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National Philatelic Museum – 1 year since its foundation

Set
GBP £0.09
Set
GBP £0.21
Sheetlets
GBP £1.13
Sheetlets
GBP £4.89
First Day Cover
GBP £0.23
About National Philatelic Museum – 1 year since its foundation

One the occasion of the celebration of 1 year since the foundation of the National Philatelic Museum, Romfilatelia, the specialized company in issuing and trading Romanian postage stamps, is releasing the philatelic issue called the National Philatelic Museum – 1 years since its foundation.

The National Philatelic Museum, inaugurated on October 1st 2004, on the occasion of the 23rd Congress of the Universal Postal Union, in the presence of 40 ministers, representatives of the Postal Administrations from the entire world, is hosted within the National Museum of History of Romania. Built in a neoclassical style, by the plans of the architect Al. Savulescu, the museum building has hosted the Central Post of Bucharest city until 1970.

In 1981, the General Department of Posts and Telegraph has founded the first version of the postal museum. Extensive measures have been taken for the foundation of a Postal Museum, so that at the beginning of the 20th century, the postal museum has been introduced to the public for the first time, within the General Exhibition from 1906. The famous architect Grigore Cerchez, Postmaster General, has built an old postal inn where postal history items have been exhibited, together with numerous stamps belonging to the general Department of Posts and Telegraph. However, the museum did not last long.

The year 2004 represents the rebirth of the institution, which is currently hosting within its three halls with a surface of more than 600 sqm a part of the Romanian Post treasury. In the “Cezar Librecth” hall (the first postmaster general from Moldavia and Muntenia) one may admire various postal items used throughout time: a desk from a post office, letter boxes, boxes for the transport of valuable items, stamps, bugles, postal bags, coachmen uniforms. In the “Dimitrie C. Butculescu” hall (the founding president of the Romanian Philatelic Society) one may observe a rich and comprehensive bibliography of the Romanian philatelic history. The exhibits also include numerous diplomas and medals obtained in time by the Romanian Post. In the “George Lahovary” hall (the Romanian representative to the birth of the General Postal Union in 1874, which in 1878 turned into the Universal Postal Union), there is a part of the treasury adding up to 11 million stamps, some of which are unique pieces throughout the world. The most rare are the famous “Bull’s Head” issued in Moldavia in 1858, a symbol of the independence of the Romanian Princedom before the Turkish Empire. Actually, the “Bull’s Head” was the first Romanian postage stamp occurring in the South-East of Europe, before Greece (1861), Turkey (1863), Serbia (1866) and Bulgaria (1879). Another valuable exhibit introduced as sheets is the issue “Carol I with whiskers” or “with beard” from 1866-1872. The original steel moulds with which the first issue of the “Bull’s Head” had been printed are also displayed here, together with stamp patterns starting ever since 1872.

The National Philatelic Museum, perceived as a cultural institution of the Romanian Post, has the mission to promote the knowledge and the understanding of the world by studying stamps, letters or any other means of communication by post.

The pattern of the stamp presenting the theme of the event, made by the famous painter and illustrator Devis Grebu, is originally associating the bull’s head (a reproduction of the first Romanian stamps) to the texts symbolizing the celebration of the first year of existence of the National Philatelic Museum.

With a face value of 0.40 Lei, the stamp is introduced to the collectors as a postage stamp sheet and also as an interesting variant of tete-beche.