A nice theme! It shows the creativity of postal companies, and fortunately the present stamp printing machines are able to vary the shape of stamps.
Recently I received two wonderful shaped stamps from two different countries, which I posted on this blog before: a dragonfly from Eva from Spain, and a bat from John from the United Kingdom.
Eva also sent me a bat on a shaped stamp, this one from Spain:
Sometimes animals simply are too large for a stamp, especially prehistoric reptiles. Not only United Kingdom's Royal Mail but also Canadian Post knew how to solve the problem: just provide a little more room, and the dino's would be satisfied.
(click to enlarge)
The fourth dino on this envelope was so happy by the purposed enlarged room that he even decided to stay within the normal shape!
Finnish Post has issued many amazingly shaped stamps, and today I'm sharing this stamp showing more than one hexagonals:
'Hexagonal' is also known as honeycumb shape, and Japanese Post issued this matching stamp:
As far as I know Dutch PostNL has issued a few triangular stamps in the past, and apart from that, only one stamp sheet showing two really special shaped stamp designs.
One of the triangular stamps has been issued already in 1933, to be used for airmail between the former Dutch Indies and Holland:
The more recent stamps were issued as a stamp stickers on one sheet, for youth philately.
The names written on the stamps form a nice wordplay: 'postzegel' means stamp, but leaving the 'z' it becomes 'post-egel, which means 'mail hedgehog'. And 'postduif' means 'mail pigeon'.
Here you can see what the stamp stickers leave behind when used.
The disadvantage of odd shaped stamps is the fact that Dutch Post not always recognizes these as real postage! I once got a letter from PostNL in which I was told to pay 'missing postage'. Fortunately they included a code, and via this code I could find a scan of my outgoing mail, which proofed sufficient stamps had been sticked. Among them this Postduif, which apparently had been new to the controling employee!..
See more extraordinarily shaped stamps on and via today's Sunday Stamps post.
Great selection, Heleen. I love that Finnish multi-hexagon stamp set, and of course the mail hedgehog is fantastic.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI love the Finnish hexagonal stamps.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenAnd those Canadian dinosaurs are a favourite of everyone I know :)
(have you seen the new ones?)
and I always love a good play on words - pity some postal workers don't 'get it'!
Not only a superb shape for the bat but also moon over water is lovely. We've had the same non recognition of postage with the Animail stamps. Shame the Posties don't have a clue what stamps their own post are issuing.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenA paly on words is always fun. Thanks for sharing.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenFascinating - the Royal Mail has done a few shaped stamps over the years. I'll have to see what I have left for you.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenEclectic selection, Heleen. Great dinosaurs.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenGood selection! I'm glad I could contribute to it.
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