23 January 2011

Vanautu 2010 Smile With Us - Underwater Post Office

This is one of the 10 stamps released on 15 December 2010 by Vanuatu, in a set entitled "Smile With Us", to celebrate being listed as one of the ten happiest places on earth in 2010 by Lonely Planets. The place is happy because the inhabitants are happy going about their daily lives. This particularly stamp features a snorkeller sending a water-proof postcard at an underwater post office, manned by a postal worker in scuba gear! Postcards posted at this post office are cancelled by an embossing device, instead of an ordinary inking stamp.

17 January 2011

Macedonia 2010 Birth Centenary of Jacques Cousteau

Macedonia Post celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Jacques Cousteau with this stamp on 20 October 2010. The stamp features Jacques Cousteau, who invented the modern scuba equipment, wearing his patent red woolen cap, and a couple of orcas or killer whales.

05 January 2011

Canada 2010 Blue Whale Full Sheet

The Canadian 2010 $10 Definitive features the blue whale, the image being the work of master engraver Jorge Peral. This stamp was produced using a combination of two printing techniques: intaglio (for the whale in the foreground) and offset lithography (for the colours in the background). The intaglio process (which was used to produce Canada’s first postage stamp) was recently reinvented using a new, state-of-the-art laser engraving technology. The colour control markings on the left margin of a full sheet of 2 are in the shape of scuba divers.