Category: Art

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Thursday/ stuffed 🐋

Here’s a cute cartoon that was published in The New Yorker magazine from March 31.

The cartoonist is Joe Dator.
Joe Dator has been a cartoonist for the New Yorker since 2006 and has also contributed cartoons to MAD magazine and Esquire. He is a recipient of the National Cartoonists Society’s Silver Reuben Award and has been featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes.

From NOAA’s website: Plankton are incredibly important to the ocean ecosystem, and very sensitive to changes in their environment, including in the temperature, salinity, pH level, and nutrient concentration of the water. When there are too many of certain nutrients in the water, for instance, harmful algal blooms like red tides are the result. Because many zooplankton species eat phytoplankton, shifts in timing or abundance of phytoplankton can quickly affect zooplankton populations, which then affects species along the food chain. Researchers are studying how climate change affects plankton, from the timing of population changes to the hardening of copepod shells, and how those effects ripple through ecosystems.

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Friday/ a book on railway stamps 🤗

Although stamps for railway parcels and newspapers have been in use in this country for over a century, they have received scant attention from philatelists.
— From the preface to the book ‘Railway Stamps of South Africa’, published by The Philatelic Federation of Southern Africa in 1985.

My spectacular* book about South Africa’s railway stamps arrived today (from South Africa, of course).

*Spectacular, because almost none of the information in it is available online, nor in any of the standard stamp catalogues.

Railway Stamps of South Africa (1985) by H.S. Hagen and S.P. Naylor.
The first of the railway stamps in South Africa were issued in 1880 (those at the top).
The Central South African Railways (CSAR) was (from 1902 to 1910) the operator of public railways in the Transvaal Colony and Orange River Colony.
At unification of the four colonies into the Union of South Africa in 1910, the unified rail network was named and operated as South African Railways.
The ‘Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatskappij’ (South African Railway Company) was established in 1887. The company was based in Amsterdam and Pretoria, and operated in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic) during the late 19th century.
Abbreviations on the stamps:
C.T.R.—Cape Town Railways;
N.G.R.—Natal Government Railways;
C.G.R.—Cape Government Railways;
S.A.R.—South African Railways;
Z.A.S.M.—Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatskappij.
At the top: more stamps for South African Railways (S.A.R.), denoted in South African pennies, shillings and pounds and used until 1961.
The first bilingual stamp sheets were printed in 1929 with alternate Afrikaans stamps (S.A.S. for Suid-Afrikaanse Spoorweë) and English stamps (S.A.R.). 
Middle of the page: the pair of bright turquoise stamps are “bantam” stamps: half-sized stamps printed during World War II, when paper supplies were limited.
Bottom row: In Feb. 1961, the South African rand was introduced as currency (one hundred cents to a rand). The denominations on the post-1961 stamps were no longer part of the main design of the stamp, but overprinted in black ink.
.
.
An explanation of some of the finer differences in the fonts used for the overprints on some of the stamps.
At the back of the book: an index of abbreviations for the railway station names.
Sweet! No more blood, sweat and tears for me to figure out the station names for the abbreviations printed on the stamps.
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Monday/ railway parcel stamps 🚂

Railway parcel stamps were used in South Africa for many decades: in the four colonies before they became the Union of South Africa in 1910, and all the way through to the early 1980s. (By the mid-1980s, commercial courier services had stepped into the parcel delivery market).

These stamps were used to record the cost of the conveyance of a letter or parcel by rail.  They are only documented in specialized stamp catalogues and information about them is hard to find online.  I thought I should see what the AI chatbot from Chat GPT could help me with.

The results were interesting, and shows that one should not just accept results presented by Chat GPT as fact. 

Let’s start with a scan of a railway parcel stamp that I submitted to Chat GPT, and go from there.

Impressive, all of the information provided by the AI chat bot, just by looking at the scan of the stamp. So far so good.
So now! I thought: let’s explicitly ask about the abbreviations overprinted onto the stamps— abbreviations for the railway station name*, at which the package was accepted and paid for.  
Chat GPT does come up with the railway station names (above) for the abbreviations that I had submitted, but there is a problem ..
*This was a test for Chat GPT, or for confirming what knew for most of the abbreviations already. It took a lot of legwork to arrive at the railway station names for the abbreviations. For example, one can look at railway station maps and name lists, or look at the cancellation marks on the stamp (which could be extremely faint, and offer only tantalizing clues as to the railway station name since only a few letters or parts of letters would be visible on the stamp).
Here I am chiding the Chat GPT bot, and providing the information that I had arrived at.  The chatbot is eating a little humble pie, apologizing for presenting the first run of results with such confidence and not indicating that some of the first results were pure speculation on its part.

 

I also attempted to have Chat GPT read and list all the station names from this high-resolution scan of a 1900s hand-drawn map of railway lines and station names, but it could not do it. (Said the text was too small and not legible).
Part of another map of the railway station infrastructure in South Africa (in the 1920s).
Even modern maps and diagrams of the South African railway network are hard to come by, but I did find schematics like these. The problem is that many of the smaller railway stations from the 1970s and 1980s had been closed down, and do not even appear on these newer maps.
This is a railway parcel stamp with the abbreviation BO that took me several hours to decipher. 
The key is the upside down cancellation in purple ink, offering clues to the railway station name at the very edges of the stamp. I am sure the letters stand for BRANDFORT,  a railway station for a tiny little town in the Free State. The train station is no longer in use.
Here is my collection of South African railway parcel stamps, so far.

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Sunday/ a printing plate flaw 🖨️

Can you spot the Cape gannet (sea bird) that looks a little different from the other seven, in the block of stamps below?
There was a flaw in the printing plate for this sheet of 5c stamps from 1974.
On one of the stamps, some of the gray and blue ink is missing.

From the Second Definitive Issue set of stamps (Birds, Fish and Flowers) for the Republic of South Africa
Issued Nov. 11, 1974
Design: Ernst de Jong |Perf. 12½ |Engraving & Photolitho. |Phosphorized paper |No wmk
SA Color Catalogue #363 |5c |Multicolored |Cape gannet (Morus capensis)
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Sunday/ more revenue stamps 🪙

Here are the three sets of South African revenue stamps that followed on to the two sets that I had posted about earlier in March.

The last of South Africa’s revenue stamps were issued in 2008.
The use of revenue stamps on contracts and other legal documents was discontinued in March of 2009.

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Sunday/ the Seattle waterfront 🌅

I took the G-line bus to Colman Dock (the ferry terminal) and the Waterfront late this afternoon, and walked up to Pike Place Market.

Hey! Three gray Teslas at the Madison Street & Broadway intersection.
(I had missed the G-line bus up at the 17th Avenue stop by a minute and now I’m walking down Madison Street to the stop on Boylston Avenue).
Now I’m at the Boylston Avenue stop, and looking back up along Madison Street to see if the bus is coming. Yes! there it is at the top of the hill. Can you see it?
I hopped off the stop at 1st Avenue near the waterfront.
I could not resist taking a picture of the beautiful The Federal Office Building nearby— constructed in 1932 and ‘an exuberant example of Art Deco architecture’, says Wikipedia.
At Colman Dock (Pier 52) now, and a look at the city skyline from there.
One of two blue herons on the rocks below catching a little of the last sunlight of the day.
It was sunny today, but definitely not warm— 50°F/ 10°C for a high.
Art installation on the waterfront promenade. I will have to look up the artist.
Here’s the patio by Old Stove Brewing Co. at Pike Place Market with its lovely overlook of Puget Sound’s Elliott Bay.
A Scottish band’s members are playing their drums and bagpipes for the crowd, but I don’t know the band’s name or if it was for a special occasion.
Vivid colors on the mural at the entrance to light rail’s Westlake Station downtown. A quick 4-minute ride from here gets me back up to Capitol Hill.
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Tuesday/ revenue stamps 💷

Revenue stamps are stamps used to designate collected taxes and fees. They are issued by governments, national and local, and by official bodies of various kinds. They take many forms and may be gummed and ungummed, perforated or imperforate, printed or embossed, and of any size.
[From Wikipedia]

A little background first:
South Africa was officially the Union of South Africa until May 31, 1961, when it gained independence from the United Kingdom and became the Republic of South Africa. The currency system for the Union of South Africa was changed a few months prior, on Feb. 14, 1961.
On this day, the South African pound was replaced by the rand at a rate of one £SA = two Rand.

My sets of revenue stamps from South Africa for the periods 1954-60 (when it was still the Union of South Africa) and 1961-68 (the Republic of South Africa) are almost complete.
(Several other sets of revenue stamps were issued, but South Africa stopped using revenue stamps altogether in 2009).

Revenue stamps are similar to the postage stamps issued in South Africa during this time: printed on watermarked and gummed paper sheets, perforated and with increasing denominations in the set.

A big difference:
the highest denomination for a postage stamp issued for the time was
10 shillings (1954-60) or
R1 (1961-68),
while the highest denomination of a revenue stamp issued for the same period was
£100 (1954-60)— 200 times more, or
R200 (1961-68)— also 200 times more !

Revenue stamps with denominations in pennies (d), shillings (‘-) and pounds (£).
A reminder: in the old British currency system (and in South Africa’s), there were 12 pennies to a shilling, and 20 shillings to a pound.
Strange, I thought at first, that there is a R1.25, R1.50 and R4 denomination in this series and not say, a R5.
Then I realized they are conversions of the penny, shilling and SA pound denominations from the 1954-60 set of revenue stamps into Rand:
R 1.25 for 12 shillings 6 pence,
R 1.50 for 15 shillings,
R2 for 1 pound, and
R4 for 2 pounds.
Let’s put the 3 penny revenue stamp from the Union of South Africa under the magnifying glass. There is the coat of arms of the Union of South Africa, with symbols for the four colonies (Cape Colony, Natal Colony, and the Boer republics of the Transvaal Colony and Orange River Colony) represented on the badge in the center.
At the bottom is the Latin phrase EX UNITATE VIRES, formerly used as the national motto of South Africa. It was originally translated as “Union is Strength” but was later revised in 1961 to mean “Unity is Strength”.
Finally, right below the UNITATE is a tiny 57 printed in green, the year of issue of this particular stamp (1957).
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Monday/ the eighth definitive issue 📮

Here they are, the control blocks of South Africa’s eighth definitive issue of postage stamps.

It turned out that my blank album pages outfitted with three vertical pockets, were the right size to the millimeter for the height of the blocks.
So I went with a layout that tiled the smaller blocks sideways onto the page.
(I am still deciding if I like it).

The full sheet of 5c stamps is a reprint of the original 2010.10.27 issue (dated 2011.09.01).  Reprints of the other original prints exist, which I don’t have— and that’s O.K.

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Sunday/ control blocks 🪟

The FedEx envelope that contained my shipment of stamps from South Africa was marked ‘Extremely Urgent’.
Well, it wasn’t really (extremely urgent), I thought, and it’s amazing that modern logistics can make land to my porch in a matter of days, that what I had bought online from a location 10,000 miles away.

These are called control blocks: blocks of four or six stamps in the corner of the sheet, with the sheet margins intact. If you are lucky, the margins contain the date the sheet was printed, and other details.

The downside is that these take up an enormous amount of space in an album that is made of them. For now, I am collecting only the blocks of the so-called definitive issues of stamps. Unlike commemorative stamps, which are issued for brief periods in limited quantities, definitives are usually issued in larger quantities and used over many years.

From 1961 to 2020, the South African Post Office issued eight definitive series of postal stamps.

Control blocks from—
South Africa’s Fifth Definitive Series (Succulents), issued 1988-93;
South Africa’s First Definitive Series (the ‘Pouring Gold’ 2c stamp), issued 1961-74;
South Africa’s Seventh Definitive Series (Colorful South Africa), issued 2000-’07.
Control blocks from—
South Africa’s Sixth Definitive Series (Threatened Fauna), issued 1993-96;
South Africa’s Seventh Definitive Series (Colorful South Africa), issued 2000-’07.
Control blocks from—
South Africa’s Second Definitive Series (Flowers, Birds & Fish), issued 1974-77;
South Africa’s First Definitive Series (the ‘Groot Constantia Wine Estate’ 2½c stamp), issued 1961-74.
Control blocks from—
South Africa’s Eighth Definitive Series (South African Beadwork), issued 2010-18;
South Africa’s Seventh Definitive Series (Colorful South Africa), issued 2000-’07;
South Africa’s Sixth Definitive Series (Threatened Fauna), issued 1993-96.
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Friday/ wildlife on stamps 🐘

Happy Friday.
These 1970s stamps arrived as part of a complimentary packet of world stamps from my supplier of stamp albums and pages.
I might still start a thematic collection and animals. It would have to be a specific animal— or kind of animal— to narrow it down to a few thousand stamps!

Mongolia – Small Fur Animals
Issued Sept 5, 1973
Perf. 12×11¼ |Photogravure |No Wmk
802 20₮ Multi-colored | European badger (Meles meles)
[Sources: Stampworld.com, Google Search Labs| AI Overview]
Romania – Young Animals
Issued Mar. 10, 1972
Perf. 13½ |Design: Design: Nicolae Săftoiu |Engraving: Fabrica de Timbre, Bucharest |No Wmk
2995 35b Multi-colored | Red fox cubs (Vulpes vulpes)
The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus parts of North Africa.
[Sources: Stampworld.com, Wikipedia]
Rwanda – Apes and Monkeys
Issued Mar. 20, 1978
Perf. 13½x13 |Design: Severin |No Wmk
921 20c Multi-colored | Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
The genus Pan consists of two extant species: the chimpanzee and the bonobo. Taxonomically, these two ape species are collectively termed panins.
[Sources: Stampworld.com, Wikipedia]
Madagascar – Lemurs
Issued Oct. 9, 1973
Perf. 13 |Design: Jumelet |Engraved |No Wmk
747 5Fr Multi-colored | Greater dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus major)
The greater dwarf lemur, or the Geoffroy’s dwarf lemur, is a lemur that is widely distributed over the primary and secondary forests near the eastern coast of Madagascar.
[Sources: Stampworld.com, Wikipedia]
North Korea – Frogs
Issued Jul. 10, 1974
Perf. 11 |No Wmk
1320 5ch Multi-colored | Oriental fire-bellied toad (Bombina orientalis)
The Oriental fire-bellied toad is a small semiaquatic frog species found in northeastern Asia, where they primarily dwell in slow-moving bodies of water and temperate forests.
[Sources: Stampworld.com, Wikipedia]
Viet Nam – Wild Animals
Issued Mar. 20, 1976
Perf. 12 |Photogravure |No Wmk
808-815 A278 12xu Multi-colored | Masked palm civet (Paguma larvata)
The masked palm civet, also called the gem-faced civet or Himalayan palm civet, is a viverrid species native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
[Sources: Scott 2009 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Wikipedia]
U.S.S.R. (now Russia and multiple independent states) – 50th Anniversary of Berezina River and Stolby Wildlife Reservations
Issued Aug. 25, 1975
Perf. 12 x12 |Lithography |No Wmk
4363 A2068 6k Multi-colored | Siberian marten (Martes zibellina)
The Siberian marten or sable (Martes zibellina) is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia.
[Sources: Scott 2009 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Wikipedia]
Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)- African Animals in Dvůr Králové Zoo (now Safari Park Dvůr Králové)
Issued Nov 3, 1976
Perf. 11¾ x 11¼ |Design: J. Baláž |Engraved and Photogravure |No Wmk
2343 20h Multi-colored | African elephant (Loxodonta africana)
[Sources: Stampworld.com, Google Search Labs| AI Overview]
North Viet Nam (now Viet Nam)- Native Birds
Issued Oct. 12, 1972
Perf. 12 |Photogravure |No Wmk
701 12xu Multi-colored | Red-wattled lapwing (Lobivanellus indicus)
The red-wattled lapwing (Vanellus indicus) is an Asian lapwing or large plover, a wader in the family Charadriidae.
[Sources: Stampworld.com, Wikipedia]
Chad – Insects and Spiders
Issued May 6, 1972
Perf. 13 |Design: P. Lambert |Photogravure |No Wmk
526 4Fr Multi-colored | Spider: Argiope sector
Argiope sector is a species of orb weaver spider that is found in North Africa, the Middle East, Senegal, and Cape Verde.
[Sources: Stampworld.com, Google Search Labs| AI Overview]
Hungary – Butterflies
Issued Nov. 11, 1974
Perf. 12½ |Designer: Eva Zombory |Photogravure |No Wmk
3019 80f Multi-colored | Butterfly: Parnassius apollo
[Sources: Stampworld.com, 2018 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Google Search Labs| AI Overview]

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Monday/ Presidents’ Day 🥁

Here is a cartoon for Presidents’ Day*, from the Tuesday issue of South African newspaper Die Burger (“The Citizen”).

*Officially Washington’s Birthday at the federal governmental level, celebrated on the third Monday of February in the United States.

Peace negotiations are at an advanced stage .. and we are almost ready for Ukraine’s participation.
Side comment from the hippo: ‘The situation is on a needlepoint!’.
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Sunday/ a beer run 🍻

It’s very hit-and-miss to find my favorite beer (Beck’s non-alcoholic) at the grocery store, and so I ran out to Total Wine off 15th Ave West to pick up some.
As usual, I snapped pictures of some of the intriguing labels on the other beverages that were for sale.

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Saturday/ all the proteas 🪷

Check them out— the lineup of proteas that adorned the third definitive issue of postage stamps in the Republic of South Africa.

The 6-pocket blank pages from Leuchtturm stamp album series allow me to select, arrange and annotate the stamps in almost any way.
Some philatelists prefer to use completely blank pages, and create individual slide-in pockets (mounts) for the stamps on the page, but for now, I think that is too much work for me.

 

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Saturday/ any conflict of interest? 🤨

Cartoon from today’s edition of South African newspaper Die Burger (“The Citizen”).
Yes, there is such a thing as a ‘special government employee’ (18 U.S.C. § 202) ..
but is it OK to be a special government employee and CEO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla and CEO of X (formerly Twitter)*— all at the same time?

*Over the past 16 years, Elon Musk’s business deals with the government total nearly $20 billion, according to federal contracting data.
– Rachel Barber reporting for USA Today on Nov. 15, 2024

“Boys, I am trying to hijack a democracy. Any tips?”
(On speakerphone: Ajay, Atul, and Rajesh “Tony” Gupta, brothers famous for their vast corruption of South Africa’s government and theft of billions of South African rand from the state coffers and state-owned companies. The portrait on the wall behind them is of disgraced South African president Jacob Zuma that was in office 2009-2018 and played a central role in enabling the crimes of the Guptas— now widely known as ‘state capture’.)
Side comment from the angry hippopotamus: “Seems to me tariffs do not apply to state capture as export product”.
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Friday/ a collection of succulents 🌵

Happy Friday.
Welcome to today’s South African stamp project. 🤗

I culled the set of stamps on this page from a thousand or so that I had removed from envelope paper clippings.
(A lot of work, done earlier this week: dunk them in water, carefully separate the stamp from the paper, dry on paper towel, and press under a stack of books).

My Scott stamp catalogue confirmed that these stamps are all worth hardly-anything.
One exception: there is a Standardised Mail stamp (the first one on the page), with the fine black text double-printed, that is listed for US$136. (I found no such stamp in the ones I had).

Postmarks and shades of South Africa’s fifth definitive issue.
These are all multicolored, and my catalog does not list any shaded varieties, even though it seems to me it could: say—
7c bright colors and 7c dull colors;
21c olive-green and 21c blue-green;
35c blue-gray and 35c gray;
R1 brownish-green and R1 green.

1988-1993 Fifth Definitive Issue (Succulents), South Africa
Issued Sept. 1, 1988
Perf. 14×14¼ |Design: Hein Botha |Phosphorized paper| Lithography |No Watermark
903 Standardised Mail (45c) (’93) Multicolored Stapelia grandiflora
782 1c Multicolored Huernia zebrina
783 2c Multicolored Euphorbia symmetrica
784 5c Multicolored Lithops dorotheae
785 7c Multicolored Gibbaeum nebrownii
786 10c Multicolored Didymaotus lapidiformis
787 16c Multicolored Vanheerdea divergens
809 18c (’89) Multicolored Faucaria tigrine
788 20c Multicolored Conophytum mundum
833 21c (’90) Multicolored Gasteria armstrongii
789 25c Multicolored Cheiridopsis peculiaris
790 30c Multicolored Tavaresia barklyi
791 35c Multicolored Dinteranthus wilmotianus
792 40c Multicolored Frithia pulchra
793 50c Multicolored Lapidaria margaretae
794 90c Multicolored Dioscorea elephantipes
795 R1 Multicolored Trichocaulon cactiforme
796 R2 Multicolored Crassula columnaris
832 R5 (’90) Multicolored Anacampseros albissima
Note: this set includes a 1c, 2c, 5c and 10c coil stamp, which is not listed above. Interestingly, of all the hundreds of mail pieces I had, none had a coil stamp on. (Coil stamps are sold in a long strip that is rolled into a coil).
[Source: Stampworld.com]

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Monday/ perfins 📌

A perfin is a stamp that has a name or initials perforated into it.
The word “perfin” is short for “perforated initials” or “perforated insignia”.
Perfins are used to prevent theft and control how the stamp is used for mail.
How are perfins created?
Individuals, organizations, or government agencies add perfins to stamps after the production process.
The holes are punched into the stamp’s design to create a pattern.
Source: Google Search Labs/ AI Overview

These are the only perfins I have found so far (among the thousands of stamps I have amassed for my collection and for my philatelic ‘research’ 🤗 ).
The U.S. stamp bottom left is also pre-cancelled. Pre-cancelled stamps were used for mass-mailings, making it unnecessary for the post office to cancel them, and expediting their processing.

1961 First Definitive Issue (New Design), South Africa
Issued Jan. 20, 1969
Perf. 13½x14 |Phosphor frame |Wmk. RSA tête-bêche
SACC282 |1c |Rose-red & sepia |Coral Tree Flowers (Erythina lysistemon)
Perfin initials “D.C.”

1982 Fourth Definitive Issue (Architecture), South Africa
Issued Jul. 15, 1982
Perf. 14 |Design: A.H. Barrett |Engraving: Arthur Howard Barrett |Litho. |Phosphorized paper |No Wmk
SACC524 |10c |Carmine brown |Pietermaritzburg Town Hall
Perfin insignia “C C C” (or possibly “V V V”)

1923 United States of America (U.S. Presidents and prominent Americans)
Issued Jan. 15, 1923
Perf. 11×10½ |No Wmk
Scott 562 A165|10c |Orange |James Monroe (5th U.S. President)
Perfin insignia “WFH”
Pre-cancelled “Chicago IL” 
[Sources: stampworld, South African Colour Catalogue 2023-25, Scott 2003 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Vol. 1]

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Thurday/ a snake on a stamp ✉️

There was mail today, with a new Year Of The Snake forever stamp on, issued by the US Postal Service.

2025 Lunar New Year—Year of the Snake
Issued Jan. 14, 2025
Perf. 11 Serpentine Die-cut | Self-adhesive | Design: Camille Chew | Engraving: Banknote Corporation of America | Issued in sheets of 20
6376 FOREVER (73c) Multicolored | Lunar New Year – Year Of The Snake
[Sources: stampworld.com, USPS]