Sunday Stamps | Dead Countries

Today's theme in Sunday Stamps is Country Names No Longer Exist, aka Dead Countries (although there is some discussion here).

I have chosen some stamps whose design I love, issued by African countries/postal authorities which no longer exist. I have not received these on envelopes, but inside envelopes.

Côte Française des Somalis / French Somaliland
1958

Republique du Dahomey / Republic of Dahomey
1963

Republique de Haute-Volta / Republic of Upper Volta
1963

État du/Inchi Ya Katanga / State of Katanga
1961

Afrique Equatoriale Française / French Equatorial Africa
1947

Transkei
1976

We Will See...

I have just received this postcard from Bryon (the USA). I hope it will end better than the last time...

How Are You?

Typographic postcard sent by Harald (Germany). It is a sticker, so I can reuse it.

Beloved Places

Salamanca. Plaza Mayor

It is always a pleasure to receive postcards featuring places I have been to, and loved.

Lluc, Mallorca island

Paris, France

Getting a Paris postcard from the Netherlands, a Greece postcard from Ukraine... That adds to the mail adventure!

Ρέθυμνο (Rethymno), Κρήτη (Crete)
Greece

Postcards sent by Lluïsa (PC), Heleen (Netherlands), Lie (Spain) and Larysa (Ukraine). 

Cows & Cheese

Letter sent by Fabienne (France), full of cows and cow-related stuff.

Stay at Home...

... and write letters!

Sent by Rosemary (Canada).

Sunday Stamps | Shakespeare

Today's theme in Sunday Stamps is Poets (writers). Time to show this stamp from 1964 that I got on the back of a postcard... in 2020!

This one is from 1995. Not as old as the previous one, but also received last year. It belongs a British series called Greetings - Art, and its title is: Decoration from 'All the Love Poems of Shakespeare' (Eric Gill).

Shakespeare is a favourite theme on postcards and stamps.

Some Rainbows Out

 

Letters sent to David, Phillip and Andy (the USA), Imma (PC) and Catherine (France).

Hip Hop Long Trip

These vibrant stamps about hip hop were issued by USPS on 1 July 2020. Bryon sent me this letter in the summer, with one of the cool first day pictorial postmarks. It reached me... on 30 December! 

I hope that at least the artists have enjoyed their long trip across the globe...

Same Stamp, Different Look

This stamp, issued on 12 July 2019, commemorates the 40 Anniversary of Social Security in Spain. I received it twice. One of them (above) arrived without any postmark, sent by a friend who works for that institution. How different it looked the second time!

By the way, it arrived on a nice envelope (not addressed to me, for once!):

And it has happened with more stamps...

Still Winter

Illustrated envelope sent to Heleen (the Netherlands).

Everybody Reads

Girls read

Girl Reading, 1853
William Morris Hunt

Men read

Peter Sellers photographed by Bill Brandt

Reproduced from a stamp designed by Keith Bassford

and issued by The Post Office on 8 October 1985

Queens read

Even cats read!

(Cat fairy tales, of course!)

Because...

And books are easy to find...

Daunt Books
Marylebone, London (UK)

The Book Loft
Columbus, Ohio (USA)

Especially if you keep them organised!

Postcards sent by Laura and John (the UK), and Bryon and Phillip (the USA).

How It Started / How It Ended

I received the postcard above from Bryon (the USA) at the beginning of 2020. 

The postcard below arrived last week from the same sender:

Sunday Stamps | Votes for Women

Women on Stamps is one of my favourite philatelic themes, and today's topic on Sunday Stamps. 

I have chosen some stamps about Women's Suffrage:

75th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage in France
France, 2009

Voting Rights for Women
Netherlands, 1979

Suffragette behind Prison Window ('Equal Rights for Women')

The United Kingdom, 1999

Some more stamps that I had already uploaded to this blog:

The United Kingdom, 2018

Idem

Idem

USA, 1970

I have never got this stamp, but I have sent it:

75th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage in Spain

Spain, 2006

Some famous suffragists on stamps:

Josephine Butler (1828 – 1906)
The United Kingdom, 2016

Thérèse Casgrain (1896-1981)

Canada, 1985

Sojourner Truth (1797-1983)
The United States