Forget the Christmas licking – self-adhesive holiday stamps are here
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Stamp collectors and those who still send Christmas cards (and this is not a dying breed, according to the post office) have a treat in store Thursday 24 November, with the new Swiss Post philately collection going on sale.
Eight stamps are featured this year and for the first time they will be self-adhesive.
Three holiday stamps designed by Raphael Volery from Zurich also have matching gift card sets or the stamps can be purchased alone: “chapel” for CHF0.85, “Christmas tree” for CHF1.00 and “chalet” for CHF1.40.
They are collectors’ items, but can be used for Swiss internal and international post.
Four new Pro Juventute stamps have a surcharge, with the added cost going to support the organization’s projects in its centenary year of 2012.
Two have a face value of CHF0.85 (+0.40) and two have a face value of CHF1.00 (+0.50). Children’s faces draw attention to four important moral and ethical core values, Swiss Post notes: “Trust”, “Confidence”, “Security” and “Friendship”.
An additional stamp designed by Estonian-born rapper Stress (real name Andres Andrekson) shows his perception of Switzerland’s multicultural society. The colourful stamps have a face value of CHF1.00.
The stamps are available starting Thursday at the online philately shop as well as at Swiss philatelic salespoints and post offices.
Calibre 89, auctioned an Antiquorum, Geneva
Cartier watch made in honour of Red Cross, Sotheby's sale
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A watch made for an Ethiopian emperor and a 1948 pink gold watch with a perpetual calendar and moon phases are among the top pieces on the watches auction list at Sotheby’s Sunday 15 November.
The world’s most complicated timepiece, a Patek Philippe Calibre 89 watch with 33 complications, is up for auction Saturday 14 November at Antiquorum.
The two Geneva auction houses hold their big annual watch sales, which dominate the market, every November.
Several historical watches are top of the billing at Sotheby’s:
