Published via Ecency

Last week I received two mailings with my latest stamp asquisitions, took some pictures and now ready to introduce them to you. It is not much, but there is some cool stuff there that might click with you -- if like me you are obsessed with history and observe the world from designer's point of view.

But 1stly, a fun part. I invite you to enjoy the following joke from the Russian Post. The emerald green 30-ruble stamp on the envelope is a new 2026 issue; never seen one like this before. Give it a close look: can you see any cancellation marks? The stamp is used, no doubts, but spotting cancellation is difficult, near impossible... because the stamp was produced laminated and slippery! WHY they decided to issue postage stamps that can't perceive the cancellation mark? It's ridiculous, it's insane. This is a reversed, negative technological progress. Sort of.

Сперва предлагаю вам оценить шутку российской почты. Изумрудно-зеленая марка достоинством 30 рублей - новинка 2026 года, впервые вижу подобную марку. Внимательно приглядитесь: сможете увидеть отметки гашения? Марка конечно употребленная, но заметить это непросто, почти невозможно - потому что марка ламинированная, скользкая! ЗАЧЕМ выпускать почтовые марки, на которых невозможно оставить след от гашения? Это смехотворно, это маразм. Это технологический прогресс со знаком минус.

Laminated stamps? rediculos! 😂

Now let's look at the envelope contents - it contains the lots for the 4 auctions I won.

Dutch stamps (including here those from the Dutch colonies) attract me for several reasons, mostly for the beautiful design, innovative and ahead of the time. I feel like a designer moth drawn to the light, looking at various Dutch stamps - especially those from the late 20th century. And speaking of the world history figures depicted on stamps, who draw me visually - Wilhelmina is certainly one of them. I don't understand the reasons why, I simply state a fact! Transferring of the queen's portraits into stamp gravures was perfect, one cant deny the engraver's skill. Beautiful portraits!

Голландские марки (включая сюда и марки их колоний) привлекают меня в силу ряда причин, в 1ю очередь офигенным дизайном. Голландцы всю дорогу опережали время! Я чувствую себя дизайнером-мотыльком, летящим на свет, так меня манят голландские марки - в особенности выпуски конца ХХ века. А из запечатленных в марках персонажей мировой истории, которые меня притягивают визуально, Вильгельмина безусловно среди первых.. Сам не понимаю, в чем тут дело! Мастерство гравера, который перенес на марки портреты королевы, неоспоримо. Прекрасные портреты!

Curacao is not only a liquor, it was also a Dutch colony. These are standard low-nominals from 1930-1935. They are trivia and look simple but irresistebly cool, appealing to me by their design - a brilliant example or art-deco, isnt it?

Queen Willhelmina. 10 stamps were divided into two lots; there was some bidding rivalry and I had to pay 280 roubles (slightly below $3) to be sure they will not go anywhere else but exactly to my album. Its not that I was intrested in Curacao stemps, but I really wanted to add to my collection those examples of Willhelmina's iconography.

This is a limited edition stamp, I believe, commemorating the end of Wilhelmina's rule. I am not 100% convinced of that but consider so. Maybe it is the last issue in her stamp iconography, and that's why I wanted to add it to my asset.

(I obtained it within some other auction, and it arrived not with this separate lot of Curacao stamps). Sadly, uncancelled one coasted sufficiently more than I wanted to spend on it - and I went after this one, cancelled, when stumbled upon a decent offer. It costed me 50 roubles (thats slightly above than 50 cents).

These Germany stamps of the Weimar era I was looking for pretty long time. They were issued backk in 1925 for the Rheinland territory, the full series contains 3 nominals (so I still miss one).

The series is nothing rare, tho uncancelled stamps are not that cheap - in comparison with the used ones. As I prefer to enjoy watching their design I went after uncanselled ones, when I noticed the lightest starting price tag for this auction.

While bidding I did not see the copy was damaged... the fold and collateral damage are pretty much visible for me now to enjoy the stamp sitting now in my album... In the auction description it did not look ideal, but the defect seemed not to be so critical; the fold somehow looked smoother.

Unlikely the seller deliberately embellished the photo on purpose; my smartphone camera simply doesn't allow me to see the stamp as clearly as the macro shot I get with my 5DM3. I'm a little frustrated—every time I look at this stamp now, I'll be dreaming of a more perfect edition. Such is the fate of any collector! It explains pretty much the low price I got this lot for: as much as 31 roubles (0.26 cents)

And the last thing I got from this seller, was this lot of three Austrian Empire Feldpost stamps from 1917. I have in my album a dozen stamps from this series, but these are the high nominal ones, the ending of the series, thats why I went after this lot. Uncancelled stamps not that rare but are pretty costy, so I jumped on this, considering the low price tag; the lot costed me only 33 roubles, i.e. less that 20 cents - happily I had only one rival which did not want to spend much on them too. That is what I consider a happy deal!