India Post on eBay !

It is news for all Stamp Collectors that India Post has opened its online shop at eBay. visit the India Post site at www.indiapost.gov.in for the news.

http://stores.ebay.in/indianpostagestamps

But I am surprised that why did it have to go to e-bay? Why not sell stamps through its own website? Interesting! I would like comments on this.

     

250th Anniversary of Birth of Nelson.

Gibraltar celebrates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Horatio Nelson with an issue of 6 stamps.

Horatio Nelson was born on 29 September 1758 in a rectory in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, England, the sixth of eleven children of the Reverend Edmund Nelson and Catherine Nelson. The FDC features 6 stamps on the vessels HMS Agamemnon, HMS La Minerve, HMS Vangaurd, HMS Captain, HMS Amphion and HMS Victory.

For further reading click here.

Postal Stationery - Indipex

Here are some of the Postal Stationery released by India Post with the Logo of Indipex - The world Philatelic Exhibition to be held at Delhi from 12 to 19 Feb 2011.

Inland Postcard

Inland Registered Letter Cover

Inland Standard Cover

Battle of Trafalgar

The battle commenced on October 21, 1805 with Nelson's famous words signaled to his fleet: "England expects that every man will do his duty." It was one of the greatest sea battles in British history and gave birth to a legend. Off the coast of Spain's Cape Trafalgar Peninsula, the British Fleet, led by Lord Horatio Nelson, took on a combined French and Spanish force to determine who would be the master of the waves. England's very existence was at stake for France's Napoleon Bonaparte was poised to send his powerful army across the English Channel to conquer the island. The only obstacle standing in his way was the British fleet.

The battle of Trafalgar was the most decisive British naval victory of the war. Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre Villeneuve off the south-west coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost but Lord Nelson was killed.

The damaged HMS Victory is being towed towards Gibraltar by HMS Neptune on 28th October 1805 after the battle of Trafalgar.

Philatelic Terms: Imperforate, Specimen and Die-cut stamps

Earlier in this blog, I had tried to discuss Miniature sheets, Souvenir Sheets, Maxim cards etc. Recently I had questions from beginners regarding a few Philatelic terms which I have decided to answer today.

Imperforate - simply speaking, stamps without any perforations. Stamps in the beginning did not have any perforations and had to be separated using a blade or scissors from a sheet, which sometimes was cut through the design and keeping it straight was an art not specialised by many. Also one had to keep a cutting instrument at hand. Late on an easy way that was devised, was to use perforations to separate stamps from a sheet which is in use even today. A few countries still print imperforate stamps occasionally as collectors fancy. But Imperforate stamps that were intended to be perforated are treated as errors.

A classic example of imperforate is the world’s first stamp the Penny Black.

Specimen Stamps – Generally sample stamps overprinted using the words “SPECIMEN” and are not valid for postage. They are samples of new stamps, distributed to the various countries through the UPU for purposes of identification and record or to the philatelic press and trade for publicity purposes.

A recent specimen Stamp of Philippine - 2006  

Die-Cut stamps – Die-cut is also a form of separation of stamps like perforation which is used recently and are mostly common in case of self-adhesive stamps. In countries like U.S., die-cut stamps are usually separated by serpentine (wavy) cuts. Other countries often use straight cuts. They also use various shapes or patterned edges and also have been die cut into the shapes of country maps, flowers, fruits and many other shapes. In few of the recent Miniature sheets we come across both die-cuts and perforations. Die-cut stamps are not used in India.

 A die-cut stamp from Australia (serpentine)

A die-cut Miniature sheet  from South Africa (straight-cut) 

A die-cut stamp from Japan in odd shape and two types of cut are used.

A die-cut Miniature sheet  from Pitcairn Islands where the outer shape of the MS is odd shaped  (dragon fly) and stamps with perforation. 

There may be other types of combination too.

Your COMMENTS are most welcome.

(I request all Readers, Senior Philatelist to comment on the above terms and to add a few points which may further enlighten and help all of us) 

Rath Yatra, Puri

 

The World famous Car Festival of Puri popularly known as 'Rath Yatra' is the biggest car festival of all.The festival commemorates Lord Jagannath's ( Lord Krishna) annual visit to his aunt's home.The mammoth and spectacular Rath yatra is held in the month of June-july every year at Puri, the temple town in Orissa. It is both a religious and a cultural event.

Pigeon and Sparrow

Indian Naval Air Squadron 300

Golden Jubilee celebrations of the front line Sea Harrier squadron of the Indian Navy, Indian Naval Air Squadron (INAS) 300 was held at Goa recently.

On 07th July 2010 the Department of Post released a Commemorative Postage Stamp in a special ceremony with Dr SS Sidhu, the Governor of Goa, as the Chief Guest. Chief of the Naval Staff, along with a number of senior dignitaries and notable veterans were present during the ceremony.

The White Tigers have built an enviable reputation for themselves and continue to remain at the forefront of Indian Naval Aviation.

Inauguration of Terminal T3

A Special Cover and postmark was released by Mrs.Sonia Gandhi, the Chairperson of UPA on the inauguration of the new T3 terminal at the International Airport, New Delhi, India, on 03 July 2010. The Prime Minister of India, Mr.Manmohan Singh was also present.

500th Anniversary of Signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas.

The Treaty of Tordesillas was a treaty  between Portugal and Spain where they agreed to divide up all the land on the Earth outside of Europe between the two of them, irrespective of who was already living there. Pope Alexander VI was the pope at the time of the treaty. He drew an imaginary line 480 km to the west of the Cape Verde Islands, Portugal had the land to the east and Spain, the land to the west of this line. As this treaty was signed in 1494 at Tordesillas it was named the Treaty of Tordesillas.

For further reading..... Click here 

World Classical Tamil Conference, Kovai 2010 and Kumaraguruparar Swamigal.

A special stamp with the image of the 133 ft statue of ancient saint-poet Thiruvalluvar was released in commemoration of the first edition of World Classical Tamil Conference on 27th June 2010.

Union Telecom Minister A Raja released the stamp on the valedictory of the five-day historic event Chief Minister M Karunanidhi received the stamp at the grand function that brought down the curtain on the five-day event.

Mr Raja also released special stamps of ancient Tamil scholar Kumaraguruparar Swamigal.

The logo of the conference has the image of Thiruvalluvar's statue in Kanyakumari being lashed by the waves caused by the tsunami and encircled by seven icons from the Indus valley civilization.

The Conference honored Robert Caldwell, who was the first to write a book on Dravidian languages and came out with the finding that Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tulu formed a separate language family, affirming their antiquity, literary history and their independence from Sanskrit and the Indo-Aryan languages. Caldwell's Stamp was released on 7th May 2010.

National Academy of Audit & Accounts

The Indian Audit & Accounts Department was formed in 1860. In 1950 , when the Constitution came into force, the Auditor General was re-designed as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

For carrying out diverse functions, the comptroller & Auditor General of India is assisted by one of India"s oldest and premier services - the Indian Audit and Accounts Service.

 

Institutionalised training arrangements for IA&AS Officers were started in Shimla in 1950 at the IA&AS Training School, which is one of the oldest training institutions in the Country. It was upgraded on 28th February 1990, as the National Academy of Audit & Accounts.

The academy is celebrating its Diamond jubilee this year. 'Yarrows' where all IA&AS Officers from 1950 have lived during their training is featured on the cover.

Queen's Baton Relay - Commonwealth Games-2010

The Queen's Baton Relay is one of the greatest traditions of the Commonwealth Games, in having been the curtain-raiser to every games since Cardiff in 1958. The relay symbolism the gathering of  people from across the Commonwealth at the four-yearly festival of sport and culture.

Over the years, the Queen's Baton Relay has evolved into a powerful symbol of the unity and  diversity of the Commonwealth of Nations. With each games the tradition grows in scale and  significance - including more nations, involving more participants and generating more excitement  than ever before, but the Delhi 2010 Baton's journey is planned to be the biggest yet. It is set to  be the longest and most technologically advance of the Baton Relays to date.

The Baton has been designed by Michael Foley, a graduate of the National Institute of Design. It is  a triangular section of aluminum twisted into a helix shape and then coated with coloured soils  collected from all regions of India. The Coloured soils are a first for the styling of a Queen's  Baton. A jewel encrusted box has been used to house the Queen's message, which was laser-engraved  onto a miniature 18 carat gold leaf-representative of the ancient Indian Patras. The Queen's baton is economically contoured for ease of use. It is 664MM high, 34MM wide at base, and 86MM wide at  the top and weighs 1,900 grams.

The Queen's baton has a number of technological features including:

* The ability to capture images and sound.
* Global positioning system (GPS) technology so the baton's location can be tracked.
* Embedded light emitting diodes(LEDs) which will change into the colours of a country’s flag whilst in that country.
* A text messaging capability so that people can send messages of congratulations and encouragements  to the Baton bearers throughout the relay.

The Queen's baton was launched on 29th October 2009 at Buckingham Palace in London, with Her  Majesty Queen Elizabeth II handing the Baton to Her Excellency the President of India, Smt. Prathibha Devisingh Patil. Abhinav Bindra, the Olympic air rifle champion, began the Baton's  journey with a relay around the Queen Victoria Monument.

The Queen's baton has traveled through all the Commonwealth countries and landed in India on 25th  June 2010 where it will spend 100 days touring the country.

To commemorate this historic event India Post is happy to issue a set of two commemorative postage  stamps to mark the baton's entry into India as a herald to the Commonwealth Games 2010, one  depicting the baton and the second, a proud Shera holding it with Delhi's India Gate in the  background.

China Pavilion silver commemorative stamps

Authorized by the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination and the China Post Group, the Shanghai Philatelic Corporation has officially issued a set of pure silver commemorative stamps for the China Pavilion.

On the face of the stamp is the pattern of the China Pavilion and the reverse side has a lily design and the Chinese traditional bat-shaped pattern representing open-mindedness, a harmonious Expo and benefiting China. The Expo theme "Better City, Better Life" is also printed on the reverse side in both Chinese and English. In addition, the stamp carries an anti-counterfeiting label specifically made for the Expo's licensed products.

For more details : English People Daily

Deshbandhu Gupta

India Post released a  commemorative stamp on Deshbandhu Gupta on 14th June 2010. Deshbandhu was a freedom fighter, was the supporter of Gandhiji in Non-cooperation movement. He was also a journalist and writer who wrote articles for the Bande Mataram newspaper of Lala Lajpat Rai. Later he the founder of the newspaper "Tej", he also owned the News Chronicle ( now known as Indian Express) along with Ram Nath Goenka.

The First Fleet

Botany Bay, the First Fleet's intended destination, was reached by the divided convoy in January 1788. On closer inspection by the area proved unsuitable for permanent settlement. Phillip therefore set off to explore Port Jackson, where he found "one of the finest harbours in the world".On the evening of 26 January the British Flag was raised at Sydney Cove, and the King's health toasted. Australia Day is celebrated on the anniversary of this simple ceremony, marking the founding of the British settlement of New South Wales, and hence of the Australian nation.