Collecting Corona

No matter how terrible it might sound, but the situation with Covid-19 seems to have a positive effect on philately, as more people seem to be interested in a hobby which does neither require much time outside nor with other people. A very interesting article about that you can find here on the website of the Punk Philatelist. Another interesting effect is the emergence of a new philatelic collecting theme, the virus itself and its impacts on the mail service. So far stamps, cancellations or postal notations have appeared from all continents. For the "Truths, Lies and Rumors" of the early Philately of Covid-19 let me just include another link. This article on Philatelic Pursuits by Mark Joseph Jochim gives an good overview of the situation at least until early April, but which, as I just discovered, was also updated later on. For my part, I am still not sure whether I want to start a philatelic collection about the virus and if yes how. Usually I like mint stamps, but real sent mail also has its charme for such a historic event. On the other side there are already so many stamps about the theme and more seem to be issued or announced every week that I do not know if I really want all of them. Nonetheless I will try to keep here an updated list of all stamps issued about Covid-19, which will be issued in 2020 and maybe early 2021 (excluding all tasteless catch-penny issues). However I will not show them here. If I have the stamps I will put in links to one of my other blogs, either my postcard blog or my stamp blog. On my postcard blog I also created the label *Covid-19 to keep a "postal diary", where you can find also other cards I connect to the current situation like super long travel times, stamps, cards and postmarks 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 List of Covid-19 Stamps (last updated: 30th November 2021)

Iran (17th March)

Vietnam (31st March)

Switzerland (6th April)

Central African Republic (27th April)

Guinea Bissau (27th April)

Isle of Man (4th May)

Morocco (7th May)

United Arab Emirates (10th May)

China (11th May)

Uruguay (13th May)

New Zealand (20th May)

Ukraine (29th May)

Monaco (3rd June)

Sao Tome and Principe (8th June)

Bosnia and Herzegovina - BH Posta (9th June)

Niger (10th June)

Djibouti (12th June)

Curacao (18th June)

Oman (22nd June)

Czech Republic (24th June)

Macau (24th June)

Tajikistan (June)

Lebanon (1st July)

Brazil (10th July)

Philippines (13th July)

Senegal (20th June)

South Sudan (21st July)

Taiwan (21st July)

Saudi Arabia (27th July)

French Polynesia (31st July)

Singapore - Quirks in the Island City (7th August)

Greenland (10th August)

United Nations (10th August)

Kosovo (14th August)

Thailand (14th August)

Indonesia (17th August)

Alderney (19th August)

Guernsey (19th August)

Slovakia (21st August)

Colombia (26th August)

Singapore - Soaper 5 (4th September)

France (11th September)

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Republika Srpska (21st September)

Serbia - Joy of Europa (30th September)

Australia - Greetings (1st October)

Spain (1st October)

Kyrgyzstan (2nd October)

Portugal - World Post Day (9th October)

Saudi Arabia - World Post Day (9th October)

Sri Lanka (9th October)

Egypt (20th October)

Bahamas - Christmas (22nd October)

Austria (30th October)

Russia (30th October)

Mexico (3rd November)

Ireland - Christmas (5th November)

Wallis and Futuna (5th November)

Portugal (6th November)

San Marino (10th November)

Mexico - Postal Worker (11th November, two issues)

North Cyprus (19th November)

Philippines - Christmas (23rd November)

Mali (1st December)

Syria (7th December)

Transnistria (11th December)

Tunisia (17th December)

India (24th December)

Hong Kong (29th December)

Kyrgyz Express Post (30th December)

Andorra - Spanish Post (19th January)

Kosovo (28th January)

Malta (29th January)

New Zealand - Holidays at Home (3rd February)

Georgia (5th February)

Israel (9th February)

Philippines - Valentine's Day (10th February)

Australia (16th February)

Moldova (25th February)

Indonesia (26th February)

Algeria (27th February)

Andorra - French Post (1st March)

Jersey (1st March)

Spain - Corona Waste Reduction (18th March)

Jordan (31st March)

Zimbabwe (31st March)

Kuwait (7th April)

Serbia (12th April)

Armenia (16th April)

North Macedonia (16th April)

Vietnam (29th April)

North Macedonia (8th May)

Bangladesh (19th May)

Saudi Arabia (17th June)

Spain - UNHCR (18th June)

Spain - Operation Balmis (24th June)

Italy - Italy Reopens (30th June)

Bermuda (15th July)

Poland (15th July)

Malaysia (5th August)

Singapore (6th August)

Taiwan (11th August)

Russia (24th August)

Malaysia (9th September)

Peru (9th September)

Austria (16th September)

Faroe Islands (20th September)

San Marino (21st September)

Kosovo (8th October)

Sri Lanka - World Post Day (9th October)

Thailand - World Post Day (9th October)

Israel (30th November)

Just to illustrate this post a bit I want to show the first Covid-19 stamps I got, the set from Vietnam. Here you can just see them used on a cover. Follow the link in the list to see them also mint and on maxicards.

However not only philatelists care about collections on Covid-19, also museums start to collect things about, "as much can already be foreseen, one of the most incisive global events of the 21st century". One of first museums from which I heard of collecting plans was the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum in my home town, but also other began the systematic collection including the German Historical Museum in Berlin. Every museum has a different approach. The Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum for example is mainly interested in things from the region and asks the people to give their personal mementos to the museum "to collect, to preserve, to document and to impart". Thus they started an appeal on their website. I included it below, as I am not sure how long they will keep it on their website, but I did not want to translate it completely and only highlighted the passages I quoted here. The German Historical Museum on the other side is more interesting in the things of "bigger" historic importance like the face mask of Angela Merkel, but for sure also includes things from the normal population. Keeping that in mind, if you have something nice like "self-made face masks, photos of empty cities, posters, rainbow art for windows or toilet paper sculptures" maybe you should donate it to your local museums to see it one day in their exhibition. Most museums will for sure be happy for your support!

Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum

German Historical Museum in Berlin

Coming back to the stamps once again, I want to stress that I will only list stamps issued in 2020 and maybe early 2021. One might imagine that there will also be later stamps about this "most incisive global event of the 21st century". Just like recent issues about the 75th anniversary of the End of World War II there might be issues about the 5th, 10th, 20th, 25th, 50th and so on and on and on anniversaries of the beginning or the hopeful soon end of the pandemic (what actually requires that stamps are still issued then). Also there might be issues about the 2020s including the virus or just stamps including the pandemic as an important event in a country's history (see a similar example below). These will for sure be interesting for a thematic collection, but I think not so much for a historic collection, as they do not really mark history but display the view of the future on a event of the past. This is for sure very interesting and what most history stamps here usually actually do, but it is something completely different and thus I will not list them together.

Stamp with "Beating SARS Together"
for Singapore's 48th anniversary
of independence

From the website of the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum:

Sammlungsaufruf für Objekte zur Krise
Selbstgenähte Gesichtsmaske, Toilettenpapier-Skulptur, Regenbogen-Kunst - was ist für Sie ganz persönlich das Symbol der Corona-Krise? Das Braunschweigische Landesmuseum sammelt Objekte zur Corona-Pandemie - und freut sich auf Ihre Unterstützung! 

Corona gehört ins Museum! Die Sammel-Aktion des Braunschweigischen Landesmuseums
Seit fast 130 Jahren hat das Braunschweigische Landemuseum die Aufgabe, Geschichte und Kultur des braunschweigischen Landes zu sammeln, zu bewahren, zu dokumentieren und zu vermitteln. Die Corona-Pandemie, soviel ist schon jetzt abzusehen, wird als eines der einschneidendsten globalen Ereignisse des 21. Jahrhunderts in die Geschichte eingehen. Daher möchte das Braunschweigische Landesmuseum nun systematisch Dokumente, Fotos, Objekte als Zeitzeugen dieses für unsere Gesellschaft brachialen Ereignisses der Gegenwartsgeschichte für unsere Region sammeln.
Wie werden wir uns an die Coronavirus-Pandemie erinnern? Das Museum freut sich auf Vorschläge für alles, was für die Braunschweigerinnen und Braunschweiger zum Symbol der Corona-Krise geworden ist, von der selbstgenähten Gesichtsmaske über das Foto der leeren Innenstadt, Plakate oder Regenbogen-Kunst für das Fenster bis hin zur Toilettenpapier-Skulptur.