Nigeria, New Country #178 and 2nd card from Montenegro

Today, I received two cards in the mail. One was from Nigeria , new country #178. It was sent by Edet Akpan of Calabar , Nigeria. The card shows The National Museum at the Old Residency in Calabar. This building was built in 1884 as the seat of the British Colonial Government of the Southern Protectorate of Nigeria. It housed the Consul-Generals from 1884-1914. It later became a National Monument in 1959 and then a museum in 1986.

The stamp used is one of a set of eight definitives , issued in 2001, showing animals. This particular stamp shows the Red-eared Guenon, one of Africa's rare monkeys. As of November 2006 there were no Red-eared Guenons in any of the world's zoos. They are an endangered or vulnerable species.

My other card today is from Montenegro, my 2nd from that country. It was sent from Podgorica, the capital. It has two circular postmarks. I wish all postmarks , especially Canada, had such clear and readable postmarks. The two stamps on the card are part of a set of 4 definitives issue in 2007. The card was sent by Mira Dujovic.


That's all for today.

Montenegro, Country #177

I received a postcard yesterday from Montenegro. This makes 177 different countries from which I have received a stamped postcard .Until last Sunday, this would have given me a complete collection of postcards from every country of Europe. Sad to say, this is no longer the case, with Kosovo declaring Independence on Sunday, 17 February 2008. Now I still need one more card from one more European country. If any readers of this blog have any idea or suggestion on how to achieve a postcard from Kosovo, please feel free to let me know. If you have any family or business contacts there, I would certainly appreciate your help with regard to a postcard from there. I await your help.

Now , back to the Montenegro postcard. It was sent by Pierre Surprenant , a fellow Canadian working for UNDP in Montenegro. He is doing contract work in the field of ammunition and explosives disposal.He is based in Podgorica from which this postcard was mailed. Podgorica is the capital and largest city in Montenegro. The city was previously called Titograd.

The postcard shows the city of Budva, a coastal city of around 10,000 inhabitants. The city is 2500 years old making it one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic coast.
Budva is often called Montenegrin Kuwait, because of the high number of millionaires, compared to it's small population. It has about 200 millionaires from a population of 10,000.Budva is also the smallest town to have held a Rolling Stones concert, back on July 9th, 2007.

Montenegro is located in Southeastern Europe and shares borders with the Adriatic Sea, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Albania. It declared Independence on Jun 3, 2006. On June 28, 2006 its became the 192nd member state of the United Nations.

The stamp used on the card was issued in 2006 , is 1 of a set of 2 , showing the first coins of Montenegro. Thanks to Pierre for this card.

Namibia , Country #176

Just one postcard arrived today, but it is a good one. It's from Namibia, which makes 176 countries from which I have now received a postcard. Namibia is located in Southern Africa, on the Atlantic coast. It shares borders with Angola, Zambia , Botswana and South Africa. The city of Windhoek, from which this postcard was mailed, is the capital of Namibia. The country gained independence from South Africa in 1990. Namibia is the 2nd least densely populated country in the world at 2.5 persons per sq km.Thanks to Helena , who works for The City of Windhoek , for sending this card out to me. It was actually the second card she sent, as the first one has never arrived. This one was mailed on the 18th of January and arrived on the 18th February.

An Internet Postcard, Pigs and New Country #175

Yesterday, Friday, I received a bunch of postcards, 8 in fact. Four of them were a result of my participation in Postcrossing. I received 3 from Finland and 1 from Germany. The other 4 were from people that I have had contact with as a result of this blog. Included in this group is a card from Siew Lan of Malaysia who writes on fungstamp.blogspot.com . Also in this group are 2 cards from Stephane Cotard of France. One of the cards show the lighthouse of Sables-dÓlonne. Stephane used on this card , in addiition to some definitives, a very nice commemorative showing another lighthouse , this one located at Ar-Men.This stamp was issued in 2007. The second card Stephane sent is a really unique and personal card . It is a postcard that he ordered over the internet from www.laposte.net, with the postmark and postage printed directly on the card. The website then mails the card directly to whomever it is for, in this care , me. The front of the card show an obelisk in Paris. However, if you look carefully at the obelisk you can see the personal part, in this case my name on the obelisk. I think this is really neat. I visited the website and there are a number of different locations on which you can have a name or message printed. Thanks Stephane, I really like this card.
I want to show one of the Postcrossing cards from Finland, that I mentioned earlier. It shows a pig diving off a diving board into a lake.I often heard the expression - when pigs can fly- but I never heard that pigs could dive. A very amusing picture indeed.
The final card to show is from country 175 of my world collection- The Kingdom of Cambodia. It was sent to me by Chau Nguyen Thranh ,a friend of Tram Ha . The card shows The Royal Palace, while the stamps used show The National Museum of Singapore, The Presidential Palace in Hanoi and other Khmer Culture.

Card from Jose of Stamp Friends From Around the World

I have just a single card to show today. It is a card from Portugal showing the Serra da Estrela. This is the highest mountain range in mainland Portugal, attaining an altitude of 1993m at it highest point. Located in central Portugal, this mountain range is in fact a protected National Park. Jose used a number of different stamps on the card. These include a couple of Mask definitives , one from 2005 and one from 2006. Also included is a flag stamp issued in 2007. I'm not sure of the significance of the flag , since it is not the Flag of Portugal. And, finally he used a machine generated stamp .

A Few Cards , A Cover and Suriname , new country #174

I got a couple of cards to show today. First up is a card from Suriname , the newest country, # 174, in my collection. The card was sent by Lindsey Raijmann of Paramaribo, the capital city of the country. Suriname is in northern South America. Often mispelled as Surinam, it is situated between French Guiana to the east and Guyana to the west. Suriname derived its name from the indigenous Surinen, who were the area's earliest known inhabitants.
The front of the card shows the Toren van Financien (Tower of Finance), the building of the Ministry of Finance, located in the capital Paramaribo.
Lindsey used 2 stamps issued in 1956, that are actually Postage Due stamps. A little strange perhaps, but nevertheless they did the job. The card reached its destination. Thanks Lindsey.


I received another card from Germany, Berlin in fact, sent by Igor , again. The picture on the card is quite interesting . It either shows the Berlin Wall during its early construction or it shows it being taken down. You be the judge. Igor used a couple of machine generated stamps on this card.

Even though this is a postcard blog, I want to show the stamps on a cover I received from Taiwan, sent by George T M Wu. He used 3 recent dog stamps with Republic of China name and 2 new bird stamps with Taiwan on them. These are the first stamps I have received with Taiwan on them. Finally, in this cover from George was a Taiwan Maximum Card featuring a Year of the Rat stamp , although the date on the postmark confuses me. It shows the date as 97.1.3 .
Any comments as to the date?

That it for this time. Enjoy your postcards, covers , and stamps.

A Beautiful Mauritius Beach

I just have one card to show today along with one stamp. The card shows Ile Maurice, on the island of Mauritius, which is home to Flic en Flac. Flic en Flac is found in the district of Black River on the western coast of Mauritius. This area has the nicest beaches of the island and are protected by the surrounding coral reefs. The village, during the 1960s, was known only for its cemetery where people from nearby villages came to bury their dead.

An interesting fact about Mauritius- this island once was home to a now extinct bird--the Dodo. Since the Dodo was unable to fly, the big bird was easy game for early sailors and was soon greatly reduced in numbers. Another contributing factor to its demise was the arrival of Dutch rats on the island which feasted on the eggs of the Dodo.

The stamp on the card , issued in 2007, honors Manilall Doctor's arrival in Mauritius in 1907. Mahatma Gandhi met Manilall Doctor in 1906 and asked him to travel to Mauritius to help the Indians there. Between 1907 and 1912, this great follower of Gandhi carried out a valiant crusade to improve the living conditions as well as fight for the social and political rights of Indo-Mauritians.

The card was sent to me by Cara, a fellow Postcrosser , from Reunion Island, the sister island to Mauritius. She was on holiday there. Lucky Cara, here I am in snowy , cold Calgary.

PAA DC-4 plus a couple of covers

Today I received a very special postcard (at least to me ) from Igor in Germany. The front shows a Pan American World Airways DC-4 , the Clipper Hamburg. The card is special as I enjoyed a 28 year career with a number of airlines here in Canada. Even before I started this stamped and mailed postcard quest from every country, I collected postcards that showed aircraft and airlines on them. So this card will have a front and center place in my collection. Igor used 2 new commemoratives from Germany, both of which I blogged about on Jan 21,2008. Thanks Igor.

Even though I am into postcards on this blog, I did receive 2 very nice covers today. The first is from Eric Bruth and is a FDC , 26-01-2008, for The year Of The Rat stamp issued by French Post. The stamp is quite catchy and it is cancelled with a lovely rat cancel. Thanks Eric.

The other cover, indeed a very nice cover, also, is from Kim Yeonjoon of Korea. This is the first I have received from Kim. The cover shows a set of 4 stamps commemorating rivers of Korea. These stamps were issued on Jan 18, 2008. Thanks Kim.