United Nations Geneva

The idea of the United Nations issuing its own stamps was first proposed by Argentina in 1947. An agreement with the United States postal authorities was reached in 1951 and it stipulated that the stamps be denominated in United States currency, and used only at UN Headquarters. The first United Nations stamps were issued in U.S. dollar denominations on United Nations Day, 24 October, in 1951. The stamps were an immediate success and sold out within days. Similar postal agreements were reached with the Swiss and Austrian postal authorities. On 11 December 1968 , an agreement between the United Nations and the Swiss Postal Telephone and Telegraph Enterprise enabled the Geneva office of UNPA to issue the first UN stamps in Swiss francs on 4 October 1969. A similar agreement with the Austrian government on 28 June 1979 enabled the Vienna office of UNPA to issue the first UN stamps in Austrian schillings on 24 August 1979.

UNPA attends a number of stamp shows during the year. In earlier years, especially in the 1980s and 1990s there were a lot more attendances and the blue, white and green exhibition card were popular collection objects. Essen is still one of the shows where UNPA is present every year. During the Briefmarken-Messe in Essen in May 2017 I left stamped envelopes at almost every foreign postal administration hoping they would send them back when they arrived home. For UN Geneva I bought one of the stamps issued for the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, issued on 29 May 2016. Since I left it at a stamp show the envelope automatically got the exhibition cachet. Also UNPA put a priority mark on the cover.

Recent stamps of UNPA can be bought through the UN stamps website: unstamps.org.

Date sent: 11 May 2017

Date postmark: 19 May 2017

Date received: 20 May 2017

Number of days: 9

Envelope in collection: 89