2014 – Year of Horse

 

Date of Issue : 8 January 2014

The Year of the Horse will begin on 31 January 2014, and will bring with it celebrations of the Chinese New Year in New Zealand, China and around the world. New Zealand Post will issue a set of 4 stamps and a Miniature sheet to commemorate Year of the Horse.

The horse is the seventh animal in the Chinese lunar calendar, and is renowned for its loyalty, diligence and free spirit. Those born in the Year of the Horse are thought to be energetic, intelligent and often physically strong, and they like to live in quiet, peaceful environments. In 2014, the Year of the Horse is expected to bring a blend of optimism, growth, fulfillment, prosperity and positive developments.

The 2014 Year of the Horse stamps represent the strong and successful co-existence of the Chinese and New Zealand cultures. The Chinese folk arts of calligraphy, paper-cutting and line art illustration are depicted on the stamps against a background of New Zealand as ‘the land of the long white cloud’.

70c - Pictogram
Many Chinese characters are derived from pictograms, stylised drawings of the objects they represent. Originating in ancient times, these pictograms are among the oldest characters still in use – and a few, including the Chinese horse character, still take their earliest forms.

$1.40 - Paper-cut Horse

In China, paper-cuts are mainly used as home decorations, on everything from walls, windows and doors to mirrors, lamps and lanterns. Chinese people believe that red paper-cuts on the doors of houses can bring good luck and happiness to the families who live there.

$1.90 - Equestrian

New Zealand has earned a global reputation for its horse breeding, horse racing and horse riding. This stamp design uses a line art illustration to depict the elegant sport of show jumping, linking the image of the horse with the Chinese lunar year.

$2.40 - Rotorua Museum

The Rotorua Museum of Art and History is located in a building affectionately known as the Bath House – so called because it was once a geothermal spa offering therapeutic treatments to visitors from all over the world. Opened in 1908, the Bath House was the New Zealand Government’s first major investment in the tourism industry.

Year of Horse stamp from Philippines

Phlippines Post issued a set of stamps and a souvenir sheet celebrating the Year of the Horse 2014. The stamps feature a stylized head of horse and a stylized horse.

Chinese Astrology uses one’s birthday and birth time to predict their fortune. The astrological birth chart is built by the Chinese Astrology Calendar, which is a combination counting system of Yin-Yang, Five Elements and 12 animals. The Five Elements are Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth. The twelve animals are Rat, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog and Pig. Year of 2014 is Wooden Horse because Wood (tree) is connected to the color Green.

 

Club News

New Special Cover

India Post, Tamil Naidu Postal Circle released a Special Cover on 18 November 2013 on 25 Years of Commissioned service by TU 142M Aircraft .

: Ankit Agarwal – Pune : email : 3dankit@gmail.com

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Indian Air Force Day

 

8th October is celebrated as Indian Air Force Day. The Indian Air Force is the air arm of the Indian armed forces. Its primary responsibility is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during a conflict.

    

  IAF Roundel

The Indian Air Force is the air arm of the Indian armed forces. Its primary responsibility is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during a conflict. It was officially established on 8 October 1932 as an auxiliary air force of the British Empire and the prefix Royal was added in 1945 in recognition of its services during World War II.

After India achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, the Royal Indian Air Force served the Dominion of India, with the prefix being dropped when India became a republic in 1950. Since independence, the IAF has been involved in four wars with neighbouring Pakistan and one with the People's Republic of China. Other major operations undertaken by the IAF include Operation Vijay – the annexation of Goa, Operation Meghdoot, Operation Cactus and Operation Poomalai. Apart from conflicts, the IAF has been an active participant in United Nations peacekeeping missions.

The President of India Pranab Mukherjee serves as the ex-officio Commander-in-Chief of the IAF. The Chief of Air Staff, an Air Chief Marshal (ACM), is a four-star commander and commands the Air Force.

From our Readers…

Mr. Chaitanya Jogdeo shares here a cover prepared by him. The cover has Pune GPO picture and the pictorial cancellation on the CV Raman  stamp.

- Chaitanya Jogdeo : email - chaitanyaphila@gmail.com

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USPS reissues Inverted Jenny ….

 

Date of Issue  : 22 September 2013

This souvenir sheet features a new version of perhaps the most famous error in the history of U.S. stamps: the Inverted Jenny, a 1918 misprint that highlights the ways a single stamp can turn history upside down.

Nearly a century after it was first issued, America’s most famous stamp — the misprinted 24-cent Inverted Jenny — will be reprinted as a $2 stamp as part of the Stamp Collecting:  Inverted Jenny souvenir stamp sheet. The sheet of stamps will be issued Sept. 22 to coincide with the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum opening of the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery — the world’s largest stamp gallery.

This souvenir sheet features a new version of the most famous error in the history of U.S. stamps:  the Inverted Jenny, a 1918 misprint that mistakenly showed a biplane flying upside down. Reprinted with a $2 denomination to make them easily distinguishable from the 24-cent originals, the Inverted Jennys on this sheet commemorate the many ways a single stamp can turn a moment in history upside down. The original engraved dies to produce the 1918 Inverted Jenny are being used in the design to produce the new stamps.

The 24-cent Curtiss Jenny invert error

In 1918, to celebrate the first Air Mail flight, the Post Office Department had the 24-cent Curtiss Jenny stamp produced.

Because the design required two colors, sheets were placed on the printing press twice — a process given to human error — as stamp collectors at the time well knew. One collector, William T. Robey, was on the lookout for stamps with printing errors on the morning of May 14, 1918, the first day of issuance for the stamp and the day before Air Mail service began.

To Robey’s amazement, a postal clerk handed him a 100-stamp sheet of the new Air Mail stamps mistakenly showing the biplane upside down within its frame. “The clerk reached down under the counter and brought forth a full sheet,” Robey recounted 20 years later, “and my heart stood still.”

Robey would soon learn that he had purchased the only sheet of misprinted Jenny stamps to fall into public hands. Within days, he sold the sheet to a stamp dealer, who immediately resold it to another collector. The sheet was broken up and the stamps were sold individually and in blocks of four.

For nearly a century, stamp collectors, referred to as philatelists, have chased the Inverted Jennys, accounting for nearly all 100 of them — even as the stamp became one of the country’s best known philatelic treasures. One of the remaining originals recently sold at auction for $625,000.

Source : United States Postal Service

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