Cover from Austria no. 6

A lovely Christmas greeting from Florian in Austria, with a special postmark (Sonderstempel) from Christkindl dated 30 December 2010. The cover has another postmark too, from the previous day, from the post office of Ilz (8262) in Styria. The Christmas stamp, which is connected with the Cistercian abbey in Rein also in Styria, was issued on 19/11/2010 in 4,000,000 copies. Apart from that, the Austrian post issued two more Advent/Christmas stamps, one of them self-adhesive.

Danke schon, Florian!!

Cover from Austria no. 5

A splendid cover sent by Florian from Austria. It flied by balloon post between Pinkafeld and Riedlingsdorf in Burgenland on 16 October 2010 (there is such a flight every year in Austria, in 2010 it was the 21st, to raise funds for children cancer research). The 0.55 euro stamp, issued on 14 June 2010, commemorates the 100th anniversary of the second alpine spring water system (Vienna public water main), the 0.10 euro laburnum definitive was issued in 2007.

The special postmark used in Pinkafeld commemorates not only the 21. Ballonpostfahrt (balloon flight), but also the 1150th anniversary of Pinkafeld. The other postmark is of Riedlingsdorf (postal code 7422) at the other end of the journey.

Thank you so much, Florian!!

Postcard from Austria no. 2

A postcard sent from Graz, Austria, on 7 December 2009, showing the map of Austria and the coats of arms of its regions (only the descriptions of the neighbouring countries are a bit out of date, there is no Czechoslovakia or Jugoslavia any more).

The impressive 65 eurocent stamp (issued on 2 September 2009, in 900,000 copies) commemorates the 60th anniversary of releasing The Third Man (Der Dritten Mann), a film noir directed by Carol Reed, which took place in the bombed out Vienna and its sewers (famous chase scene). The film won the Cannes Film Grand Prix in 1949. Thank you, Anita!

Cover from Austria no. 4

This Austrian cover is a real beauty! It was sent from the village of Christkindl in Upper Austria, whose post-office celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Apart from the special Nativity postmark with the date 28 November 2009, the pictorial cover (in fact one side of a large folded picture) features another lovely postmark with the same date commemorating the 20th special delivery by a historic coach from the village of Garsten to Christkindl (if I understand correctly the German text), which was attended also by tenor Josef Oberauer. The stamp of 65 eurocent is this year's Austrian Advent stamp issued on 6 November 2003, another beauty in itself, showing the snowy Alpine landscape of the Ranui im Vilnösstal, Südtirol (northern Italy).

Thank you very much, Florian!!

Postcard from Austria no. 1

A postcard we sent to ourselves from a trip to Vienna to see the city centre and the pre-Advent Market beneath the spires of the Rathaus. As usual, I found a minute to send back home a card, but had to hunt for a stamp because the newsagents in the city don't sell any. Invariably, I was sent to the post-office... which I luckily found, but as it was Saturday afternoon, the big philatelic counter was closed. Finally, I managed to buy a Christmas stamp, issued on 9 November 2007 and showing an icon from St. Barbara Church in the centre of Vienna, in fact a stone's throw from the central post-office. I dropped the card in an ordinary post-box in a street near Hundertwasser houses, and am surprised that it did not receive any automatic treatment and was cancelled by hand (if I did this here in the Czech Rep., the stamp would be "killed" by ugly black wavy lines of automatic cancellation). Apart from all this, I am really looking for further visits, Vienna definitely has its charms:-)

Cover from Austria no. 3

On 22 April 2009 I received this very special cover from Austria. At first it was a mystery for me, but after some detective work I've found out that the larger yellow stamp is a "meine Marke", personalised stamp ordered with the Austrian Post. It was issued on 7 April 2009 in 100(!) pieces and it commemorates the 300th anniversary of postal service in Poysdorf in Lower Austria, a town close to the border with the Czech Republic which I've visited on a couple of occasions. Besides the stamp (and a nice definitive from 2003 showing Worthersee in Carinthia), there is a special cancellation of 18 April 2009 commemorating the same event and a special delivery with a "postbus". The only remaining mystery is the postmark of Poysbrunn, a village near Poysdorf, but I assume it was one of the stops of the postbus...

Florian, thank you very much!!!

Cover from Austria no. 2

Yesterday, on 15 December 2008, I received this great letter from Florian from Graz, Austria, with two Austrian EUROPA stamps. Both stamps are singles, i.e. are part of no series, there are no modifications between stamps issued in booklets and in sheets. Both have the print-run of 800,000 and were issued in June: the letter-writing stamp on 8 June 2008 and the scouting stamp on 16 June 2007, and both are a great addition to my collection:-) Thanks!

FDC from Austria

An FDC sent to me on the date of issue from Vienna by Florian. Thank you! Koloman Moser was an important figure in the Austrian art world at the turn of the 20th century. A very versatile artist associated with Austrian modern (and the names like Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt), he also designed stamps as well as books, stained glass and furniture.

The stamp has a nice Art Noveau retro-feel and I think the whole FDC is very well designed.