[press release] [translated by Google]
PostNL Maps Endangered Shorebirds
Issue date: June 15
The Hague, June 15, 2020 – The dune and coastal area of the Netherlands is the breeding ground for a large part of the Dutch breeding birds. You can also see bird species that are found nowhere else in the Netherlands. Today, 10 stamps from the series “Experience nature” show 10 beautiful, but endangered shorebirds.
4 issues in 2020
On the 10 stamps Experience nature – shorebirds the following birds are depicted: little tern, lesser hunter, turnstone, snow bunting, kittiwake, great black-backed gull, sand lark, avocet, purple sandpiper and sand plover. Stamps on birds of prey and owls (January 2) and farmland birds (February 24) appeared earlier this year. Last in 2020, PostNL will issue stamps on forest and heather birds (14 September). In a separate sale a stamp sheetlet Experience nature costs € 9.10. The price for the full series 2020 is € 36.40, including storage folder.
Golden color of the summer sun
The stamps with the 10 shorebirds were designed by graphic designer Frank Janse from Gouda. Due to the summer season in which the stamps come out, the yellow of the beach and dunes dominates, with deep blue skies and the golden color of the summer sun. Janse: “I also selected the photos for that. I did not have to edit the colors, because they were already there. The strong background colors contrast nicely with the drawing of the birds. They are predominantly white, black and gray, with some yellow and red accents on the beach lark and snow bunting. ”
Red List
Bird stamps show particularly difficult species. Most are on the red list of breeding birds in the Netherlands or on the red list of migrants / hibernators in the Netherlands. Stephan van den Eijnden, PostNL’s commercial director of 
Mail, says that the birds in our country are indeed not doing well. “For example, 87 bird species are on the red list of breeding birds. That is 44% of all species that breed in our country. 10 species are critically endangered, such as the short-eared owl and the forest monkey. ”
Divergent copies
Coastal birds can be distinguished into breeding birds, overwinterers and birds that visit our coast during the annual migration. The stamps show a variety of specimens, from the imposing great black-backed gull to the small snow bunting, the most northerly nesting songbird. Most shorebirds on the stamp sheet have seen designer Janse in his early years as a bird lover. “The great black-backed gull was one of my favorites in my youth. With that striking head and that typical whining sound. They are big animals and that made an impression. ”
Availability
The stamp sheet Experience the Nature – Coastal Birds has 10 different stamps with the value indication Nederland 1, intended for mail up to 20 grams with a destination within the Netherlands. The stamps will be available from June 15, 2020 at all PostNL points of sale, the post office in the Bruna stores and via the webshop [direct link]. The stamps can also be ordered by telephone from the Collect Club customer service on telephone number 088 – 868 99 00. The period of validity is indefinite. 
The Hague, June 15, 2020 – The latest stamps from the Typical Dutch series depict the traditional bitterbal. This round version of the croquette used to be eaten with a bitter, a strong alcoholic herbal drink like gin.
The Hague, June 15, 2020 – With the personal stamps from the Trains & Tracks series, PostNL pays extensive attention to unique train routes around the world. Last week the stamp sheets about The Ghan and the Flying Scotsman, 2 famous rail connections in Australia and Great Britain, were published.
The Ghan is a train ride right through the middle of Australia. The Great Southern Rail carrier train runs from Adelaide in South Australia through the outback at Alice Springs and ends in Darwin in the Northern Territory. The name The Ghan is derived from the Afghan camels that used to be the main means of transport in this part of Australia.
stamps every year. This program is flexible in nature. This enables PostNL to respond ad hoc to current developments and requests. Each issue is designed on the basis of a fixed format with a fixed number of personal stamps.
Canadian Stamp News has officially launched its Third Annual Cover Contest, pitting clubs and collectors from around the world against one another in a fun competition focused on philately, design and postal history.
celebration of National Stamp Collecting Month, which has fallen to the wayside since its inception about 40 years ago.
In last year’s cover contest – the first to feature collectors’ covers – Toronto’s Harvey Shuter [right] won the first-place prize in the individual category. The club category was topped by the Calgary Philatelic Society [below], which was followed by the Waterloo Region Stamp Club in second place and the Kelowna and District Stamp Club in third. To see the full results from last year’s contest, visit 
CSN reporter Jesse Robitaille at reporter@trajan.ca or 1-905-646-7744 (ext. 236).
Chicago Philatelic Society (CPS) is planning to present its annual philatelic exhibition, CHICAGOPEX, 
Separately, the show is also co-hosting AmeriStamp Expo with the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors. This event includes the Single Frame Champion of Champions competition, which highlights the top single frame exhibits from World Series of Philately shows around the United States held during the prior year. AmeriStamp Expo also features the annual AAPE Single Frame Team competition.
Indeed, although most Britons lived and worked in the countryside, continuing a way of life established for centuries, some settled in towns and participated in Roman social and cultural customs, such as public bathing or visiting the amphitheatre to be entertained. Wealthy landowners built villas – country residences on the Roman model, often floored with mosaics.
The Roman villa at Bignor, West Sussex, discovered in 1811 during ploughing, has some of the finest preserved mosaics from Roman Britain. The mosaic featured on the stamp, laid in an apsed room on the villa’s north side, probably dates to the early 4th century AD. It depicts a female head usually identified as the Roman goddess Venus.
The amphitheatre at Caerleon (Isca) in southeast Wales (now in the north of the city of Newport) is the most complete to survive in Britain. It was built around AD 80, some years after the establishment of the nearby legionary fortress occupied by the Second Legion Augusta. The amphitheatre has a probable beast pen (carcer), in which animals and possibly humans were kept before their turn in the arena.
Discovered by a clogmaker’s son in 1796 at Ribchester, Lancashire, this helmet is one of the finest surviving examples of its type from anywhere in the Empire. It was worn by an expert cavalryman during cavalry sports events (hippika gymnasia) – flamboyant displays of military horsemanship and mounted weapons drill of great skill and timing. It is displayed at The British Museum.
The Bridgeness distance slab at the eastern end of the Antonine Wall records its building by the Second Legion Augusta and documents the distance erected. The construction of the wall, primarily in turf, was ordered by Antoninus Pius in AD 138, and the wall ran from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde. It was occupied for only about 20 years. It is displayed at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
This attractive copper-alloy fgurine was discovered at Stow-cum-Quy in Cambridgeshire. Dating from the 3rd or 4th centuries AD, it depicts a helmeted rider on horseback who originally would have held a spear in his raised hand. The 8cm high figure is probably that of a local rider-god associated with Roman Mars and may have belonged to a shrine dedicated to the god. It is displayed at The British Museum.
One of the most striking pieces of stone sculpture to survive from Roman Britain, this head occupied the pediment of the temple to Sulis Minerva at Bath, where it was set on a shield held aloft by Victories. An unusual portrayal of a male Gorgon, it also has echoes of Oceanus, the god of the oceans, an appropriate image for the sacred spring at the Roman Baths.
Hadrian’s Wall is the largest surviving Roman-era monument in Britain. Its construction followed Emperor Hadrian’s visit to the province in AD 122. A stone wall with milecastles, forts and a ditch, it formed a continuous barrier running from the River Tyne at Newcastle to Bowness on the Solway. Its likely purpose was to control tribal activity on both sides of the frontier.
5459 (55¢) Earth Day, 50th Anniv.
WASHINGTON, DC — Today [May 29, 2020] the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) released a letter that is being sent to local and state election officials and state party officials around the country. This letter highlights key aspects of Election Mail delivery processes — and ways to help educate the public on what to expect when using the mail to vote.
The letter also provides Postal Service recommendations on how to ensure the efficient and timely handling of mail pertaining to elections. The Postal Service recommends that election officials use First-Class Mail, which is typically delivered in 2 to 5 days, for all Election Mail and to allow one week for delivery to voters. USPS further recommends election officials use Intelligent Mail barcodes for all Election Mail. The Postal Service has designed an Intelligent Mail barcode identifier specifically for ballots, to increase mailpiece visibility within the processing system. The identifier can be used by both the Postal Service and the mailer to track ballot deliveries and returns.
Ukraine issued May 29th a “Frontline” stamp, which appears to honor workers in the battle against COVID-19. The stamp is covers the postage for mailing a letter within Ukraine. The postal agency has also produced a first day cover (shown below) and a maximum card (not shown) for this issue.
has been canceled. It would have been the largest stamp show of the year in the United States, and was sponsored by the American Philatelic Society, American Topical Association and the American First Day Cover Society.
