Sunday Stamps: 'D' is for Duif

My contribution for 27th of August's Sunday Stamps came a little later. Nevertheless I like to share with you the 'Duif'.

The Dutch word 'duif' in English is both 'dove' and 'pigeon'. Still it is hard for me to distinguish the difference between these two English translations, as in Dutch we name them both simply 'duif'.

Of course mail lovers will love the Postduif (Mail Pigeon).
Dutch PostNL happened to have issued two shaped stamps in honour of the 'youth philately's day' in 2014. One of these shows the Postduif:



The fact that postduiven ('duiven' is plural of 'duif') have to do with mail, is also shown on the following Europe stamp from Kazachstan. In 2008 the Europe stamps' theme was 'letter writing', and here he/she is: the postduif!



Many more duiven have been issued on stamps.

This (post)duif is from Indonesia:



And an other kind of duif from Malaysia:



Duiven also appear on cancellation stamps. Here is one on an official postmark from Taiwan:



And an unofficial postmark, but real rubberstamp print, from the USA, showing this most well-known bird to deliver mail:



See more stamps on the letter 'D' at and via the 27 August Sunday Stamps.

Sunday stamps: Odd shaped stamps

Today's Sunday Stamps theme is 'Odd shaped stamps'.

A nice theme! It shows the creativity of postal companies, and fortunately the present stamp printing machines are able to vary the shape of stamps.

Recently I received two wonderful shaped stamps from two different countries, which I posted on this blog before: a dragonfly from Eva from Spain, and a bat from John from the United Kingdom.

Eva also sent me a bat on a shaped stamp, this one from Spain:



Sometimes animals simply are too large for a stamp, especially prehistoric reptiles. Not only United Kingdom's Royal Mail but also Canadian Post knew how to solve the problem: just provide a little more room, and the dino's would be satisfied.
(click to enlarge)



The fourth dino on this envelope was so happy by the purposed enlarged room that he even decided to stay within the normal shape!




Finnish Post has issued many amazingly shaped stamps, and today I'm sharing this stamp showing more than one hexagonals:



'Hexagonal' is also known as honeycumb shape, and Japanese Post issued this matching stamp:




As far as I know Dutch PostNL has issued a few triangular stamps in the past, and apart from that, only one stamp sheet showing two really special shaped stamp designs.

One of the triangular stamps has been issued already in 1933, to be used for airmail between the former Dutch Indies and Holland:



The more recent stamps were issued as a stamp stickers on one sheet, for youth philately.
The names written on the stamps form a nice wordplay: 'postzegel' means stamp, but leaving the 'z' it becomes 'post-egel, which means 'mail hedgehog'. And 'postduif' means 'mail pigeon'.



Here you can see what the stamp stickers leave behind when used.



The disadvantage of odd shaped stamps is the fact that Dutch Post not always recognizes these as real postage! I once got a letter from PostNL in which I was told to pay 'missing postage'. Fortunately they included a code, and via this code I could find a scan of my outgoing mail, which proofed sufficient stamps had been sticked. Among them this Postduif, which apparently had been new to the controling employee!..




See more extraordinarily shaped stamps on and via today's Sunday Stamps post.