Sunday Stamps 019: Children's health on New Zealand stamps

I'm posting this early lest I forgot again. I'll be busy tomorrow entertaining guests who are visiting the city for the first time.

Here is one of the five stamps issued by the NZ Post in 2006 in support of the global health campaign "5+ a day". It is a campaign encouraging young and old alike to eat five or more servings of colourful fruits and vegetables everyday.

Isn't it a great way to spread the word?

Sunday Stamps 017 and 018: Two entries, one post

To make up for my absence last week, I'm posting two entries today. Here are my stamps for last week's theme, mainland Asia:

The stampset above were issued in 1990 by the Vietnamese Ministry of Posts consisting of six values issued together in se-tenant block of six stamps. All the six stamps in this set form a composite illustration depicting one of the popular Vietnamese folktale, Thạch Sanh.  

For this week's theme, Oceania and Island-nations, here I present the stamps from Indonesia, the world's most largest archipelago (with more than 13,000 islands, much more than the Philippines 7,000 odd-islands) and the most populous country in the world after China, India, and the United States. (Source)

These are two definitives issued in 2001 by the Indonesia Postal Office under the theme “Ucapan Selamat” or Greeting Stamps.

Sunday Stamps 016: Stamps from Moldova

These stamps came from my first and only postcard from Moldova courtesy of my Moldovan colleague who is based in Chișinău:

Neat cancellation marks.

From the Poşta Moldovei, on the right side is a 2009 commemorative issue on the 60th anniversary of the Council of Europe; while on the right is a definitive stamp (one of the six) in a set issued in February this year featuring Moldova's protected historical buildings. On it is the Gimnaziul de fete 1916, or. Soroca or the Gymnasium for Girls, 1916 (here's the complete set here).

Sunday Stamps 015: Astronomy on Luxembourg stamps

Here are my first stamps from Luxembourg:

On the left is probably a 2002 definitive stamp, depicting a 0.20€ coin, valued at 0.20€. I could not find other pertinent details about this stamp, so please, correct me if I'm wrong. On the right is one of the two Europa special stamps issued in 2009 to commemorate the International Year of Astronomy. Incidentally, it is also the 400th anniversary of the first observations made by Galileo with the aid of a telescope, so he is honoured in this stamp.

I learned that EUROPA stamps are not just any other stamps from European countries. They are special stamps issued by European postal administrations/enterprises and bears the official EUROPA logo (here is the new Europa logo), a PostEurop registered trademark under the aegis of PostEurop in which Europe is the central theme. (Source)

The first Europa stamps were issued in 1956 by the 6 founding members/countries: France, Belgium, West-Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Holland. Nowadays, there are more than 50 countries that issue Europa stamps. Until 1973, the stamp design was the same for all countries. In 1974, the rule changed: a theme was proposed and each country was free to have its own design as long as it fits the year subject.  (Source)