United Kingdom - Manchester & Bristol

A couple of covers from England both bearing a slogan postmark. 

Finland - Tampere

One of my favourite stamps and covers to collect are the ones from Finland because of their unique shaped and colourful stamps.

The stamp on the left is from the spring blossoms set issued on March 23, 2012. The flowers are shown in six retro-styled 1st class stamps in a miniature booklet depicting the liverwort, spring pea, least gagea, lung-wort, marigold and spring corydalis.

2013 Finland Valentine's Day sheet

The other stamp on the envelope, though it might not look like it, was issued on January 21, 2013 for Valentine's day. It is one of six 1st class self-adhesive stamps that come in a booklet. In keeping with the theme for Valentine's Day, these stamps feature playful landscapes made of sweets - ice cream, lolly, chocolate etc. There are also four stickers that you can use to decorate letters or cards. They look really fun. I don't know how you can resist these stamps.

Philippines - Davao

From the Philippines comes this cover with stamps from the Marine Life issue on November 04, 2011. 

The stamps on these set show the polyclad flatworm (PHP9), oriental sweetlips (PHP20) and Kunie's chromodoris (PHP35). All stamps have a barcode on the lower left side.

  

Slovenia - Borovnica

Flowers on stamps always make me smile and this one has five of them so I'm extra happy. 

From a set issued way back in 2007 (January 1) these stamps feature 17 plant species of European importance that are native to Slovenia. They have also been selected to showcase Slovenia's flora which include primrose, azalea, ladybells, orchid, sandwort, pasque flower and gladiola. With denominations ranging from EUR0.01 to EUR2 they are the country's first Euro stamps.

Canada - Rothesay, NB

I really love it when I get a letter with a miniature or souvenir sheet is used on the cover.

Issued on May 17, 2012 the souvenir sheet above was issued to celebrate 100 Years of the Calgary Stampede. It bears the permanent domestic rate stamp (CAD0.61) showing a horse with classic western riding gear and the US rate stamp (CAD1.05) showing the 2012 Calgary Stampede belt buckle.

The other stamps used to make up the postage was a block of CAD0.05 northern bumblebees from the Beneficial Insects series (issue date October 12, 2007). The first in this series, this set of low value definitives also feature the convergent ladybug, the Canada darner, the golden-eyed lacewing and the cecropia moth. 

India - Hasthampatti

A special stamp sent as an exchange on a special day - 12.12.12. 

On the cover is another miniature sheet, this time issued on October 12, 2012 to celebrate Philatelic Day. As for the other stamps, I can't seem to find any information on it so if you know when this was issued could you kindly point it out to me.

Czech Republic - Olomouc

This cover from the Czech Republic has an extra number making the date stamp 12.12.12.12. I don't actually know what the extra 12 is for - perhaps this was mailed at 12 o'clock on December 12, 2012?

The stamps used on the cover were issued on November 7, 2012 featuring images from Ctyrlistek in the King's Service. Ctyrlistek is one of the most popular children's comic books first published in 1969.

To make up the postage, the sender also used a 1Kc stamp from the May 9, 2007 flowers issue. 

Estonia - Tallinn, Toompea

For lovers of trains and train stamps, a beautiful cover with a special 12.12.12 date postmark. The envelope also shows the Sindi rail - a 1928 road bridge over the Parnu River.

The stamps are from a joint issue of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia celebrating railway bridges - issued October 25, 2012. There are four stamps in the set howing the Narva Bridge in Estonia (EUR0.45 and EUR1.00), the Carnikava Bridge in Latvia (EUR1.00) and the Lyduvinai Bridge in Lithuania (EUR1.00). 

Australia - Perth, WA

Cover bearing a special postmark 12.12.12. This special date pattern, when all three numbers in a date are the same, won't occur until after 88 years.





2012 Australia stamp - Christmas

Stamp used on the envelope is from the 2012 Christmas series issued on November 1, 2012 depicting both religious and non-religious themes. The non-religious stamps show Rudolph and presents (local card rate 50c) and bells (local mail 60c) while the religious ones show The Adoration of the Magi from a wool and silk tapestry in the Art Gallery of South Australia - local card rate (55c) and international card rate ($1.60).



Canada - Christmas Island, Nova Scotia

One of the cover exchanges I joined was for a Christmas themed cover and this is what I received from Canada. The postmark of Christmas Island makes this cover more interesting and theme focused. I'm really chuffed that the sender made a special effort to have this cover postmarked at Christmas Island. 

For 2012, Canada Post issued the Permanent domestic rate stamp above on October 15, 2012. This traditional Christmas stamp features the image of the Madonna and Child in stained glass is from one of the stained glass windows at St. Mary's Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Kingston, Ontario. 

On the same day three other Christmas themed stamps were issued featuring gingerbread cookies for Permanent domestic, US and International rate stamps.  . 

Did you know that the stamps above are enhanced with augmented reality? You can download a free StampsAlive app, hover your phone over the domestic permanent stamp with your device and choose from several decorating ideas. A good way to entice kids to stamp collecting!