Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King

Last week I got my stamp order from an online stamp shop.

This is one stamp set from New Zealand I bought:

Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (issued 05-11-2003)

Enlargement of the European Union

On 28th August I got my stamp order from Gibraltar.

This is one stamp set I ordered:

Enlargement of the European Union (issued 15-09-2003)

Diddl

On Tuesday I got three stamp sets from Switzerland in a cover.

This is one of them:

Diddl (issued 09-09-2003)

Thank You very much Inge!

Endangered Birds

On Thursday I got a FDC from the United Nations together with the normal advertising mail as gift of the Postal Administration.

This is it:

Endangered Species (issued 03-04-2003)
The stamps were issued to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
- Baikal Teal
- Hadada Ibis
- Toco Toucan
- Egyptian Goose

Thank You very much United Nations Postal Administration! ^__^

The Brothers Grimm and their Fairy Tales

On Thursday the new Welfare stamps will be issued and lucky for me they feature, like the last years, my favourite theme, fairy tales. The series of Welfare stamps has the Fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm as theme. Hansel and Gretel and the Sleeping Beauty were already featured, this year the stamps will show motives about the Little Red Riding Hood.

In my collection I already have many stamps about the Brothers Grimm and their fairy tales, so it is now time to show some of them.

The Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, were born in Hanau. Jacob Grimm was born in 1785, Wilhelm Grimm in 1786. They are especially known for their collection of fairy tales, although they published also other works like the German dictionary. Wilhelm Grimm died in 1859, Jacob Grimm in 1863.

On 10th January 1985 a stamp was issued about the 200th birthday of Jacob Grimm. It shows Jacob Grimm together with his brother Wilhelm and a part of the German dictionary.

The Brothers Grimm did not invented the fairy tales on their own. They collected them from different sources. Three persons who helped them with their collection were Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim and Annette von Droste-Hülshoff.
In my collection I have three stamps featuring the three persons. They were issued on 17th August 1978 in the Federal Republic of Germany, on 15th January 1981 in Berlin and on 27th December 2003 in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The first collection of the Children’s and Household Tales of the Brothers Grimm was published in 1812. It was the first systematic compilation and the first scientific documentation of the entire European and Oriental fairy tale tradition. Today the fairy tales were translated in over 160 languages and are one of the most well-known and most widely distributed books worldwide of German cultural history. Since 2005 they are a part of the Memory of the World Programme of the UNESCO.
On 14th June 2012 a stamp was issued about the 200th anniversary of the first publication of the Children’s and Household Tales. In my collection I have a mint block of four, five stamps issued in a coil, the stamps with the First Day Postmarks from Berlin and Bonn and the First Day Sheet. The stamp shows an opened book and various fairy tale characters, the First Day Postmarks show the signatures of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

It is not the first time that the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm are shown on the Welfare stamps. Already the Welfare stamps issued between 1959 and 1967 had the fairy tales as theme.

The Star Money and Brothers Grimm (issued 01-10-1959)

Little Red Riding Hood (issued 01-10-1960)

Hansel and Gretel (issued 02-10-1961)

Snow White (issued 10-10-1962)

The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids (issued 23-09-1963)

Sleeping Beauty (issued 06-10-1964)

Cinderella (issued 06-10-1965)

The Frog Prince (issued 05-10-1966)

Mother Hulda (issued 03-10-1967)

Kasperl

On Friday arrived the mint Austrian stamps and souvenir sheets I ordered online.

This is one of them:

Kasperl (issued 11-04-2003)

John Paul II

This week I was on a trip to Rome. When I was there I also visited the Vatican City where I bought my first Vatican stamp sets.

I bought also a cover with a great stamp:

front side:

back side:

Stamp:
25 years of the pontificate of John Paul II (issued 20-03-2003)
(It is a joint issue with Poland)
It is a silver stamp.

The civic name of Pope John Paul II is Karol Józef Wojtyła. He was born in Wadowice, Poland, on 18th May 1920. He is the pope since the 16th October 1978 after Pope John Paul I died. He was the first Slavic pope. He died on 2nd April 2005 and his follower became Benedict XVI.