The theme for Sunday Stamps this week is Old or vintage stamps from your own country. I thought I wasn't able to participate, because I hadn't any old Spanish stamp here. But suddenly I received this old stamp among many others from different countries, as a gift.
I don't know if the sender looked closely at this stamp. It was issued on 24 April 1956, and belongs to the basic series and shows Franco, dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975. So I am not specially happy with giving it a place among so beautiful and positive snail mail... I remember this stamp was still in use when I was a child, even if dictatorship has finished. I guess there were a transition period also in mail matters.
That lead me to another question. Sometimes foreign people ask me if we have a stamp of famous people like Rafa Nadal. The answer is that Correos (official Spanish post service) don't issue stamps featuring living people. I would like have stamps of some people I admire. But, at the same time, maybe I wouldn't feel comfortable using stamps of certain people I dislike.
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This stamp was issued on 15th November 2013. It features Adolfo Suárez, Spain's first democratically elected prime minister after Francoism, in 1976. The stamp, which includes the image of a living person (but Suárez passed away last month), was permitted under the exceptions contemplated in Royal Decree 1637/2011.
Does the postal service in your country issue stamps of living people?
I have a series of those Franco stamps. In the UK it was policy for a long time that only the monarch and the Royal family appeared on stamps. In 2005 members of England cricket team that would the Ashes appeared. All the gold medal winners fro London 2012 Olympics had a stamp issued and Andy Murray, Wimbeldon Champion 2013 also appeared.
ReplyDeleteThanks for you comment. This is an interesting mater to me.
DeleteIn Spain it's a bit confusing, because we have a stamp of the World Football Cup showing the whole team. And stamps with alive actors... But I guess these stamps aren't dedicated to these people: they are issued because of the prizes, not exactly the people on it.
The U.S. doesn't issue stamps with living people. Star athletes gtet their pictures on Wheaties boxes.
ReplyDeleteThough I will add that the US Postal Service I think will change its policy about alive people if it hasn't already. thank you for joining in.
ReplyDeleteI can understand you wouldn't be particularly proud of the Franco stamp!
ReplyDeleteWe could only have the reigning monarch as a living person on a stamp until about 2005, I think.