For years I have selected my favourite stamps of each year on my stamp blog and usually I was contented with my selection. This year however I think I had to exclude too many stamps from that list, mainly history connected stamps. In general my favourite theme for stamps are cartoons, children's books, movies and similar things and this year there were so many great stamps about these themes that there was not enough space for history stamps on the list. That is why I decided to choose My Favourite History Stamps as well and present them here. Below you now find my selection in descending order. What were your favourites?
15. Centenary of the Women's Suffrage in Germany (Germany)
When this stamp was issued in January, it was on the top of my favourite stamp list for quite a while, but during the course of the year it went deeper and deeper and is now finally not among the Top 20. I still like it, but also here it just gets the poor last place. For everyone who is wondering, like I did when it was issued, the woman on the stamp is Marie Juchacz, a German social reformer, member of the Social Democratic Party and in 1919 the first ever female Reichstag member to address a German parliament.
14. 450 years Union of Lublin (Poland)
If I am not mistaken only two stamps were issued this year about European Heritage Label Sites. While I still not have the one about the Historic Ensemble of the University of Tartu from Estonia, I already have the Polish sheet about the Union of Lublin. The scan really does not do justice to this beautiful sheet! It nicely combines the "real" history with "remembered" history. At the bottom it features a passage from the Act of the Union of Lublin, but the main part of the sheet shows a painting by Jan Matejko, which also includes a kneeling Marcin Zborowski. According to Wikipedia Zborowski was already dead in 1569.
13. 500th death anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci (Vietnam)
The 500th death anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci was one of the big jubilees of 2019, but honestly one I did not cared about much, not because I do not like it, but because I wanted to spend my time with Renaissance themes in 2021 (Dante, Dürer, Kepler anniversaries). Still I followed with interest the discussions about the da Vinci exhibition in Paris and also I actually saw one of his paintings, The Lady with an Ermine in Kraków. That is also one of the reasons why I put the Vietnamese stamp into this list, but not the only one. Most of the stamps issued for his jubilee either came in big sets (Italy, UK), were overpriced (France) or were real catch penny issues. Vietnam on the other hand issued just this nice decent set.
12. 500th anniversary of the Beginning of Magellan's and Elcano's Circumnavigation of the Earth (Portugal and Spain)
The Beginning of Magellan's Circumnavigation of the Earth was another big jubilee for this year, but also not my favourite one. These two sheets are actually more on this list as they are a joint issue and shaped than due to the theme.
11. Upright Democrats - Fritz Bauer (Germany)
The German Fritz Bauer stamp was one I was really looking forward to this year. He is an interesting person and even connected to my home town. Easily this stamp might have been on the top of this list or even the main list if not the German Post decided to make it a 2,70€ stamp. Who actually needs this value? I definitely do not. Still it is a nice stamp.
10. Madame de Maintenon (France)
The Reign of King Louis XIV of France is among my favourite themes, so a stamp about his wife really needed to make it on this list, also because it is a special formed one.
9. 80th anniversary of the creation of the Polish Underground State (Poland)
To be honest four months ago I have not heard anything about the Polish Underground State. Luckily during my trip to Kraków there was an open air exhibition across the city which dealed with the early years of this very interesting organisation during World War II. This is definitely a theme I want to learn more about in the next time.
8. Emperor Charles V (Austria and Luxembourg)
Here is another joint issue of souvenir sheets. Not only do I really like this issue, but it also includes a small mystery I tried to solve.
7. Centenary of the Weimar Constitution (Germany)
Actually after World War I in 2018 and planned World War II for 2020 I wanted to delve into the Interwar Period this year. Due to some reasons I did not do that, but still I am working on a post about the Weimar Republic, which I will hopefully publish early next year. Honestly I am not sure, why the German Post often issues text stamps for important jubilees (they already did it for the National Anthem and the German Unity), but I think its easier and safer than trying to find a picture. Also for a constitution this might actually be the best you can do. I still especially like the stamp in combination with this special postmark.
6. 500th death anniversary of Emperor Maximilian I (Austria)
Maximilian I really sweetened my summer, as during my summer holidays I visited some awesome special exhibitions about him in Augsburg and Innsbruck. These exhibitions were representative for so many interesting exhibitions and museums I visited this year. Also I like the plainness of this stamp.
5. Singapore Bicentennial (Singapore)
Colonial history and especially early globalisation are currently among my favourite history themes. The set about the Singapore Bicentennial nicely captures this theme. In addition to that Singapore is one of my dream destination and I really like the design of this set. You can see the complete set on my stamp blog.
4. 450th death anniversary of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Belgium)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder is my favourite artist and I really hoped that for his 450th death anniversary some stamps would be issued, but unlike for Leonardo there are unfortunately only such stamps in Belgium. Also I did not see any of his pictures this year, although I already saw some of them in Brussels and Vienna some years ago including prominently The Fall of the Rebel Angels, for which I saw an interesting virtual exhibition in Brussels and which is also shown on the Belgian sheet. This year I only saw two paintings of his son in my home town and in Kraków. The one from Kraków was recently even shown on a stamp.
3. 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad (USA)
Especially at the beginning of the year railway history was something that really interested me. Unfortunately it was replaced by other things for the rest of the year just to come back again in recent weeks. Earlier this year I even thought about starting a train stamp collection, but never did so. A train stamp set still deserves a place on this list, my favourite history-themed one however is not from Europa but from the USA. The gold applications are unfortunately not visible very well on the scan.
2. 50 years Moon Landing (Faroe Islands)
The biggest jubilee for this year is definitely the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing and a stamp about it needs to be on this list. My favourite issue about the theme comes from Austria, as it glows in the dark, but for this list I decided to choose the stamp from the Faroe Islands. It beautifully shows the fascination of this event and its impact on the people even in the remotest regions. Here you can see my complete collection of Moon Landing stamps.
Honourable Mention: 60 years Asterix (France)
If it commemorates a jubilee it is a history stamp, right? This stamp from France, which I like very much, clearly celebrates a jubilee, but I still hesitate to add it to this list as full contestant. If I would it would probably be the first place, but so it is now just a honourable mention.
1. Birth Bicentenary of Queen Victoria (United Kingdom)
In 2019 I am actually a bit ashamed of choosing a stamp set of from the island for the first place, but just look at this beautiful stamp set about Queen Victoria. Victoria was already shown on dozens of stamps during her reign, but interestingly she was rarely on any stamp since her death (if you exclude stamps featuring the Penny Black or Blue Mauritius). That was clearly compensated for this year. The selection of paintings for the stamps is great and I also very much like the sheet about Prince Albert, especially the stamp with the Crystal Palace.
