Statistics 2013…

Published comments: 2

Posts: 250

Followers: 10

People from 74 different countries have visited this site.

Newest country: Ecuador

Last new visitor: United Kingdom

New unique visitors record: 19 on January 5, 2013

Top five countries: United States, Russia, Belgium, United Kingdom and Portugal

Wooden duck decoys Maximum Card

Mariehamn 01.02.2012

Welcome the first 2000th Visitors

Aqui ficam as melhores saudações Filatélicas, para os visitantes de todo o mundo, que diariamente visitam o meu blog.

(English version)

Here are the best Philatelic greetings to visitors from all over the world who daily visit my blog.

Long-tailed Duck decoys

The issue of a 3-part series of franking labels featuring old style wooden duck decoys began in 2012.

First out was the Common Eider; the 2013 motif is the Long-tailed Duck.

Wildfowl decoys are lifelike dummies used by hunters to encourage birds to land nearby.

The oldest decoys were made from plants such as bulrush, and the first decoys carved from wood were unpainted. Decoys are now mostly made from plastic.

The Long-tailed Duck belongs to the order Anseriformes.

It reaches a length of between 39 and 47 cm and can weigh up to almost one kilo.

It has a rounded head and a short sturdy bill. The all-dark wings are quite sharp and pointed. Their flight is smooth and rapid, with a characteristic wing-beat dipping low below the horizontal.

Technical Details

Issue Date: 19.02.2013

Designer: Juha Pykäläinen

Printer: The Lowe Martin Group

Process: offset

Size: 4.00 x 30.34 mm

Values: €0.65, 0.80, 1.00, 1.10

Passenger ferries- Ålandsfärjan

Many Ålanders associate the name Ålandsfärjan with the ship servicing between Mariehamn and Kapellskär 1987-2008. However, the ship featured on the 2013 stamp is the very first ferry named Ålandsfärjan.

Following a disagreement between the founders of Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen, the shipping company that pioneered passenger traffic between Åland and Sweden in 1959, a group of owners started the competing shipping company Rederi Ab Ålandsfärjan.

S/S Ålandsfärjan was built in Scotland in 1933 and named S/S Brittany. Ålandsfärjan was the first ferry in service for the newly started company. Operations between Roslagen on the Swedish coast and Mariehamn in Åland began on 20 June 1963. The ferry was originally owned by the British Railways and in service on the British Channel.

S/S Ålandsfärjan was withdrawn from service in 1972 and demolished in Teijo, Finland, after having run aground and been damaged.

Technical Details

Issue Date: 19.02.2013

Designer: Håkan Sjöström

Printer: Cartor Security Printing, France

Process: 4-coloroffset

Colours: 4 colour

Size: 35,4 x 26 mm