2012100th Anniversary of the battle of Kumanovo - First Day Cover

The First Balkan War (1912-1913) is regarded as the most significant event of the new Serbian history. After several centuries, Serbia finally managed to liberate the old Serbia and the enslaved Serbian people of that time, and it regained its old state and spiritual seats such as Ras, Priština, Peć, Prizren and Skopje. Serbia managed to liberate from Turks the regions that were once densely populated and in which more than 1,300 Serbian churches and monasteries were located. Among them are: Peć Patriarchate, Visoki Dečani, Gračanica, Banjska, Mother of God Ljeviška, St. Archangels near Prizren, Mileševa, Sopoćani... Many of those monasteries and churches were devastated and turned into mosques, as was the case with Mother of God Ljeviška and Banjska.

The liberation of the Old Serbia in 1912 created preconditions for the new epoch in the political, economic, social and cultural development of these regions. It was a rare case in the Serbian history that some event, like it was the First Balkan War, gathered all the layers of the Serbian society together and gave birth to such unanimity in all the Serbian regions.

Motif on the stamp face value 22,00 RSD: portraits of general Radomir Putnik and Stepa Stepanović, colonel Živojin Mišić and regent Aleksandar Karađorđević; motif on stamp face value 50,00 RSD: Revenge of Kosovo (oil, 1913.), Paja Jovanović; motif on the vignette of the sheet face value 50,00 RSD: Kumanovo (drawing), Paja Jovanović; motif on the envelope: Kumanovo Battle (pastel, 1912.), Paja Jovanović.

Artistic realization of the stamp face value 22,00 RSD: M.A. Boban Savić, academic painter; graphic realization of the stamp face value 50,00 RSD: Nadežda Skočajić, academic painter-graphic artist.

Expert collaboration: Serbian Academy of Science and Art (SASA), Historical Museum of Serbia, Military Museum and Museum of the Belgrade City.