Stamp Collecting News

South Africa has released two new stamps to mark former President Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday later this week.

Both are being issued as miniature sheets.

An earlier stamp, which marked Mandela's inauguration as president of South Africa in 1994, remains one of the top selling stamps in the history of the country.

Two characters from Sardinian folklore are featured in a new series of stamps to be issued this week in Italy.

The ancient Sardinian folklore figures Issohadores and Mamuthone are the protagonists of an ancient ritual that takes in January each year in Mamadoia, central Sardinia, which is now a major tourist attraction.

There are three other stamps in the new series, each depicting a major tourist attraction from other Italian regions. These include the three peaks of Lavaredo - one of the most spectacular mountain ranges in northern Italy.

The annual series of stamps featuring Italian tourist attractions is now in its 35th year.

An Post has issued two stamps to celebrate the Beijing Olympic Games depicting rowing and shot-putt. Both were created by artist Graham Knuttel along with the minisheet shown here.

The lavish robes to be used in Friday's coronation of Tonga's King George Tupou V are pictured on new postage stamps designed by a Wellington, New Zealand illustrator.

Tonga is spending T$5 million (NZ$3 million) on the coronation of the aging bachelor, including NZ$570,000, for tailored robes from Gieves & Hawkes at 1 Savile Row in London's Mayfair.

Australia has issued a stamp showing a dog sniffing a pineapple to marking the centenary of the 1908 Quarantine Act.

Act was passed to protect Australia from diseases, pests and other destructive animals.

A set of six stamps to mark the centenary of the first officially recorded powered flight in the UK has been released by Royal Mail.

The set feature images from air displays as far back as 1912.

USPS has issued five stamps featuring vintage poster designs from old movies starring musical artists Josephine Baker (Princess Tam-Tam), Duke Ellington (Black and Tan) and Louis Jordan (Caldonia), plus King Vidor's monumental Oscar-nominated musical, Hallelujah! (it was one of the rare studio films featuring an all black cast) and the 1921 silent film The Sport of the Gods.

Train stations in the cities of Skikda, Oran, Constantine and Algiers are featured on new stamps issued by Algeria.

New Zealand will issue a mini-sheet of 26 stamps, one for each letter of the alphabet on August 6.

Each stamp shows something unique about the country's culture, history, and/or heritage.

Croatia has issued a 3.50 kn stamp to honor Western Union.

For more than 150 years, Western Union have stood as a trusted symbol for connecting friends, families and businesses around the world.

With its headquarters in the United States of America, Western Union Financial Services Inc. is the leading company that offers services of money transfer.

The goal of Western Union is to make possible swift, simple and reliable money transfers to millions of people, daily, from one end of the world to the other.

The Cayman Islands Postal Service has released a new set of stamps featuring the Islands’ biodiversity.

The set is comprised of 20¢ (Land Crab); 25¢ (Needle Case); 75¢ (Little Cayman Green Anole); 80¢ (Brac Ground Boa), and $1 (White–shouldered Bat). The Caribbean Reef Squid is featured on the $2 souvenir sheet pictured above.

The Darwin Initiative is funded and administered by the United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It provides small financial grants to promote the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of resources around the world.

An Australian coin shaped as a postage stamp has been created to commemorate the Beijing Olympic Games.

Produced by the Perth Mint, one side of the 50 cent "stamp-coin" features the mythical Chinese dragon and the Australian Olympic Committee logo.

The other side reproduces the usual image of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Only 8,000 of the coins will be released across the country in a tribute to the Chinese belief in the lucky number eight, Australia Post said.

Deutsche Post issued a stamp honoring writer Franz Kafka on his 125th birth anniversary.

Franz Kafka (July 3, 1883 - June 3, 1924) was one of the major German-language fiction writers of the 20th century.

His stories concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal and bureaucratic world.

Jersey Post has issued its second set of postage stamps in the Jersey Naval Connections series.

They feature seven naval vessels that have visited the Island over the years.

The prestige booklet provides an interesting account of many more vessels and their capabilities and the relationship Jersey has with the Royal Navy.

The An Post will release a set of postage stamps in honor of the Irish film industry on 8 July 2008.

The four films to be honored through these stamps are The Wind that Shakes the Barley featuring Cillian, Cré na Cille with Bríd Ní Neachtáin, Kings with Colm Meaney, and Garage with Pat Shortt.

Hong Kong's special set of four Giant Pandas stamps celebrate Ying Ying and Le Le, two giant pandas presented to Hong Kong by China to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.

Trindad & Tobago has issued a four-stamp miniature sheet to commemorate the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics to be held this August in Beijing, China.

To commemorate the EXPO Zaragoza 2008 Global Exposition in Spain, Lithuania has issued a miniature sheet of six self-adhesive stamps shaped like raindrops

Ukraine celebrated the 90th anniversary of that nation's first postage stamps by releasing a pair of miniature sheets.

The Postal Service today releases its 2008 Express Mail stamp, featuring the Hoover Dam.

The formidable structure was named for former president Herbert Hoover in 1931. The dam is a national historic landmark and is located on the Arizona-Nevada border, 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas.

The structure is the nation’s tallest concrete dam and was the tallest dam ever built when completed in the mid-1930s