Living Persons Portrayed On Stamps

Lebanon
Elie Saab
March 29, 2018
Elie Saab (1964- ) is a Lebanese fashion designer specialized in bridal couture. His main workshop is in Lebanon, with additional workshops in Milan and Paris.

Increasingly, postal authorities of various countries are making available the opportunity for people to use personal images, including portraits, on stamps, or attached selvedge. sometimes, these items are referred to as "vanity stamps". Here are 2 examples.

The Royal Mail item is printed on attached selvedge. According to Stanley Gibbons, "stamps in these designs in separate sheets printed in lithography by Cartor were available with personal photographs on the labels at 14.95 pounds per sheet from Royal Mail, Edinburgh."

The Deutsche Post "Briefmarke Individual" vanity stamps have been available for around the last 10 years or so, I believe.

Here is another modern German/Deutsche Post personalized stamp. This one is interesting because the reduced rate of 31 euro cents was paid. The cancellation confirms this. Rather than a "Briefzentrum" regional processing center cancel which is normally used on first class mail, a city specific paid cancel has been applied.

So, the person pictured is most likely a sales agent sending out material to potential customers.

Latvia
Alona Ostapenko
November 10, 2017
The minisheet honors Alona Ostapenko (1997-) who won the 2017 French Open singles title and was the first player from Latvia to win a Grand Slam tournament.

Croatia
World Champion In The High Jump
November 8, 2007
The stamp honors Blanka Vlašic (1983 -), a Croatian athlete who won at the 11th World Championships in Athletics.

Romania
The First Olympic 10 of Gymnastics
July 18, 2016
The stamp set honors Romanian retired gymnast Nadia Comaneci (1961 -), who is the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games.

Great stamp Kuol; Nadia Comanecci was a phenomen!

Great Britain (Royal Mail)
8th August 2013
Andy Murray. Men's Singles Champion, Wimbledon

In fact, the stamp with Nadia Comaneci is from a souvenir sheet

The Romanian Post commemorated the 40th anniversary of Nadia's ever first perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games, on the uneven bars in the team competition, with a stamp issued in two variants of mini sheets of 5 stamps and a corner label, and 2 souvenir sheets. Unfortunately, none of they presented her on the uneven bars, only on the balance beam and in floor exercise (where she won a gold and a silver medal)

And here is a more challenging and more interesting (for me personally) case - two stamps from the Czech Republic commemorationg the Summer Olympics, with unnamed athletes, yet, identifiable.

The stamp to commemorate the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics preserts Zuzana Hejnová, a Czech hurdler (bronze medal at th2 2012 Summer Olympics in 400 m hurdles):




and the one to commemorate the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, with V#283;ra Pospíšilová-Cechlová, a Czech discus thrower on it (bronze medal at the Olympics in Athens in 2004)

North Korean table tennis player Pak Yung-sun (another variant of her name is Pak Yong-sun), a living person as on the moment when the stamps were issued (died in 1987), world champion in table tennis, together with the Chinese athlete Yang Ying (in the last stamp), after their triumph at the Asian championchip in 1976:

A recent (may 2019) stamp frpm Poland, commemorating the centennial anniversary of the PKOl (Polish Oympic Committee).
The stamp design is based on a photogrraphy made in June 1963, during an athletics match between two Polish athletics clubs, Legia and AZS Lotnik.

The athletes in the stamp are Ewa Janina K³obukowska (in the background, still a living person) and Irena Szewiñska, both Olympic champions in 4x100 m relay in Tokyo, in 1964

Buzz Aldrin




https://about.usps.com/newsroom/nat...g-stamps.htm



Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing.

Living people have been shown on USA stamps in the past. Recently, on the trivia quiz show in the USA and Canada called "Jeopardy," this was the Final Jeopardy answer...






Can you figure out the USA stamp?

Linus

(vicaf60 - your reply below is the correct answer!)

A famous photography showing US marines raising the USA flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. The same photograph was used many times afterwards on stamps issued in different countries (the most recent, I suppose, in Slovakia, to commemorate a Slovakia-born soldier.