STAMPS ~Preserve the Polar Regions and Glaciers~

Went today to my local post office to buy new issued stamps.The sheet is looking great. There are two stamps on with a value of 1.05euro each for sending outside Europe....

I think they are a bit speciale because Belgium has over a century of tradition and expertise in polar exploration.
On the 16 August 1897 Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache (lieutenant in the Royal Belgian navy) and his multinational crew set sail from Antwerp to Antarctica. It was the first scientific and most cosmopolitan expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic explorations. Two of its members subsequently became world famous; second officer Roald Amundsen the first person to reach the South Pole in 1911 and Doctor Frederic Cook who claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1908.

In 2009 about 40 countries will issue stamps on climate change. The common theme is Preserve the Polar Regions and Glaciers. The international stamp campaign is being coordinated by Itella’s Philatelic Centre in Finland.
Each participant country will issue its stamps on its own schedule in the period January-March 2009. Each country will also decide independently on the illustration theme for its issue. A shared feature for the issues is the crystal insignia, shown on the left.