Australia Post issued two single stamps and a mini-sheet on June 9, 2009 to mark 150 years of Queensland’s independence from New South Wales in December 1859. The design on the 55c stamp depicts the Queensland outback, and windmill along with a night view of Queensland Parliament House. The $2.75 stamp shows the Great Barrier Reef, a tropical beach and what looks like a tree-frog of some type. The mini-sheet comprises the two single stamps offset to the upper right, with an antique looking map of Queensland in the background of a sunset picture showing the outback and the Brisbane skyline.
 Australia 2009-06-09
On May 28, 2009 Singapore Post released a set of four circular stamps commemorating opening of the first section of Singapore Mass Rapid Transit Corporation’s Circle Line. While the four stamps all have small maps of Singapore and the Circle Line route, the 1ST denomination stamp has the largest map in the set, showing Singapore island and the Circle Line route. [ perhaps due to the small size of the stamp, the route shown on the stamp looks a bit larger than the route shown on the official route map.] When complete, the Circle Line will be the longest underground automated metro line in the world, with a length of over 35km. Other stamps in the set depict tourists, a Alstom Metropolis C830 carriage and a view of a control panel. It is expected that a half million people will use the line each day. A very nice map and transportation themed issue.
 Singapore 2009-05-28
 Latvia 2009-05-14 On May 14, 2009 Latvian Post issued a new stamp to commemorate the National History Museum of Latvia ( Latvijas Nacionālais vēstures muzejs). The musuem is the largest repository of Latvian cultural material and was founded in 1869 as the museum of the Riga Latvian Society. Since 1920 the Museum has been located in Riga Castle. In 1924 the Museum gained the status of a State museum. The new stamp shows Riga Castle in the foreground, along with various artifacts and possibly coins. In the background, an antique map is visible.
 Marshall Islands 2009-05-02 The Marshall Islands marked the 25th anniversary of Postal Service in the islands with a 44cent souvenir sheet issued on May 2, 2009. Now part of the US Postal Service, the Marshall Islands issued their first stamps in 1984.
On April 28th, 2009 the Marshall Islands issued a sheet of 16 stamps to honor some of America’s most important military aviation heros. The 44cent stamps show portraits of the aviation heros with backgrounds depecting important events in their distinquished careers. The final stamp at the lower
 Marshall Islands 2009-04-28 right hand corner of the sheet shows a map of the island archepelago and generalized gird and compass rose. A canoe and sea birds are also shown on the map stamp. Starting in the upper left, the positions of the aviation heros and map stamp are as follows: (16-1) Richard I. Bong, (16-2) Charles “Chuck” Yeager, (16-3) Lauris Norstad, (16-4) Willam “Billy” Mitchell, (16-5) Curtis E. LeMay, (16-6) Edward Henry O’Hare, (16-7) Claire L. Chennault, (16-8) George C. Kenney, (16-9) James “Jimmy” Doolittle, (16-10) Paul W. Tibbits, Jr., (16-11) Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., (16-12) Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, (16-13) Ira C. Eaker, (16-14) Edward “Eddie” Rickenbacker, (16-15) Henry “Hap” Arnold, (16-16) Map of the Marshall Islands.
 The Netherlands has issued a set of stamps to mark the International Year of Astronomy (IYA 2009). The set of two stamps features a map surrounding the Netherlands marking the location of the LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) radio telescopes which are distributed across the Netherlands and other neighboring countries. The LOFAR system uses a large number of relatively cheap, omni-directional dipole antennas without any moving parts, concentrated in stations. The stamp shown on the right depicts the image of a lens crafted by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens. The date, 3 February 1655 is inscribed along with an image of Saturn and what appears to be the phrase “Luna Saturni” – moon of Saturn. The date may indicate when Huygens described the first of Saturn’s moon, later named by John Herschel as Titan, or when Huygens released his proposal that Saturn was surrounded by a solid ring, “a thin, flat ring, nowhere touching, and inclined to the ecliptic.” Huygens did not openly report his discovery about the rings and new moon, but instead disguised his report using the line from the Roman poet Ovidius, “They brought the distant stars to our eyes,” which is also inscribed on the actual lens that Huygens made. The diameter of the 57 mm lens is shown in the top selvedge. The stamps are arranged tete-beche in sheets of 10. The map design continues on the upper and lower selvedge.
 Netherlands 2009-04-07 IYA 2009 has a special task group to handle the philatelic issues and even more exciting, the Europa-CEPT issues for 2009 will also be following the IYA 2009 theme. A number of links and images are available. At this time it seems difficult to say how many terrestrial maps may be featured on the IYA 2009 stamps, but a number of star charts appear to be forth-coming.
A press-release and calendar of philatelic release dates is also available.
Some additional links of Interest for IYA 2009 are:
[ Mark Honig, the Society’s European Representative and “resident astronomer” supplied this information and will be keeping us informed of any additional issues from IYA that are of CartoPhilatelic importance. — web admin ]
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Welcome to the CartoPhilatelic Society Celebrating our 71st Year as a Society. Come and Join Us!
The CartoPhilatelic Society has entered our 71st year as a Society! In 1955 a group of philatelists with a keen interest in map stamps founded the CartoPhilatelic Society. Today we carry on their passion for map stamps in the collections we assemble and the research we conduct.
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