Stamps on Stamps

Japanese and Swiss Issues

Dedicated to Count Ferrari (*)

Stamps on Stamps was and stays a very popular topic. This page shows two different approaches taken by the postal administrations of Japan and of Switzerland. On the Swiss stamps one can see the first stamps, issued by the earlier cantonals' administrations. The Japan post display some first stamps, but also more recent stamps, in issues called "The History of Postal Series".

The stamps above were issued on September 19, 1995, as the Series No. 5. They shown:

Sc. No. 2417, Light Mail Van and No. 433 (1948-1948, Planting Trees).
Sc. No. 2414, Light Mail Van and No. 436 (1948-1948, Locomotive Assembly)
Sc. No. 2416, Cherub on a Commemorative Mailbox (marking the 75th anniversary of Japan membership of the UPU) and No. 435 (1948-1948, Electric Furnace).
Sc. No. 2415, Cherub on a Commemorative Mailbox and No. 428 (1948-1948, Picking Tea).

The first two stamps were issued on January 19, 1995, as the Series No. 3. The next one were issued on May 25, 1995, as Series No. 4. Are displayed:

Sc. No. 2410, Transporting Mail by Ricksha and Sc. No. 85 (1894, Cranes and Imperial Crest, Commemoration of the Silver Wedding anniversary - Taikon - of the Emperor Meiji and Empress Haru)
Sc. No. 2411, Transporting Mail by Horse drawn carriage and No. 86 (1894, Cranes and Imperial Crest, Commemoration of the Silver Wedding anniversary - Taikon - of the Emperor Meiji and Empress Haru)
Sc. No. 2412, Airmail Service and No. C3, 1929-1934, First Osaka-Tokyo Airmail Flight, over the Lake Ashino.
Sc. No. 2413, Workers Loading Air Freight Onto Airplane and No. C6, 1929-1934, First Osaka-Tokyo Airmail Flight, over the Lake Ashino.

On the left, Switzerland 1971, Sc. 530, National Exhibition in Basle. Adaptation of the 1850 design (tenfold face value of the original stamp), Sc. No. 7. The separate stamps from the sheet are still postally valid. On the right I show two stamps extracted from the souvenir sheet dedicated to the Basler Taube '95 Philatelic Exhibition. The cancel above shows Melchior Berry, the designer of the jewel of the world's philately, The Basle Dove. The cancel was obtainable only on June 17, 95, at the exhibition. The cancel below is a first day one.

The souvenir sheet on the left was issued in 1943, Sc. B139, size 165x140mm, Centenary of the Zurich Cantonal Administration stamps, Sc. 1L1 and 1L2. The image of the scan is reduced. On the right hand I show the souvenir sheet issued also in 1943 and showing the Arms of Geneva (Sc. B132, Size 72x72mm), Centenary of the Geneva Cantonal Administration stamp, 1943, Sc. 2L1. The image of the scan is reduced. In the middle, National Postage Stamp Exhibition, Bern, 1965, Sc. B344. Stamps of 1854-1855, Sc. 23 and 29.

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(*) The greatest philatelist of all times is considered to be the count Philippe Notière de Ferrari, a very reach son of an Austrian officer and of an Italian duchess. He passed a half of his life travelling in order to buy the most expensive and most rare stamps for his collection. If he wanted a stamp, he paid immediately the price that was demanded by its proprietary. His final collection was composed of 120,000 different stamps - everything that existed as common type. Actually, Ferrari possessed the whole world, a collection that could be put together by nobody today. Ferrari has donated his collection to the Imperial Postal Museum of Berlin. Till his death, his collection was put aside at the Banque de France. After his death, the eight millions of Deutchmarks got from the sales of his collection where taken by France as war reparation owed to it by the war's looser, Germany.

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