Alderney is the most northerly of the English Channel Islands, just ten miles (16 kilometers) west of the French coast, 20 miles (32 km) to the northeast of Guernsey and 60 miles (97 km) from the south coast of Great Britain. The island is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which has been a British crown territory since the mid-13th century, The Channel Islands was the only … Continue reading Alderney #37 (1989)
The 14th of July is annually celebrated as French National Day, also known as Bastille Day. In France, it is known as National Day (fête nationale) or, more commonly, le quatorze juillet (the fourteenth of July), commemorating the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. The Bastille was a medieval fortress and in the center of Paris. It contained just seven inmates at the time of its … Continue reading Bonne Fête Nationale Française!
Albania is a republic in southeast Europe, bordering on the Adriatic Sea. It’s location — adjacent to Greece, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Kosovo as well as across the Adriatic from the heel of the boot of Italy — has made it a prime spot for invasion. As a part of the Ottoman Empire, Albania used Turkish stamps from 1870 to 1913 with the first stamps bearing its … Continue reading Albania #1057 (1967)
The Alawite State, listed in most stamp catalogues under the French name Alaouites, was a region in western Syria bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. It was part of the Ottoman Empire at the start of the twentieth century but was occupied by France at the close of World War I. Growing anti-French sentiment in the region led to the establishment of the Arab Kingdom of … Continue reading Alaouites #C17 (1929)
The Åland Islands are an archipelago situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia. It became an autonomous province of Finland in 1921. Autonomy means that Åland has its own parliament (Lagtinget, formerly the county council) and a government (provincial government, formerly the provincial authority). In 1954 the region got its own official flag. It also has its own police force and its residents … Continue reading Åland Islands #72d (1993)
Ajman is the smallest of seven emirates, formerly known as the Trucial States, centrally located on the western coast of the present-day United Arab Emirates in eastern Arabia. In 1948, the British Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia were set up to provide postal services to countries in the region with mail processed in Dubai using stamps issued for the Trucial States. The first post office … Continue reading Ajman #C9 (1965)
Aitutaki is an “almost-atoll” in the Cook Islands group, probably first settled around AD 900, with the first known European contact occurring when Captain Bligh and the crew of HMS Bounty arrived on 11 April 1789, just prior to the infamous mutiny. A British Protectorate was declared over the 15 islands of the Cook group on 20 September 1888. On 9 October 1900, Aitutaki became the only one of the … Continue reading Aitutaki #33 (1920)
La Agüera was a town on the Atlantic coast at the southern tip of the Ras Nouadhibou Peninsula in what is currently Western Sahara. It was founded in 1920 when a fort was established by Francisco Bens just a few miles away from the French settlement of Port Étienne (now Nouadhibou) on the eastern side of the peninsula. A military air base established by the Spanish was … Continue reading La Agüera #14 (1922)
A Stamp A Day 