Iceland Stamp 2018 - Iceland qualifies for FIFA 2018 World Cup Russia.
Iceland won one of the most remarkable achievements in its sports history on October 9 2017 when its national soccer team qualified for the World Cup finals in Russia in the summer of 2018. Iceland secured its place in the finals for the first time by winning against Kosovo 2:0. A nation‘s dream came true when "our boys" qualified for the World Cup finals. Iceland with its 346.000 inhabitants becomes the smallest nation ever to participate in the World Cup. The World Cup finals have started in Russia on June 14 and will conclude with the final match on July 15 on the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
The British newspaper The Guardian has published its list of power rankings of teams participating in the World Cup. Iceland is number twelve on this list, ahead of nations like England and Colombia.
Speciality of Iceland (Island) 2018 FIFA World Cup Stamp
The particularity of this stamp lies in the fact that all the members of the Icelandic national football team participated in its design during their training camp in Qatar. It was rather an unusual task for them, as each player of the team was asked to trace a purposely made image onto transparent paper. The designer then scanned all the different sketches and set them together to form the illustration featured on the stamp, a witness to the strength of the Icelandic national football team.
We do not known of any other national football team having previously illustrated stamps.
Do you know of any??
Costa Rica has issued a set of 2 stamps and a souvenir sheet on the eve of FIFA 2018 World Cup Russia.
One stamp shows the FIFA World Cup trophy, while the other one features Zabivaka - the official mascot of 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.
Issued on 12 June 2018, each stamp has a denomination of 1155 CRC (Costa Rican Colon).
An aesthetically pleasing FDC has also been issued on the event.
Bangladesh FIFA 2018 Postage Stamps were much awaited, because of the majestic designs offered by Bangladesh Post in recent years.
Bangladesh has also issued a beautiful set of postage stamps and souvenir sheets on the eve of 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.
A set of 4 FIFA 2018 stamps have been issued by Bangladesh Post with a denomination of 10 BDT (Bangladeshi Takka) each, while 2 souvenir sheets have been issued with a face value of 50 BDT each.
FIFA 2018 World Cup stamp issued by Poland (Polska) is different in a way that Poland has issued a single stamp for the occasion featuring the portrait of the star striker Robert Lewandowski.
Poland's all-time top scorer, Lewandowski bagged a remarkable 16 goals from 10 games in his team's World Cup 2018 qualifying campaign, setting a European qualifying record.
The Polish FIFA 2018 postage stamp was issued on 14 June 2018.
The stamp was printed using a rotogravure technique, on fluorescent paper. The size of the stamp is 25.5 x 31.25 mm. Each sheet contains 100 stamps.
On this occasion, a beautiful coloured FDC envelope has also been issued, with a prominent #9 written on it, which is the jersey number of Robert Lewandowski.
Malta Post issued a beautiful Souvenir Sheet on the occasion of FIFA 2018 Football World Cup in Russia. It was issued on 16 Jun 2018.
Malta FIFA 2018 Souvenir Sheet shows Zabivaka - the official mascot of 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. Zabivaka is an Eurasian wolf with brown and white fur, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "RUSSIA 2018" and orange goggles — according to the designer, these are not ski goggles, but sports goggles like those used in cycling: "Zabivaka is so fast on the field that he needs eye protection". The combination of white, blue and red T-shirt and shorts are the national colors of the Russian team.
The background of the sheet shows various symbols of FIFA 2018 Russia World Cup.
Size of the Maltese FIFA 2018 Souvenir Sheet is 84 x 84 mm.
A matching FDC has also been issued by Malta Post.
Croatia issued a single stamp on 14 June 2018, for FIFA 2018 World Cup Russia event.
Croatia (Hrvatska) stamp for 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia shows a sketched football player, while in the background the FIFA World Cup 2018 Trophy and the symbols of FIFA 2018 Russia can be seen.
A beautiful stamp to have in your collection.
The Croatia (Hrvatska) 2018 Football World Cup stamp has been designed by Adam Peter Maguire and Lidija Novosel and the denomination is 6.50 HRK.
Size of the stamp is 35.50 x 29.82 mm with horizontal orientation.
The Croatian FIFA 2018 stamp has been issued in a sheet of 9 stamps with 1 label showing a football player in different coloured football kit.
Logo of FIFA 2018 World Cup Russia is printed in the imprint, towards bottom left side of the sheet.
A FDC was also issued for 2018 FIFA World Cup Croatia Stamp, showing a corner flag and the FIFA 2018 logo.
Hi guys! FIFA World Cup Postage stamps have always been a hot topic for collectors and it is one of my favourite topics too. Like all of you, I am also trying to collect them from all corners of the globe. The only problem is to track all the issues in time.
Here I am trying to gather all the information that I can find, so that it can become a handy list for myself and all other collectors.
This page can even help other collectors to swap the issue among each other.
So far, following countries have issued 2018 FIFA World Cup stamps (timbres):-
Click on the "Country Name" to see the image & details:
Monaco issued a single stamp on 16 Apr 2018, for FIFA 2018 World Cup Russia event.
Monaco stamp for 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia shows Russian map with stars placed on all the World Cup venues, flags of all the 32 participating nations and 4 football players including a goalkeeper.
An aesthetically designed beauty indeed!
The Monaco 2018 Football World Cup stamp was designed by David MARASKIN and the denomination is €1.30.
Size of the stamp is 40.85 x 30 mm with horizontal orientation.
A FDC was also issued for 2018 FIFA World Cup Monaco Stamp.
The Monaco FIFA 2018 stamp has been issued in a sheet of 10 stamps with duration of the FIFA 2018 World Cup Russia in the imprint, which is 14 June - 15 July 2018 and a bar code as well.
A magnificent cover to display today is the one sent from Finland. It features a beautiful Europa 2016 Think Green stamp (One of my favourite sets in Europa themes) and an odd-shaped stamp too.
The "Ecology in Europe - Think Green" was adopted as the common design theme for Europa stamps in 2016 and 61 postal administrations joined the joint issue program. It was also the 60th anniversary of the Europa stamps in 2016, as these stamps started in 1956. Finland issued a single stamp on the event on 6th May 2016 that featured the common design. It's a 1st Class Value stamp.
The 2nd stamp used on the cover was an odd-shaped stamp with a value of 0.10 Euro. The self-adhesive stamp was issued under the series "Water and Archipelago" on 24th January 2008. It is one of the stamp from a set of 3 stamps.
“If winning is everything, then Khan is the greatest!”
In order to pay a tribute to the Pakistani squash legend Jahangir Khan, Japan Post has planned to issue a commemorative postage stamp. It is expected that the stamp will be issued on 10 December 2017, on the birthday of the great player. Reportedly Jahangir Khan will soon be invited to Japan to unearth the stamp during a ceremony.
Pakistan Post also issued a commemorative stamp in 1984 with Jahangir Khan's photo while playing squash. It was issued almost at the beginning of his prestigious career, which lasted from 1981 to 1993. He was not a legend at that time and no one expected the amount of victories he will bring home.
Jahangir Khan also served as President of World Squash Federation from 2002 to 2008, when he became Emeritus President.
The squash legend ruled the World of Squash for almost 13 years. From 1981 to 1986, he remained unbeatable in consecutive 555 matches, the longest winning streak by any athlete in top-level professional sports as recorded by Guinness World Records. It is a record yet to be broken ... and I am sure it will never be broken.
During his career as a professional squash player, Jahangir won the World Open 6 times and the British Open a record ten times.
In 1981, Jahangir Khan — aged 17 — became the youngest winner of the World Open, beating Australia's Geoff Hunt in the final. That tournament also marked the start of an unbeaten run, which lasted for five years and eight months and 555 matches which finally came to end in the final of the World Open in 1986 in France when he lost to Ross Norman.
In his book "Winning Squash", Jahangir Khan mentions how his future was brushed aside in the beginning.
“I was told I would never become world champion. I was the youngest, smallest, feeblest and sickest of the family,” he writes in the book. “Neither the doctor nor my father believed there was any chance for me to become a good squash player.”
I wish Pakistan Post would issue a set of stamps with the title "Sporting Legends of Pakistan" in future. It is heart-breaking to see different countries honouring Pakistani players while Pakistan Post not doing much.
Some time ago, I received this beautiful cover from Bahrain. Unfortunately there's no postmark from Bahrain Post on the cover. I wonder if it is a special case or it is a common practice by Bahrain Post.
A similar experience was met when recently I posted a few covers and postcards during my trip to Saudi Arabia. All of them reached their destinations with out a postmark from Saudi Arabian Post (I will share the postcards and covers soon). Is there something wrong with Postal workers in Middle East or is it something else?
2 stamps have been used on the cover as follows:-
Left stamp is a charity stamp of 10 Fils.
Right stamp shows the Ameer of Bahrain and is of 500 Fils denomination.
EUROPA CEPT Stamps are one of the most popular themes in philately. 2016 marked the 60th Anniversary of issuing EUROPA stamps.
In 2016, EUROPA CEPT stamps were issued on the topic of "THINK GREEN" and 61 Postal Administrations issued the stamp on the eve.
Although Turkey issued a set of 2 stamps to match the event but none of them were considered as EUROPA CEPT stamps because Turkey didn't use the official EUROPA logo nor the word EUROPA, thus making them a non-Europa stamp issue.
Issued with a denomination of 1.40+10 Turkish Lira, this stamp is really beautiful and the EUROPA matching design on the cover makes it even beautiful.
I have chosen a different style of cover from Japan to share today on the blog. It's a vertically prepared cover from Japan.
2 stamps used on the cover are a part of a set of 12 stamps, issued for "2015 UNESCO World Heritage - Tomioka Silk Mill and Related Sites".
While checking out these stamps at StampWorld.com, I came to know how many stamps Japan issues per year and how beautiful they are. Almost 504 stamps were issued in 2015 by Japan.
The denomination of the 2 stamps is 23 & 74 RSD (Serbian Dinars), while the FIFA 2018 souvenir sheet is priced at 170 RSD.
Separate FDCs have been issued for the set of stamps and the souvenir sheet.
2 Stamps have been issued in separate sheets of 8 stamps each, with a label in the middle of each sheet.
2 different labels/ vignettes have been released.
