Ukrposhta has officially put into circulation a new postage stamp “City of Heroes. Mariupol”, dedicated to the anniversary of the tragedy in the city of Mariupol. The peculiarity of this issue is the unique coating of the stamps with particles of steel made at the Azovstal plant. This was reported by the company's press service.
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French company Cartor Security Printers has used thermography technology to apply steel to postage stamps.
As far as we know, this is the first steel stamp in the world. It is stamped with metal from the latest batch of Azovstal steel. It took us more than half a year to find those who could manufacture it, and only our partners from France were able to do it,” said Ukrposhta CEO Igor Smelyansky.
The main image of the postal issue “City of Heroes. Mariupol” is the building of the Drama Theater, where about a thousand civilians hid from the shelling, and on which Russian invaders dropped two aerial bombs on March 16, 2022.
The artist of the stamp and the postage block, Oleg Shuplyak, depicted the theater building before and after the Russian strike as a reminder of the grave crime of the occupiers against a peaceful Ukrainian city.
In addition to the postage stamp, along with the release, Ukrposhta also presented an artistic envelope “First Day” and a card by Victoria Anikienko, which depicted the destroyed building of the Mariupol Drama Theater and a little girl next to it, holding a white rabbit in her arms.
This image is also very symbolic, because it was the building of the destroyed theater that had the inscription “CHILDREN” along the entire square, which indicated that there were children in the building. But this inscription did not stop the Russians.
The postal issue also included an unmarked artistic envelope, which depicts a photograph by Mariupol artist Yevgeny Sosnovsky. The inscription on the photograph is very eloquent and does not require special interpretation, because it contains the words “Let the Kremlin animal understand that Mariupol is Ukraine.”
Circulation and characteristics
The circulation of the postage stamp “City of Heroes. Mariupol” is 400,000 copies, denomination – M (corresponds to the tariff for sending a domestic simple letter without declared value weighing over 50 grams up to and including 250 grams and a postcard). In addition, Ukrposhta will issue 25,000 copies of the “First Day” envelope, 25,000 artistic cards, 25,000 artistic envelopes.
Simultaneously with the release of the postage stamp “City of Heroes. Mariupol”, Ukrposhta presents a postage block with the same name, consisting of two stamps with a face value of W. The circulation of the block is limited and is only 6,000 copies with a Certificate of Authenticity, of which 3,250 copies are in a souvenir booklet. The block is intended to provide holders of philatelic subscriptions of the Exclusive package and the Exclusive+ package.
Where to buy
You can buy the postal issue “City of Heroes. Mariupol” from March 14 at Ukrposhta offices, philatelic stores and online at the postal market.
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