Esperanto - The International Language

From a series of cinderellas promoting Esperanto, here are the three that I have in my collection. Each stamp bears the name of a language in Esperanto and "Learn the international language Esperanto" in that language. The three languages represented here are Armenian, Japanese, and Welsh.

Valls (Catalonia), September 1976, 18th Catalan Esperanto Congress. Showing a human tower, very typical from our country.

Postcards from Hungary, each with special cachet about Esperanto:

As part of their "Erfinder" (Inventors) series of poster stamps, Rheinperle margarine included this stamp of "Dr. Zamenhof, Inventor of the Esperanto Language, born 1837." The stamp presumably dates from before Zamenhof's death in 1917.

This is the piece that started my Esperanto topical collection, a postcard written in Esperanto with an Esperanto label, mailed from Rüstringen, Germany, to Oruro, Bolivia, on 27 March (Easter Sunday) 1921. My uncle bought it for me at WESTPEX in 1996.

A postal card issued by South Korea, commemorating the 102nd World Congress of Esperanto in Seoul, with first day cancellation (21 July 2017).


The recipient was an ebay seller in Stepanakert, from whom I bought the card. I hope he's okay; the ethnic Armenian population of Artsakh was forced to flee the region in September 2023.

European Esperanto Conference, Wien, issued by Austria on July 17, 1965:


The 55th universal Esperanto congress, Wien, issued by Austria on August 3, 1970:

Different Esperanto congresses held in France:

Postcards from Hungary, each with special cachet about Esperanto:

Century of Esperanto on Hungarian postcard issued in 1987 in two different colors. Dr. Zamenhof on the side cachet:

Three Esperanto postmarks from France:

The 40th congress of the IFEF (International Federation of Esperanto-Railway workers or International Railroad Esperanto Federation (Internacia Fervojista Esperanto-Federacio), Perpignan, issued on June 7, 1988:


The 45th national congress, Bondy, issued on May 5, 1990:


Congress of the Esperanto federation of Provence, St. Raphael, issued April 2, 1993:

The 52nd Esperanto congress was planned to be held in Tel Aviv, Israel in August 1967. To publicize the event, a single 0.60 Lira stamp was printed in 1,400,000 copies and was planned to be issued close to the event date.

Due to the Six Days War between Israel and Arab countries in June 1967, the congress in Israel was cancelled and held instead in Rotterdam, Netherland. Hence, the printed Israeli stamp was never issued.

I don't think private collectors have the stamp and, as much as I know, all existed copies are kept in the Israeli philatelic service archive. I copied a photo of the stamp from the Israeli philatelic magazine "Shovel" (the green stamp on the right):

Wow! I had no knowledge of that planned Israeli stamp! It's unfortunate that it was never issued; the design is very attractive.

Here's the newest addition to my Esperanto collection, which just arrived today: A Belgian souvenir sheet from 2019 (Scott #2888), commemorating the region of Neutral Moresnet, which was awarded to Belgium by the Treaty of Versailles. The inscription at the top is in French, Dutch/Flemish, English, and Esperanto, but the Esperanto isn't quite correct (the word for "(politically) neutral" should have an added "la" at the end). In 1908, Dr. Wilhelm Molly, the chief medical doctor at the zinc spar mine there, proposed making Neutral Moresnet the world's first Esperanto-speaking state, named Amikejo ("friendship-place").

Second European Esperanto festival, Budapest, postcard with special cachet and commemorative postmark, issued by Hungary in August 1997:


This is a regular postcard with a large format label as cachet, same as above cachet with slight differences:

Postcard from Russia, no date and details:


Meter from West Germany promoting use of Esperanto, 1981: