
Welcome to the CartoPhilatelic Society |
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Celebrating our 54th Year as a Society. Come and Join Us! |
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| The CartoPhilatelic Society has now entered our 54th year as a Society! In 1955 a group of philatelists with a keen interest in map stamps founded the CartoPhilatelic Society. Today we carry on their passion for map stamps in the collections we assemble and the research we conduct. Come and join us as we look forward to the next 50 years! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Web Site Last Updated: May 4, 2009
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Recent web site updates, for May 4, 2009
The April 2009 issue of the NCP has been dispatched to members . Our 25th issue begins with a fascinating article by Society Member Volker Woesner examining the colonies and territories of Great Britain through stamps. Thomas Lera and Miklos Pinther provide some background information about the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum. An in-depth look at the map stamps of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands is presented by our Editor, Martin Oakes. Martin has also compiled some results to a survey about whether or not the Society's Maps on Stamps Checklist could be converted from its current form, to a database format. Feedback from the survey showed limited interest, so a database format will not be offered at this time.
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Post Danmark has announced the forth coming issue of a set of four (4) map stamps depicting old maps of Denmark to mark the 23rd biennial International Conference on the History of Cartography (ICHC) which will be held in Copenhagen from July 12 to July 17, 2009. The set comprises of 1 portrait and 3 landscape oriented designs, in denominations of DK 5.50, 6.50, 10.50 and 17.00. The old maps shown on the stamps |
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Denmark Old Maps Set of 4 June 2009 ICHC (not to scale) |
are of significant historical cartographic importance and depict Denmark at different periods throughout history. The maps shown are by Johannes Mejer (1650) Marcus Jordan (1585), Abraham Ortelius (1570) and Danish Royal Academy of Sciences first official map of Denmark, Videnskabernes Selskab (1841).
The overall theme of this year's ICHC is "Maps, Myths and Narratives:Cartography of the Far North."
[ special thanks go to Mark Honig, Dan Nelson and David Wolfersberger for alerting us to this new issue and for providing some of the background information. at the time of this update, there appears to be a discrepancy in the denominations shown on the press images and the smaller images shown on the Post Danmark web site. we are checking into this issue. this could very well be the most important cartophilatelic issue of 2009. more information will be updated once the stamps are available for purchase on the Post Danmark web site. please contact us with any additional information. -- web admin. ]
Royal Mail has issued a set of new stamps and a souvenir sheet to commorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. The stamps also mark the 150th anniversary, November 24, 1859, of the publication of Darwin's "On The Origin of Species." The new set of stamps feature a unique jigsaw puzzle type of design for each stamp to demonstrate how the various areas of Darwin’s studies zoology, botany, geology, ornithology and anthropology came together to form his theory of Natural Selection.
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Great Britain Darwin Galapagos Miniature Sheet - Feb. 12, 2009
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Cuba has issued a new stamp depecting Darwin's voyage in the HMS Beagle. A world map with the route is shown in this new issue. If anyone has more information on this issue, please let us know.
[ There must be other countries which may be issuing similar Darwin Commerative Stamps. Please send us any information on new issues. -- web admin. ]
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Estonia, Johan Laidoner, Feb 12, 2009 |
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Estonia, Battle of Paju Manor, Jan 29, 2009 |
Three stamps in the Royal Mail March 10th 2009 Pioneers of the Industrial Revolution issue contain distinctive background maps. The stamps, shown below, feature portraits of James Brindley, master canal builder, John McAdam, a Scottish engineer who pioneered the building of hard-surface roads and Matthew Boulton, engineer and craftsman who invented labor-saving tools and emphasized rights for workers. This is the bicentennial of Boulton's death in 1809. The three stamps from the set of eight are in denominations of GB 0.72 and "1st" class mail.
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Great Britain March 10, 2009 Pioneers of the Industrial Revolution |
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The Netherlands has issued a set of stamps to mark the International Year of Astronomy (IYA 2009). The set of two stamps features a map surrounding the Netherlands marking the location of the LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) radio telescopes which are distributed across the Netherlands and other neighboring countries. The LOFAR system uses a large number of relatively cheap, omni-directional dipole antennas without any moving parts, concentrated in stations. The stamp shown on the right depicts the image of a lens crafted by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens. The date, 3 February 1655 is inscribed along with an image of Saturn and what appears to be the phrase "Luna Saturni" - moon of Saturn. The date may indicate when Huygens described the first of Saturn's moon, later named by John Herschel as Titan, or when Huygens released his proposal that Saturn was surrounded by a solid ring, "a thin, flat ring, nowhere touching, and inclined to the ecliptic." Huygens did not openly report his discovery about the rings and new moon, but instead disguised his report using the line from the Roman poet Ovidius, "They brought the distant stars to our eyes," which is also inscribed on the actual lens that Huygens made. The diameter of the 57 mm lens is shown in the top selvedge. The stamps are arranged tete-beche in sheets of 10. The map design continues on the upper and lower selvedge.
IYA 2009 has a special task group to handle the philatelic issues and even more exciting, the Europa-CEPT issues for 2009 will also be following the IYA 2009 theme. A number of links and images are available. At this time it seems difficult to say how many terrestrial maps may be featured on the IYA 2009 stamps, but a number of star charts appear to be forth-coming.

| A press-release and calendar of philatelic release dates is also available. |
| Some additional links of Interest for IPY 2009 are: |
| Ian Ridpath's Astro Stamp index: http://www.ianridpath.com/stamps/stampindex.htm |
| Maiken Naylor's SCI-PHILATELY: http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/exhibits/stamps/ |
| ATA - Astronomy Study Unit: http://www.astronomystudyunit.com/ |
[ Mark Honig, the Society's European Representative and "resident astronomer" supplied this information and will be keeping us informed of any additional issues of CartoPhilatelic importance. -- web admin]
Our Society has gained more recognition with an outstanding reivew of "America on the Map" in the January issue of the American Philatelist.
"Love maps? Love stamps? Then this collection of eleven essays was written for you."
The reivew highlights background concept of Waldseemuller's map and briefly describes some of the chapters in the book, and concludes by saying that "America on the Map" is a ".. most enjoyable reading expericence."
Congratulations again for the Editor, Miklos, and all of the writers who contributed to making the Society's First Occasonal Publication so successful!
"America on the Map" is availabe for purchase, anyone who is interested. Please see the OC page for more information.

Over the past few months, our web site administrator has been setting up and testing an online forum for our members. The forum may be thought of as an online meeting place where members can ask questions, share information and participate in open discussions. All of these activities are carried out by using the standard web browser on your computer. Current members can visit the site and complete the online registration. When you register, please use your CartoPhilatelic Society membership name, in the format of GivenName FamilyName. Be sure to include the space between your names when you create your account. You may pick a password of your choice. After registering, your membership status will be verified before being activated. The forum provides a level of security between the membership and the non-member users. Currently non-members are only allowed to see a very small section of the forum. The majority of categories and information is found in the members only section. The forum will provide a unique environment for our members to interact with each other more easily than through email. For users unfamiliar with an online forum it may take some getting used to, but please feel free to experiment or ask questions. A few members have been testing it out for the past couple of months, and we are now ready to invite our current members to join the forum if they desire.
A new buy or trade request has been posted to the CartoPhilatelic Exchange. Please check your stock and help a fellow member by finding these items. The CartoPhilatelic Exchange is a great place for member to post your For Sale and Wanted ads. Place see the Exchange page for more information.
The entire PDF archive of the Society's original Journal, the CartoPhilatelist is now complete. Details on how to get your copy are in the April 2006 (No. 13) issue of the NCP. This all-digital archive provides a wealth of research material about cartophilately and the founding and growth of our Society. More information will be forthcoming on the web-site.
The Society publishes a quarterly journal, The New CartoPhilatelist, which is free to all members. The first issue was published in April 2003.
Be sure to check out the Maps on Stamps Checklist, and CP Index, two ongoing projects of the Society.
New members are always welcome.
We are proudly affiliated with the American Philatelic Society and the American Topical Association