Stamped Card: Koala

This prepaid postcard of a sleeping koala is an official, AU-65188. I figured it was appropriate since I spent a good portion of the day napping and I think my housemate is doing the same thing. I stayed out until 1:30am at a concert last night and I woke up at 5 to see my friend go in the water for a triathlon.

Although people often refer to them as "koala bears," koalas are in fact marsupials, not bears. Their closest living relative is the wombat. They are found in coastal regions of eastern and southern Australia. The word "koala" comes from the animal's name in Dharuk, an endangered Aboriginal language.

Koalas have opposable thumbs on their hands and feet and have fingerprints that are hard to distinguish from human ones (according to wikipedia). They spend most of their time in trees and most of their waking time eating eucalyptus leaves.

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

This official card (BN-1139) came from China in an envelope from a user who later got banned for hacking a way to have his sender address (Brunei) different from his receiver address (China). Given that, I have to wonder if this isn't a hoax card. It certainly looks like a real, commercially-printed postcard, and it has a stamp and a postmark, but it wasn't sent in the mail. I guess he could have gone on a trip to Brunei, bought a bunch of postcards and had them postmark them at a post office, then brought them back to China to send at his leisure... I guess I think that's the most likely scenario. Anyway, I can hardly argue with a written and stamped card from this rare country!

It shows the Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque in the capital city of Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan. According to the back of the card, "with its intricately ornamented minarets and shimmering golden domes clearly visible along the main route into town from the airport, the Kiarong Mosque, as it is locally known, towers over landscaped terrain dotted with fountains." Tourists who enter the mosque are asked to remove their shoes and wear black robes while on the tour. They are also prohibited from taking pictures of the place of prayer.

Brunei is a little country located on the island of Borneo, surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak except for its coastline on the South China Sea. It is a predominantly Muslim nation and the official language is Brunei Malay.

Brunei isn't a member of the UPU and their postal website only has images of 2 stamps on it, so I can't verify that this is a bona fide postal stamp, but it looks like it to me.

Netherlands Kiddie Art

NL-286196 from a primary school class in Steenwijk, the Netherlands. "This year we laern how to speak Englisch. We hope you like our card! We made it ourselvis." Cute! :)

Normal stamp, so I won't post it.

Night Train

From exmellie for the June 2010 RR. I got to choose this from her offers album and I really like it. She says the piece is called "Night Train," but didn't say who the artist is. Anyone?

Two copies of a racoon from a 2008 issue on wild animals, plus two from a set of garden flowers: tulip and lily.

Finnish Forest

FI-806216 - a nice summer day in Finland, according to the sender. I believe these are birch trees. No idea where in Finland though.

One in a set of 6 Moomin stamps from 2009.

Great Lakes, USA

It is a good day for tall ships, I think. I got this card from the favorites tag, so you know it is a good one. :) The back of the card reads "Tall Ships with the wind in their sails make a spectacular sight on the Great Lakes waters." The Great Lakes, located in the northeastern United States, consist of the freshwater lakes Superior, Michigan, Erie, Huron, and Ontario. Apparently some Americans refer to them as the "Third Coast," although as a Pacific Coast denizen I have to disagree...

The domestic postcard rate recently increased by one cent, so they issued new stamps in the denomination of 29¢. This is oregano in a set of five herbs.

Moscow, Russia

The Ascension Church in Kolomenskoe, Moscow, Russia, is one of the places that I like receiving multiple cards of (as long as the pictures are different, of course). It is a UNESCO world heritage site since 1994. Built in 1532, it is one of the earliest tent-roofed churches in Russia, and the earliest extant structure of this town, which became Kolomenskoye, an estate of the grand princes of Muscovy. It was actually built to commemorate the birth of a prince who would grow up to be Ivan the Terrible.


RU-182195 from Katya. She writes about walking in the park with her grandmother as a little girl, pretending to be alone on an old planet when there were no people there. Now, however, it is a popular spot and there are always people there, even in her old secret places.


From Olga for the UNESCO round robin group.


From a different Olga for the June 2010 RR.

So many awesome stamps!!

The two stamps on the right are from a 2004 set of four stamps on wolverines. On the left is an eagle from a 2005 joint issue by Russia and Belarus.


On the right are two stamps from a 2009 set of 4 on "Culture of the Russian People - National Head Dress." The gentleman on the far right is sporting a men's hat from Tver Province in the latter half of the 19th century. The woman in the center is sporting a headdress from Nizhniy Novgorod Province, mid-19th century. The stamp on the left is a painting by M.A. Vrubel called "The Swan Princess." It was issued in 2006 in a set of two (the other was a self-portrait by the same artist).


On the bottom are two definitives, Kolomna Kremlin from 2009 and a rabbit from 2008. Upper right is the EUROPA 2010 issue on children's books. Upper left is the fountain of Nizhniy Novgorod from set of 4 Fountains of Russia.