North Korea Joins South in Dokdo Postage Stamp Campaign

North Korea will issue Dokdo Islet postage stamps and join the campaign to reinforce the historic claim that Dokdo Islet is part of the Korean Peninsula. Rhee Geum-cheol, branch manager of the North Korea Stamp Corporation in China, said that the actual production of the stamp would take place next month.

Featured on the stamp is an 18th century map of the Korean Peninsula that clearly marks Dokdo Islet as Korea territory. Other designs include drawings of Jeju Island, Ulleung Island and the Dokdo Islet on a unified Korean flag.

Jang Ju-seong, the chairman of Goseon Film, which oversees sales of the North Korean stamps in South Korea, said that the message on the North Korean stamps is more straightforward than that of the South because it seeks to minimize friction with Japan. The North Korean stamps emphasize that Dokdo is historically a part of the Korean Peninsula.

DIGITAL CHOSUN
March 28, 2004

Duo helps stamp out domestic violence

Rep. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge, is hoping that something as simple as paying the bills or sending a letter will help put an end to domestic violence.

Jahn introduced a resolution with Sen. Norma Anderson, R-Lakewood, that shows strong support for the prevention of domestic violence in Colorado and that also supports a Stop Family Violence fundraising stamp.

The stamp, available at post offices costs 45 cents. The extra 8 cents from each stamp sale go to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support domestic violence prevention programs and shelters in Colorado and nationwide.

Gov. Bill Owens proclaimed March 15 "Colorado stamps out Domestic Violence Day."

The stamp features a crying child, with sun and clouds over her head, which represent the girl’s good days and bad days. To the side of the girl is a schoolhouse with a rainbow over it.

The 45-cent Stop Family Violence postage stamp was issued Oct. 8, after legislation for the stamp was passed by Congress. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell sponsored the stamp’s legislation.

JEFFCONEWS.COM
March 23, 2004

Stamp on saint

The Department of Post has released a commemorative postage stamp on Annamacharya in the denomination of Rs five. The new stamps, first day covers and information sheets will be available for sale at all philatelic bureaus and counters.

Annamacharya, a 15th century mystic saint, social reformer, singer-poet and an ardent devotee of Lord Venkateswara, composed and rendered spontaneously hundreds of verses dedicated to the glory of Alamelu Manga, consort of Lord Venkateswara.

The saint-poet carried the Sankirtana Yagna till his last breath and composed 32,000 Sankirtanams.

NEWSTODAYNET.COM
March 18, 2004

Asimov Stamp Urged

Gordon Van Gelder, editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, is urging fans to come together in a letter-writing campaign to get legendary SF author Isaac Asimov on a U.S. postage stamp. Van Gelder has already received a letter from the U.S. Postal Service saying that it is considering an Asimov stamp for 2006.

Van Gelder's editorial on the matter will appear in the May issue of the magazine. "Just as Albert Einstein became a familiar icon as a physicist, so too did Dr. A represent the genre of science fiction to the world at large - more so than any other individual, I'd say," Van Gelder writes.

Van Gelder urges that Asimov be included in the ongoing series of stamps called the Literary Arts series, which has included Ayn Rand, Ogden Nash and Zora Neale Hurston.

SCIFI.COM
March 15, 2004

A Tribute To Malta's Letter Boxes

The first set of Maltapost stamps in the 2004 philatelic issues program, entitled letter boxes, will be issued on on March 12.

The set consists of five stamps ranging in value from 1c to 76c, with a total value of Lm1.52.

The set is designed by Alfred Caruana Ruggier and has been offset printed by Bundesdruckerei GmbH of Germany.

The postal service in Malta was established during the tenure of the Knights of Malta but it was during the reign of Queen Victoria that communication by means of letters became economical.

The introduction of pre-paid penny postage in 1840 in Britain made letter-writing popular.

In good time pillar and wall letter boxes were placed in various strategic places in the Maltese islands. Among the first were those next to police stations. Many have been re-sited to better accommodate the public, all of them retaining the traditional red.

The second set in this year's program, entitled Cats, and designed by Harry Borg, is being issued on March 26.

MALTAPOST.COM
March 13, 2004

Stamps may cut spam

If the U.S. Postal Service delivered mail for free, our mailboxes would surely runneth over with more credit card offers, sweepstakes entries and supermarket fliers.

That's why we get so much junk e-mail: It's free to send. So Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates, among others, is suggesting that we start buying "stamps" for e-mail.

Internet analysts worry, though, that turning e-mail into an economic commodity would undermine its value in democratizing communication.

But let's start with the math: At perhaps a penny or less per item, e-mail postage wouldn't significantly dent the pocketbooks of people who send only a few messages a day. Not so for spammers who mail millions at a time.

Though postage proposals have been in limited discussion for years. The details came recently. Instead of paying a penny, the sender would "buy" postage by devoting maybe 10 seconds of computing time to solving a math puzzle. The exercise would serve as proof of the sender's good faith.

Spammers would presumably have to buy many more machines to solve enough puzzles."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 13, 2004

Pop singer Liu Huan put on stamp

Liu Huan has become China's first pop singer with his face on a postage stamp.

As part of Liu’s concert in Beijing on March 19, the concert agent has published 6,000 memorabilia books that will be sold at the show.

In addition to pictures of the singer and a list of the songs, each book contains two 80-fen stamps bearing Liu’s picture.

A source for the agent said it was rare for a stamp to be issued in a limited number like 6,000 and that it may become rare as a collectable.

Born in 1963, Liu is a household name in China. Dozens of his songs have been widely circulated and sung by others. Despite his popularity, the Beijing show will be his first solo concert.

CHINAVIEW.CN
March 12, 2004

Fiftieth birthday stamp for UEFA

UEFA's roots in Switzerland for the majority of the past 50 years have been commemorated with the unveiling of a special Swiss postage stamp to mark the European football body's Golden Jubilee.

The stamp was handed over to UEFA CEO Lars-Christer Olsson by Dominique Freymond, member of the board of directors of Swiss Post, at a ceremony at UEFA's House of European Football in Nyon, western Switzerland on Tuesday.

The designer of the stamp, Wolf Henkel, and Switzerland's national Under-21 coach Bernard Challendes were also present at the ceremony. A similar event also took place at the Fraumunster post office in Zurich, where Swiss Post presented world football's governing body FIFA with a stamp marking FIFA's 100th birthday this year.

The FIFA and UEFA stamps are available in all of Switzerland's many post offices from today, as well as at philatelic sales points.

UEFA was founded in the Swiss city of Basel in June 1954. The body has been based in Switzerland since the start of the 1960s, after moving from its original home in Paris. UEFA's first Swiss home was the federal capital Berne, where it stayed until 1995 when it switched to Nyon, on the banks of Lake Geneva. A spell in temporary premises in the town was followed by the body's move to its own headquarters, the House of European Football, in autumn 1999.

UEFA.COM
March 11, 2004

Post office will unveil domestic violence stamp

A ceremonial unveiling of the U.S. Postal Service's semi-postal stamp, "Stop Family Violence," will take place today during a meeting of the Lucas County Domestic Violence Task Force in Anderson Rooms A and B at One Stranahan Square in downtown Toledo.

During the ceremony, Toledo Postmaster Robert L. Lewis, Jr., will present the stamp to Mayor Jack Ford.

Each semi-postal stamp costs 45 cents. Proceeds, minus first-class postage and the Postal Service’s costs, are transferred to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for domestic violence programs.

The stamp was issued in October.

TOLEDOBLADE.COM
March 10, 2004

Post Office Nixes Personalized Stamps

Folks who wanted their grandkids or pets or even their own smiling likeness on postage stamps are out of luck. The Postal Service said Wednesday it has decided against personalized stamps.

The special stamps, which could include a picture of the buyer's children or dog or company logo, had been recommended by a presidential commission on the postal service's future.

However, a citizen's advisory committee opposed the idea. The committee's 15 members are appointed by the postmaster general to help sift through the thousands of proposals for postage stamps that the post office receives every year.

Virginia Noelke, chairman of the stamp advisory committee, told Postmaster General John Potter in a letter that the risks of personalized stamps seem to be much higher than any possible rewards.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 10, 2004

Tybee lighthouse shines up

More than a dozen volunteers put finishing touches of black and white paint Tuesday on the 231-year-old lighthouse here. Tybee residents hope the new coat of paint will help the structure — which looks like a colossal chess piece — gain national historic landmark status and draw more tourists.

Cullen Chambers, executive director of the Tybee Island Historical Society, which owns the lighthouse, said the work Tuesday was the latest part of a $1.5 million effort to restore the building and two historic structures nearby.

Chambers said the society plans later this year to ask the U.S. secretary of the interior to designate the Tybee lighthouse as a national historic landmark, which demonstrates national historic significance.

The first 60 feet of the tower were built in 1773, three years before the Declaration of Independence, but much of the lighthouse was destroyed during the Civil War by the retreating Confederate army. The lighthouse was rebuilt in 1867 to its present height.

The Tybee lighthouse was recently featured on a postage stamp.

AJC.COM
March 09, 2004

U.S. Postal Service Dedicates 2004 Love Stamps

Now that you've grown accustomed to the sparkle, you've chosen the dress, fireplaces, chandeliers and antiques for a storybook wedding, it's time now to make that first impression of style and form that you want for your special day.

Thanks to the U.S. Postal Service, the 37-cent Garden Bouquet and 60-cent Garden Botanical stamps will gracefully and elegantly add just the right "touch of class" for invitations, announcements and greetings.

A first-day-of-issue ceremony for the new commemorative postage stamps took place on March 4 in Madison Square Garden.

The 37-cent stamp art - a bouquet of white lilacs and pink roses - is a reproduction of a chromolithograph probably printed in Germany circa 1880-1900. The artist and engraver are unknown. The 60-cent stamp - a botanical illustration of five varieties of simple pink roses - is a reproduction of a chromolithograph created from a drawing by English artist Anne Pratt. This drawing was one of hundreds appearing in a five-volume book of Pratt's illustrations published in England between 1850-1866 and reprinted in England and New York between 1889 and 1900.

Richard Sheaff of Scottsdale, Ariz., was the designer and art director for both stamps. Seven hundred fifty million Garden Bouquet and 150 million Garden Botanical self-adhesive stamps were printed.

USPS
March 04, 2004

Celebrating a century of Seuss

Dr. Seuss is getting a U.S. postage stamp, a statue and, on March 11, a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. It's all part of a bicoastal celebration of the 100th birthday of Theodor Geisel, best known as Dr. Seuss, the man responsible for the Grinch, the Cat in the Hat and the Lorax, among other unforgettable creatures.

Theodor Geisel was born March 2, 1904, in the industrial city of Springfield, Mass. At an early age, he began to draw animals, often adding an extra hump in a camel's back or a long snout on a hyena's face for comic effect. While attending Dartmouth College, he edited Jack O'Lantern, a humor magazine. But it was his Latin classes that had the most enduring influence on his future art. Latin "allows you to adore words, take them apart and find out where they came from," Geisel once said.

Dr. Seuss' 44 books have been translated into 21 languages, selling more than 500 million copies.

STAR TELEGRAM
March 02, 2004

Ambani stamp tops popularity poll

A stamp issued to commemorate Reliance founder Dhirubhai Ambani was voted the "most popular stamp" for 2002 in a nation-wide stamp popularity poll conducted by the Indian postal department.

The Ambani stamp received 13,798 votes, a company statement said. The "Kathakali and Kabuki" stamp — one of the stamps from the set of Indo-Japan diplomatic relations — was ranked the second-most popular stamp.

Twenty-one stamps were issued under the personalities theme in 2002 in memory of eminent achievers in different fields.

The philately division of the postal department conducts a poll every year to gather feedback on the preferences of the public with reference to the themes and designs of Indian postage stamps.

THE TIMES OF INDIA
March 01, 2004