Finland Cover

Finland Cover
Post Marke ; ?

1998 Definitives Stamps
Animals - Blackbird (Turdus Merula)
Face Value ; 1 Luokka (Klass)

The Blackbird, Common Blackbird or Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula) is a species of true thrush which breeds in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to Australia and New Zealand. It has a number of subspecies across its large range; a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered as full species. Depending on latitude, the Blackbird may be resident, partially migratory or fully migratory.The male of the nominate subspecies, which is found throughout most of Europe, is all black except for a yellow eye-ring and bill and has a wide range of vocalisations; the adult female and juvenile have mainly brown plumage. This species breeds in woods and gardens, building a neat, mud-lined, cup-shaped nest. It is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms, berries, and fruits.Both sexes are territorial on the breeding grounds, with distinctive threat displays, but are more gregarious during migration and in wintering areas. Pairs will stay in their territory throughout the year where the climate is sufficiently temperate. This common species has given rise to a number of literary and cultural references, frequently related to its melodious song.

Poland Cover

Poland Cover
Post Marke ; 15.06.2007 Myslowice

29.06.2006 Polish Alphabet
Face Value ; 1,30 ZL - 1,30 ZL - 10 GR - 30 GR

The Polish alphabet is the script of the Polish language. It is based on the Latin alphabet but uses diacritics such as the kreska, which is graphically similar to an acute accent (ć, ń, ó, ś, ź), the dot above (ż), the ogonek (ą, ę), and the stroke (ł). The standard 8-bit character encoding for the Polish alphabet is ISO 8859-2 (Latin-2), although both ISO 8859-13 (Latin-7) and ISO 8859-16 (Latin-10) encodings include glyphs of the Polish alphabet. Microsoft's format for encoding the Polish alphabet is Windows-1250.

There are 32 letters in the Polish alphabet, including 9 vowels and 23 consonants.

Polish Alphabet

Uppercase A Ą B C Ć D E Ę F G H I J K L Ł M N Ń O Ó P R S Ś T U W Y Z Ź Ż

Lowercase a ą b c ć d e ę f g h i j k l ł m n ń o ó p r s ś t u w y z ź ż

There are also 7 digraphs (ch, cz, dz, dź, dż, rz, sz).The letters q, v and x do not belong to the Polish alphabet, but are used in some foreign words and commercial names. In loanwords they are often replaced by kw, w and ks, respectively (as in kwarc "quartz", weranda "veranda", ksenofobia "xenophobia").

Germany Cover

Germany Cover
Post Marke ; 29.10.1999 Briefregion

1999 European Council
Face Value ; 1,10 DM

The European Council (referred to as a European Summit) is the highest political body of the European Union.It comprises the heads of state or government of the Union's member states along with the President of the European Commission. Its meeting is chaired by the member from the member state currently holding Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
While the Council has no formal executive or legislative powers, it is an institution that deals with major issues and any decisions made are "a major impetus in defining the general political guidelines of the European Union". The Council meets at least twice a year; usually in the Justus Lipsius building, the quarters of the Council of the European Union (Consilium) of Brussels.

Armenia Postcard

Yerevan

Yerevan (Armenian: Երևան or Երեւան), sometimes written as Erevan, former names include Erebuni, Revan, and Erivan - is the capital and largest city of Armenia. It is situated on the Hrazdan River, and is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country. It has been the capital of Armenia since 1918 and the twelfth in the history of Armenia.The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC, with the founding of the Urartian fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC at the western extremity of the Ararat plain.After World War I, Yerevan became the capital of the Democratic Republic of Armenia as thousands of survivors of the Armenian Genocide settled in the area. The city expanded rapidly during the 20th century when Armenia became one of the fifteen republics in the Soviet Union. In fifty years, Yerevan was transformed from a town of a few thousand residents during the first republic to the principal cultural, artistic and industrial center as well as becoming the seat of the political institutions of the country.With the growth of the economy of the country, Yerevan has been undergoing a major transformation as construction sites have appeared all over the city since the early 2000s. Today, the appearance of new buildings, roads, restaurants, boutiques, quarters etc. have started to erase the traces of 70 years of Soviet dominance.In 2007, the population of Yerevan was estimated to be 1,107,800 people with the agglomeration around the city regrouping 1,245,700 people (official estimation), more than 42% of the population of Armenia.

Armenia Postcard
Post Marke ; 17.05.2008 Yerevan

27.10.2007 Flora and Fauna of Armenia
Aegypius Monachus
Face Value ; 200 AMD
Size ; 31,5 x 31,94

The Eurasian Black Vulture (Aegypius monachus) is also known as the Black Vulture, Monk Vulture, or the Cinereous Vulture. It is a member of the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites, buzzards and harriers.This bird is an Old World vulture, and is not related to the New World vultures, which are in a separate family, Cathartidae. It is therefore unrelated to the American Black Vulture despite the similar name and coloration.It breeds across southern Europe and Asia from Spain to Korea, but is endangered throughout its European range. It is resident except in those parts of its range where hard winters cause limited movement.It is the largest bird of prey (Falconiformes) in the world, though nearly equalled by the Lappet-faced Vulture and the Himalayan Griffon Vulture. The Andean Condor (in the Cathartidae) is however slightly larger. This huge bird is 98–110 cm (39-44 in) long with a 250–300 cm (99-119 in) wingspan and a weight of 7–14 kg (15.5-31 lbs), and is thus one of the world's heaviest flying birds.[1][2] It breeds in high mountains and large forests, nesting in trees or occasionally on cliff ledges. It has all dark blackish-brown plumage, and even at a distance can be distinguished from Griffon Vulture by its evenly broad "barn door" wings. It has the typical vulture unfeathered bald head (actually covered in fine down), and dark markings around the eye give it a menacing skull-like appearance. The beak is brown, with a blue-grey cere, and the legs and feet are grey.It is averages larger than largely sympatric Griffon Vulture. Among the vultures in its range, the Eurasian Black Vulture is best equipped to tear open tough carcass skins, using its powerful bill. It is dominant over other vultures at carcasses.It can fly at a very high altitude. It has a specialised haemoglobin alphaD subunit of high oxygen affinity which makes it possible to take up oxygen efficiently despite the low partial pressure in the upper troposphere.

Ghana Cover

Ghana Cover
Post Marke ; 13.09.1997 Nsawam

Hong Kong Cover

Hong Kong Cover
Post Marke ; 29.11.1995 Kowloon

1997 Hong Kong Movie Stars
Bruce Lee
Face Value ; 1,20$

Bruce Lee (traditional Chinese: 李小龍; simplified Chinese: 李小龙; pinyin: Lǐ Xiǎolóng; Cantonese Yale: Léih Síulùhng; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was an American-born martial artist, philosopher, instructor, martial arts actor and the founder of the Jeet Kune Do combat philosophy, widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the twentieth century and a cultural icon.He was the father of actor Brandon Lee and of actress Shannon Lee.Lee was born in San Francisco, California and raised in Hong Kong. His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked the first major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West. The direction and tone of his films changed and influenced martial arts and martial arts films in Hong Kong and the rest of the world as well. Lee became an iconic figure particularly to the Chinese, as he portrayed Chinese national pride and Chinese nationalism in his movies.He primarily practiced Chinese martial arts (Kung Fu).

1992 Definitive Stamps
Queen Elizabeth

Face Value ; 1,20$

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926)[1] is the Queen regnant of sixteen independent states and their overseas territories and dependencies. Though she holds each crown and title separately and equally, she is resident in and most directly involved with the United Kingdom, her oldest realm, over parts of whose territories her ancestors have reigned for more than a thousand years. She ascended the thrones of seven countries in February 1952 on the death of her father King George VI. (see Context below).In addition to the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II is also Queen of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, in each of which she is represented by a Governor-General. The 16 countries of which she is Queen are known as Commonwealth realms, and their combined population, including dependencies is over 129 million. In theory her powers are vast; in practice (and in accordance with convention) she herself never intervenes in political matters. In the United Kingdom at least, however, she is known to take an active behind-the-scenes interest in the affairs of state, meeting regularly to establish a working relationship with her government ministers.Elizabeth II holds a variety of other positions, among them Head of the Commonwealth, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Duke of Normandy, Lord of Mann, and Paramount Chief of Fiji. Her long reign has seen sweeping changes in her realms and the world at large, perhaps most notably the dissolution of the British Empire (a process that began in the last years of her father's reign) and the consequent evolution of the modern Commonwealth of Nations.Since 1947, the Queen has been married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, born a prince of Greece and Denmark but after naturalisation known as Philip Mountbatten and subsequently created Duke of Edinburgh. To date the couple have four children and eight grandchildren; the eighth (Viscount Severn) was born on 17 December 2007 to Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

Estonia Cover

Estonia Cover
Special Post Marke ; 17.10.1995 Tallin

17.10.1995 Finno-Ugri Peoples

The six - stamp miniature sheet commemorates the Finno- ugric family of peoples, of which the Estonians are one. Finno-ugri languages are spoken by 23 million people in scattered communities from Scandinavia in the West to Siberia in the East and Danubian plains in the South. They are considered to be descending from Proto - Uralic, represented by a stylized reindeer on the lower margin of the sheet. Groups within the family and individual languages are represented by the branches resp. prongs of the reindeer´s antlers. The background in each stamp is formed by an ethnographic object characteristic of the group. Moving clockwise from the lower left-hand corner of the sheet, the stamps are devoted to the following language groups (actually, their parent languages) and languages: Proto - Baltic - Finnic; Estonian, Vote, Finnish, Liv, Ingrian, Karelian, Veps. Background: Karelian writing on birchbark (13th c. spell against thunder). Saami: Saami (Lapp). Background: Drawings on a Saami shaman´s drum (Copenhagen National Museum). Proto - Volga: Mordvin, Mari. Background: Duck - shaped brooch from the Kama area (1st millennium - beginning of 2nd millennium of our era). Proto - Permic: Udmurt, Komi. Background: Duck - feet necklase pendant (2nd - 1st millennium B.C.). Proto - Ugric: Hungarian, Mansi, Khanty. Background: Khanty band ornament (bird image in side view). Proto - Samoyedic: Nenets, Enets, Nganasan, Selkup, Kamassin. Background: Bronze amulet (bear image in the sacrificial position).

Bahrain Cover

Bahrain Cover
Post Marke ; 23.04.1997 Bahrain

Bangladesh FDC

Bangladesh FDC
Post Marke ; 11.11.1980 Dacca

Sweden Cover

Sweden Registered Cover
Post Marke ; 12.08.2003 Stockholm
Registered Number ; RR 65 170 829 3 SE

Georgia Cover

Georgia Cover
Post Marke ; 01.04.2008 Tbilisi

Portugal Cover

Portugal Cover