United Europe Forerunner

Before the "Europa" and Europa CEPT stamps were issued in 1956 several countries issued stamps with United Europe in mind. Those are called Forerunners. Belgium issued a set of stamps for the European Youth in 1953. Here is the set of stamps (B544-45) on a postal reply card-- I really like the stamps this way!

Jopie,

Thanks for the info on the Europa stamp issues...... something I had always been curious about. Your postal reply cards are beautiful.


Butch

Very nice set of covers!

Jopie,
It is good to see you back online. What a beautiful cover & set of stamps. Thanks for sharing. Ha, those stamps are older than my parents.LOL

PhilBob,
I have no idea what you just typed, should I be insulted or gracious? Please help a bewildered and confused individual.


edited for typo, I really shouldn't be on here at work.....

There they go..blaming me for Bobgggg !!

Thanks Bobgggg!"schoon, fraai, knap, fijn, mooi" gee Bobggg, where did you get that dictionary? here's a lesson in Dutch: you can't use 'knap' or 'schoon' to describe the card! Nice try, though; I'm impressed. Now try to pronounce the words!

Well, it is a Belgian card, so you can use "schoon" to say it is beautiful (more usual is "mooi"). In normal Dutch it means clean, but in Flemish Dutch it is 'beautiful'. The Flemish say 'proper' where we say 'schoon'. It is still Dutch, but the languages are slowly growing apart. A bit like American English and British English, I suppose.

And by the way, yes, it is a nice card. Het is een heel mooie kaart

Ok, so now Jan Simon speaks/reads Korean, German and Dutch. I can barely get by with English!

And Belgian Laswabbie,don't forget he can translate Belgian.

Well, I cannot really count Belgian, or else you should also count Australian as a separate language. Hmm... perhaps you do? And to be precise, there is no Belgian language.

I came from England when I was 11 years old and I couldn't understand a lot of what they were saying at first. I just smiled and nodded.


Steve

Very nice covers, Jopie.

What do you consider the first, or earliest Europa forerunners?

David

I wonder when the first "New World Order" stamps will come out???

Here is the lay-out that I use for my Europa collection

Category I is the core of most Europa collections – the annual issues.

Ia Related Stamps (e.g., 1992 Panama Issue & the recent 50th anniversary issues)


Category II is the "Agencies of Europa", including Council of Europe, ESA (European Space Agency), etc.

IIa is EU (European Union) proper, from the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community) to the EU parliament

IIb is NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and other military alliances;


IIc is the ERP (European Recovery Program / Marshall Plan).


Category III is European Cooperation in general. Here is where all those issues that don't fit neatly into the other categories go. :

IIIa is friendship, cooperation, joint efforts, etc.

IIIb is meetings and conferences of a European nature

IIIc is European sporting issues

I only broke up IIIa and IIIb because each became so huge, but in so doing I fell into the Handbook trap. For example, many countries (most notably Malta, have issued special postal cards for European stamp exhibits franked with the annual Europa issue. So, where do these belong?

Category IV is Europa Forerunners:


IVa Prophets or advocates of unity (St. Benedict, Victor Hugo)


IVb Historical attempts at peaceful unity (Balkan Entente)


IVc Military attempts (Caesar, Charlemagne)
Collecting every stamp with Churchill or Hitler on it can get ridiculous. I just include enough to tell a story.

Category V is the Eastern Bloc.


Va KSZE (German for CSCE - Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe)issues


Vb Iron Curtain counterparts to Europa (Warsaw Pact *, COMECON also CMEA - Council for Mutual Economic Assistance))

*Warsaw Pact - the Soviet Union counterpart to NATO. Most of it's members, much to the chagrin of Russia, have now become members of NATO

jopie...If you belive this, I will sell you a bridge