Stamps That Make You Go... Huh???

Happy New Year! A selfie from Dali. (Here's hoping everyone enjoyed celebrating without waking up feeling like this.)

And Happy New Year to all who braved the cold but didn't end up looking like this.



(Stamp features the long Belgian traditions about witches and sorcerers. Artwork by Rene Hausman, the famous painter/illustrator who did several stamps for the Belgian Post.)

It's an odd feeling to look at a stamp that is essentially a mirror. Too bad it doesn't work on a computer screen!

Colek Karpatsky: The Carpathian newt, or Montadon's newt, is a species of salamander in the family Salamandridae found in Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The total length of adults of this species is around 10 cm. (Wikipedia)

Carpathian Newt (Triturus montandoni)
Country: Czechoslovakia
Series: Nature Protection
Catalog codes:
Michel CS 3010
Stamp Number CS 2751
Yvert et Tellier CS 2811
AFA number CS 2860
POFIS CS 2901
Themes: Amphibians | Animals (Fauna) | WWF
Issued on: 1989-07-18
Expiry date: 1993-09-30
Format: Stamp
Emission: Commemorative
Perforation: comb 11½ x 11¾
Printing: Photogravure and Recess
Colors: Multicolor
Face value: 5 K#269;s - Czechoslovakian koruna
Print run: 5,740,000
Paper: Fluorescent paper (fl2)
?Designer: R HAMSIKOVA
?Engraver: M ONDRACEK

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey (who is glad he does not have to explain this one to the kids)

Do you think the goal was made of glass, or perhaps ice, way back 70 years ago? Came across it in my sports album recently.

(Hi Ikey, Help me catch the HUH of the salamanders. K.)

Its not so much a HUH, as a #METOO.

What is up with this Hungarian airmale?

Pretty easy to figure out, Greaden. All propellors spin on some sort of axle.

Well put, jamesw!

Hey, who'd like a nice hot bowl of.........house paint?

Private mail courier New Zealand Mail issued the stamp in October 2010. Resene is a New Zealand manufacturer of house paint. "Kiwi" is the domestic mail rate for N.Z.

The International Year of Shelter for the Homeless

Okay, I get it: we don't really see them, so the homeless are faceless. What-ev-er.

Q/ But what's with the hand?

(I've been to the UAE on five short trips, and nothing I learned about the place leaves me with a clue.)

United Arab Emirates
Series: International year of shelter for the homeless

Catalog codes:
Michel AE 237
Stamp Number AE 247
Issued on: 1987-11-21
Size: 30 x 36 mm
Perforation: comb13 x 13¼
Printing: Offset lithography
Face value: 2 UAE dirham

Catalog codes:
Michel AE 238
Stamp Number AE 248
Issued on: 1987-11-21
Perforation: comb13 x 13¼
Printing: Offset lithography
Face value: 250 UAE fils

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I think, this item is far from attractive:

Romanian envelope that commemorates the Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999.

(more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar...ust_11,_1999)

Considering the facial expression of the Sun and Moon on the indicium, as if they are disgusted too.

Q/ Shouldn't the "real" train be the one running today, while the "ghost" train is the one that ran 100 years ago?

Q/ Shouldn't the "FDC" (below) have been postmarked, like, 5 days earlier?

Q/ Shouldn't I have some lignin-free paper, in a place I can actually find it, so that I can keep those glue stains one the back, where they belong?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey (who especially likes the cachet)

Mail Trains of 1851 & 1951
Country: Canada
Catalog codes:
Michel CA 266
Stamp Number CA 311
Yvert et Tellier CA 246
Stanley Gibbons CA 436
Issued on: 1951-09-24
Size: 38 x 26 mm
Colors: Black
Perforation: line12
Printing: Recess
Face value: 4 ¢ - Canadian cent
Print run: 49,750,000

A?) This is very prescient, telling us that modern passenger service in North America will become an illusion.

A?) I remember Artcraft and Artmaster FDC blanks being available at the department store stamp sections. The minions would often pack up purchases in glassines in an FDC envelope that was past its sell-by date. Perhaps some thrifty collector repurposed one of those. Nice cachet; can anyone identify the maker?

A?) I am using glassine paper from ancient interleaving pages for that purpose, but there is a wide range of quality/acid content with those things as with the storage envelopes.

George T Mercer.

The only reference I can find of this gentleman
http://www.bnaps.org/hhl/newsletter...-04-w023.pdf