Vietnamese Year of the Dragon 2

Herea are images of the 2000 Year of the Dragon stamps from Vietnam, which are on the First Day Covers below:

Vietnamese Year of the Dragon

Here are two Vietnamese Year of the Dragon covers from 2000. Its hard to tell from the scans, but the top one has imperforate versions of the stamps, while the bottom has the regular, perforated issues. Otherwise the two are more or less identical.

Little Nemo

Here is a nice Pugh Cachet for the Classic Comics issue (scott 3000c) Little Nemo in Slumberland. It features a dragonish looking sea serpent and what could be a Viking style dragon boat.

Basketball Playing Dragon From Slovenia

Here is a cute cover from Slovenia with a cartoon cachet featuring a dragon playing basketball. The stamp on the cover was issued to commemorate the 6th World Maxibasketball Championships held in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2001.




Apparently the dragon is the emblem of the city of Ljubljana, and their basketball team's nickname is the green dragons. From Wikipedia:

The dragon is the emblem of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The city has a dragon bridge which is embellished with four dragon depictions. The city's basketball club is nicknamed the "Green Dragons". License plates on cars from the city also feature a dragon depiction.

Dragon cover from Japan

(Apologies for not posting. I had to replace the power supply & motherboard in my computer. My scanner is still not behaving...)

Here is a Japanese first day cover that features on one of the stamps (and the cachet) a "Blue Dragon on the east wall of the Takamatsu-zuka Tomb". These are semi-postal stamps issued to raise money for the preservation of the tomb.

Chinese & Indonesian Joint Issue (4)

Here is a nice cover that features all four stamps from both China & Indonesia:

Chinese & Indonesian Joint Issue (3)

This is a second official Chinese First Day Cover from the joint issue with Indonesia earlier this year.

Chinese & Indonesian Joint Issue (2)

This is a Chinese first day cover for the Chinese/Indonesian joint issue mentioned below. It is a bit hard to see in the scan, but it has a nice dragon pictorial postmark to go with the stamps & cachet.

Chinese & Indonesian Joint Issue

This year China & Indonesia had a two stamp joint issue, one stamp featuring the Dragon Dance, the other the Lion Dance. Here is a maxi card with the Chinese version of the Dragon Dance stamp.

Obscure Dragons

The bulk of my collection contains stamps and covers that feature dragons rather prominently, whether it is the Chinese New Year, St. George and the Dragon or something else. A few items though are a bit less obvious.

The dragon connection for this cover is in the text . The block of four commemorated the Boston Tea Party, which was planned at the Green Dragon Inn, as explained in the paragraph that makes up the cachet.

New addition

This is a recent addition to my collection. After issuing new designs for 12 years, the US Postal Service released a sheet of all twelve in 2005 . In 2006 a similar sheet of 39 cent stamps was issued.

Dragon Postmark

This is a recent dragon postmark from the US - a similar postmark was done last year, but I'm not sure what year it started.

St. George & the Dragon Maxi Card

Here's a very nice maximum card from Belgium - if I'm reading the postmark correctly, it is from 1944. That certainly would fit - St. George defeating the dragon/Allies defeating the axis was a common theme in World War II.

St. George & the Dragon

So far I've covered some stamps and covers celebrating the Chinese Year of the Dragon. Of course, stories and legends about dragons (and related stamps) go well beyond that. Dragons are a common theme in a number of Asian cultures - not just in China, but Japan, Korea, Vietnam and elsewhere.

In Western lore, one of the most famous stories is that of St. George & the Dragon. St. George is also traditionally the patron saint of England (though that status has changed in recent times). Nonetheless, St. George & the Dragon appear (or have appeared) on British sovereign coins, currency and postage stamps, including:

Macau Year of the Dragon

Here's another Year of the Dragon first day cover, this time from the territory of Macau. The Chinese New Year is widely celebrated in many parts of Asia, and a number of countries regularly issue stamps in conjunction with holiday.

Another early addition

This is a colorful cover by Desert Cachets - the scan doesn't really do it justice. Normally I prefer more subdued designs, but I really like the bold colors on this cover.

Early Additions to my collection

Here are two US Year of the Dragon first day covers by the Great Southern Cover Co. that caught my attention early on and helped build my interest in the topic.



And the second one, which I prefer even more:

Getting Started

Here are two of the stamps that got me started. The first is the US Year of the Dragon issue from 2000 (scott 3370):


It is part of a series of 12 stamps issues by the USPS, all designed by Clarence Lee. The entire set was reissued in 37cent and 39cent versions in 2005 and 2006.

The second is actually a souvenir sheet from the Australian territory Christmas Island, and it also is part of a series. It doesn't scan well because much of the design is a metallic gold - quite striking visually. (And fitting topically - 2000 is the Year of the Golden Dragon.)

Introduction

This will be a blog about topical stamp collecting - specifically dragon themed stamps & covers. I've been collecting stamps off and on for quite a few years. A dozen or so years ago I decided I wanted to collect a topic, but I had a hard time settling on one. I would visit stamp shows and see various things that interested me & I would pick up covers or stamps - dinosaurs, dogs, baseball among others. I found a cover or two with a mythological theme that caught my eye, but didn't have much luck (or time).

Skip a few years - toss in some moves, job layoffs and a few other things that put a damper on hobbies. Sometime in 2000 I noticed some of the stamps released by various countries for the Year of the Dragon. I bought some of the US issue (scott 3370) and ordered some stamps and covers from Australia. After a time I did some searches on ebay and found some first day covers that I thought were quite attractive. Before I knew it, I had my topic to focus on.