Picture postcard sent by a British visitor to #Ottoman #Palestine in 1913, the 1 pi stamp postmarked ‘ERIHA (JERUSALEM)’ = #JERICHO 11-9-(19)13, to Tottenham in London. There’s also a ‘#JÉRUSALEM 3’ transit mark from the following day.

Stamps from #Nederland #Netherlands had brilliant designs for much of the 20th century. This beautiful semi-postal set, issued issued in aid of the Cultural and Social Relief Fund in 1957, featured merchant ships. Look at that whale on the 7+5c stamp!

I bought a small and inexpensive collection of #Netherlands stamps at the Charing Cross Collectors' Fair in London this morning. Here's the 1923 set (minus the three top values!) commemorating the 25th anniversary of Queen Wilhelmina's accession:

#Romania: June 1876 postal card uprated with 'Paris' 5b stamp, from Bucharest to Berlin. The sender, senior postal official Georges Bascovitz, offers to sell various Romanian stamps including first issue 27pa and 54pa 'Bull's Heads'.

From an 'old-time' collection (dated 1944) of #Ottoman #Turkey, a complete sheet (in halves) of the 25 piastres 1871 'Duloz' postage due. These were probably from the remainders sold to the stamp trade and aren't in fine condition, but this top value is scarce in such large blocks

#România: I like the 'Cifra' definitives (1889-94), which were a great improvement in design terms over their cluttered 'Vulturi' predecessors. These blocks of four are from the 'remainders' which were cancelled by Bucharest 17 SEP 95 datestamps and sold to the philatelic trade:

#Romania, Feb 1879: a scarce solo usage of a 'Bucharest I' 30b stamp to pay the first-step UPU foreign letter rate. Unfortunately, the cover is slightly marred by the red arrow firmly glued on by a previous owner. To avoid damage, I’ve decided to leave it in place for now…

My interest in the early postal cards of #Romania extends to incoming mail: here's a card from Geneva, #Switzerland, uprated with a 5c 'Sitting Helvetia' stamp, sent to Bucharest in September 1878.

#Romania, 1877-79: 'Bucharest I' 10b. Can you see the constant flaw? This & many others probably resulted from printing clichés made in Paris being cleaned before use in Bucharest. They were probably as delicate as those modern hobs that you should only clean with a soft cloth...

I could not resist a bargain-priced collection of 1000 post-Independence #Indian stamps. Very different from my specialised 19th century Romania, but highly interesting - particularly for the cultural, historical and political insights they provide.

Ich arbeite an einer Sammlung mit dem Thema "Japanisches Neujahr". Einige Besonderheiten: Eine Ganzsache in Braille, ein Muster (mihon), zwei eingelöste Ganzsachen und ein älterer FDC. #Philatelie #Briefmarken #Japan #Neujahr

#Romania: a stamp-on-a-stamp to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Moldavia's 'Bull's Heads' (1958) and a stamp-on-a-stamp-on-a-stamp to mark the 15th Universal Postal Union congress (1963). Unfortunately, I don't seem to have a Bull's Head to hand to complete the picture...

#Romania: these are NOT examples of the 1879 5b blue 'error of colour', but Bucharest II 5b green and blue-green stamps chemically altered to look like the error. Optimistic vendors sometimes present these as the real thing, but they are worthless fakes...

#Romania: at first glance, these look like unconvincing forgeries of ‘Paris-Bucharest’ stamps. But an alternative view is that they are unofficial reprints made from original printing clichés…

#Romania, 1879 'Bucharest 2': a trio of superb imperforate 5b, 10b & 15b values? No, these are all fakes, made by cutting off the perfs from what were once stunningly large examples of these stamps. As a philatelist, it's important to be sceptical...otherwise, you can waste money

#Romania, the ‘Bucharest II’ 10b Plate 2 wasn’t discovered until well into the 20th century. Used for only 6 months in 1879, probably 700-750,000 were printed. There’s a block of 81 including the 5b value error, but few other large multiples. These are the best I’ve found:

#Romania, 1879: ‘Bucharest II’ 50 bani: matching strips of three plate proofs (top) and used issued stamps (lower) showing the same plate flaws - for example, the upper and lower framelines of the proof/stamp on the right:

#Romania, 1879 ‘Bucharest II’ 1½ bani. This value was used for franking newspapers and is very common used. But this unused block of 70 may be unique...

#Romania, 1879: often termed an ‘error of colour’, the 5 bani blue is actually an error of value caused by a 5b cliché being mistakenly inserted into a new 10b printing plate. I was very happy indeed to find this new example, postmarked MIZILU 4 JUN 79, for my collection today:

Here’s an 1873 #Romanian postal card, sent within the city of Brăila to a telegraph operator. Intriguingly, the message on the back is in code…

A visiting philatelic friend from #Romania noticed an overlooked scarce item - a notable error, in fact! - in my collection: the 1919 10 bani without 'P.T.T.-F.F.' overprint (shown at right).

Here’s the earliest recorded #Romanian postal card uprated with an adhesive stamp (5 bani 'Paris') for sending to a foreign destination. It went from Iaşi to #Lviv (then Austrian-controlled and known as Lemberg; later Львов or Lvov during Soviet times) on 1 April 1874.

Still enjoying sorting out my used #British #Machin #stamps - the classics of the future! Here are some blocks I found. These often have full, dated postmarks, which can help in identifying which issue or printing the stamps belong to. #philately

Wishing a Merry Christmas to all friends and followers here! (These angelic stamps are from Great Britain’s 1998 #Christmas  set) #philately

Great Britain's Machin definitives must count among the world's most iconic #stamps. In use for 50+ years in rainbow colours, most were monochrome. But a few early ones were bicoloured, including these old favourites - the pre-decimal 1967 1/9d and its successor, the decimal 1971 9p #philately

17 December 1931 | Dutch Jewish boy, Emile Joost Jacobs, was born at the Hague. He was deported to #Auschwitz from Westerbork in October 1942. He was murdered in a gas chamber after arrival selection.

Great #Britain Queen Elizabeth II used #Machin #stamps: starting to sort a big shoeboxful, accumulated over 50 years from family mail. I realised too late that I should have kept a sampling of single uses on cover, but at least I have many examples on piece with clear dated cancels… #philately

British #stamps issued in 1990 to commemorate the #Queen Mother’s 90th birthday, waggishly used on a parcel cancelled Baile Átha Cliath (that is, #Dublin in the Republic of #Ireland). Her Majesty is wearing a suitably coloured outfit…😁 #philately

#France, 2006: centenary of the rehabilitation of Alfred #Dreyfus (1859-1935), a Jewish army officer wrongly accused of spying and later exonerated and honored. Dreyfus was a keen #philatelist, his collection staying in family hands until sold c. 70 years after his death aguttes.com/en/lot/114686/…?

#Germany #Deutschland: time for stamps! Striking ‘socked-on-the-nose’ first day cancels on the 1992 semi-postal welfare set depicting antique #clocks:

#Romania, Feb 1875: letter ex Giurgiu to Ottoman Constantinople. The 40 bani franking (25b + 15b 'Paris' stamps) paid 1st-step letter rate; the red manuscript '10' signified 10 kreuzer/soldi (25b) benefit to the Austrian Post Office, which transmitted the letter. Austrian PO arrival mark on reverse.

Great to see that philately is thriving in China!

#Romania, 1873: two covers from the same Brǎila-Genova correspondence, each franked 50b in 'Paris' stamps to pay the 1st-step letter rate, with different Brǎila cancels. The manuscript '15' on each letter signifies 15 kr (37.5 bani) 'external benefit' (for Austria and Italy).

To mark the reopening of Notre Dame in #Paris following the devastating fire of 2019, here's the first-ever stamp depicting the cathedral, issued in 1947. It's my favourite though over the years there've been quite a few others. See linns.com/news/us-stamps…#philatelyl#philatéliei#stampsp#timbreses

Well, well, well, I've only gone and created a Starter Pack. Please try to use #philately in your stamps & postal history related posts and lets try and get a stamp community going on Bluesky. go.bsky.app/4McWGZk

#Romania: 23 Jan 1873 letter from Galați to ‘Kisnov’=Kishinev, #Russian Empire (now #Chișinău, #Moldova) franked with 10b+50b ‘Paris’ stamps issued in Oct 1872 paying the 1st-step letter rate, with three ‘Paid’ markings including Romanian ‘PD’, Austrian ‘FRANCO’ & Russian ‘ОПЛАЧЕНО’ (shown at right)

An amazing cover that shows how philately may illuminate history!

Great Britain postal stationery card uprated with a ½d stamp, sent in 1896 from Malton in Yorkshire to Galați, Romania. As the affixed Romanian postal label (scarce, by the way: I’ve only seen one other) says, the card was ‘Nereclamat’ (‘Unclaimed’) and returned to sender in GB #philately #stamps

Soaking Sunday: removing old hinges from #Danmark #Denmark 1913-28 King Christian X definitives…#philately #stamps

Here’s the fourth stamp from #France (issued earlier this year) honouring the life and work of Gustave #Caillebotte (1848-94), who was not only a great painter but also a leading #philatelist in his time #philately #stamps #postal

#Danmark #Denmark The 70ø Wavy Lines definitive (centre) was an emergency issue, needed after King Frederik IX (left) died in Jan 1972 and the domestic letter rate raised from 60ø to 70ø in July '72. Stamps featuring the new Queen, Margrethe II (right) weren't issued until 1974.

#Danmark #Denmark line-engraved ‘Wavy Lines’ 5 øre definitives: dated copies from 1934-38. These relatively clear postmarks can help identify varieties such as the first printings on German-sourced paper from July 1933 to August ’34 (1st 2 stamps in top row)

In the midst of a seemingly eccentric but potentially worthwhile project: allocating thousands of articles extracted from the last 20 years of British and US #stamp magazines to 100+ country and subject files…#philately

#Romania, 1873: a scarce example of foreign printed matter (in this case to London) before the General Postal Union. But the 10b stamp may not belong; the correct rate was 15b. Annotations show the division of benefit to postal authorities en route, notably ‘4’ (kreuzer=10b) to Austria

I just bought most of a set to get one stamp to fill an annoying gap in my King George VI album: the surprisingly uncommon 3½ annas blue from #India's well-designed and evocative 1949 'Architectural Monuments' issue, its first post-independence definitives.

#Ottoman Empire 1876 50 paras, part of the 'Ampir' set issued on joining the General Postal Union (later UPU), used on an 1878 letter from #Istanbul 'via Brindisi' to Bologna, Italy. Considering making a one-frame exhibit showing the usage of this value to various international destinations

The #Ottoman Empire's first postal stationery envelopes (issued 1870-71) are not scarce unused (see examples with 60 paras and 1 piastre indicia, at left), but finding postally used examples such as the 60 pa example shown here (right) is much more difficult in my experience

#Greece #Hellas The large format of the higher values from the 1896 set for the first modern Olympic Games - such as this group of 20 lepta stamps - makes them ideal for showcasing the town postmarks of the time:

These stunning Belgian Congo stamps from 1947-50 unfortunately brought to mind Douglas Dunn's later grim poem 'The War in the Congo', about an Irish UN soldier, a stamped letter held in a dead hand and a philatelic nephew in Howth. It's in Dunn's 'New Selected Poems 1964-2000'...