Best Europa stamp 2024

France

The 2024 Best Europa stamp has been announced by PostEurop in this press release.

France is the winner of the 2024 Best Europa stamp contest organized by PostEurop. Monaco finished second and Azerbaijan (stamp from the souvenir-sheet) is third.

1. FRANCE
2. MONACO
3. AZERBAIJAN

As written earlier on this blog, PostEurop changed the rules for this contest. 3 voting panels (public, jury and operators) are selecting the best Europa stamp. The results of these three panels are compiled and gives an overall winner.

France wins the overall contest and won also the postal operators voting :

Public voting :

1. Turkey
2. Armenia
3. Azerbaijan

Jury voting :

1. Jersey
2. Monaco
3. Cyprus

Postal operators voting :

1. France
2. Azerbaijan
3. Italy

Consolidated result of all three panels - top 10 :

1. France
2. Monaco
3. Azerbaijan
4. Cyprus
5. Armenia
= Poland
7. Jersey
= Turkey
9. Portugal
10. Georgia

Note that Belarus and Russia were excluded of this contest due to their aggression of Ukraine.

PostEurop informs us also that the Dutch Underwater Federation (Nederlandse Onderwatersport Bond) awarded a special diploma to the 2024 Europa stamp from the Czech Rep., selecting it as their favourite.
Regarding the stamp, the NOB said: ”This stamp represents the variety of all the flora and fauna there is in the waters. The similarity between all the creatures visible on the stamp and the ones that exist in the Dutch waters, is big. Besides that, the stamp itself is full of detail of all the different plants, fish, reptiles and invertebrates shown on the stamp.”

PostEurop 30 years

Europe

In 2023, PostEurop celebrated its 30th anniversary.

To mark the occasion, they produced an anniversary logo that was used by several postal administrations to produce a stamp issue.

These include Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Serbia.

The Isle of Man added this logo on their 2023 Europa stamp issue and Poland & Romania have both issued a postal stationary.

I may be forgetting some ...

A new logo for PostEurop

Europe

 A few weeks ago PostEurop launched their new logo !

I kinda like it. Easy, as I wasn't very found of the old one any way...

Just as a reminder, PostEurop took over from the CEPT the responsibility for issuing EUROPA stamps. 

You can read more about it in the part IV of my Europa stamps' history.

This new logo doesn't have a huge impact for us Europa stamps collectors, as it is not used on Europa stamps issues.

Though, the former logo was used once only (if I'm not wrong). On the second stamp of the 2000 Europa issue of Monaco 

And Belgium used it in the edge of the mini-sheet of their 2003 issue. They did it to celebrate the 10 years of PostEurop.

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.

Europa stamps themes 2019-2022

Europe

Common themes for the coming years

• 2019 : National birds - read the press release of PostEurop - "National birds are native birds living on the territory of a country"


• 2020 : Ancient postal routes - "postal services, meaning the exchange of items over longer distances, put in place in a country or between countries before they were replaced by postal services operated by Governments and offering universal service (example: Thurn and Taxis)."


• 2021 : Endangered national wildlife


• 2022 : Stories and Myths

Proposals for themes 2021-2022 : In November we announced that PostEurop members could send their proposals at latest by 31 December 2018. For the first time the choice of subjects was also open to all stamp collectors !
In June this year, the PostEurop Stamp & Philately working group have gone through the results of the voting collected from the PostEurop members. In total, 36 Members gave in their votes, totalling 210 points. The competition was very tight...

You can read the press release of PostEurop informing about the choice of the 2021 & 2022 common themes.

Europa stamps themes for 2021 & 2022

Europe


PostEurop launched at the end of 2018 an action asking to

"Send your suggestions for the 2021 & 2022 #EUROPAstamps theme to EUROPA@posteurop.org by 31 Dec 2018"

It is a unique occasion for Europa stamps collectors to have their say! Usually Europa themes are selected by the postal administrations member of PostEurop.

PostEurop received more than 130 theme's proposals from stamp collectors and postal administrations.

The Philatelic Working Group has decided at its last meeting to reorganize the proposals into themes and keep 28 proposals in total.

Each PostEurop member is now invited to choose their top theme choices, simply by giving three points to your first choice, two points to your second choice and one point to your third option.

The results will be announced in June 2019.

Best Europa stamp 2018 - Public prize

Turkey

Turkey is the winner of the 2018 Best Europa stamp contest organised by PostEurop. Poland finished second and Georgia is third.

1. TURKEY
2. POLAND
3. GEORGIA

this 4.- TRY stamp is part of a two stamps set.

It's the fifth time Turkey wins the on line voting and since 2011 they always finished in the top 2 ! They won in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 and finished 2nd in 2012 and 2014 !

The Best Europa stamp design competition is a yearly event. 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 PostEurop's Plenary Assembly held this month in Tbilisi, Georgia.

The stamp has been selected via the internet ! All people could vote through PostEurop's website !

A jury of 7 members (stamp designers, philatelic design directors, stamp collectors) awarded earlier this year, the Best Europa stamp - Jury prize to Belgium !


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

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

Europa stamps 2016 - common design competition

Europe


PostEurop's Stamps and Philately working group decided to celebrate the :
 

 "60th anniversary of Europa Stamps" (1956-2016) 

(It's a bit weird as PostEurop didn't celebrate at all the 50th anniversary jubilee in 2006 !!)

Anyway, the "Ecology in Europe - "Think Green" theme will be used for that celebration issue and a common design competition has been organized among PostEurop's members. 

A total of 24 designs were submitted. Based on the number of votes received, the design from Cyprus emerged as the winner with 29 points. 

The stamp motif is the work of Ms. Doxia Sergidou.

The second place went to Slovenia (26 points) 

and in third place to Hungary (20 points).

Here you can download the official PostEurop document regarding this common design competition.

I am a bit disappointed about this decision as I was looking forward to this ecology related theme which could provide very nice designs and innovative techniques related to the theme. 

The common issue proved in the past (millennium issue in 2000) to attract a lot of interest from the public. But I think there was no hurry and another theme or another occasion would have been better for such an issue, for example the 100 years of the end of WW I in 2018... ?

What do you think of it ?

Best Europa stamp 2014 - Public prize

Serbia

Serbia wins the Best Europa stamp contest - 2014 organised by PostEurop. Last year winner, Turkey finished second and Greece lands on the third place.

1. SERBIA  
2. TURKEY       
3. GREECE

this 74.- RSD stamp is part of a two stamp set.

It's the first time Serbia wins this contest.

The Best Europa stamp design competition is a yearly event. 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 PostEurop's Plenary Assembly in San Marino, on the 24th September.

The stamp has been selected via the internet ! All people could vote through PostEurop's website !
Anita Häggblom, Chair of the PostEurop Stamps and Philately working group from Posten Ǻland said about this years result :

"The public votes received almost equalled to those of last year's competition but what was remarkable to note how close the votes were between each entry."

A jury of 9 members (stamp designers, philatelic design directors) awarded earlier this year, the Best Europa stamp - Jury prize to Belgium !

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

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 - Public prize

Turkey

Turkey is the winner of this year's Best Europa stamp contest organised by PostEurop. Last year winner, Hungary finished second and Poland and Switzerland shares the third place.

1. TURKEY  
2. HUNGARY       
3. POLAND & SWITZERLAND

this 2.20 TRY stamp is part of a two stamp set.

It's the second time Turkey wins this on line voting. The first time it was in 2011 and last year Turkey finished 2nd.

The Best Europa stamp design competition is a yearly event. 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 PostEurop's Plenary Assembly in Brussels, Belgium on the 19th September.

The stamp has been selected via the internet ! All people could vote through PostEurop's website ! A total of 11'000 votes were registered, compared to last year it's an increase of 37% in the number of public votes.

A jury of 9 members (stamp designers, philatelic design directors) awarded earlier this year, the Best Europa stamp - Jury prize to Finland !

The prizes for both the Jury and public voting competitions were handed out during the Belgian Philatelic Grand Prix to be held in the Brussels City Hall on the 21nd September 2013. 

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

New PostEurop's website !

Europe

PostEurop revamped their website !

with the Europa stamps having a good place !

checked it by yourself :

www.posteurop.org

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!

2011: an exceptional EUROPA vintage ...

Europe

2011: an exceptional EUROPA vintage ...

This year, we can say that the EUROPA Stamp is opening a new chapter in its history.

It is true it displays a new logo. But we all know a new facelift was not enough to bring the Europa stamp to the height it deserves. Some fundamental changes were needed. The new logo is not the only novelty this year. Indeed, the year 2011 will be a special year in many respects. The theme chosen for 2011 is “Forests”, to coincide with the International Year of the Forests declared by the United Nations. We hope this collaboration will materialise in a formal and symbolic way with the issuing of a United Nations stamp displaying our new Europa logo, which would make it a first of its kind.

Over the coming years, we will strive towards increasing the Europa Stamp’s popularity, enhancing its European dimension and making easier exchanges between stamp lovers and collectors. This openness is not a coincidence, but rather a will to bring the Europa stamp towards a broader dimension. To do this, we will work on expanding the communication around the promotion of Europa stamps and in particular around the Europa Stamp Competition.

Furthermore, we are also going to review the election process by giving it a real artistic and philatelic dimension. The online voting procedure will be kept but the 10 most voted stamps will be submitted to a jury of professionals from the philatelic and the graphic world. This jury of European experts will meet in Brussels in September to elect the most beautiful Europa stamp 2011. We will ensure a media coverage equal to the event and to the work of each philatelic department. The winner will be announced at the Grand Place of Brussels, the most beautiful town square in the world, during a special ceremony in the presence of distinguished guests. No doubt this vintage will be particularly good...

Article published in PostEuropNEWS - n° 1 , 29th April 2011 (PDF)

folder poll

Europe

Some weeks ago I've posted a poll on this blog which closed yesterday.

The question was:

if PostEurop produce each year a folder as the Sepac and Norden stamps folders, will you buy it ?

here are the results :

• YES 43%
• NO 39%
• I don't know 16%

43% of positive answers it's less than the half.

As 16% of of the answers are "I don't know", I guess many of you wait to see a product proposal of PostEurop before saying if yes they're going to buy it. In my opinion they want to produce a folder as the ones you can get with the Norden or Sepac issues (images can also be found on this blog) or the one produced by some countries for the International Polar Year stamps.

I will transmit these results to PostEurop and I'll keep you informed about their answer !

thanks to all who voted ! ;o)

Europa countries list

Europe

Many European countries issues Europa stamps each year.

• which countries are official PostEurop members ?
• which countries aren't but are recognized postal administrations by the UPU (Universal Postal Union) ?
• which countries aren't official recognized postal administrations ?
  

Full PostEurop members

1. Albania
2. Armenia
3. Austria
4. Belarus
5. Belgium
6. Bosnia and Herzegovina
7. Bosnia and Herzegovina (Croat post)
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serb post)
9. Bulgaria
10. Croatia
11. Cyprus
12. Czech Rep.
13. Denmark (including Faroe Is. & Greenland)
14. Estonia
15. Finland (including Åland)
16. France (including Andorra French post)
17. Germany
18. Great-Britain (including Gibraltar)
19. Greece
20. Guernsey
21. Hungary
22. Iceland
23. Ireland
24. Isle of Man
25. Italy
26. Jersey
27. Kazakhstan
    
28. Latvia
29. Liechtenstein
30. Lithuania
31. Luxembourg
32. Macedonia
33. Malta
34. Moldova
35. Monaco
36. Montenegro
37. Netherlands
38. Norway
39. Poland
40. Portugal (including Azores & Madeira)
41. Romania
42. Russia
43. San Marino
44. Serbia
45. Slovakia
46. Slovenia
47. Spain (including Andorra Spanish post)
48. Sweden
49. Switzerland
50. Turkey
51. Ukraine
52. Vatican
    

Non-PostEurop members but UPU members

• Azerbaijan
• Georgia

Non-PostEurop nor UPU members

• Cyprus (Turkish post)
• Kosovo
• Nagorno-Karabakh

I didn't add to this list many non recognized countries issuing each year cinderella stamps as Abkhazia, the Dniepr Rep., etc.

New logo !

Europe

On the 2011 Europa stamps you'll see a new logo. A small square and black & white element, symbolic reminder of the mailbox, has been added in front of the word Europa.

logo used with the permission of PostEurop

As it is impossible to register a plain text-logo, a design element had to be added to the text "Europa". PostEurop will with this new logo be able to have a better control on missuse and on non official Europa stamps issues.

This new logo can already be seen on the 2010 Europa stamp issue of Switzerland. The Swiss post has the copyright rights on the Europa logo. In 2011 this logo will be featured on each official Europa stamp issue.


The present Europa logo is in use since 1993. That year PostEurop took over from the CEPT the Europa stamps issues.

Best Europa stamp 2010

Hungary

As for the last 2 years, Hungary won again the Best Europa stamp contest organised by PostEurop. I don't have the number of votes for the Hungarian stamp but they won a close run with the stamp from Slovenia arriving 2nd and the stamp of Croatia arriving 3rd.

This on line voting seems very popular in Hungary as they won 3 times in a row !!


this 150.- HUF stamp is in fact part of a pair of stamps issued tête-bêche in a souvenir sheet of four stamps.



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 the Plenary Assembly in Vaduz, Liechtenstein on the 14th October.

The stamp has been selected via the internet ! All people could vote through PostEurop's website !


Here a link to the official PDF document published by PostEurop.

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