XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

Monaco has create a new stamp to celebrate 50 years of the Larvotto Marine Protected Area (MPA) in 1976. Larvotto was the first MPA in the world located in an urban environment. The WOPA website tells us that "it shelters a rich and diverse biodiversity and serves as a veritable natural laboratory" and is a base for important "scientific monitoring programs". We see from the stamp how close the MPA is to the city of Monte Carlo. The protected sea area is basically right nex

I have already reviewed the recent Winter Olympics issue from Estonia , but in the last few days there have been several other Olympic-related issues from various countries. I have decided to review these together. The first one is this from Liechtenstein. It is a single stamp and reminds me of some of the historic Olympic posters. Design Quality  - This feels like a classic poster from history. The Olympic flame stands out boldly against a dark nighttime background. It emp

Monaco's first issue of the year celebrates opera singers. This is not the first year Monaco has done this - in fact, this is part of a series that goes way back to 2020. Below are the stamps from last year. The 2025 set featuring Lina Cavalieri and Lucien Muratore The WOPA website very helpfully gives some information on the two opera singers shown on this year's stamps: Jean-François "Francisque" Delmas (1861–1933) was a renowned French bass-baritone. Trained at the Pari

Instead of reviewing different countries' Christmas stamps individually, I thought it would be better to look at them together. I'm not going to give any lengthy reviews - I'll just make a few short comments and give a mark. Here are a few of my thoughts about the different new Christmas stamps from around the world. I've tried to cover as many of them as possible, but no doubt there will be a few countries I have missed. Great Britain I will start with our own Christmas stam

Here's my first review of new issues and could there be a better time to start than Christmas? I don't think so. I've had a look at some...