Israel Stamp Reviews

The "Alexandru Ioan Cuza Bicentenary" cover that features in this report arrived in Israel from Chișinău, Moldova courtesy of the International Moldovan Philatelic Society . In January of this year, the IMPS held a prize draw in which ten members were selected at random to receive the cover by mail. When the drawing results were announced in March, yours truly was listed among the winners. Just then, however, the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic began sweeping across the globe, and by the time the cover was issued postal authorities in many countries including Moldova had suspended international operations. It took until July for the cover to finally reach its destination. In a letter accompanying the cover, IMPS President Niall Murphy indicated that only twenty-four "Cuza" stamps were printed. Anticipating that some collectors might be tempted to capitalize on the stamp's rarity and sell it to the highest bidder on Sotheby's or eBay, Murphy expr...

2020 EUROPA Stamps Competition The EUROPA Stamps Competition is a competition held annually to determine the best design among fifty stamps bearing the "EUROPA" logo and corresponding to a prespecified theme. It is organized by PostEurop , an agency headquartered in Brussels with roots stretching back to the 1950s. Voting traditionally begins on May 9th, Europe Day , and lasts four months. The first EUROPA competition, which was won by a Maltese stamp, was held in 2002. Last year, a panel of judges chose a Slovenian stamp as the winner while online voters went with an Armenian one. The theme of 2020's competition is "Ancient Postal Routes." Predictably, almost all the stamps feature historic maps and/or historic mail couriers. On the one hand, the fact that Israel is not a member of PostEurop means this blog does not have a proverbial horse in the race and is not biased in favor of or against any of the participating stamps. On the other hand, the fact ...