a BSS member since 1999. Collecting Interests: Worldwide birds excluding cartoons and stylised birds. Mint only; Selected issues from Stamperija countries. I am excluding doves and poultry from 2020 to try to reduce purchases! I have 3 subsets of stamp albums: a) Paintings with birds; b) Doves, and c) Roosters. Favourite bird stamp countries: All South American countries; Antigua & Barbuda; All Channel Islands; French Antarctic Territory; Falkland Islands; Gambia; Korea (N & S); Malaysia; Namibia; Singapore; South Africa; Sweden and Ukraine. I particularly like Souvenir Sheets, Mini Sheets, and Overprinted stamps. Would be interested in communicating with members with similar collecting interests, and/or meeting with members living within/near Hampshire.
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Stamperija Corner – Rare Birds from Djibouti

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Written by a former member of the Society

Introduction

This article is a taster for a series based on recent stamps produced by Stamperija for African and other countries.  Some readers may regard these issues as purely aimed at the philatelic market and as such, do not meet their collecting criteria, in that they are unlikely to see usage in the postal system.   I may have set out with that mindset but have since become a bit of a fan of these issues.

We look at a set (five stamps) from Djibouti issued by Stamperija in 2017.  Back then, you probably would not have been able to buy these stamps in a local post office in Djibouti.  That said, these five stamps are official issues authorised by the postal administration in Djibouti. In my view, the set constitutes a valid stamp issue from that country. 

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Cinderella Stamps from Puffin Island

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Written by a former member of the Society

Puffin Island is a small, uninhabited isle located less than a kilometre off the South-Eastern coast of the Isle of Anglesey.

The Isle of Anglesey Philatelic Bureau produces Cinderella stamps for a number of islands in North Wales and Scotland.  The Bureau started to produce these Cinderella stamps in 2015 and amongst the collection, is a small range of stamps that feature birds.  All of these bird stamps are in the name of Puffin Island.

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Endemic Birds of New Caledonia Facing Extinction

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(written by a former member of the Bird Stamp Society)

Flicking through the Yvert & Tellier 2020 Catalogue for Monaco and French Overseas Territories, I came across the miniature sheet below (issued in 2006) which features three critically endangered birds of New Caledonia (Nouvelle Calédonie).  I thought that it would be interesting to learn more about these three birds; and in particular, to establish if their prospects for survival had improved in the intervening 14 years.  Calédoscope, the philatelic website of the New Caledonian Office des Postes et Télécommunications (OPT) provided a useful starting point for this article. 

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Nadia Charles – Draughtswoman & the TAAf Postal Authority

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(written by a previous member of the Bird Stamp Society)

This article considers the complete artwork on stamps that we have seen from Nadia Charles, illustrator, artist and draughtswoman. Nadia Charles has done all of her philatelic artwork for the TAAF postal authority, which is based on the Isle of Réunion, which is also where Nadia Charles has her home.  Since 1946, Réunion has enjoyed the status as a Department of the French State and is located in the Indian Ocean, East of Madagascar and South West of Mauritius.

Nadia Charles has carried out numerous works on the flora and fauna of the Isle of Réunion, including both land based and aquatic fauna.  She has also done multiple works of art based on daily life (portraits and scenery) of the different wildlife communities that can be seen in the various natural parks that can be found on Réunion, such artwork being commissioned by the various research and related bodies that are based on the island

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Bird Stamps of Belgium: TBC-Post Part 3

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The Bird Stamps: Destinations in Belgium

(Written by a former member of the BSS)

The first BE-1 bird stamps issued by TBC-Post featured the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) which were issued under the title “Wild Geese” [Wilde Ganzen/Oies Sauvages].  In this issue, TBC-Post printed a single stamp design for each individual value (BE-1, BE-2 and BE-3).  This approach contrast with later issues that we have already seen, where the EU-1 values were based on 10 different photographs of the African Penguin; and the EU-3 stamps, where there were five birds (two stamps each).

TBC-Post issued these stamps in sheets of ten: BE-1 Wild Goose: 7 November 2012. TBC-Post issued the BE-1 stamp at a price of €0.65.  Today, the cost is €1.60.

BE-2 featured Wild Geese: 7 November 2011, and was priced at €1.30, i.e., twice the BE-1 value. Today, the BE-2 tariff is €3.20. Alongside the three separate sheets, TBC-Post also issued – for individual sale – a First Day Postcard which featured a larger photograph of each stamp design:

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