EUROPA 2009 Stamp Program and Denmark's 2009 Astronomy stamps

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, designated in honor of the 400th anniversary of Galileo and the telescope he used to discover the mountains on Earth's moon and four of the moons of Jupiter. Appropriately, the two EUROPA stamps for 2009 will have astronomy themes. Denmark has always had a strong tradition of astronomy and astronomical observation: Tycho Brahe was one of the premier astronomers of the 1600s.

The two beautiful astronomy-themed stamps pictured above are Denmark's 2009 EUROPA stamps.

Collecting Common Design Stamps

These are the stamps that the Scott stamp catalogs refer to as "common design types." Sometimes they are also called omnibus issues. There are dozens of examples of these types of stamps, but just to name a few examples, they include the Colonial Exposition stamps issued by the French Community in 1931; the Vasco da Gama stamps issued by Portugal and its colonies in 1898; and the Silver Jubilee stamps issued by Great Britain and its colonies in 1935.

Common design type stamps typically feature one or more (if the issue is a set of stamps) commemorative stamps that all depict either the same design or a substantially similar design or theme. Occasionally they are not strictly commemorative stamps, such as the Pombal set of postal tax due stamps issued by Portugal and its colonies.

Portugal and its colonies, France and its colonies, and the British Commonwealth of Nations have all issued common design type stamps. Another example of these types of stamps is the famous Europa / CEPT stamps issued by a number of the member nations. Europa / CEPT stamps are extremely popular with European stamp collectors and also topical or thematic stamp collectors.

Common design stamp collections can be very striking in appearance - imagine a stamp album page filled with all the same design stamp, but the stamps being in different colors and issued by different countries.

Just another way to collect stamps. Remember, there are no rules for your stamp collection other than that it should be enjoyable.