Christmas Island Marks 50th External Territorial Anniversary

Japan Issue Marks Award of First Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize

On May 23, 2008 Japan Post issued a pair of stamps marking the first award of the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize. The prize honors men and women "with outstanding achievements in the fields of medical research and medical services to combat infectious and other diseases in Africa, thus contributing to the health and welfare of the African people and of all humankind." Born in 1876, Noguchi suffered a serious burn on his left hand as a very young

		Japan 1949 sc480 Cultural Personalities Series
		Current 1000 Yen Banknote

child. It was not until entering elementary school that Noguchi was able to seek advanced medical treatment, with the help of donations from his teacher and classmates, for the prior injury. With the surgery Noguchi regained about 70% mobility of his left hand. The medical treatment had a profound experience on Noguchi, and it was then that he decided to become a doctor to help others, and make the medical profession his life dream. In 1900 Noguchi traveled to the United States to work as a researcher at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. During this time Noguchi carried out research related to poisonous snakes, smallpox and yellow-fever vaccines. His most prominent achievement was in 1913 when he isolated the bacteria which causes the Syphilis disease. Noguchi traveled extensively in Central and South America and Africa. While in the Gold Coast (currently Ghana) region of Africa in 1928, to prove his theory that yellow fever was caused by a spirochaete bacteria instead of a virus, Noguchi tragically contracted yellow fever and died.

On May 28, 2008 the first recipients of the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize received their awards at the 4th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Conference. Dr. Miriam K. Were of Kenya and Dr. Brian Greenwood of the UK each received a citation, medal and honorarium of approximately US$ 1M for their dedicated work in medical services and medical research, respectively.

The first Japanese stamp to feature Noguchi was from the set of 1949 Cultural Personalities, Scott # 480 (above, top right). Noguchi's portrait is also used on the 2004 issue (current circulation series) 1000 Yen banknote of Japan (above, bottom right).

Portugal Marks 500th Anniversary of the City of Funchal

On April 15, 2008 CTT Correios de Portugal, S.A. issued a group of stamps, souvenir sheets and maximum cards to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the Founding of Funchal, the capital city of Portugal's Madeira Islands. The islands, located about 950 km (580 miles) to the south west of Portugal, have a long and interesting history. Funchal, Madeira's capital

and the largest city of the islands, was an important port of call during the 16th century, between the Indies and the New World, and was known also for Madeiran sugar and wine. Funchal gets it name from the abundance of fennel, "funcho" in Portuguese that was growing in the area.

The set of 4 stamps have denominations of €0,30; €61; €75; €1,00. The left and right side of the stamps have a unique safety perforation. The souvenir sheets and maxi-cards (one of each shown on the right above) may also be of interest to fellow CartoPhilatelists. [ special thanks to our European Rep, Mark Honig for the images and new issue information. ]

French Issue Commemorating the Globes of Vincenzo Coronelli

On February 11, 2008 France's laPoste issued a spectacular new stamp commemorating the two of the globes which the famed Venetian cosmographer and globe maker Vincenzo Coronelli (1650-1718) created while in France, during the late 17th century. The globes of Coronelli (known as also Earths of Marly) are a pair of spheres, one terrestrial, the other celestial. Each globe is 3.87 meters in diameter and weighs about 2 tons. Coronelli was commissioned by the Cardinal d'Estraes to produce two globes. The celestial globe represents the state of the sky at Louis XIV’s birth, with paintings on a blue monochrome background. They were manufactured in Paris by Coronelli between 1681 and 1683 and presented to King Louis XIV. Originally they were intended to decorate the Palace of Versailles, however they seemed to be placed in the castle of Marly from 1703 to 1715 then stored in Paris until 1901. After 1901, it seems they were lost until 1970. The 0.85 Euro denomination stamp is for overseas use. We have been told the stamp was also sold in a souvenir sheet format of a single stamp, in a special package.

The globes were redisplayed in Paris in September 2005 to mark the reopening of the Grand Palais in Paris. From October 2006, the globes have been on display in the Western wing of the François Mitterrand National Library in Paris as part of a permanent exhibition on the history of cartography. The image on the right shows the setup of the globes for the exhibition at the Grand Palais in 2005.

During Coronelli's lifetime he produced many maps and globes, of which about 100 smaller globes are still in existence today in various museums and libraries throughout the world. In 1984 the US Library of Congress purchased a pair of large, terrestrial and celestial globes constructed in 1688 and 1693, respectively made by Coronelli. Each measures 110 cm in diameter and stands nearly two meters high on heavy mahogany stands. The terrestrial globe is noted for depicting California as an island. Extremely rare, they are the only complete pair of Coronelli globes in North America.

This is the second Coronelli globe to be featured on a stamp. Member Dan Nelson has told us that Austria sc1062 issued on June 17, 1977 to mark the 5th International Symposium of the International Coronelli Society for the Study of Globes, which was founded in Vienna in 1952. Members who have purchased the scanned Carto-Philatelist archive CDROM can learn more about Austria sc1062 in Volume 22. No3 pages 26-27. [ special thanks go to Dan Nelson for supplying the historical background information on this fascinating subject. Dan has also discoverd a miss-spelling on the stamp and is researching a write up for this error. more information will be sent shortly. while searching on the net a number of very interesting items came up. and there appear to be so many non-english pages too. i came across some background information which said the globes were made of wood and plaster. and after that i found a very interesting article presented about their care and preservation in 2007. if any of our members have any stories or pictures, please let us know. --web admin ]

Themes for the New CartoPhilatelist Journal (2008 - 2009)

Part of an author's challenge is knowing what to write about, so we have decided to adopt themes for the next several issues of the NCP and see if that will help provide our members with a bit of CartoPhilatelic inspiration! Of course this does not exclude articles on other cartophilatelic topics, which are always welcome in the NCP.

The themes for the forthcoming NCP Journals are:

• July 2008 "Up in the Air" satellites, eclipses, weather, air routes etc.
• October 2008 "Islands" Pacific, Bahamas, Indian Ocean etc.
• January 2009 "The Changing Earth", natural and human induced changes such as volcanoes, tectonic plates and political borders.
• April 2009 "Out of Africa" CartoPhilatelely related to Africa

Please email any questions or suggestions to our Editor, Martin Oakes. [now would be a perfect time to start doing some research on a forthcoming article for the NCP. Help support our Society, write an article! -- web admin]

Notes from the February 2nd 2008 Society Meeting in Sarasota

Austria Issues Map Themed European Championship Stamps

Our European Representative, Mark Honig, has sent us a number of new issue images. More details will be forth-coming later on these items. If you have any additional information, please pass that along to us.

Austria Post has issued a number of stamps to mark the upcoming European Championships, in June. There are other non-map related issues, so do check the Austrian Post Philately Shop if you are looking for a complete set.

Belarus Struve Geodetic Arc Souvenir Sheet

Russia, 1964 Struve Death Centenial

Here is an interesting souvineer sheet, shown below, from Belarus. The single stamp souvenir sheet commemorates the Struve Geodetic Arc, a project lasting from 1816-1855 by German-born Russian scientist Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve to determine the exact size and shape of the Earth. The original arc consisted of 258 triangulations with 265 station points. The arc passed through 10 countries and extended over 2800km, stretching from Norway to the Black Sea. Today, 34 of the original station points have been designated as a World Heritage Site. In 1964 Russia issued a stamp, shown on the right, marking the centenary of Struve's death in 1894. [ while researching this sheet, a lot of interesting history and web sites are available. one such site is dedicated to World Cultural Heritage as shown on stamps. ]

Two New Issues from North Africa

Algeria January 16, 2008 2008 Population Census	Tunisia March 23, 2008 World Meteorlogical Day 2008

On January 16th, 2008 Algeria Post issued a new stamp marking the launch of the fifth General Census of Population and Housing which will take place during 2008. The stamp depicts people and a map of Algeria in the background. To commemorate World Meteorlogical Day (March 23rd) 2008, Tunisia Post has issued a new stamp depicting a global image of the African contenient along with images of a satelliite, weather station, and other related items. [ two comprehensive multilingual guides to Tunisian philatelic issues can be found both here and here. -- web admin.]

French Southern Antarctic Territory (FSAT / TAAF) Island Issue

On January 16, 2008 French Southern Antarctic Territory (FSAT) / Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises issued a new 0.54€ stamp showing a map of Saint-Paul Island. The island, located in the southern Indian Ocean between Africa and Australia, at 38°43′19″S, 77°31′44″E The uninhabitted island is also devoid of trees. Similar in design to some of the previous FSAT island issues, this is a significant cartophilatelic issue. [ wikipedia.org has a brief overview and some nice links and locator maps available for the FSAT/TAAF region, as well as a developing page on Antarctic philately. Two other web sites in French about the Territory are the L'Institut polaire français Paul-Emile Victor , France's Polar Institue named after explorer Paul-Emil Victor. Also not to be missed is the Polar History page at http://www.south-pole.com --web admin ]

Issue Shows Pitcairn Island in Satellite Images

DigitalGlobe's QuickBird Satellite, shown on the right, provides ground sample distance resolutions of 61cm in panchoromatic mode and 2.44m in multispectral mode (measured at nadir). DigitalGlobe’s image library also houses comprehensive, up-to-date images of the world. Since 2002, the 952kg (2,100 pound) QuickBird satellite has collected imagery covering 340,000,000 square kilometers of land and sea, and collects approximately one million square kilometers of imagery each week. Each circular, self adhesive stamp is 38mm diameter and has simulated perforations. Denominations of the stamps are 60c, $1.00, $2.00 and $2.50 NZD. A first day cover is also available and has what looks to be a postmark depicting the QuickBird Satellite. [ Much of the satellite imagery found in the Google Earth program is supplied by DigitalGlobe. If you have not looked at Google Earth or Googe Maps, the imagery is very striking and it is enjoyable to "wander" about the globe looking at the images. Another very facinating web site devoted to the mapping of islands using satellite images is Peter Minton's EVS-Islands.com Peter is a teacher in southern California and teaches his students about digitizing, cartography and geography. Actively updated, evs-islands is a wonderful and well produced web site to visit. --web admin]

Submissions Deadline for TNCP #22

Our new editor, Martin Oakes, has fixed the deadline for submissions to The New CartoPhilatelist will be the 15th of June, 2008. The date for publication will be in early early July 2008.  Please see the Journal page and the section regarding Submissions. The theme of the July 2008 issue is "Up in the Air" satellites, eclipses, weather, air routes etc. Now would be a good time to check your collections for some interesting stamps and postal history items to write about. All submissions are welcome, even if they do not match the theme of the issue. Please contact Martin Oakes if you have any questions or are planning to make a submission.

CartoPhilatelic Society Web Forum Now Online

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.

Learn more about the forums...

Continued International Polar Year New Issues

More IPY stamps with maps are becoming known to members of the Society recently. The British Antarctic Terretory (BAT) issued a 2 GBP stamp to commemorate the work of the British Aantarctic Survey (BAS) during the IPY. The first circular stamp by the BAT, was issued on November 14, 2007 and depicts aspects of ice core gathering work in the border of this special souvenir while the circular stamp in the center of the sheet shows a satellite image of the Antarctic continent. [ We are looking for a list or web site detailing all of the new International Polar Year (IPY) stamps. If you know of a list or web site, please send us that information. ]

A new article about the stamps of the current and past International Polar Years is available in the January 2008 issue of Topical Time, from the ATA. This four page article describes the history leading up to the founding of the collaborative scientific efforts behind the International Polar Year. A number of stamps and postal history of the previous IPYs is described in the article.

IPY, organized through the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), is actually the fourth polar year, following those in 1882-3, 1932-3, and 1957-8. In order to have full and equal coverage of both the Arctic and the Antarctic, IPY 2007-8 covers two full annual cycles from March 2007 to March 2009 and will involve over 200 projects, with thousands of scientists from over 60 nations examining a wide range of physical, biological and social research topics.

To commemorate activities with the IPY, some participating nations have issued stamps, and some of them featuring maps will be of interest to our members. Shown below are a few of the IPY cartophilatelic issues. On February 12, 2007 eight countries issued stamps related to their national research projects carried out during the IPY.

Below on the left is Canada Post's issue for the IPY. The mini-sheet freatures two 52cent stamps separated with a special Maple Leaf perforation in the center. The first stamp in the sheet features a male king eider. This avian species is native to Canada, Alaska and Greenland, its migratory patterns are being studied as part of the 2007/08 IPY. The stamp on the right of the sheet shows a brilliant-red deep-sea jellyfish that was just recently discovered on a subarctic polar expedition. The jellyfish appears in actual size -about the size of your thumb. A map focusing on the north pole is situatined in the lower right of the mini-sheet.

Above on the right is Iceland Post's issue for the IPY. This mini-sheet also features two stamps with values of 75 ISK and 95 ISK respectively. The images on sheet depict a volcanic eruption in the Vatnajökull glacier and the Radio-Echo Sounding equipment being used to map the landscape beneath the ice-cap. In the foreground a 3 dimensional surface map is shown.

More information about various polar stamps can be found on Top of the World Stamps [ http://www.topoftheworld.nu ] a portal of joint nordic stamp issues, owned and operated jointly by the postal authorities of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Aland, Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. [astute internet users will recognize the .nu TLD is for the pacific island of Niue. However, a bit of investigation shows that "nu" means "now" in Danish, Dutch and Swedish and is a very popular TLD to use for nordic web sites. -web admin]

Stamps commerating the IPY were not limited to the Arctic regions. This stunning cartophilatlic issue from Argentine Post shows the southern tip of South America and the Antarctic continent. A single $4 (ARS) triangular stamp is centered on Aregentina's Antarctic claim, which contains most of the Antarctic Penninsula and covers the area between 25° West and 74° West longitude and the from 60° South latitude extending to the South Pole. [unfortunately, I could not find very much information about this issue on the web, one forum web site, said the date of issue was June 2nd, 2007. If any of our members have more information about this issue, please contact me or any of the society officers. - web admin.]

Special GSM Article on Errors of Design in Map Stamps

A new detailed article by Oliver Andrew in the January 2008 issue of Gibbons Stamp Monthly looks at a number of exciting design errors on map stamps. A full color download of the article is available on the Gibbons Stamp Monthly web site. Those of you tracking errors on maps stamps may find many new ones described in this article. Definitely worth reading.

Also, fellow member and past editor of the NCP, Dan Nelson has been working for a long time on his own search for errors on map stamps. For those of you unfamiliar with Dan's research, have a look at his exquisite and frequently updated web site, Dans Topical Stamps.

If you know of any additional design errors not mentioned in these references, please let us know.

CartoPhilatelic Exchange

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.

Complete PDF Archive of The CartoPhilatelist Ready

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.

Marginelia Article:

Previous Items Of Note...

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 affiliated with the American Philatelic Society and the American Topical Association