They have been depicted on postage stamps in various countries, check for instance Violet's blog and the links mentioned under her post of today. And Eva drew our attention to a weblog which completely is dedicated to mushrooms on stamps!
However, so far I only received one: this Fly agaric ('Vliegenzwam' in Dutch) on a beautiful Canadian stamp.
The fly agaric of course is wellknown for its use for housing and as seats for gnomes. However, the toadstool below seems a bit too small for this tiny fellow (and the coffee pot too big!..).
This stamp has been issued in 2008 by the Dutch mail (named TNT then) as an international stamp (worth € 0.75, while seven years later international postage has been raised to € 1.15). More gnomes in this serie you can see on this website.
Also in 2008 the Dutch post issued a nice stamp sheet to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Mycological Society. The sheet contains ten stamps, showing five different mushrooms: a 'young' version and a 'grown-up' one. It's very interesting, because it shows the variety in growth of mushrooms.
I thought I had the complete sheet, but I appeared to have used all of them except for two (which I plan to use for a mail art project on mushrooms). Below you can see the two ones left. The complete set you can see on the Filahome website and especially on the stamps blog, on which nice detailed pictures of each stamp are shown.
This is the 'Inktviszwam' or 'Octopus stinkhorn':
And here again the Fly agaric or Fly amanita, with in the stamp sheet's edge from right to left the development of an other mushroom, the Ink cap:
Two years later, in 2010, the Dutch post (still TNT Post then) issued a stamp sheet themed 'Long live the Forest', to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Dutch Forestry Association. Also of this sheet I haven't the complete version anymore (you can see the complete sheet on the stamps blog), but fortunately I kept the bottom part so far, and indeed there are mushrooms, not only on the forest floor, but also on this stamp sheet 'floor'!
Finally I would like to show you two very tiny types of mushrooms / fungi.
These are part of a stamp sheet containing ten pictures of different microbes (I blogged about it before, see the last picture of this post). The stamp sheet was issued in 2011 (TNT post was changed into PostNL then), to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Netherlands Society for Microbiology.
This fungus is the Aspergillus niger, which helps to produce compost:
And this beauty has been discovered in 1928 to be life safening: the penicillium (or Penicillium chrysogenum to be exact):
Don't you think the fact that fungi obviously are related to at least three different associations / societies, proofs that fungi are ubiquitous and play an important role in many different stages and parts of life?
What a fantastic selection. The microscopic ones in particular are a fascinating choice for a stamp subject.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI really like the design of the stamp sheet.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenAnd you have an interesting take on the theme with the last two microbiology stamps. You are right, they are far more ubiquitous than most of us realize!
You have published so many nice stamps...!
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI have received the orange one from you, but I must say I hadn't realised the mushroom on it :)
When I see the red amanitas with white dots (kind of them are usual in the woods near home, in Morocoo)... I think of Smurfs, of course!
What a wide and fine selection you have shown us. The fly agaric occurs in one of our local woods.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenWhat a beautiful selection of stamps on the theme. Fly agaric always look so pretty growing on the forest floor.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenYou've found a wonderful range of fungi there! I like the one with the gnome the best :)
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