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 New
York I bought a stamp from the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers
series form 2016. Since I left it at a stamp show the envelope automatically
got the exhibition cache.
Recent stamps of
UNPA can be bought through the UN stamps website: unstamps.org
Date sent: 11
May 2017
Date postmark: 2
June 2017
Date received: 7
June 2017
Number of days:
27
Envelope in collection:
145
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