2008 Hungarian stamp issues: Letter-writing (Europa 2008) (May 9 2008)

By Eurostamper — June 20, 2008
See more about: 2008 issues | Europa 2008 | Hungary | Hungary 2008 | PostEurope

This is a tribute to, somewhat obscurely, the practice of writing letters. This theme was chosen by PostEurop, a body based in Brussels, Belgium that comprises (at the time of this writing) 48 countries and promotes cooperation and improved relationships between various postal authorities.

The design of this set of four stamps (two stamps printed twice each) reflects the spirit of international cooperation implicit in the issue: in very stylized, graphics, one stamp (the HUF 100) shows an envelope and a hand-written letter, over which is superimposed a fancy capital “A”. The “A” is being written by a giant ink pen shown on the adjacent HUF 230 stamp, the tip of the pen ending right at the edge of the two stamps. Behind the pen is a calligraphic “L”.

The “L” refers to the phrase “Levél-írás” (”letter writing”) written on each stamp, and to the multilingual faint writing visible on both the letter in the HUF 100 stamp and on the background of the miniature sheet: in French and English (the official languages of PostEurop) and Hungarian, various phrases are repeated: “Levél, levél-írás, letter, letter-writing, lettre, écrire une lettre”. (See the enhanced image of the miniature sheet background at left.)

The two stamps appear in the same layout again, under the first two and rotated 180º.

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