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Sunday, 20 June 2021

1905) "The Dog - Man's Best Friend," Romania: A set of four postage stamps issued by Romfilatelia (Romanian Post) in the denominations of Lei 2, Lei 2.20, Lei 5.50 and Lei 19.50 featuring Dogs and their interaction with humans: Date of Stamp Set issue: 11.06.2021:

1905) "The Dog - Man's Best Friend," Romania: A set of four postage stamps issued by Romfilatelia (Romanian Post) in the denominations of Lei 2, Lei 2.20, Lei 5.50 and Lei 19.50 featuring Dogs and their interaction with humans: Date of Stamp Set issue: 11.06.2021:

About The Dog - Man’s Best Friend, Romania:

The most beautiful stories that we meet in our childhood are those that tell us about the friendship between man and animal. From here come the most valuable lessons about loyalty, trust, sacrifice and unconditional love.

No connection between man and another species has been so much honoured, studied, commented on as that between man and dog. 

The first domesticated animal, the dog linked its fate to that of man to such an extent that its behaviour and even its physiology have changed significantly, due to its long evolution with the human species.

The domestication of the dog happened at least 15,000 years ago, before the advent of agriculture, when people still lived as hunter-gatherers. 

Dogs are descended from wolves, but not from current wolves, as is often believed. 

The history of the dog's evolution is long and complicated enough to require laborious research, including molecular and genetic analysis, to elucidate some aspects. 

A widely accepted theory holds that the Dog's closest relative is the Gray Wolf that lives in Eurasia and North America (wolf species that exists in our country), the two species descending from a common ancestor.

 The Dog ("Canis familiaris") and the Gray Wolf ("Canis lupus") diverged from this ancestor approximately 30,000 years ago, starting on different evolutionary paths, and continue to evolve divergently even today.

The relationship between man and dog is complex and takes on many aspects.

 Dogs can be trained to perform a variety of roles: accompanying and helping people with disabilities, rescuing victims of natural disasters, detecting explosives, drugs and other dangerous substances, tracking and catching criminals, guarding and gathering herds of animals, helping people for hunting and fishing, traction of vehicles, etc. 

In its long evolution with humans, the dog has acquired a particular sensitivity to their emotions and behaviour, which makes possible effective communication between the two species, and this communication, in turn, facilitates training and explains the sometimes amazing performance of dogs in these activities.

But beyond these practical aspects, the dog remains, first and foremost, man’s friend, and his attachment to man remains the purest expression of fidelity, affection and devotion.

The Stamps:

To celebrate this connection between Man and Dog, Romfilatelia (Romanian Post)  on 11.06.2021, issued the postage stamps titled "The Dog, Man’s Friend," consisting of four stamps and a "First Day Cover (FDC), and four maxicards. 

The four stamps issued in the set.

The four stamps of the series, with face values of Lei 2, Lei 2.20, Lei 5.50 and Lei 19.50, present aspects of the interaction between man and dog, the latter appearing in different poses: practical human help (as a companion for the blind or people with motor disabilities), but also a simple affectionate friend of children.

A First Day Cover (FDC) shows at left breeds of dogs, which are human friendly. At top right are affixed the four Stamps issued in the set cancelled with a special Handstamp/Postmark featuring a dog. The cancellation is of Bucharest Post office and the cancellation is dated - "11.06.2021".

Four Maxi Cards issued in the set. A Maxi Card has all three elements - the photograph, the stamp and the stamp cancellation, all on one side.

Four Full Sheets of 32 stamps each with tête-bêche.

Tete Beche:

In philately, tête-bêche (French for "head-to-tail", lit. "head-to-head") is a joined pair of stamps in which one is upside-down in relation to the other, produced intentionally or accidentally. Like any pair of stamps, a pair of tête-bêches can be a vertical or a horizontal pair. In the case of a pair of triangular stamps, they cannot help but be linked "head-to-tail".

Mechanical errors during the process of production can result in tête-bêches. During the printing of stamps for booklets, the pages of stamps are usually printed in multiples from a larger printing plate. This can result in tête-bêche pairs. 

Most booklet stamps are printed in sheets, each containing 4 booklets. Looking at such a sheet 2 booklets, one above the other, come in from the left with the other 2 sheets coming from the right which appear to be upside down. 

Where the columns of stamps from each side meet there is therefore a row of tete-beche pars. It is unusual for these pairs to find their way into the postal system, as the sheets are cut into individual booklet pages before binding into the distributed booklet.

Four Sheetlets of four stamps of each variant and four labels each.

Technical details:

Stamp Set Issue Date: 11.06.2021

Designer: Geroge Ursachi

Process: Offset

Colours: 5 colours

Stamp Sizes: 48.0 mm x 33.0 mm

Stamp Values: 2.0 L, 2.2L, 5.5 L, 19.5 L










Links to some posts on Romanian currency and philately on this Blog:











4 comments:

  1. Santosh Khanna has commented:
    "Excellent Photographs. Well explained by you Rajeev. Keep it up."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vinod Khurana has commented:
    "Dogs are most faithful to the human beings, even more than his nears and dears. Great post. Thanks for sharing, Rajeev Prasad Ji."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for visiting the blog and your insightful comment, Vinodji

      Delete