Slovakia

September 2025 update

by Richard Zimmermann

Sorry for this long time of silence. A lot of new information was gathered over this past month, in addition to the “Dove of Peace” series described in the previous page. The data are summarized hereunder, thanks to Kenneth Sequeira (Dubai), Ali Allawati (Oman), Adam Paish (UK), Enzo Cafaro (Italy), Dominique Josse (France), Sim Tng Kwang (Singapore), Mohamed Achour Ali Ahmed (Algeria), and Marci Jarvis (USA).

The official day of issue of the Oman stamp related to the Arab Postal Day from August 3, 2025, initially announced as being released on August 10, 2025 for this country, has to be corrected to August 3, 2025, according to FDC images provided by Ali Allawati.

The Oman stamps from the Oman Iran issue initially scheduled to be released on May 27, 2025, became available only on August 26, 2025 (date shown on the Oman FDC cover). However, information from Iran is still missing and we do not know if it will become a real joint issue, despite the clear indication on the stamp itself.

The Maldives-Singapore joint issue which design was revealed on June 30, 2025, was finally released on September 5, 2025. This issue includes two stamps featuring fishes, turtle, corals, the Lazarus Island (Singapore) and Hulhudhoo (Maldives), which were also included in a souvenir sheet (Singapore). Good quality images and final product description from the Maldives are still missing.

Singapore was involved a second time this month, on September 19, 2025, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Thailand-Singapore diplomatic relations. As previously, Singapore issued also both stamps in a form of a souvenir sheet. The Thai stamps has been printed in se-tenant checkerboard-formatted sheets of ten stamps.

On September 16, 2025, the 640 years of the crowning of Sigmund of Luxembourg in Hungary was supposed to be celebrated by Luxembourg and Slovakia with a common stamp which design was released earlier this year by the Slovak Post. It happened that this issue disappeared from both postal administration philatelic programs. Explanations are needed here.

The Mythical heroes crypto-stamps series was issued on September 18, 2025 (see detailed description under previous page). The final illustrations given below show small changes compared to initial illustrations provided earlier (e.g., new denomination for Luxembourg). The series includes Austria (2 units, Zeus and Hera, 2×150,000), Belgium (Athena, 20,000), Luxembourg (Artemis, 15,000), Netherlands (Hermes, 25,000) and Portugal (Poseidon, 25,000). The digital twins are stored in the blockchain in five different colors. The likelihood of getting a particular color depends on the color: for Luxembourg stamps, there are 150 red, 1,005 yellow, 1,995 blue, 4,005 green and 7,845 black stamps; for the other countries the exact number of colored subtypes has not been published but the figures remain probably close to the same ratio, i.e., 1% (red), 6.7% (yellow), 13.3% (blue), 26.7% (green) and 52.3% (black). The digital twin of the crypto stamp is randomly generated. By scanning the QR code on the stamp with a smartphone, one will find out which color is linked to the crypto stamp.

As an example, the Luxembourg stamp digital twins in the blockchain look as follow:

On September 25, 2025, the Embassy of the Republic of Peru in Kuwait hosted an event to present a commemorative postage stamp marking the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Kuwait and Peru. The postage stamps are featuring Kuwait’s Red Palace and Peru’s Real Felipe Fortress. Unfortunately, to our knowledge, this Peruvian stamp will remain unilateral.

The Oman-Russia joint issue, originally scheduled for April 22, 2025, postponed to September 26, 2025 (Oman source), then, a few weeks ago to October 15, is now scheduled for November 14, 2025. The date of October 15, 2025 remains unchanged for the issue of the joint stamps involving Laos and Russia and the first illustration of the Russian stamps became available recently.

UPU 150th anniversary

by Richard Zimmermann

The Universal Postal Union (UPU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It comprises 192 member states and is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland. It was established on October 9, 1874, exactly 150 years ago.

Since more than one year, we know that this anniversary will be celebrated with a stamp which common design was proposed by UPU. In the past, the 75th (1949) UPU anniversary was celebrated, but in a non-coordinated way, mainly by colonial entities (British, Dutch and French – D19490704, D19491001, D19491010, D19491018) and the 100th (1974) anniversary with stamps that remained different for all participating countries (N19741009). The same situation happened in 1999, with absence of concertation for the 125th anniversary celebration (N19991009). Eventually, so far, only the 145th anniversary in 2019 (T20191009b) could be considered as a Twin issue.

During this year of 2024, a very large number of countries are participating. In the strict sense, this has to be considered as a true joint issue, even if there was no real cooperation between countries, but a proposal of a design accepted by most of them and translated in a locally adapted stamp, for a large part of them issued at the anniversary date. It is not an Omnibus series, as Omnibus is defined by a central printing, not by the large number of participating countries. The 2024 stamps will be reported in the catalogue as a Twin issue under [T20241009]. It is easily understandable that some joint issues collectors do not integrate such large series in their collection, in the same way Europa-CEPT stamps are not acceptable for them. Each individual collector has to decide on the basis of the following.

In the catalogue, the countries will be divided in subgroups:

  • A: the countries which take the exact original design proposed by UPU and issue the stamp(s) on October 9, 2024 (or actually around this date, plus or minus a week, roughly between October 1 and October 17, 2024), according to the definition of a twin issue [T]
  • B: the countries which take the exact original design but issue the stamp at a different date. It should not be surprising if some countries may issue their stamp in 2025 or even 2026. This is the equivalent of a Concerted issue [C]
  • C: the countries which use only a part of the design, actually integrating only the “150” logo and add some other illustrations. This logo can appear within the stamp, or on the margin of a souvenir sheet or within a label. Those stamps are also considered as twin or concerted issues of Type [T2] or [C2]
  • D: the countries which use a completely different design, but still issue their stamp(s) around October 9, 2024. This is the equivalent of a Parallel issue [P]. In this case, the original logo may appear on the stamp, but at a size that remains smaller than the half of the surface of the stamp
  • E: finally the countries that do not want to stick to design and date, and work on their own, just referring to the UPU anniversary. These countries are simply listed, without details, as they cannot be considered as joint [N].

We will have again to take care of stamps that are created by agencies that are producing stamps for certain countries but which have been given the freedom to issue stamps without a real control from the reference countries. These stamps are easily recognized by the number of stamps issued in a series and they are produced to fool collectors. In order to better identify these stamps and because they remain real stamps but never reach the originating country, they will be reported in the catalogue, but in italics. In the same way, some other stamps such as the French stamp with a full common logo are of private origin (personalized stamp) that cannot be considered as part of this joint issue either. This will be true for any other privately produced stamp from other countries, if any, and also described in italic characters.

The countries for which we already have information are reported below. If a date between brackets is missing behind the country name, this means that this stamp(s) was issued on October 9, 2024. If the content of the brackets remains empty, this means that the exact issue date is not known yet. A large number of images were provided by Enzo Cafaro (Italy). The following list is of course not yet complete.

Countries of type A (Twin [T1]): Algeria – Andorra (French) (October 10) – Andorra (Spanish) – Armenia – Bangladesh – Belarus – Bosnia Herzegovina (Bosnia) – Brazil – China (PR) – Croatia – Cyprus – Dominican Republic – Greece – Guernsey – India – Indonesia – Ivory Coast – Jordan – Latvia – Lithuania (October 4) – Mauritius – Moldova – Myanmar – Paraguay – Peru – Romania – Sri Lanka – Thailand – Turkmenistan (October 8) – Ukraine – United Arab Emirates

Countries of type B (Concerted [C1]): Argentina (August 28) – Azerbaijan (February 1) – Burundi (September) – Central Africa (September) – Djibouti (September) – Georgia (June 1) – Guinea (September) – Guinea-Bissau (September) – Liberia (September) – Mali (September) – Monaco (May 30) – Mongolia (September 25) – Sierra Leone (September) – Togo (September)

Countries of type C (Twin or concerted [T2] or [C2]): Bosnia (Serbia) – Egypt () – France (October 14) – Hong Kong – Hungary (July 24) – Isle of Man (August 30) – Japan – Kyrgyzstan (October) – Luxembourg (September 10) – Macau – Malaysia – Morocco – Pakistan – Portugal – San Marino – Saudi Arabia () – Singapore – Slovenia – Spain – Syria – Tunisia – Türkiye – Uruguay – Uzbekistan () – Vietnam

Countries of type D (Parallel issue [P]): Australia (October 1) – Austria (October 4) – Brunei Darussalam () – Bulgaria – Czech Republic – French Polynesia – Germany (October 10) – Macedonia (North) – Mexico – Montenegro – Qatar () – Russia – Slovakia – Switzerland (September 5) – Tajikistan (May) – Vatican (September 16) – Wallis and Futuna

Countries of type E (not considered as joint): Belgium (June 10) – Serbia (May 25) – United Nations – Geneva (May 30) – United Nations – New York (May 30) – United Nations – Vienna (May 30).

So far, 86 countries are listed above to which one has to add 2 postal authorities that have issued stamps that cannot be considered as joint (Type E – United Nations offices are not taken in account as countries, UPU being a sub-unit of the United Nations). The UPU counts presently 192 members, which means information from 106 countries (!) is missing. Obviously there will be an update of this page. A great help is needed here to recover information from other participating countries. We are also missing better quality images for stamps from Ivory Coast and Ukraine. Thanks a lot in advance for providing name of missing countries, exact dates of issue, and when possible illustrations, printing runs, sizes of panels and by-product lists.

The catalogue pages should be updated within the next week.

September 2023 News

by Richard Zimmermann

The month of September led to more new products than the whole preceeding Summer period including some surprising items, next to the already reported PAPU issue (7 countries), the China-Hong Kong – Macau series and the Switzerland – South Korea stamps.

Don Birschel, USA, reported about an unexpected joint issue between Guatemala and Mexico, released on September 18, 2023 and related to the 175th anniversary of their relationship. The stamps represent the Pyramid of the Sun, San Juan Teotihuacan, Mexico and the Tempel of the Great Jaguar, Tikal, Guatemala (pre-Columbian Maya civilization). Don provided the images, but we are still missing some details about the Guatemala stamps.

The 200th anniversary of the relationship between Argentina and Brazil translated into a stamp showing the Iguazu falls at the Brazilian-Argentinian border, issued on September 7, 2023, while Brazil released on September 29, 2023, a panel of 8 stamps showing Mafalda comics from the Argentinian artist Quino. Despite the common title, this issue cannot be considered as joint (different dates of issue, different designs, no claim as joint – information provided by Enzo Cafaro, Italy).

On September 26, 2023, San Marino issued a stamp related to the 15th anniversary of relationship with Mexico. No Mexican counterpart was seen so far, and probably nothing has to be expected from the mexican side.

More recently, on October 2, 2023, Slovakia issued, jointly with Azerbaijan, stamps at the occasion of their 30 years of relationship, the same day Slovakia issued stamps with the Czech Republic (see previous blog page). This series describes folk music styles illustrated with string instruments: the Terchova region music and the Mugham Azerbaijani folk music. Azerbaijan has issued the stamps apparently only as a souvenir sheet at only 5,000 samples (Information provided by Eric Contesse, France).

A new crypto stamp (NFT) joint issue, to be released during the month of October 2023 (probably on the 23rd), was announced involving Austria, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Stamps are similar. More details soon. For explanations about crypto stamps, see austria-netherlands-crypto-stamp.

There is still a problem with these new products: crypto stamps are always very expensive, their value is linked to crypto money that is fluctuating a lot over time (value of previous NFT stamps has dropped a lot recently) and above all, these so-called stamps are never used on real mail. To our opinion, they are more to be considered either as a piece of art or as a kind of currency, and seem to stay away from real philately (in terms of collecting items used to compensate for mail fees). Eventually, look like material to fool the collectors (abusive issues). Those stamps have to be reported in the catalogue as they are claimed as joint issue “stamps”, but there is no recommendation to buy them. On the other hand, a collection of such stamps on cancelled mail, i.e., for real non-philatelic mailing purpose, would be a real interesting topic. Apparently, in none of these countries, the denomination corresponds to a true postage fee and their use alone on a cover should not exist (except on FDC covers).

Czech and Slovak postal anniversary

by Richard Zimmermann

Czech Republic and Slovakia postal administration issue on October 2, 2023 a souvenir each at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of establishment of their postal administrations. This identical souvenir sheet shows the particularity that for one country the stamp with denomination is the label of the second country, and vice versa. This type of, still considered as a twin issue, is described under type [T4] in Volume I of the catalogue, and was observed already in the past with e.g., a joint issue involving Jersey and Guernsey [T19941001]. These souvenir sheets and stamps are also available as mixed covers.

The mixed FDC card proposed by the Slovak Post is in fact made of the strip of logos and stamp from each country (taken from the souvenir sheet) and first day cancelled from each country. Slovakia issued 60,000 samples of the souvenir sheet, but Czech Republic only 30,000.

Update June 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) informed us that the country Chad added stamps with the same design to the series of 2019 (October 9) stamps dedicated to Jerusalem – Al-Quds capital city of Palestine. Chad issued two stamps with denomination 150F and 400 F, but also a golden larger size stamp at denomination 1000F. These stamps were issued on November 30, 2022. 150F stamps were issued in sheets of 15 stamps, 400F stamps in sheets of 10 and golden stamps in miniature sheet of 4 stamps. All three stamps are available as imperforate and as postal stationery (postal cards). In the catalogue, only the three basic stamps are considered as real collectables, other products being just items to fool collectors. But everyone is free to add any product to his own collection.

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) was involved in the past weeks in two joint issues. The first one was issued on May 16, 2023, and involves the Vatican City. It celebrates the 825th anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta in Spoleto. The second one was released on June 23, 2023, together with Slovakia and is dedicated to the humanitarian activities to welcome Ukrainian refugees. As SMOM is still not recognized by UPU, and as these two series are not involving a third country, these two joint issues are reported in the catalogue, but with heading Non-approved [N]. Again, collectors have to decide if they want to include these stamps in their collection. Catalogue are just there to indicate their existence.

By end of last year, regarding the philatelic year 2023, there was a high number of announcements of joint issues involving India. These issues should involve Israel (February, no news), Luxembourg (March 14, issued at the expected date), Hungary (2023), Vietnam (April 23, apparently stamps were printed, but only partly released in Vietnam and not seen yet in India), Mauritius (August 15), and South Korea (December 8). So this totaling up to 6 joint issues, but with only one released so far and all the others remaining questionable. Any help in getting information from India is highly welcome.

Don Birschel (USA) discovered this joint issue between Egypt and Kazakhstan, released June 4, 2023, and dedicated to the 850th birthday of Sultan Al Zahir Baybars (1223-1277). The common stamp represents a coin, a dinar minted during Baybars’ reign, bearing his blazon, the lion/panther. Kazakhstan issued a second stamp with the portrait of the ruler, in a diamond shaped miniature sheet including two se-tenant pairs.

The EuropaCEPT series issued on May 9, 2023 with common stamp “Peace” was completed with following countries: Kazakhstan (June 1, 2023), Georgia (June 16, 2023) and Isle of Man (July 5, 2023). The Isle of Man stamp with identical design is part of a series of 7 stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Isle of Man postal administration. Only one stamp bears the PostEurop 30th anniversary logo, which is the one to be taken in account as part of this year series. The six other stamps show earlier stamps (stamps on stamp) among which some of them featuring Europa Cept and PostEurop stamps from years 1976, 1980, 1987, 1995, 2004 and 2023. The only stamp on stamp part of an earlier joint issue is the one representing the common design from 2023, together with three other stamps issued in 2023, probably the first example of a stamp on stamp issued the same day as the original stamp. Albania, Armenia and Azerbaijan remain on the waiting list and should be issued within the next months.

On June 18, 2023, Qatar and Georgia have released a joint (twin) issue at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between both countries. The stamps feature landmarks (buildings, towers, sculptures) of the capital cities of Georgia (Tbilissi) and Qatar (Doha) (issue discovered by Enzo Cafaro, Italy). High quality image of the Qatar stamp is not yet available.

Update May 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

Next to the large PostEurop series issued around May 9, 2023, a few other countries released joint issues:

The Belarus – Russia joint issue was released on May 13, 2023. They celebrate the 150th anniversary of the painter Stanislas Zhukovsky (1873-1944) under the form of a souvenir sheet from each country representing a different painting. The margin shows different portraits of the painter. As a consequence, this becomes a parallel issue [P1]. Belarus issued 10,000 souvenir sheets, but also 5,000 samples as imperforate, while Russia issued 20,000 souvenir sheets as well as 4,200 samples of a special folder containing the same souvenir sheet, imperforated.

Milan Csaplar (Slovakia) provided update about future joint issues involving Slovakia. The design of the Slovakia – SMOM issue became available and the stamps will be released on June 23, 2023. Reminder: as SMOM is not recognized by UPU and as no other country is involved in this issue, this pair will not be approved as joint, but still be reported in the catalogue for collectors of SMOM stamps. The design of the Joint Issue with the Czech Republic at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Czech Post and the Slovak Post was also released. These stamps are supposed to be released on October 2, 2023.

Enzo Cafaro (Italy) provided information about a joint issue between the Sovereign Order of Malta (SMOM) and the Vatican City issued on May 16, 2023 and commemorating the 825th anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta in Spoleto (1198). Stamps are identical and show the façade of the cathedral, also known as Duomo of Spoleto, and a fresco by Filippo Lippi dedicated to the Stories of the Virgin (15th century). However as SMOM is not recognized by UPU, this issue cannot be recognized as a true joint issue and will be reported in the catalogue for SMOM collectors but under the heading Non-accepted [N].

Vietnam appears also in two official joint issues, but information to complete these series is missing. We reported already the picture of the joint issue with India (April 23, 2023), but are still waiting for India’s counterpart. Uruguay announced and released a souvenir sheet related to the 30th anniversary of relation with Vietnam. Picture of the Uruguayan item released on April 27, 2023 is reproduced below, but no news is available from Vietnam.

Back to the 2023 PostEurop stamp issue, there is a clarification to make, following a note sent by Stewie Griffin: BeePost (actually very close link to Stamperija and Peterstamps, same office address) did not have the legal permission from PostEurop to print Europa stamps, nor to use the Europa logo and design. The BeePost stamps described in the previous Post related to Europa 2023 stamps must be considered as illegal and should not appear in a serious stamp collection. They will not be described in the catalogue either, when updated. Actually we learned also that BeePost’s website is now under “maintenance” and Stamperija removed all BeePost “stamps” from their website. Thanks for this information which details can be found under https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=100797

In the meantime additional stamps related to PostEurop Peace 2023 became available: Estonia (May 25, 2023, one stamp in miniature sheets of 10 stamps), Greenland (May 30, 2023, 2 stamps available in sheetlets of 10, but also in a booklet of blocks of 6 from each), Nagorno Karabakh now issuing stamps under the name of Republic of Artsakh (May 25, 2023, two stamps available in miniature sheets of 10, but also in a miniature sheet of 5 se-tenant pairs), and Belgium (to be released on June 12, 2023, but illustration already available; one stamp in a miniature sheet of 5 stamps). The illustrations of the stamps from Azerbaijan became also available, but the exact date of release (in June) is still not known.

In Denmark, the Europa stamp is presented in a form of a souvenir sheet including the common stamp and a second commemorating stamp representing a candle. This second Denmark stamp was originally issued in 1970 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the end of WWII. On May 4, 1945, a candle was put at all windows in Denmark, when armistice was signed, and this tradition continues since, symbolizing peace. The stamp from the souvenir sheet is an adapted reproduction of the 1970 stamp, but the isolated candle stamp issued as self-adhesive in a miniature sheet of 10, does have a different design. Only this isolated stamp bears the sentence “Sammen for fred” (Together for peace), which appears actually in the souvenir sheet only on the common stamp.

At this stage, for this 2023 Europa series, we are still missing information regarding the participation of Albania, Armenia, Georgia, the Isle of Man and Kazakhstan.

Eventually catalogues have been updated. Of course Volume 15 contains all new data and stamps released during the past two months, but also information about some new mixed covers created by Jaap Sarelse (the Netherlands) that had not been reported so far. Volume 2 has been completed with the 1950 (April 12) Milan Trade Fair stamps. And of course, the Country and Topic pages of Volume 1 have been updated at the same time, the new sub-category [P3] is described.

Update February 2023

by Richard Zimmermann

On February 28, 2023, the joint issue between Armenia and Slovakia was released as scheduled. It celebrates the 30th anniversary of relationship and the stamps depict the Tatev Monastery, in Syunik region (Armenia) built during the ninth century, included now in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list and the St George’s Church, in Nitrianska Blatnica (Slovakia) also from the ninth century. The particularityy of this issue comes from the way the stamps are produced. The stamps are printed in a pane size [5×9] containing both stamps, type A in the top half, type B in the bottom half, together with 5 central labels forming a central cross. The overall structure looks the following: 3 rows of 5 stamps A, a row containing 2 pairs of stamp A separated by a label, then a row with one stamp A, three labels and one stamp B, and a row containing 2 pairs of stamp B separated by a label, and at the bottom 3 rows of 5 stamps B. This structure leads to a sheet containing 20 stamps A, 20 stamps B and 5 labels. Each sheet can contain vertical pairs of se-tenant A-B stamps, but limited to two units per pane. Knowing that the total printing of stamps is 2×20,000 for Armenia and 2×100,000 for Slovakia, only respectively 1,000 and 5,000 panes have been printed containing a maximum of 2,000 and 10,000 vertical pairs respectively.

These miniature sheets could be cut a different way, by keeping in one piece the five central labels with the 2 stamps A and 2 stamps B in the four corners. Only a maximum of 1,000 units for Armenia and 5,000 for Slovakia of these cut outs of printed panels can theoretically exist. The central labels represent the flags of both countries, and the coat of arms of Armenia, respectively Slovakia. The two other labels contain the words ‘Armenia – Slovakia joint issue’ in English and Armenian for Armenia, in Slovak and Armenian for Slovakia.

Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) provided some information about the potential Cambodia-South Korea joint issue that was supposed to be released on February 10, 2023. The original source was the South Korean Philatelic Service. However, Jaap learned from two Cambodian sellers that no such an issue is mentioned in the 2023 list of Cambodian stamps. Also a seller from South Korea confirmed this is not a joint issue. The top margin of the souvenir sheet printed by South Korea is entitled “Protecting Endangered Species in Korea – Cambodia REDD+ Joint Project Area”, meaning the ‘joint’ character is refering to an area between both countries, and a common project, but not to this stamp issue. This entry is removed from the catalogue.

Don Birschel (USA) reports also about stamps released at the occasion of the Kuwait 62nd national day by both Kuwait (February 22, 2023) and the United Arab Emirates (February 25, 2023). Even if the Kuwait 62nd national day is celebrated by the UAE, there are no hints of collaboration between both countries and stamps are different. These cannot be considered as a joint issue.

A surprising joint issue between India and Luxembourg will be released on March 14, 2023. The information was first provided by Souvik Ghatak (India) and Kenneth Sequeira (Singapore). The Luxembourg post made the announcement as early as March 2, 2023, but it took some time for India to confirm, despite the fact that the designer of the miniature sheet is of Indian origin. The stamps relate to the 75th anniversary of the relationship between both countries and is illustrated by sculptures by Amar Nath Sehgal (1922-2007), an Indian sculptor, painter and poet who spent a large part of his life in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Up to now, there are no news from the Israel-India issue supposed to be released in the course of the month of February. In the meantime, however, the first image of the Israel stamp to be realeased on April 4, 2023 jointly with Cyprus was released. Topic is aerial firefighting. The Cyprus stamps has not been seen so far.

The following information has been added to or modified in the new version of Volume 15 (Vol 15 V4.03):

  • The above mentioned Armenia – Slovakia issue [T20230228] as well as the Poland – Slovenia [T20230306], the Poland – Vatican [T20230227] and the Ascension – British Antarctic Territories – Falkland Islands – South Georgia – Tristan da Cunha [D20230215] stamps have been integrated in the catalogue
  • Confirmation of the existence of mixed FDCs for the 2022 Argentina – Spain Juan Domingo Peron issue [C20220914]
  • Update of the list of new issues including Pakistan – Sri Lanka (2023), Japan – Peru (August 21, 2023), Japan – Vietnam (September 21, 2023)

The information related to complete descriptions of new sets of joint issues is also dispatched in Vol 1. Note that the page “Philatelic resources” is constantly updated to maintain the most accurate level (which is not easy, corrections and additions welcome) and changes will not be reported here.

Railway opening anniversary 2022

by Richard Zimmermann

The history of Košice–Bohumín Railway track dates back to as early as the 19th century when the only railway lines within the Kingdom of Hungary were the steam-powered Vienna–Pest–Debrecen railway and the horse-drawn Bratislava–Trnava railway. As early as 1839 the Diet of Hungary debated an Act which may be considered to be the foundations of Hungarian traffic policy. The project of the construction of a track that would connect Silesia via Jablunkov, Žilina, Liptovský Mikuláš, Poprad, Spišská Nová Ves, and Košice, led to a first real design to be implemented that dates back to 1864. The railway was intended to speed up the transport of iron ore from deposits in Spiš and Gemer to the Třinec ironworks, to make it more effective. It was also expected to provide the same benefits to the transportation of coal from the Silesian mines to northern and eastern Hungary. The initial works finally began on October 15, 1867. However, the construction was suspended or postponed several times due to financial problems, until the situation finally improved with the involvement of a new investor, the Anglo-Austrian Bank.  The Košice–Kysak–Prešov section was completed first and put into operation on September 1, 1870.  Further sections followed in 1871, and the last section, Spišská Nová Ves – Kysak, was put into service on March 12, 1972. The entire line from Bohuním to Košice went into regular operation, with a single pair of mixed trains, on March 18, 1872.

On March 18, 2022, so 150 years later, Czech Republic and Slovakia celebrate this date with a souvenir sheet showing nicelly designed steam machines (twin issue with one stamp and two labels).  The background of the souvenir sheet shows an older map depicting the railway line.   

Czechia – Slovakia – 150th train anniversary

by Richard Zimmermann

On March 18, 2022, a joint issue of stamps between Slovakia and the Czech Republic will be released on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the opening of the railway line between the cities of Košice (Slovakia) and Bohumín (Czechia). The document on the construction of the railway was published in 1864 in Vienna (during the Austro-Hungarian Rise). Construction began in 1869 and ended in 1872. Approximately 95% of the line runs through present-day Slovakia and 5% through Czechia.

Milan Csaplar (Slovakia) pointed to the first information published by the Slovakia postal administration which is also one of the rare postal entity providing designs of stamps much ahead of issue date. Slovakia will issue a souvenir sheet with one stamp representing a train and two labels. This souvenir sheet will be available at 50,000 units. There is little information available about the Czech stamps but the joint character is confirmed and it is confirmed that the Czech item will also be a souvenir sheet with one stamp and two labels.