Congratulations to Postcrossing and Place #227 of my Collection

Well, first off today, I would like to mention a little about Postcrossing. Today is a big day in Postcrossing history. Today marks the day on which 3 million postcards have been exchanged through Postcrossing. Postcrossing started back on July 14th, 2005 and has steadily grown to what it is today. Postcrossing has 128,712 members in 202 countries. Postcrossing reached its first million exchanged cards on 11 April 2008, its second million on 26 February 2009 , and of course its third million today. I joined Postcrossing in March 2006, some 1295 days ago. I have received 522 postcards so far from Postcrossing. It has been a barrel of fun so far. Postcrossing's goal is : to connect people across the world through postcards, independent of their location, age, race, gender or beliefs. And, Postcrossing certainly does that. Congratulations Postcrossing. If anyone reading would like to join or to have more information on Postcrossing go www.postcrossing.com


Now on to my postcards. Five in all for today. First is a card from Tinian , Northern Mariana Islands. While not a country, the Northern Mariana Islands make up a political union with The United States. They occupy a region of the western Pacific Ocean about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines. Covering about 463.63 square km , the population is around 80,000. One item of note, the Northern Mariana Islands have the lowest male to female ration in the world, with an average of 76 men to every 100 females. My card shows The Tinian Public Library, in San Jose Village, Tinian. If you send a postcard to the library, you will get one back from either a staff member or one of the students using the library. Their address is Tinian Public library, PO box 520704, San Jose Village, Tinian, MP 96952-0704, Northern Marian Islands. Be sure to add - Private Swap- on your card. Because of its association with the U.S. , all the stamps used are U.S. postage. Even though , as mentioned earlier, it is not a country, I consider it a distinct place and am happy to add it as # 227 of my collection. Glad that is over, # 227 took a long time, it is the first new addition to my list of countries and entities since July 14th.

My next card is from Belgium. It will be another addition to my aircraft on postcard collection. It is an Ilyushin Il76. Looks like it was a bumpy landing, but you know what pilots say, any landing that you walk away from , is a good one. The card is from Thomas, who has a stamps and cover blog, called My Stamps and Covers. Check out his fine blog at http://veedeesstamps.blogspot.com . Thomas used a new 2009 stamp from a souvenir sheet of 5 issued for World Cultural Heritage.

Now , I have mentioned this in the past. At one point in time, a collector may have been trying for a card from a certain place for a long time. Then that card appears. A short time later another card, and then maybe another card from the same place. Well, that is the case now. Only last week I received a card from Michael of cddstamps, mailed from Lord Howe Island, Australia. Yesterday , I received two more cards from Lord Howe Island. But, as I always say, you can never have too many cards from any one place. The smaller card was sent by Pixie Rourke , President of Lord Howe Island Tourism Association. The larger card is from Sandi Beaumont of The Lord Howe Island Visitor Information Center. The stamps on this card include a 2006 wild flower issue from a set of 4 and a 2009 stamp commemorating 200 years of Australia Post, from a set of 10.

My final card is from France. It was sent by a Postcrosser named Isabella. It shows a group of small kids lined up to drop their letters in a rather old looking postbox. Must have been a school project of some sort. Isabella used a number of stamps including 2 Marianne definitives and a 2009 Europa souvenir sheet of 2 celebrating Astronomy.

All in all a nice bunch of cards. Hope you enjoy this update . Your comments are always welcome.