Best Europa stamp - new rules and new system !

Europe

New rules from this year for electing the Best Europa stamp ! Coming into force in 2021 !

A single winner will be chosen resulting from a combination of 3 different voting panels, each having the same weight !

1. General public votes on digital images of the stamps via a dedicated PostEurop website, 9 May - 9 September

2. Postal operators votes on digital images of the stamps via a dedicated PostEurop intern website. Each company votes for 3 preferred stamps, except its own stamp.

3. Jury voting on physical stamps. Each jury member votes for his/her 3 preferred stamps.

The 10 best placed stamps in each of the 3 voting panels are allocated the following number of points (Eurovision Song Contest system) :

1st = 12 points ; 2nd = 10 points ; 3rd = 8 points ; 4th = 7 points ; 5th = 6 points ; 6th = 5 points ; 7th = 4th points ; 8th = 3 points ; 9th = 2 points and 10th = 1 point.

The points from the 3 voting panels are added up to obtain the overall winner and the two runners-up.

Note : only the country having send his digital and physical stamp to PostEurop can win the contest !

The Best Europa stamp 2021 will be announced during PostEurop's plenary assembly on the 6th of October 2021.

Best Europa stamp 2020 - Jury prize

Poland

The 2020 Best Europa stamp - Jury has been announced by PostEurop in this press release.

This was the 9th edition of this neutral and artistic prize.

Eight experts of the philatelic world were invited to join the jury and judge the Europa stamps based on their expert opinion.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's judging was held at a later date and in a new "hybrid" format. The Jury gathered both physically and virtually for the competition. 

 

 This year's winner is Poland - it's the first time that Poland wins the Jury prize !

2nd – Faroe Islands (17.- DKK value)
=    - Switzerland (top stamp)
=    - Ukraine
3rd - Germany (stamp from the block)

This year's Jury was composed as follows (clockwise from the top left) :

• Marjan Osvald, Pošta Slovenije, PostEurop MAC Chair, Slovenia
• Jana Vlachová, PostEurop (not part of the jury)
• Botond Szebeny, PostEurop's Secretary General, Hungary (Chair of the jury)
• Olaf Neumann & Stefan Klein, Stamp designers, Germany
• Emile Espen, Post Luxembourg, PostEurop SPWG Vice-Chair, Luxembourg
• Jürgen Haepers, Blog "Europa-stamps", Switzerland
• Guy Coutant, Royal Belgian Academy of Philately, Belgium
• Eric Contesse, Blog "Timbré du Jura", France

Best Europa stamp 2019 - Jury prize

Slovenia

The 2019 Best Europa stamp - Jury prize was awarded last Saturday in Brussels’ town hall.

This was the 8th edition of this neutral and artistic prize.

Six experts of the philatelic world were invited to join the jury and judge the Europa stamps based on their expert opinion.

This year's winner is Slovenia with a stamp part of a 2 stamps set - it's the first time that Slovenia wins the Jury prize !

2nd – Liechtenstein (stamp under)
3rd - Finland (stamp under)

This year's Jury was composed as follow (from the left to the right) :

• Antonio Manuel Amaral, PostEurop's coordinator (not part of the jury)
• Guy Coutant, Pro Post, Belgium (co-chair)
• Botond Szebeny, PostEurop's Secretary General, Hungary (co-chair)
• Andrée Trommer, General secretary of the Fédération internationale de philatélie (FIP), Luxembourg
• Stefan Klein, Stamp designer, Germany
• Arie Piet, Director Stamp Printing National Bank Belgium, the Netherlands
• Olaf Neumann, Stamp designer, Germany

The winner of the public prize will be announced during PostEurop's plenary assembly in Jersey, in October.

Best Europa stamp 2018 - Jury prize

Belgium

The 2018 Best Europa stamp - Jury prize was awarded last Saturday in Brussels’ town hall.

This was the seventh edition of this neutral and artistic prize.

Seven experts of the philatelic world were invited to join the jury and judge the Europa stamps based on their expert opinion.

This year's winner is Belgium with a stamp part of the following souvenir-sheet (the stamp on the right) - it's the second time that Belgium wins the Jury prize, they did already in 2014 :

2nd (tied) – Hungary (stamp above left) & Finland (stamp under)

3rd - Croatia (stamp under)

This year's Jury was composed this year as follow (from the left to the right) :

• Agnieszka Trzaskowska, Chair of PostEurop Stamp & Philately Steering Group, Poland
• Olaf Neumann, Stamp designer, Germany
• Stefan Klein, Stamp designer, Germany
• Botond Szebeny, PostEurop's Secretary General, Hungary (co-chair)
• Andrée Trommer, General secretary of the Fédération internationale de philatélie (FIP), Luxembourg
• Guy Coutant, Pro Post, Belgium (co-chair)
• Antonio Manuel Amaral, PostEurop's coordinator (not part of the jury)
• Arie Piet, Director Stamp Printing National Bank Belgium, the Netherlands (not on the picture)

The winner of the public prize will be announced during PostEurop's plenary assembly in Tbilisi, Georgia, in October.

Best Europa stamp 2017 - Jury prize

Finland

The 2017 Best Europa stamp - Jury prize was awarded this week-end in Brussels’ town hall.

This was the sixth edition of this neutral and artistic prize.

Eight experts of the philatelic world were invited to join the jury and judge the Europa stamps based on their expert opinion.

This year's winner is Finland with the following stamp :

2nd (tied) – Åland & Italy (1.- € value)

3rd - Liechtenstein (1.50 CHF Vaduz castle)

This year's Jury was composed of this year as follow (from the left to the right) :

• Antonio Manuel Amaral, PostEurop's coordinator (not part of the jury)
• Eric Contesse, Philatelist expert, timbredujura.blogspot.com, France
• Arie Piet, Enschedé Printing, the Netherlands
• Botond Szebeny, PostEurop's Secretary General, Hungary
• Guy Coutant, Pro Post, Belgium
• Olaf Neumann, Designer, Germany
• Stefan Klein, Designer, Germany
• Andrée Trommer, General secretary of the Fédération internationale de philatélie (FIP), Luxembourg

Best Europa stamp 2015 - Jury prize

Russia

The 2015 Best Europa stamp - Jury prize was awarded this week-end in Brussels’ town hall.

This was the fifth edition of this neutral and artistic prize.

Eight experts of the philatelic world were invited to join the jury and judge the Europa stamps based on their expert opinion.

This year's winner is Russia with the following stamp :

2nd – Sweden (under stamp)

3rd - Latvia (1.71 € value)

This year's Jury was composed of (from the left to the right:

• Andrée Trommer, General secretary of the Fédération internationale de philatélie (FIP), Luxembourg
• Olaf Neumann, Designer, Germany
• Stefan Klein, Designer, Germany
• Botond Szebeny, PostEurop's Secretary General, Hungary
• Guy Coutant, Pro Post, Belgium
• Eric Contesse, Philatelist expert, timbredujura.blogspot.com, France
• Arie Piet, Enschedé Printing, the Netherlands
• Antonio Manuel Amaral, PostEurop's coordinator (not part of the jury) • Jürgen Haepers, Philatelist expert, europa-stamps.blogspot.com, Switzerland

Best Europa stamp 2014 - Jury prize

Belgium

The 2014 Best Europa stamp - Jury prize was awarded this week-end in Brussels’ town hall.

This was the fourth edition of this neutral and artistic prize.

Eight experts of the philatelic world were invited to join the jury and judge the Europa stamps based on their expert opinion.

This year's winner is Belgium with the following stamp :

2nd – Finland (second stamp)

3rd - San Marino (0.70 € value)

This year's Jury was composed of:

• Jürgen Haepers, Philatelist expert, europa-stamps.blogspot.com, Switzerland
• Stefan Klein, Designer, Germany
• Olaf Neumann, Designer, Germany
• Guy Coutant, Pro Post, Belgium
• Arie Piet, Enschedé Printing, the Netherlands
• Marc Taraskoff, Designer, France
• Botond Szebeny, PostEurop's Secretary General, Hungary
• Andrée Trommer, General secretary of the Fédération internationale de philatélie (FIP), Luxembourg

Best Europa stamp 2013 - Jury prize

Finland

The 2013 Best Europa stamp - Jury prize was awarded this week in Brussels at PostEurop headquarters !

This was the third edition of this neutral and artistic prize.

Nine experts of the philatelic world were invited to join the jury and judge the Europa stamps based on their expert opinion.

 This year's winner is Finland with the following stamp :

2nd - the Netherlands  (left stamp)
3rd - Norway & Kazakhstan

The prizes will be awarded on the 21st of September to the top 3 countries in the Town hall of Brussels.

This year's Jury was composed of:

• Vítězslava Francková, Philatelist expert, Czech Republic 
• Jürgen Haepers, Philatelist expert, europa-stamps.blogspot.com, Switzerland 
• Stefan Klein, Designer, Germany 
• Olaf Neumann, Designer, Germany 
• Guy Coutant, Pro Post, Belgium 
• Arie Piet, Enschedé Printing, the Netherlands 
• Pierre Leempoel, Bpost, Belgium 
• Marc Taraskoff, Designer, France 
• Botond Szebeny, PostEurop's Secretary General, Hungary 

PostEurop published on their blog some pictures of the jury during the best Europa stamp selection !

Best Europa stamp 2012 - Jury prize

Russia

The 2012 Best Europa stamp - Jury prize was awarded yesterday in Paris ! This was the second edition of this neutral and artistic prize.

Seven philately experts were invited to join the jury and judge the Europa stamps based on their expert opinion. 55 entries were displayed before the jury and after much deliberation, the jurors casted their closed ballots followed by a round of voting and discussion. Having reached a consensus, Mr. David E. Failor, Chief of the United Nations Postal Administration, proudly announced Russian Post as the winner of the 2012 Europa stamp Jury Prize.

The Jury this year composed of:

• David E. Failor, the United Nations Postal Administration, United States (Jury President)
• Vita Franckova, Philatelist expert, Czech Republic
• Jürgen Haepers, Philatelist expert, europa-stamps.blogspot.com, Switzerland
• Stefan Klein, Designer, Germany
• Olaf Neumann, Designer, Germany
• Martin Mörck, Designer, Intaglio Printing, Sweden
• Botond Szebeny, PostEurop's Secretary General, Hungary 

 

The 7 Jury members and representatives from the Russian Federation

This year winning stamp is the Europa stamp of Russia and designed by A. Drobyshev

"Ultimately the jury selected the entry from the Russian Federation because of its inviting theme, high quality production and superior iconic image. The stamp did a wonderful job of celebrating the "Visit..." theme."

The prizes for both the Jury and public voting competitions will be handed out during the Belgian Philatelic Grand Prix to be held in the Brussels City Hall on the 22nd September 2012.

PostEurop's annual review

Europe

PostEurop's Philately Working Group published their annual review in the latest issue PostEuropNews.

Istanbul, from a New Strategy to Deliverable

Last year, we were in Istanbul, to hold our Philatelic Forum. After reviewing the EUROPA stamp competition results survey, we took many decisions impacting the future of EUROPA stamps. It was time to adopt a new strategy beginning with the legal framework. There was a need to officially clarify the situation with regards to the use of the EUROPA logo and need to adhere and respect logo guidelines before issuing EUROPA stamps. This new logo was launched and registered internationally.

logo used with the permission of PostEurop

Starting from January 2012, this logo will be the only authorized trademark, bringing us an important step further in the right direction. As mentioned earlier, 2011 was a transition year for our philatelists. Needless to say, we had been very busy all year round with the EUROPA 2011 theme: Forests, which was aligned and realized in full collaboration with the United Nations Program, International Year of Forests. Our First Jury prize Other important aspect discussed in Istanbul was on increasing the votes and growing the coverage of the competition whilst rebuilding the link we had with Philatelists. Therefore, we introduced two innovations: a Jury Prize and a collection album. The Jury Prize was managed by David E. Failor.


Our first Jury was composed of independent designers or philatelists experts. We had Cyprus Post (Cyprus) emerge as winner of the very first Jury Prize. An announcement was made at the Brussels Town Hall amongst hundreds of passionate philatelists… And the winner goes to... The Jury prize was also a teaser for the main competition: the most beautiful EUROPA stamp of the year. The classic online competition ran well this year, as we received more than 5,500 votes (compared to 1,305 last year) with PTT Turkish Post (Turkey) emerging as a clear winner despite tough competition. The second and third place went to Magyar Posta (Hungary) and CTT Correios (Portugal). For Hungary, it was their 5th time in a row at winning a prize. During the Plenary Assembly Dinner, Mr. Jan Sertons, who was part of the Jury handed out the Jury prize to Mr. Andreas Gregoriou, the CEO of the Cyprus Post (Cyprus). Mr. Jean-Paul Forceville, our Chairman, handed out the Gold EUROPA stamp prize proudly to Mr. Osman Tural, CEO of PTT Turkist Post (Turkey). Behold, another surprise The biggest surprise was kept for the morning after. On every desk, of every delegate was the beautiful and rare EUROPA Collector Album (below).


This limited edition album was designed and produced by PostEurop headquarters. The richness of it comes from all the stamps we received from our members. 41 operators participated in the project and there were in total 69 real EUROPA stamps in the album. This Collector Album will be used in future as the official list of EUROPA published stamps. Only stamps that strictly fulfilled the official guidelines will be included in these albums. Building on this, the 2012 EUROPA theme will be “Visit…” and the album can be used as a tourism promotional tool in which each Europa stamp presents a “window” to discover more about our members’ country. Another innovative element will be the use of new technologies such as Quick Response (QR) codes and augmented reality (AR) to make EUROPA Stamps more interactive by enabling viewers to further discover more things behind the stamps and virtually travel across Europe. PostEurop believes that this edition will be even stronger than the 2011 edition. As it will touch your country, it will be important to have the most attractive, recent and accurate information possible as well as the best support possible. And on that, PostEurop really counts on you!

Best Europa stamp 2011 - Public prize

Turkey

Turkey is the winner of this year's Best Europa stamp contest organised by PostEurop. The winner of the last three editions, Hungary finished second and Portugal third.

[UPDATE] number of votes:

1. TURKEY 1288
2. HUNGARY 791
3. PORTUGAL 385

this 0.90 TRY stamp is part of a two stamps set designed by Bülent Ates.

Turkey receiving the Public prize during PostEurop's plenary assembly in Istanbul



The Best Europa stamp design competition is a yearly event that takes place during the Plenary Assembly of PostEurop. The first competition took place in 2002. All official Europa stamp issues can enter the competition.

The result of this competition was announced during this year's Plenary Assembly in Istanbul, Turkey on the 12th October.

The stamp has been selected via the internet ! All people could vote through PostEurop's website ! This year's Best Europa Stamp competition reached a new record high of 5,576 number of public votes registered from all over the world, a sharp increase of 300% from last year's total number of votes due to the growing public interest and popularity.

A jury of 7 members (stamp designers, philatelic design directors) awarded earlier this year, the first Best Europa stamp - Jury prize to Cyprus ! This award don't replace the Best Europa stamp prize selected by the internet voting but is a second prize starting from this year.

Postcrossing.com wrote about the contest on their blog, asking their members which stamp the voted for.

Here you can find the full list of winning stamps since the first contest in 2002 when Malta won.

Best Europa stamp 2011 - Jury prize

Cyprus


This Saturday was awarded the 1st Best Europa stamp - Jury prize ! This prize won't replace the Best Europa stamp awarded after an online voting but will be a more neutral and artistic prize.

A jury of seven members of the postal, philatelic, stamp design world elected the best 2011 Europa stamp (here some pictures of the jury in action !)


The first stamp to win this new award is the 0.68 € stamp issued by Cyprus and designed by Stelios Karamallakis


From a graphic point of view, this stamp can be read on different levels. The first impression is it's "greenness", the brightness of it's colours and the fact that it directly refers to this year's them and give a great positive impact on a letter. The second level is the forest depicted on the stamp, the deepness the graphic effect gives. Trees are coming out of the edge of the design giving a growing effect. You can also consider the name of the country in three languages being roots. The third level are the details you get by having a closer look to the stamp. You can see many different animals living in this forest and especially the Cyprus mouflon which is a typical animal from that country. The animals and the trees are designed as a shadow play and remains on pop-up effects of children books which give an extra 3D design to this stamp.

Official statement on Cyprus post website (in greek)

Cyprus receiving the Jury prize during PostEurop's plenary assembly in Istanbul

France 1973 - focus

France

16th April 1973 - common design "Post, telegraph & telephone"
Hôtel de ville de Bruxelles
design & engraving: Pierre Forget
printer: Imprimerie des timbres-poste et des valeurs fiduciaires (ITVF)

1973 was the last year Europa stamps were issued using a common design. The main reason of this change was the monotony of common designs issues among philatelists. Before the introduction of a common theme in 1974, the CEPT introduced a new rule in 1971, the right to issue a second stamp with a free subject as design. One country who used that new rule from the start was France. Between 1971 and 1973, France issued a second stamp depicting a famous building of a European city (Venice in 1971, Aachen in 1972, Brussels in 1973).

I decided to focus on the 1973 stamp representing the town hall of Brussels. This stamp is part of a 2 stamps set, the other stamp depicting the common design made by the Norwegian artist Leif Frimann Anisdahl. This French stamp has been designed and engraved by the French artist Pierre Forget. He designed many stamps during his live for France, Monaco and Andorra. Besides this issue he is also the author of the 1975 french Europa issue. In 1979 he received the prize for the World's best stamp (!) for for the International year of the child french stamp. You can have a look at all Pierre Forget's stamps on this French stamp database: Phil-Ouest


The town hall of Brussels is a beautiful Gothic building from the Middle Ages. It is located on the Grand Place (market square) in the heart of Brussels' old town. This Saturday this building will be the showcase of the ceremony of the first "Best Europa stamp - Jury prize" ! PostEurop decided to give two Best Europa stamps prizes each year from now on: The Best Europa stamp will be selected as usual through the internet voting (held earlier this year on PostEurop's website) and the winner will be announced in October this year.

Besides this elder prize, a jury of 8 members composed by stamp designers, former philatelic managers and myself will select the stamp which will receive the first "Best Europa stamp - Jury prize" ! Next week you'll know who is the winner !

source of the images : http://www.ibolli.it/indexes/cept/index.php