Theme : Postcrossing

Postrossing, a postcard exchange project wherein one can send and receive postcards from random places in the world. It's a new hobby that I've picked up since November 2015 and I've been hooked. One hobby or a passion that I think I may have stuck to the longest. Through the Postcrossing hobby, the passion to collect stamps has been re-kindled after seeing so may beautiful stamps sent by others.

As Postcrossing is widely recognised by many countries now, the postal department has issued stamps officially as a part of the project and as a part of their release. My plan is to collect all the philatelic products issued by these countries for my thematic collection - Postcrossing.

1. Slovenia (2015)
I was gifted this set by a Postcrossing friend from Slovenia. She gifted me the First Day Cover (FDC) with the stamp and its cancellation, along with a mint single stamp.

2. Guernsey (2014)
Bought this set from the Guernsey Post site. Bought the mint single stamp and the maxicard.
(Looking for the cancelled FDC)

3. Guernsey (2016)
Bought this set from the Guernsey Post site. Bought the mint double stamps, the cancelled FDC, and the maxicards.

4. the Netherlands (2016)

Bought this set from the WOPA site. Bought the FDCs and the sheetlet.

(Looking for the individual stamps).

5. Austria (2016)

Bought this single issued stamp and the cancelled FDC from the Austria Post site.

6. Belarus (2017)

A postcrossing friend of mine from Russia sent me this FDC and the maxcicard when she was in Belarus.

(Looking for the mint single stamp.)

7. Russia (2015)

A postcrossing friend of mine from Russia sent me this single stamp as a birthday gift..

(Looking for the FDC with the single stamp and the cancellation.)

8. Russia (2016)

A postcrossing friend of mine from Russia sent me this single stamp as a birthday gift..

(Looking for the FDC with the single stamp and the cancellation.)

9. Poland (2016)

Bought this set of single mint stamp, the FDC, the Sheetlet from the Polish site. I love this one as this is inline with my theme - Postbox. If you observe carefully, I feel that suitcase is a medium for the post to travel across the world, and a letter or rather a postcard is sticking out on one side and thus making it look like a Postbox! The colour of postboxes in Poland is red like the suitcase. Also, the flag of Poland is visible in the top right corner of the suitcase.

10. Switzerland (2017)

This set of three stamps issued by Switzerland in 2017 was sent by a wonderful swapper in Switzerland who in turn wanted a Coffee stamp from India.

(Looking for the three FDCs with the single stamp and the cancellation and the single FDC with the three stamps on it, cancelled.)

11. Ireland (2017)
Bought this single mint stamp and the FDC from IE post site directly. Did see a stamp card, but not sure if that is a maxi card or not, but I think I'll need to use some contact now from Ireland and get them to do a maxi card for me.

12. Kazakhstan (2015)
This single stamp was given to me by a postcrosser who happened to have this on offer for swapping. I got this one in exchange for a Ladybird Beetle MS that was released by India in 2017. A fantastic swapper for there were a couple of couple of other stamps included which were the Europa stamps.

(Looking for the FDC with the single stamp and the cancellation, maxicard, if any, and the sheetlet, if released))

13. Lithuania (2013)

Bought this single mint (okay, I bought two of the single set) and the FDC  from the Lithuania post site via WOPA. 

Although there are very few countries that have issued the stamps, sometimes it does get to be a challenge to get them all. Looking at the following countries that have issued so far. Looking at the mint stamps, FDC, maxicards, and sheetlets or whatever they have released. Willing to swap for postcards, Indian stamps, MS or name your price. 

Following are the countries that I'm looking for:

1. The Netherlands - 2011
2. Finland - 2013
3. Belarus - 2014
4. Czech Republic - 2015
5. Ukraine - 2015
6. Bulgaria - 2015
7. Romania - 2017
8. Indonesia - 2017

(Updated on 15-Dec-2017)

VG

24-Sept-2017

1306 hrs IST

My Philatelic Themes

In My Philatelic Journey blog, I did mention that after being inspired by understanding a bit more about how to go about collecting, I too have my own themes as below. So if you do happen to have stamps, cancellations, covers based on my theme, you can certainly contact me and we can swap.

So here are themes that I'm into.

1. Postal related : Postbox, Postal history, Postal vehicles or transport, Postal uniforms, Post offices, Postmen,
2. Elvis Presley
3. Postcrossing (officially related stamps, Postcrossing cancellations)
4. Unusual stamps interms of shape, texture, etc
5. EUROPA (2017 onwards and will slowly go backwards)
6. Star Wars
7. Asterix
8. Tintin

So these are my themes as of now. So you know what to do when you have these stamps. Also, if you are feeling a bit generous, you know what to do, don't you? :P

VG

13-Oct-2017

1051 hrs IST

My Philatelic Journey

Philately - the collection and the study of postage stamps. It is a serious hobby for quite a few and is widely acknowledged by many as the king of hobby. Like any other kid, during his young carefree days, I too used to collect postage stamps. But then it was not so serious and over the passage of time, I not only lost the interest and inclination to collect these stamps, but also lost the collection. A couple of decades later, I came across an article on Postcrossing in a newspaper and the concept of sending postcards to a complete strange in a remote place in the world and in return getting one back from someone somewhere excited me and I signed up for it in October 2015. I started received a lot of these postcards and that was when I started observing the postage stamps affixed and slowly the passion returned, but not with a full bang. 

In May 2016, Postcrossers in Bangalore got together and held an exhibition displaying postcards on UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This exhibition was thrown open to the public for them to learn and hopefully get them to join this hobby of sending postcards. It was in this exhibition that I made new friends like Col. Akhil sir, AD, Som, Prashant, Sandeep, Harpreet, Keshav, Meera Ma'am, Sanober ma'am, to name a few. Some of them apart from being stamp collectors, they are also coin collectors. Some have shown their collection and they inspired me to take this up a bit more seriously. 

But there are two of them who stand out who have inspired me and in some ways spoilt me too. One is Som G, who has a fabulous collection of railway related stamps, Slania engraved stamps, Europa, SEPAC, Antarctic expeditions related stamps, and what not. Not just stamps, but he also loves to collect books and journals related to stamps. He loves his collection and the passion he has is evident when he shows his collection to me. He has inspired me to do something in this field, theme wise. Sometimes he does forward me his spare stamps and thus spoils me a lot more than one should. An awesome guy and I'm glad to have met him and we hang out on most Saturdays for lunch when time permits us. His son, aged 5, also loves stamps and I hope he takes after Som one day and also take it to greater heights.

The other is an aunt who I have known since I was in my kindergarten days. She is my best friends' aunt. As I've known her from toddler days, I too call her in the same way that my friends call her  Sri atte (father's sister). She is also an avid collector and she is well known in certain circles for her thematic collection on Musical Instruments, Traditional toys, Postboxes, Animals and Birds amongst many other themes. She inspired me to participate in a recently concluded philatelic exhibition held in Bangalore (in July 2017) and my theme was Postboxes. As they say, it's a beginners luck I happened to win a special prize in that event for my display of 3 frames on postboxes around the world. Thanks to her, I won something that I never thought I would win. 

I guess from then on, I'm become an avid collector, taking baby steps when I can. Meeting fellow philatelists, looking at their collections and understanding their journey, their stories and their advises, I too have become a sort of a thematic guy, though I think I'll need to cut down the themes I'm collecting at the moment for I seem to be all over the place. So what are my themes for collection? Please follow the blog : My Philatelic Themes. If you do have stamps on these themes, do let me know and we can swap. 


VG
23.Sept.2017