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Sunday, May 3, 2020

An Odyssey of some Rats during Covid-19

The Coronavirus currently has a strong impact on international mail services. The Postal Monitor on Postcrossing lists at the moment 116 countries where Germany does not send mail to and 32 countries which have suspended all their international mail operations. This includes for example India, which means that at least 1billion people around the World can not send any international mail. For people swapping postcards or the few who might still be reliant upon the normal mail this is for sure horrible, also because if a mail line is not suspended it does not mean that the mail arrives in the normal time, but in comparision with the people who died, lost their jobs or suffered otherwise this for sure is just a small problem. An even minor problem is the impact on the issuing of new stamps around the World, but for a philatelist still of interest. While some countries like Austria, Germany or the USA just go on like usual, others like Ireland, Italy or Spain postponed all stamps for the moment. On the other side the current situation also makes a "good" theme for stamps and a small thematic collection. At least three countries (Iran, Switzerland, Vietnam) so far issued stamps about Covid-19, some others (e.g. Brazil, Isle of Man) already announced issues and more will most likely follow in the next months. Although these will make interesting mementos of this current crisis and I will try to get as many of them as possible (already got Vietnam, Isle of Man will follow), the following set will be my personal philatelic memento of Covid-19.


2020 is the Year of the Rat and like usual I tried to collect as many related stamps as possible. As of mid March I actually already got all the ones I was looking for. My favourite of these sets of this year (if not my favourite stamp set of all of this year) is definitely the one from Macao followed by France, Singapore and Vietnam. One of the stamps from Macao I already got on 24th January on a matching card and with First Day Special Postmark, which had been sent on the 5th January (see it here). The crucial point however is, as I like this set very much, I also ordered it in mint condition from the online shop of Macao Post also on 5th January. Actually I hoped to post the card and the mint set together, but the virus seems to did not like that idea. While they got their money like usual, I never heard something again and already thought my order got lost. An order from Australia, where I also ordered Year of the Rat stamps at around the same time, namely already arrived on 23rd January. I checked the website of Macao Post a few times to see whether they might have maybe stopped working, but the only thing they wrote was that the label stamp for the Year of the Rat was (and still is) postponed. Buying stamps online sometimes has a risk especially in times like that and I actually did not planned to do anything about it, but on 16th March I got an e-mail stating that my order would now be sent out, which I could not believe in the first moment. Last Wednesday, on 22nd April, however I was very happy to finally have my order in my hands. Comparing it with an older order from Macao Post it now actually took just one week longer than usual. While I can completely understand that these days international mail takes longer to arrive and also that postal services might stop to handle orders, I am actually just a little bit sad that they just do so without any notice. Would a small information or a little sorry would be too much after an order is held back for over to two months?

This I think is a quite stark mail story for the current situation, but there are so many more. To keep a postal diary of this situation I created here on this blog the label *Covid-19, which I will attach to all posts testifying to whatever I now think to be memorable of this situation when I will take another look there later on. This will include super long travels, stamps and cards about cancelled events or about the virus itself or maybe just some cards I was happy to receive whether they might be the only ones in some weeks or just have some nice messages. The first few posts already got the label beginning in early March with my first mention of the coronavirus in a post about Milan. The decrease of incoming mail also gives me the chance to do something I wanted to do for some time but never did. I will from now on change the form of my posts a bit. I will break their rigid form and will include more things of my personal interest. Also I will most likely split big incomings of single days over some days to only have just one post a day and thus post less things on more days.


This is the souvenir sheet for this issue. Apart from these two I also bought a set about the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, which you can see here.

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