Railway of Macedonia

125 years of railway in Macedonia

George V

Date of Issue: 2 February 2012
Set: The House of Windsor
Designed by Atelier Works
Size 27mm (h) x 37mm (v)
Printed by Cartor Security Print
Print Process Lithography
Perforations 14 x 14
Gum PVA

This great Royal House began with the name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, which was changed to Windsor by George V’s Royal Proclamation in 1917, in order to emphasise the Britishness of the Monarchy at the height of the First World War.

The House of Windsor has now reigned for over a century of great achievements and dramatic events. Despite the turbulence of two world wars and the constitutional crisis of the abdication, it has done so with enormous dignity.

Royal Mail’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Her Majesty the Queen are launched by the first of three special Royal stamp issues on 2 February, 2012. The House of Windsor Stamps feature the five monarchs from the start of the 20th century. The Queen takes pride of place on the final stamp of Royal Mail’s epic ‘Kings and Queens’ series, marking the 60th year of her reign, the second longest for a British monarch after Queen Victoria. 

68p – George V (1910-1936)

George was the first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. From 1877 until 1891 he served in the Royal Navy. On his father's death in 1910, he succeeded as King-Emperor of the British Empire. He was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar.

Percy from Thomas the Tank Engine

Date of Issue: 14 June 2011
Set: Thomas the Tank Engine
Designed by Elmwood
Size 60mm (h) x 21mm (v)
Printed by Cartor Security Print
Print Process Lithography
Perforations 14.5 x 14.5
Phosphor All Over
Gum PVA

Sengkuang

Date of Issue : 23rd July 2009
Stamp Value : 30 sen (2 Designs), 50 sen (2 Designs)
Designer : World Communications Network Resources Sdn. Bhd.

Set: Tuber Plants

The term tuber plants or root crops is applied to plants which produce subterranean structures that are used as human or animal foods. These perennial plants have organs which store plant nutrients. In many cases the storage organs may be a root or a modified stem, for example a swollen rhizome or corm, or a tuber such as a potato or a swollen root as in carrot or sweet potato. All these swollen underground organs are commonly spoken of as tubers.

Root crops are the second most important source of carbohydrates in the worlds food, the most important being cereals. However, in the tropical world, root crops are proportionally much more important. In fact, in many tropical countries where rice is not grown, they are the staple diet. In general the protein content is low, but some, like potato and yam provide significant amounts of certain vitamins.

Sengkuang (Pachyrrhizus erosus)

Sengkuang is one species in the genus Pachyrrhizus that is commonly called yam bean.

The sengkuang vine can reach a height f 4-5 metres, given suitable support. Its roots can attain length of up to 2 metres and weigh up to 20 kilograms. The roots exterioris yellowishbrown while its inside is creamy white with a crisp textile that resembles water chestnut or pear.

In contrast to the roots, the remainder of the sengkuang plant is very poisonous; the seeds contain the toxin rotenone, which is used to kill insects and stun fish.

Sengkuang is high in carbohydrates and dietary fiber. It is composed of 86-90% water, containing only trace amounts of protein and lipids. Its sweet flavour makes it a favourite ingredient in rojak and popiah.http://stampbooks.blogspot.com

Kueh Dadar

Set: Local Tea Time Snacks
Date of Issue : 08 February 2012
Denominations: 1st Local, 50 c, 80 c, $1.10
Stamp Size: 30 mm x 40 mm
Designer: Sherman Lim

Food in Singapore had always been a national obsession, and apart from the main meals within a day, Singaporeans love to indulge themselves with the in-between meals. Snacking has become a daily routine for many, and like the main meals, there's plenty of variety available for grabs.

Savory and delectable items, namely, Lapis Sagu, Kueh Dadar, Bao (Chinese Buns) and Kueh Tutu that delight the senses are depicted on stamps in a relaxed and cartoonish way, which also brings a smile to those who are eating it.

Finger-length cylindrical, green and a little soft, Kueh Dadar (coconut pancake) is the little green thing that will excite anyone at any time of the day. Wrapped with a skin that's made of sifted plain flour and added pandan juice or "green" food coloring, the fillings is usually stir-fried grated coconut flesh with palm or brown sugar.

The information was taken here https://shop.vpost.com.sg

 

Common Birdwing

Set: Nature Series - Butterflies
Date of Issue: 21 April 2010
Stamp Size: 40 mm x 30 mm
Denominations: 1st Local, 80c,$1.10, $2
Designer: Nicodemus Loh F C

Butterflies belong to a group of insects known as Lepidoptera and are mostly day flying. They are most active during the warmer part of the day. Found wherever there are plants, be it in your neighbourhood garden, wildlife refuges, open grasslands or nature parks, they are notable for thier unusual life cycle with a larval caterpillar stage, an inactive pupal stage, and a spectacular metamorphosis into a familiar and colourful winged adult form. The diverse patterns formed by their brightly coloured wings and their erratic yet graceful flight have made butterfly watching a fairly popular hobby.

Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerebrus) is a beautiful and large butterfly belonging to the Swallowtail (Papilionidae) family. With a wingspan of about 13-15 cm for the males, and up to 18 cm for the females, the butterfly is essentially a jungle species. It is drawn to cultivated areas where its larval food plant, Aristolochia tagala (commonly known as the Indian Birthwort), can be found. The black and yellow pattern is a warning coloration to predators that it is distasteful. This species is highly sought after by collectors and is a protected species both in Singapore and Malaysia.

The information was taken here https://shop.vpost.com.sg

Sea Apple

Series - Know 10 trees
Date of Issue : 26 May 2010
Denominations : 1st Local x 10 designs
Stamp Size : 28 mm x 42,6 mm
Designer : Wong Wui Kong

Trees are important components of a natural landscape. They provide landmark recognition, shade, filter dust from the air, prevent soil erosion, and provide shelter for life forms under their foliage. Trees are long-lived, perennial woode plants, some reaching several hundred years, forming an important component of our living biosphere.

In Singapore, trees can be found along highways, in parks, neighbourhoods and gardens. Without them, the city would be a harsh concrete landscape. "Know 10 Trees" is an NParks initiative aimed at raising the public's awareness of Singapore's most common roadside trees, which are colourfully depicted in this set of stamps.

Information found here https://shop.vpost.com.sg

Kirikkale

Country: Turkey

Series: Definitive Postage Stamps, 2008, Turkish Provinces

Issued on: 28 May 2008

Format: Stamp

Emission: Definitive

Face value: 65 Turkish kuruş

 

Kırıkkale Province is a province of Turkey. It is located on the crossroads of major highways east of Ankara leading east to the Black Sea region. With its rapid population growth it has become an industrial center. The provincial capital is Kırıkkale.

Kırıkkale is a rapidly growing town in central Turkey, on the Ankara-Kayseri railway near the Kızılırmak River. Formerly a village, it owes its rapid rise in population mainly to the establishment of steel mills in the 1950s. These works, among the largest in the country, specialize in high-quality alloy steel and machinery. In the 1960s chemical plants were added.

 

Rock Partridge

Stamp issued on 8 May 2009.

The Rock Partridge, Alectoris graeca, is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds.
This partridge has its main (native) range in southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe, and is closely related and very similar to its eastern equivalent, the Chukar Partridge, A. chukar.
This is a resident breeder in dry, open and often hilly country. It nests in a scantily lined ground scrape laying 5-21 eggs. The Rock Partridge takes a wide variety of seeds and some insect food.
The Rock Partridge is a rotund bird, with a light brown back, grey breast and buff belly. The face is white with a black gorget. It has rufous-streaked flanks and red legs. When disturbed, it prefers to run rather than fly, but if necessary it flies a short distance on rounded wings.
It is very similar to the Chukar Partridge, but is greyer on the back and has a white, not yellowish foreneck. The sharply defined gorget distinguishes this species from Red-legged Partridge. The song is a noisy ga-ga-ga-ga-chakera- chakera- chakera.
This species is declining in parts of its range due to habitat loss and over-hunting. While it generally manages to hold its own, the status of the Sicilian population may be more precarious and certainly deserves attention (Randi 2006).

Henry Purcell

Country: Belgium

Series: Cultural life of Belgium - Masters of music

Issued on: 11 May 2009

Perforation:11 1/2

Size: 25.3 x 44 mm

Face value: 1 (Europa) € - Euro

Henry Purcell (10 September 1659 (?) – 21 November 1695), was an English composer. Although incorporating Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, Purcell's legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers; no other native-born English composer approached his fame until Edward Elgar.

This series of stamps commemorates the anniversaries of five composers famous all over the world. There are Henry Purcell (1659-1695), GF Handel (1685-1759), Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847) and Clara Schumann (1819-1896).

The full set looks like this 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visitors' Center Borgund Stave Church

Tourist Stamps (Year of Architecture 2011) A Europe

Visitors' Center Borgund Stave Church 

NK: 1786
Date of issue: 15 April 2011
Values and subjects:
A-Priority Europe: Visitors’ Center Borgund Stave Church
Architect: Askim/Lantto Arkitekter AS
Photo: Jiri Havran
Design: Lars Håvard Dahlstrøm, Neue Design
Method of printing: Offset Printing house: Royal Joh. Enschedé, Netherlands.

This year’s tourist stamps feature buildings with a special architectural style. They range widely from the Borgund Stave Church Visitors’ Centre to the world’s best insulated freezer on Svalbard. The architect firms responsible for designing the buildings (as listed below) are Barlindhaug Consulting, Helen & Hard and Askim/Lantto.

The Borgund Stave Church Visitors’ Centre was opened in 2005. It houses a comprehensive exhibition of Norwegian stave churches in general and of Borgund Stave Church in particular. We can, for example, find copies of carvings and details from the church. Borgund Stave Church was first mentioned in written sources in 1342, but growth rings show that the timber used to build the church was felled in the winter 1180-81. The church was probably built soon after that, i.e. before 1200. The stave church was in regular use until 1858, when the new Borgund Church beside it was completed. The stave church and the visitors’ center are run by the Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments.

The stamp issue also marks the centenary of the National Association of Norwegian Architects. The Year of Architecture 2011 is Norway’s largest architectural event ever, a nationwide project with over 100 small and large events.

Old town of Regensburg

On 3 February 2011 the German Post has issued a set of two stamps illustrating two famous world heritage sites of UNESCO - Yakushi-ji Temple of Nara (Japan) and old town of Regensburg (Bavaria, Germany).


The Old Town of Regensburg was registered in 2006. The occasion was unique for Germany: Romanesque and Gothic buildings of Regensburg represented an authentic image of a single European trading city of the Middle Ages. The valley is dominated by the Gothic Old Town of Regensburg with the Cathedral of St. Peter. Other major landmark of the city is a stone bridge built in 1135-1146, a masterpiece of Roman engineering and a long time the only brick bridge crossing Danube. Another interesting finding is the Old Town Hall, one of the most important medieval, local secular buildings in Germany. The stamp illustrates St. Peter's Cathedral surrounded by medieval buildings.

Euro 2008 Logo

Date of Issue	22 January 2008
Primary theme	Sport (Soccer)
Subject	Euro logo
Width	25.0 mm
Height	30.0 mm
Denomination	0.65 €
Number in set	4
Layout/Format	self adhesive coil of 25
Perforations	15 by 15
Stamp issuing authority	Osterreich Post AG
Printer	Joh Enschedé Security Printers

Wildcat

The Wildcat (Felis silvestris), sometimes Wild Cat or Wild-cat, is a small cat (Felinae) native to Europe, the western part of Asia, and Africa. It is a hunter of small mammals, birds, and other creatures of a similar size. There are several subspecies distributed in different regions. Sometimes included is the ubiquitous domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus), which has been introduced to every habitable continent and most of the world's larger islands, and has become feral in many of those environments.
In its native environment, the Wildcat is adaptable to a variety of habitat types: savanna, open forest, and steppe. Although domesticated breeds show a great variety of shapes and colours, wild individuals are medium-brown with black stripes, between 45 and 80 cm (18–32 inches) in length, and weigh between 3 and 8 kilograms (6–17.6 pounds). Shoulder height averages about 35 cm (14 in) and tail length is about 30 cm (12 in). The African subspecies tends to be a little smaller and a lighter brown in colour.
The Wildcat is extremely timid. It avoids approaching human settlements. It lives solitarily and holds a territory of about 3 km².

Tehnical details:
Release Date: 2010-01-13
Number of Copies: 6.110.000
Printing Style: Offset
Design: Hannes Margreiter
Printed by: Joh. Enschedé Stamps B. V.
Type: Self Adhesive Stamps

United Arab Emirates

Date of Issue	31 January 2007
Primary theme	National symbols
Subject	5th Definitive Series - United Arab Emirates
Width	30.0 mm
Height	40.0 mm
Denomination	3.00 AED
Number in set	7
Layout/Format	sheet of 50
Perforations	13 by 13
Stamp issuing authority	Emirates Post
Printer	Oriental Press - Bahrain

The "Hunting falcon" definitive stamp.

Falcon is the national bird of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and several other countries and is a symbol of force, Power, Free spirit, Royalty and Courage. Hunting by falcons or Falconry is one of the most important means of hunting in Arab tradition and culture (mostly for Royalty and noblemen).

Centenary of Girl Guides

Centenary of Girl Guides
Date of Issue : 31 August 2010

Bay of Fires, Tasmania

Set : Australian Beaches

Date of Issue : 28 June 2010


Three of Australia's most renowned and beautiful beaches are featured on this new international stamp issue.
The Bay of Fires in north-eastern Tasmania is located within Mt William National Park. The rocks and stones along the beach are visible reminders of the land bridge once connecting Tasmania to the mainland.

Koalas

Set : Australian Bush Babies

Date of Issue : 01 July 2009

This stamp issue features four species of some of the most popular Australian marsupials and their young.
The four marsupials featured on the stamps are:

• Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus)
• Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)
• Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)
• Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus)

One of Australia's iconic animals, the Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is found in the eastern Australian states excluding Tasmania. Koalas spend most of their life in eucalypt trees which also provide the species' entire diet.