Got good mail

From France

A wonderful view on Saumur

With on the bottom right the Château de Saumur

I got my first Europa stamp from this year! 

The theme for 2015 is "Old Toys".

EUROPA stamps are special stamps issued by European postal administrations/enterprises and bears the official EUROPA logo, a PostEurop registered trademark under the aegis of PostEurop in which Europe is the central theme.

EUROPA stamps underlines cooperation in the posts domain, taking into account promotion of philately. They also build awareness of the common roots, culture and history of Europe and its common goals.

As such, EUROPA stamp issues are among the most collected and most popular stamps in the world.

Since the first issue in 1956, EUROPA stamps have been a tangible symbol of Europe’s desire for closer integration and cooperation. In 1993, PostEurop became responsible for issuing EUROPA stamps.

 I got a Spirited Away postcard from Taiwan!

with this nice selection of stamps 

And last but not least this swap from Germany!

I asked on the Postcrossing forum for languages,

I want to see as many languages as possible pass through my mailbox.

I ask for some clippings from magazines and/or newspapers or flyers or,...

This is the first envelope I received from my call. 

And yes, I am going to read it! 

A closer look at the postcard

Stiftsruine Bad Hersfeld

Gorgeous surprise mail

Look at this great pink surprise letter I received from the U.K.!

Amy included some stickers she made herself. 

 (you can find her blog here)

And did you notice the Alice in Wonderland stamp? 

Postcards from Italy and Finland

More postcrossing cards! 

From Finland

Viola tricolor

(set of 10, 1994)

From Italy

Brixen

It's a Postcrossing mail day

Postcrossing reached 30 million registered postcards!

And I had a small part in that achievement.

But because all postcrossers were so enthousiastic,

I have, again, more cards received than sent. *sigh*

On the bright side, I got these nice cards today!

from the Netherlands

right:

Stamp to commemorate the North Sea flood of 1953

(set of 10, 2003)

middle:

Johnny Bravo

(2001)

left:

"Landscapes"

work by Aelbert Cuyp

(2002)

from Germany

from the Czech Republic

Mutěnice is a village in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic, with about 3,650 inhabitants.

(2015)

The stamp features two churches including the large Jesuit church of St. Ignatius by Carlo Lurago and the smaller, original older church, presently used as the building of the city gallery “Špejchar” (Czech for granary).

Chomutov is a city with a glorious history of nearly eight hundred years and a rich social, cultural and sporting life. This important city in northwestern Bohemia is home to a number of highly active companies with foreign investments. In 1992, the Chomutov historical centre was declared as an urban conservation area. It has maintained its medieval ground plan typical of historical market towns.

Its main landmark is the former Jesuit seminary, built in the late 16th century by Catholic aristocrat Jiří Popel of Lobkowicz on the southern side of the square.

The simple building of the granary served as the first church to the seminary. Today, it hosts the municipal gallery with a large exhibition space. The taller building of St. Ignatius Church is similar to St. Ignatius Church on Karlovo Square in Prague.

Last Chunk o Cardboard from May! Now waiting for June

This chunk came all the way from Malaysia

It sparkles!

    

And these are going out soon for the next round

As you can see, I really like this brand for cookies

and other sweet stuff, and their boxes are perfect for

this kind of swap! (At least I think so)

Mail art mood

Been messing around with some paint, 

stickers, deco tape and magazines.

What do you think? 

I would love to hear more from my followers, visitors, fans,..!!!

It's a fairy day

(This is a different envelope)

I love using one pic for the back of my envelopes,

with a bit of deco tape it looks so pretty. 

For those who are curious: the front, 

maybe I'll add something little as finishing touch,

it will also depend on when and to who I am going to send the envelope to. 

Stamps, what else?

Germany

top right:

"Representative images of the German Empire"
Reichspostamt in Berlin

(ca 1902)

top left:

Germania (stamp)

Germania  (personification)

They represent the longest running series in German philately 

(used 1900-1922)

bottom right:

Little shocking fact:

The Weimar Republic stamps, issued between late 1922 and May of 1923, are the same designs as the Pfennig denominations of the December 1921 definitive series, but are now denominated in Marks!

Between January and December of 1922, the price of a postage stamp for domestic mail went up 800%, and the price of a postage stamp for foreign mail went up 2,000%.

(1922)

bottom left:

allegorical painting by Anton von Werner, 

sometimes referred to as 

"The Union of North and South", featuring Germania above, raising the imperial crown.

(1920)

Notopfer 2 Berlin Steuermarke

A huge post for a small small stamp, 

I found the info on a forum for stamp collectors

The origins of this stamp are in the June 21, 1948 Currency reform by the western zones of Germany, which caught the Soviet with their pants down and lead to a rushed currency reform in the Soviet (and Berlin) on June 24th (June 25th in West Berlin). Emergency stamps were over- printed in many post offices (the so-called "District Handoverprints") every night to meet the next day's demand, until machine-overprinted stamps became available on July 3rd.

This immediately lead to the Soviet Blockade of West Berlin and the Berlin Airlift (Operation Vittles). The population of West Berlin suffered greatly during the time of the blockade, which was not lifted until May 12, 1949. (The Airlift continued until Sept. 30.)

As a means to defray the costs of this massive resupply operation and to provide continuing assistance to the people of Berlin, the German parliament (with military government approval) passed a law requiring a 2 Pfennig tax on various classes of mail. (Covers franked contrary to this law exist, e.g. Notopers used to pay postage and ordinary stamps used to pay the tax.)

The tax was to be paid ONLY by the "blue flea" stamp, first issued on Dec. 1, 1948 and inscribed "NOTOPFER / 2 BERLIN / STEUERMARKE". This translates to "Emergency Victims / 2 Berlin / Tax Stamp". Although this is technically a tax stamp, it was in fact sold by the post office and it had no use other than on mail.

Covers franked contrary to this law exist, e.g. Notopers used to pay postage and ordinary stamps used to pay the tax.

The Notopfer was not required on all pieces of mail. Initially, the Notopfer was required only in the Bizone (combined American and British zones). It was later used in the French Zone. It was never used in Berlin itself. It was not required on mail to Berlin, on mail to the Soviet Zone and on mail to foreign destinations. Examples used inadvertently to the Soviet Zone or Berlin were often defaced and returned by the Soviet Zone authorities (and are very collectable).

For mail that was not exempt per the above, initially every class of mail required the Notopfer. This represented a 10% tax for letter mail, but was a whopping 50% for printed matter. Businesses complained loudly about this and printed matter was later made exempt.

Even official mail that was otherwise free required a Notopfer!

The period of use for the Notopfer was Dec. 1, 1948 to March 31, 1956, thus surviving the transition from occupied Germany to Federal Republic. Overall, more than 10 billion of the "fleas" were printed.