Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Nida 1916




This is a postcard sent in 1916 from Nidden (now Nida, Lithuania) to Potsdam, Germany. I have posted before a postcard sent from Nidden/Nida in 1942 during World War II and I thought they seem to use the exact same postmark as the 1916's one which you see here. But after carefully comparing it, the size of the letter of "NIDDEN" is slightly smaller than the 1942's one and the space between the letters and the outer circle is wider as well. If you would like to see both posts, click the label "NIDA" at the bottom of this article.
The sand dune you see on the picture looks the same as it is now even though it is constantly changing the shape. You can see the size of the dune when you compare with 2 persons appearing of the top.
One strange thing is that the author writes the date as "29.7.17" but the postmark states 1916. Hard to know which one is right...

Monday, July 22, 2013

Šiauliai 1975


Yes, Yes, Yes! Well, most of the readers of this blog are probably wondering why I'm getting excited for such common low catalog value stamp. Indeed, this Soviet stamp is not rare at all, but "rarity" depends on the perspective! Usually, non-Lithuanian themed Soviet stamps can't be added to my collection because it has nothing to do directly with Lithuania. So, if I find a non-Lithuanian themed Soviet stamp I like, I need to find the one cancelled in Lithuania. This makes collecting Soviet stamps pretty complicated for me but I just can't change the criteria of my collection... I was looking for this 1967 Soviet international woman's day stamp (Tarptautinė moters diena in Lithuanian, such beautiful stamp!) and after 6 years of search, I finally got it! I probably went through a couple of hundred of this same stamp, each time disappointed to see Москва/Moscow CTO. I have other Soviet stamps on the list but I get the feeling that it's going to be a long ride...
By the way, the stamp is cancelled in 1975 in Шяуляй/Šiauliai central post office.

Lithuanian folk dance



This is one of the Soviet postal stationery of the folk dance of each Republic consisting the Soviet Union issued in 1960. It is bilingual in Russian and the language of each ethnic group. I find the Soviet stamps and stationery during the 50's, 60's and 70's are particularly well designed.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Coat of Arms series - 1

Modern Lithuanian stamps are not really my speciality but however, there are several of them I really like. One of them are those Coat of Arms series, issued every year from 1992. It shows you different city coat of arms (except in the first issue, there is a national one) across the nation. 

 1992 issue - Kėdainiai, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania
This first issue is the only one with Talonas as the face value.
The size is slightly smaller than others.
1993 issue - Skuodas, Telšiai, Klaipėda

 1994 issue - Punia, Alytus, Perloja
1995 issue - Virbalis, Kudirkos Naumiestis
This issue is the only one with 2 stamps.

 1996 issue - Šeduva, Panevėžys, Zarasai
Zarasai has an eccentric coat of arms with an imaginary creature symbolizing the wealth of its nature.
1997 issue - Neringa, Vilkaviškis, Pasvalys

1998 issue - Kernavė, Trakai, Kaunas
Trakai's arms has a head of St. John the Baptist, just in case you are wondering... It supposed to symbolize the Christianization of the town.
1999 issue - Marijampolė, Šiauliai, Rokiškis

Very nice coat of arms of Šiauliai
This modern arms is based on the 1791 arms with the Samogitia bear (Šiauliai was the center of  the duchy Samogitia), Eye of Providence symbolizing parliament and the red calf of the House of Poniatowski, the royal family of King Stanislaus August Poniatowski who granted this arms.