Commemorative postage stamps with the theme Europa are among the most popular in the world. The first stamp of this edition was published on September 15th 1956, and its author, Frenchman, Daniel Gonzague, symbolically depicted the creation of a new Europe, devastated by a World War, as a tower on which vertical letters EUROPA were written. Scaffolding around the tower symbolizes the construction of a new Europe. The stamp was published in 1956 by six countries – Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Yugoslavia, the first country of the former communist bloc which joined the publishing of the commemorative edition of EUROPA, issued its first EUROPA stamp in 1969, for the ten-year anniversary of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications administrations – CEPT, and the admission of the former Community of Yugoslav PTT to this organization.
The draft of the stamp depicts an architectural structure where the letters “Europa – CEPT” make up its main element, colonnade, and it is a work of Andreja Milenković according to the design by Italians, Luigi Gasbara and Giorgio Belli. From 1957 to 1974, all EUROPA stamps had the same visual identity; however, since 1974 CEPT would only suggest a theme, while postal administrations would create individual artistic realizations. In 1984, on the occasion of 25 years of CEPT, all countries published a stamp that had a common design. PostEurop assumed the responsibility for the issuance of EUROPA stamps in 1993, again with a common theme for all member states. In 2000, 57 countries published a stamp of the same design – six stars in a tower. This year also, to mark 60 years since the first edition of EUROPA stamp, all members of PostEurop announced the stamp with the design by Doxia Sergidou from Cyprus. Since 2002, PostEurop has organized “EUROPA Stamp Contest”. Our commemorative stamp with the theme “National musical instruments”, by the author Nadežda Skočajić, stamp designer of the Post of Serbia, was voted the best design EUROPA stamp for 2014. With this year’s “Stamp Day” issue, Post of Serbia is once again marking 60 years since the first EUROPA issue, by publishing two stamps dedicated to this jubilee.
