A lovely cover from Poland!

Just to share this lovely Polish cover received from Mr. Gerardo Lo Storto. Thank you!

The wonderful minature sheet franked on the right corner was issued by Polish Post on 16th April 2009 to commemorate the 2009 World Philatelic Exhibition in Luoyang, China. This year's exhibition gathered philatelists from over 110 countries worldwide and was the first of the kind that all 84 members of the International Philatelic Federation took part in the exhibition. With 3,200 frames of stamp collections on display, the exhibition is the largest of its kind in history.

The 2 stamps franked on the lower left corner belong to the "Polish Cities" stamps series. They depict the cities of Sieradz (issued on 29th July 2005) and Katowice (05th October 2005) respectively.

This cover was postmarked in Wroclaw, Poland on 02nd November 2009 and took 8 days to travelled an estimated distance of 9,668kms to reach me! Hey Mr. Gerardo, I will be replying to you soon.

More WWF maximum cards!

Another 8 WWF official maximum cards from my recent acquisition.

Russia, Polar Bear, 25th March 1987
Indonesia, Orangutan, 6th March 1989

Beautiful WWF maximum cards

Sharing with you guys these elephant maximum cards from the WWF collection that I bought from the eBay recently.

Sri Lanka, Asian Elephant, 05th Aug 1986

Gabonese Republic, Forest Elephant, 28th Feb 1988 Uganda, African Elephant, 22th Aug 1983

The WWF stamp collection is the largest thematic collection in the world. Since 1983, some 1,750 different stamps — all produced by Groth AG of Unteraegeri (Switzerland) — have been issued in 211 countries.

Proceeds from the sale of the stamps have helped fund a range of activities — from the conservation of endangered species to helping forest and coastal-dwelling communities improve their standards of living through sustainable use of their natural resources.

Each year, up to 18 different countries have issued stamps featuring their own threatened animals. Each stamp set includes four postcards illustrated with photographs of the species, four first-day covers with sketches by well-known wildlife artists, and an illustrated text about the species written by scientists. Available in ten languages, the text describes the species’ habitats, characteristics, behaviour, relationship with humans and other animals, as well as the main threats and protective measures taken for their conservation. In addition, albums are provided for easy storage of the collection.

An awesome cover from India!

India has one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world. The total number of railway stations in India is estimated to be between 7,000 and 8,000, transporting over 18 million passengers and more than 2 million tonnes of freight daily.

On 16th August 2009, India Post issued a beautiful set of stamps entitled "Heritage Railway Stations of India" to showcase 4 gorgeous railway stations to the philatelic world. I am fortunate to receive an official FDC sent by Shrikant Modh from Gujarat, India. Thank you very much!

Howrah Station is one of the four intercity train stations serving Howrah and Kolkata, India; the others are Sealdah Station, Shalimar Station and Kolkata railway station in Kolkata. Howrah is situated on the West bank of the Hooghly River, linked to Kolkata by the magnificent Howrah Bridge which is an icon of Kolkata. It is the second-oldest station and one of the largest railway complexes in India.

Chennai Central, formerly known as Madras Central is the main railway terminus in Chennai. It is the home of the Southern Railway and the most important rail hub in South India. Trains from here connect the city to New Delhi and prominent state capitals of India like Bhopal, Lucknow, Jaipur, Mumbai, Patna, Kolkata, Bangalore etc. Chennai Central is also the main hub for the Chennai Suburban Railway system. The building of the railway station, one of the landmarks of Chennai, was designed by the architect Henry Irwin.

Old Delhi Railway Station, is the oldest railway station of Delhi city. It was built by the British in the style of red-coloured fort, before independence. This has been an important railway station of the country, and complements the New Delhi Railway Station.

Mumbai CST Station is a historic railway station in Mumbai which serves as the headquarters of the Central Railways. It is one of the busiest railway stations in India, and serves Central Railway trains terminating in Mumbai as well as the Mumbai suburban railway.
On 26 November 2008, two terrorists entered the passenger hall of the CST, opened fire and threw grenades at the people. The terrorists were armed with AK-47 rifles. More than 50 people were killed in the attack.

That's all folks! See you again!

A lovely cover from Australia!

G'day! Here is a lovely cover sent from New South Wales, Australia by an eBayer. The sender actually used an Australian Antarctic Territory stamp that belongs to the "Antarctic Wildlife" series, issued in 1992. The 95c stamp depicts a Weddell seal and pup. Other stamps in this series feature an Adelie Penguin and Chick (45c), an Elephant seal with pup (75c), a Hall's giant petrel on nest with fledgeling (85c) and Royal penguin ($1.20).
Australia has issued postage stamps for the Australian Antarctic Territory since 1957. All have been Antarctic themed, and are also valid for postage in Australia, so in practice they are just Australian stamps with a different inscription.

The first stamp issued specifically for the territory was a two shilling blue stamp with a design of explorers and an Antarctic map, as shown in the picture below. This was first issued in Australia on 27 March 1957 and in Antarctica on 11 December 1957.

Used stamps from the territory are usually found with either mainland Australia postal cancels, or first day cover cancels as there is relatively little genuine mail from the bases. The Australian Antarctic Territory bases are Casey, Davis, Heard Island, Macquarie Island, Mawson and Wilkes.