Club News

 

Rainbow Stampp News February 2026

Dear Reader,

I am pleased to release February 2026 issue of Rainbow Stamp News. It is available at the following link :

https://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.com/2026/02/rainbow-february-2026.html

Club News

 

Rainbow Stamp News September 2023

Dear Reader,

I am pleased to release September 2023 issue of Rainbow Stamp News. It is available at the following link :

https://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.com/2023/09/rainbow-september-2023.html

Heroes of the Covid Pandemic

 

To be issued on 23 March 2022

Royal Mail will issue a set of 8 stamps to commemorate the Heroes of COVID Pandemic on 23 March 2022. The postcards with the same stamp designs will also be issued.

In Spring 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Royal Mail Chief Executive, Simon Thompson launched a special stamp design competition. School children from across the UK were invited to design a postage stamp featuring their own hero or heroes of the Covid pandemic. The response was unprecedented, with surplus 600,000 children taking part.

With over a world record-breaking 600,000 entries, Royal Mail carefully selected 120 regional finalists. From this, a special panel of judges, including the Prime Minister, picked 24 regional winners. The final eight winning designs, were personally selected by HRH The Prince of Wales, with the finished stamps approved by HM The Queen.

Postcards

Love is in the air....

The Love We Deserve....

Date of Issue : 6 February 2020

Here are four beautiful stamps issued by PHL Post for this year's Valentine's day featuring universality of Love.

PHLPost promotes universal love with new heart shaped Valentine’s Day Stamps

MANILA – The Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) releases stamps featuring the digital art rendition of “Valentine’s Day 2020 – The Love We Deserve” special stamps using the popular character of the human heart that signify emotions, including love.

We see the familiar symbol of love everywhere — from eating heart-shaped chocolates to sending text messages to a special someone with the iconic heart of the popular “emoji” or symbols.

Entitled “The Love We Deserve”, the four heart-shaped designs show the values important to contemporary society, focusing on current issues.

It presents the idea that love transcends romance, taking on the many other definitions of love with an open mindset.

Each of the four topics represents a creed: Love Nature, Love for Country, Love Knows No Gender, and Love Yourself. This issue deviates from the usual way Valentine’s Day stamps are depicted and is intended to touch on subjects the public – especially the youth – can both relate to and reflect on.

The four heart-shaped stamp designs such as the environment themed “Love Nature” takes on the color green, with a background of a tree that symbolizes life; the nationalistic themed “Love of Country” where the color and design of the Philippine flag and map are reflected in the background while little doves fly around to symbolize peace and love; the “Love Knows No Gender” stamp theme indicates that Love has no sexuality, race, skin tone, color or gender and lastly; the stamp giving emphasis on “Loving Yourself”, inspiring people to have self-respect, a positive self-image, and unconditional self-acceptance.

The magenta/purple inspired color illustrates a person holding one’s head high.

Considered as one of the most awaited Philatelic releases, this year’s Valentine’s Day stamps were designed by PHLPost in-house graphic artist Irma Jane Junio, deviating from the usual romance theme but focused more on the universality of love.

Read More...

My recent covers

Cover from Croatia

Stamp and Cover with Rainbow

Received  these beautiful philatelic items from Zeljko Vasilik, Croatia .

Thank you so much Zeljko for all these items.You have added a new feather to my Rainbow collection ! Many Many thanks

Commemorative Cover

150th Birh Anniversary of Kasturba Gandhi

Thanks to Rahul Ganguli, Allahabad.

My Recent Covers

Covers from Germany

Rainbow Fragment

 The most beautiful Registered covers from Germany with Rainbow stamps and Rainbow Cancellation I received from my friend Mr Wolfgang Beyer ! This is the best philatelic item on Rainbow I ever received..... 

A big "Thank You" to Mr Wolfgang Beyer for this wonderful item for my Rainbow collection!!

Pre Stamped envelopes on "Rainbow" Birds

Australia – Pre Stamped Envelopes – Birds - Rainbow Lorikeet

PSE Envelope 004      Date of Issue 11 Sep 1978

Australia has issued nearly 478 Pre Stamped Envelopes from 1913 till Feb 2017. the numbering on envelopes was started on 11  Sep 1978 with the Bird definitives.
The rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus) is a species of parrot found in Australia. It is common along the eastern seaboard, from northern Queensland to South Australia. Its habitat is rainforest, coastal bush and woodland areas.

The rainbow Lorikeet is unmistakable with its bright red beak and colourful plumage. Both sexes look alike, with a blue (mauve) head and belly, green wings, tail and back, and an orange/yellow breast. They are often seen in loud and fast-moving flocks, or in communal roosts at dusk.

Australia – Pre Stamped Envelopes – Birds – Gouldian Finch or Rainbow Finch

The Gouldian finch (Erythrura  gouldiae), also known as the Lady Gouldian finch, Gould’s finch or the rainbow finch, is a colourful passerine bird endemic to Australia. There is strong evidence of a continuing decline, even at the best-known site near Katherine in the Northern Territory. Large numbers are bred in captivity.

PSE Envelope 001        Date of Issue 11 Sep 1978

:  Raman - Delhi

Beautiful America..

O Beautiful !

US Postal Service will issue a set of 20 stamps featuring beautiful  America. With the release of O Beautiful, the Postal Service commemorates the beauty and majesty of the United States through images that correspond with one of the nation’s most beloved songs, “America the Beautiful.”. One of the stamps features a double Rainbow.

Stamp on Marriage equality by Canada Post

Date of Issue : 9 May 2017

Canada Post unveiled a stamp commemorating the 2005 passage of the Civil Marriage Act, which made marriage equality the law throughout Canada. Grassroots activists, government officials and community members attended the unveiling, catching the first glimpse of the new stamp, which features the iconic rainbow symbol. The unveiling was held at and in partnership with The 519, a City of Toronto agency committed to the health, happiness and full participation of LGBTQ communities.

The marriage equality stamp is the fourth in a set of 10 that Canada Post is issuing to celebrate Canada’s 150th year since Confederation.

Marriage equality debate takes centre stage

In early 2001, the battle for the right to marry took centre stage, after Reverend Brent Hawkes married two same-sex couples in a ceremony in Toronto. When the City refused to issue marriage licenses for these unions, it set off a series of heated court battles and public debate. The legal challenges culminated on June 10, 2003, when the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling that prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying was a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Within hours of the decision, Michael Leshner and Michael Stark were married in Toronto, the first same-sex couple to wed after the legislation.

Similar court battles were also taking place in provinces across the country, and more provincial courts issued rulings legalizing marriage equality: B.C. in July 2003, followed by Quebec, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia in 2004. Finally, on July 20, 2005, the government of Canada passed the federal legislation that legalized marriage equality across the country, making Canada the fourth country in the world and the first outside of Europe to grant same-sex couples the right to marry the one they loved.

Today, with support continuing to grow across the globe, more than 20 countries have legalized same‑sex marriage on the national level. 

Otto Waalkes: Colorful greeting from the Ottifant

Date of Issue : 1 March 2017

Otto Gerhard Waalkes is a Frisian comedian and actor. He became famous in the 1970s and 1980s in Germany with his shows, books and movies. His perhaps most famous trademark are the 'Ottifanten', elephant-like comic characters of his own design.

Otto Waalkes: Colorful greeting from the Ottifant

Otto Waalkes - Gray Ottifant brings color to the post No matter how gray a day is - Ottifanten make it even more gray! The trademark of Otto Waalkes encourages fans of the cult comedian and now also the customers of the German Post. From the new special mark, the smuggler laughs and addressees under a colorful rainbow and blue sky. Thus the Ottifant conquered Germany and brought a piece of his creator Otto to your post. Otto has been on the stage for more than 50 years and makes people laugh. His comic figure, the Ottifant, is as famous as himself - and looks almost the same.

For the Ottifant actually started as a self-portrait. Even before Otto studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, he painted almost every day. As a young man he invented the Ottifanten when he wanted to draw himself: "I always tried to draw myself in the profile myself. But the nose was too long for me, and everyone thought of being an elephant. Then I continued to try them out, the whole thing was extended to the trunk, pointed toe and stub legs drawn and the figure named after me: Ottifant! "The Ottifant has meanwhile made an efficient career. Not only did he become the hero of various comic strips, in 1993 the private RTL also broadcast the series "Ottis Ottifanten". On average, 2.1 million viewers watched. In 2001 the series came as a "commando Störtebecker" even on the cinema. The only one who still has more Ottifanten at home than the fans is Otto himself: "Nothing is more free from Ottifanten. They are just everywhere! On my floor-mats, in my wardrobe, on my windowsill, in my paintings, on my t-shirts, even in my signature. "The Ottifant is now even in the mailbox after newspapers, television and cinema Stamp.

Source : Deutsche Post

Stamp with Rainbow colors

The Pride

Date of Issue : 4 May 2016

Here is a stamp from Swedish Post featuring Rainbow Pride Flag . Though the stamp is on a controversial theme but the stamp is beautiful featuring Rainbow colors for my collection.

The rainbow flag, commonly the gay pride flag and LGBT pride flag, is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements. (Other uses of rainbow flags include a symbol of peace.) The colors reflect the diversity of the LGBT community, and the flag is often used as a symbol of gay pride when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights marches. It originated in Northern California, but is now used worldwide.

Designed by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978, the design has undergone several revisions to first remove then re-add colors due to widely available fabrics.As of 2008, the most common variant consists of six stripes, with the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. The flag is commonly flown horizontally, with the red stripe on top, as it would be in a natural rainbow.

--When Lisa Rydell was given the assignment to design the Pride stamp, the typography was the major challenge.

“The flag is just as it was since 1979 when the six colors were established and could not be changed. After a lot of discussions, we landed on a solution where the texts SVERIGE and BREV rest on the lower part of the red and orange bands. The lines add a calming, stable influence to the composition,” she says.

In the summer of 2014, Lisa Rydell took one of her creative, long walks at home and came up with the idea of a stamp with the Pride move- ment’s famous symbol as a motif.

“It just hit me that the rainbow flag would be the perfect motif on a stamp. I sent in the proposal to PostNord and it was accepted. That I was then given the opportunity to work with the design was a pleasant surprise.”

Her interest in stamps as a piece of art and message conveyor emerged 20 years ago when she was studying graphic design at Beckmans College of Design.

“Our teacher gave us an assignment to de- sign a stamp. It was fantastically inspiring and educational. Making a stamp was immediately added to my bucket list,” she says. 

Culture and fashion

Eventually, Lisa Rydell became a freelancer, and she had a long assignment at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, where she was responsible for the design and production of the exhibition posters.

During her career she continued to take on design jobs for the cultural sphere, including book design.

Send love greetings

Stamps are a reflection of today’s Sweden, where diversity is a given. Therefore, PostNord issue a stamp with Pride flag.

– By issuing a postage stamp with Pride flag, we want to stress the equal value and strength of people’s unique characteristics and differences. Pride flag has to our knowledge never been reproduced on a stamp before, and it feels great that it is now possible to send love greetings with Pride flag, says Per Ljungberg, head of the Communications Department, PostNord Sweden. 

Source : WOPA

The First Olympic 10 of Gymnastics - 40 years of perfection in gymnastics

40 years of perfection in gymnastics - 1976 - 2016


“Hard work made everything easy ! That’s my secret!”
- Nadia Comaneci

Every nation has its great values, and Romania has an impressive number of personalities of which it is proud, and whose achievements have crossed the borders of the country. One of these figures is the world‘s largest gymnast Nadia Comaneci. To express the special honor to this great sportsman Romfilatelia has introduced a special stamp and two bright souvenir sheets making sport lovers and not only, relive the excitement of that day of July 18th, 1976, when a child changed a world, Nadia Comaneci.

Nadia Comaneci’s achievements have revolutionized world gymnastics and thus she entered history as the best Romanian athlete of all time that was submitted to the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1993.

On July 18th, 1976, a 14 year old gymnast from Romania surprised the sports world with an unrivaled performance: “absolute” 10 at the Summer Olympics in Montreal. The electronic display was not programmed to show grade 10, because there were only three spaces to show the grade, so that the screen showed grade 1.00. Nadia Comaneci got, on this edition of the Olympic Games, the perfect score, winning three gold medals in the individual all-around, balance beam and uneven bars, one silver medal with the team and one bronze for the floor routine.

“Nobody knows when exactly they enter history. There is no specialty manual in the field, to tell you how to deal with the moment. As I was the last to compete in the uneven bars, I immediately started to warm up for the beam. While I was doing warm ups for the beam, the electronic board displayed the grade. A 1.00. I kept warming up, ignoring what had happened, focused on the next exercise. Béla came near me and I asked him: Is it really a 10, Sir? His smile widened from ear to ear and he said yes”, Nadia recalls with nostalgia.

The stamp and the two souvenir sheets of the issue suggestively illustrate the moment of July 18th, 1976, when Olympic gymnastics attained perfection through the performance of a 14 year old child, who dominated by her impeccable technique. The illustrated sleeve of the souvenir sheet features in the background the word ten in the six official UN languages – English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese. The image of the 14 year old child is brought into the present by the current image of the champion. The two souvenir sheets bring philatelists the gift of two premieres – a symbolical run printing of 2016 pcs., suggesting the marking in 2016 of 40 years of perfection in gymnastics, as well as two types of special paper with security features that the two souvenir sheets are printed on.

The First Olympic 10 of Gymnastics - 40 years of perfection in gymnastics

40 years of perfection in gymnastics - 1976 - 2016


“Hard work made everything easy ! That’s my secret!”
- Nadia Comaneci

Every nation has its great values, and Romania has an impressive number of personalities of which it is proud, and whose achievements have crossed the borders of the country. One of these figures is the world‘s largest gymnast Nadia Comaneci. To express the special honor to this great sportsman Romfilatelia has introduced a special stamp and two bright souvenir sheets making sport lovers and not only, relive the excitement of that day of July 18th, 1976, when a child changed a world, Nadia Comaneci.

Nadia Comaneci’s achievements have revolutionized world gymnastics and thus she entered history as the best Romanian athlete of all time that was submitted to the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1993.

On July 18th, 1976, a 14 year old gymnast from Romania surprised the sports world with an unrivaled performance: “absolute” 10 at the Summer Olympics in Montreal. The electronic display was not programmed to show grade 10, because there were only three spaces to show the grade, so that the screen showed grade 1.00. Nadia Comaneci got, on this edition of the Olympic Games, the perfect score, winning three gold medals in the individual all-around, balance beam and uneven bars, one silver medal with the team and one bronze for the floor routine.

“Nobody knows when exactly they enter history. There is no specialty manual in the field, to tell you how to deal with the moment. As I was the last to compete in the uneven bars, I immediately started to warm up for the beam. While I was doing warm ups for the beam, the electronic board displayed the grade. A 1.00. I kept warming up, ignoring what had happened, focused on the next exercise. Béla came near me and I asked him: Is it really a 10, Sir? His smile widened from ear to ear and he said yes”, Nadia recalls with nostalgia.

The stamp and the two souvenir sheets of the issue suggestively illustrate the moment of July 18th, 1976, when Olympic gymnastics attained perfection through the performance of a 14 year old child, who dominated by her impeccable technique. The illustrated sleeve of the souvenir sheet features in the background the word ten in the six official UN languages – English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese. The image of the 14 year old child is brought into the present by the current image of the champion. The two souvenir sheets bring philatelists the gift of two premieres – a symbolical run printing of 2016 pcs., suggesting the marking in 2016 of 40 years of perfection in gymnastics, as well as two types of special paper with security features that the two souvenir sheets are printed on.

Club News : Celebrating Century Issue of Rainbow Stamp News

Celebrating 100^th issue of Rainbow Stamp News  

Hi !

I am pleased to write that Rainbow Stamp News completes 100 issues this month. I have just uploaded 100th issue (April 2016)  on Blog. It is available at following link :

http://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.in/2016/04/rainbow-april-2016-issue-n-100.html

http://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.in/  ( Indian Readers )

http://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.com/ ( Overseas Readers)

New stamps from India

 

Children’s Day  - 14 November 2015

India Post released a set of two stamps in denomination of Rs 5 & Rs 25 and a Miniature sheet on the occasion of Children’s Day.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. - 16 November 2016

India Post released another  stamp on 16th November Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), owned by the Government of India, is a power plant equipment manufacturer and operates as an engineering and manufacturing company based in New Delhi, India. Established in 1964, BHEL is India's largest engineering and manufacturing company of its kind. The company has been earning profits continuously since 1971-72 and paying dividends uninterruptedly since 1976-77.

Image courtesy –  Madhukar Jhingan : Stamps of India

My Rainbow Cover..

Cover from Finland

Hi ! Today I received a beautiful card from Finland sent by Kristina. The card bears most beautiful stamps from Finland stamp set ‘Signs of Sky’. One of these stamps    features rainbow.Other two stamps depict sun and cloud These stamps are self adhesive and cut into shape . Thank you very much Kristina for this lovely card with these magnificent stamps. But you have not given your address on the card. Please mail me your address So that I can send you a nice cover from India and convey my  thanks to you for this wonderful card. It is a gem for my rainbow collection !!

Signs of the sky

25th Anniv. of the fall of the Berlin Wall

 

Date of Issue: August 28, 2014​

Here is beautiful miniature sheet featuring Rainbow issued by Post of Vatican City to commemorate  25th Anniv. of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

 

25th Anniv. of the fall of the Berlin Wall

The fall of the Berlin Wall during the night of the 9th and 10th of November 1989 marked a very joyous and unimaginable surprise for the inhabitants of East and West Berlin. For 28 years this border strip was strictly patrolled by technical and military means, dividing the city and conditioning the lives of its inhabitants. The Wall suddenly became passable even for the people of East Berlin as a result of the “Peaceful Revolution”. Beginning in 1975, the white wall of reinforced concrete visible from the west and the complex system of border fortifications became the defining image of the divided city, a symbol of the Cold War. The irreversible process of the city’s reunification began in the days following November 9th when the border troops of the German Democratic Republic, accompanied by jubilant Berliners, started to remove individual segments of the Wall to create more crossing points. Beginning in March 1990, before the German Democratic Republic began to remove the 45 thousand wall segments, Berliners themselves started the demolition process. Even the night the Wall was opened, they brought out their own hammers and chisels to start removing the first small fragments. In the autumn of 1990, the last sections of the Wall were saved to be kept as a monument. Today it is difficult to notice the past division of the city. Only a small section of the border strip and segments of the wall are kept as a historical monument inside the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer street.

Manfred Wichmann, Berlin Wall Foundation

The Philatelic Office  commemorated the event with a postage stamp showing a beautiful photo of those historic days taken by photographer Michael-Reiner Ernst in memory of all those who helped bring down the wall. A miniature sheet was also issued featuring the names of the 138 persons who died attempting to cross the border, according to research conducted by the Berlin Wall Foundation.

News Courtesy – Kasinath R. - Tanjore

Club News

 

Inauguration of Philately Training Hall at Postal Training Centre, Vadodara - 4th September 2014.

The Postal Training Centre, Vadodara is a premier Training Centre of Department of Posts that runs high quality training programmes for postal personnel. The Centre was established in 1962 to impart training to Postal Employees in order to enhance the efficiency of the department by training the officials in various fields. The training centre is imparting training to the employees of various postal circles like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh etc. As a part of various training programs, Postal Training Center is also conducting lectures on various aspects of philately and philatelic workshops, mock philatelic exhibitions for postal employees with the help of members of Baroda Philatelic Society.

Brig. Sanjeev Thapar, Chief Postmaster General, Gujarat Circle inaugurated new Philately Training Hall at Postal Training Centre, Vadodara on 4th September 2014 in presence of Shri B. B. Dave, Postmaster General, Vadodara Region, Shri Ganesh Savaleshwarkar, Director, Postal Training Centre, Vadodara, Smt. Sucheta Joshi, Director, Postal Services, Vadodara, Shri Prashant Pandya, President, Baroda Philatelic Society, Shri Timir R. Shah, Hon. Secretary, Baroda Philatelic Society and other dignitaries and staff members of India Post, Postal Training Centre and members of Baroda Philatelic Society.

New Philately Training Hall has been decorated with blowups of commemorative stamps and equipped with Audio Visual equipments. 10 Specially designed attractive philatelic frames have been permanently installed on the walls of the hall. Each frame can house 8 exhibit sheets (1/2 frame). In total 5 Frame exhibits can be exhibited in these frames. Permanent display of exhibits will be arranged in these frames for the benefits of postal trainees. Permanent display of exhibits in regular philatelic frame is also planned in near future.

Courtesy –  Prashant Pandya

 

Flags - Short Hand of History - An exhibition on the Indian National Flag

 

Rabindranath Tagore Centre - Kolkata, the cultural flagship of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Ministry of External Affairs presented (from August 14 to August 24, 2014) in its Horizon Series a unique exhibition on the Indian National Flag in commemoration of the 68th anniversary of its adoption, curated by Sekhar Chakrabarti. The exhibition was inaugurated by Sri Jayanta Sengupta, Curator, Victoria Memorial Hall, Prof. Bharati Roy, Member of the Governing Council, ICCR was the Guest of Honour. There were many visitors thronged the gallery almost all day long. On popular demand the closing date of the exhibition was extended up to 24th August. Local news papers and TV channels also covered the events. Many visitors mentioned that this type of exhibition should be taken to all other cities of India so that general people may get the opportunity to know the history of the National Flag more intimately. It was a grand success.

The exhibition, which was the first of its kind by the ICCR, featured a rich collection of the Indian National Flag symbol on myriad objects sourced from a plethora of articles, such as postage stamps, coins, currency notes, medals, old news paper articles and advertisements, book covers and various other artifacts like, matchbox labels, 78 RPM gramophone records, propaganda leaflets, etc. that were pieced together to reconstruct the history and evolution of the Indian National Flag. The exhibits explored and celebrated the rich history of our Flag and the process by which it was born on 22nd July 1946.

 

Club News

 

Rainbow Stamp News September 2014

Hi !

I have just published September 2014 issue of Rainbow Stamp News on Blog. It is available on following link :

http://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.in/2014/08/rainbow-september-2014.html

If you find any problem in opening the link please try following links :

http://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.in/  ( Indian Readers )

http://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.com/ ( Overseas Readers )

Signs of the Sky on new Finnish stamps …

 

Finnish Post will issue a set of eight 1st class  stamps featuring signs of sky on 8 September 2014. These beautiful stamps are in different shapes depicting star, rainbow, cloud, earth, moon, sun, lightning, celestial body (Saturn). In fact the designer has  tried to give the shape of the particular sky sign to the stamp. The stamps are unique and could be used in several themes. Thanks to Mr Kasinath of Tanjore who  sent info about these beautiful stamps.

 

Sweet Summer Stamps

Here is an other beautiful set, issued by Finnish Post on 5th May featuring sweet summer. The themes include sunsets, lakes and the sea, fields, and forests. With beautiful pics oh stamps the  photographer, Janne Gröning wants to relay relaxing and therapeutic nature experiences to all who cannot or do not have the time to visit nature themselves.

Date of Issue : 5 May 2014