25 April 2011

Marshall Islands 2011 Corals of the Sea

The Marshall Islands Postal Service issued on 10 March 2011 a set of 5 stamps featuring corals. The issue comes in a sheet containing 4 sets of the stamps, the sheet margin is decorated with marine underwater reef scenery with the silhouette of a scuba diver on the top margin. The stamps themselves are very beautiful, featuring corals like the chalis coral, the elkhorn coral, the brain coral and the finger corals; the corals on the stamps are envliven by the reef fishes swimming around them.

14 April 2011

Togo 2010 Cousteau's Birth Centenary

A commercial issue from the Togolese Republic celebrating the birth centenary of Jacques Yves Cousteau. The issue comprises 2 souvenir sheets, one with 4 stamps and one with a single stamp. The Alcyone, the expedition ship with the experimental turbo-sail, is featured in both sheets.

13 April 2011

Maldives Girl Guide Centenary

I just got my hand on this large souvenir sheet, that is supposed to mark the centenary of girl guiding. I am not sure of even the year of issue, because the Maldives post office website has listed a different issue in 2010 for this event; the rubric on the sheet indicates that celebration of girl guiding would be held every 10 April of 2010, 2011 and 2012. I would welcome any help on this matter. The relevance of this souvenir sheet here, is that the lower half of the sheet background shows underwater scenery in blue, with the silhouettes of 2 scuba divers.

Maldives 2010 350 for Climate Change

I discovered this issue being listed on Maldives Post Office website. Issue date is published as 23 June 2010, and it is entitled plainly as "350". Googling with keywords: maldives 2010 350 scuba diver, I found out that the organization called 350 (350.org) was created to raise awareness about climate change around the world; the number 350 refers to the number of parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide concentration in the air that must be reduced to, in order to avoid irreversible damage to the world. 350.org website states the current number to be 388 ppm. The scuba diving President Nasheed of the Maldives, who held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting on 17 October 2010, led a 24-hour scuba diving relay a week later, with 350 scuba divers, in the world’s largest recorded scuba diving event. This issue, comprising a souvenir sheet with 5 stamps, marks this event.