Stamp Out War: Support Ukraine! (2022 Edition)

[delda]

Dear all,

I am a Canadian artist and stamp collector / cover maker who is currently coordinating a philatelic charity project that calls for the collaboration of people from at least 12 countries. Basically, I need people to go to a local post office in their countries on the 24th of August – Ukraine’s national day – to ask for a cancellation on my blue-yellow postcards showing Ukraine solidarity stamps. This way, the visual of the cards, the stamps, and the cancels are all related to the same theme – Ukraine – hence are more worth collecting. I plan on putting these cards on auction and donate all the profits to Ukraine relief funds later.

To visually explain my project, I made a slide in 4 languages.

Here are the countries who have issued special stamps to support Ukraine this year (in order of stamp issue):

1. Latvia
2. Estonia
3. Poland
4. Austria
5. Croatia
6. Moldova
7. Lithuania
8. Luxembourg
9. Spain
10. France
11. Canada

Up until now, I have found at least one participant in each country, but my ideal is to have two participants per country, to reduce the risk of something unforeseen happening. Is there anyone in those countries who would be willing to go to a post office on the 24th of August for this cause?

Lately, because of popular demand from my friends around the world who also itch to help, I purchased more sunflower / yellow flower stamps issued in the following countries that can be used to pay tribute to Ukraine (it’s not the people’s fault that their country’s official postal agency didn’t issue a special Ukraine support stamp):

1. Argentina
2. Australia (1)
3. Belgium (1)
4. Brazil
5. Cambodia
6. Chile
7. Denmark
8. Egypt
9. Finland (1)
10. Ghana (1)
11. Germany (2)
12. Great Britain (1)
13. Hungary
14. Iceland
15. Indonesia (1)
16. Japan (3)
17. Mexico (1)
18. Netherlands (1)
19. Norway
20. Romania (1)
21. Slovenia
22. South Korea (1)
23. Sweden (1)
24. Taiwan (1)
25. Thailand (1)
26. USA (1)
27. Vietnam

It would be nice to have one helper from these added countries too. I am willing to swap / trade another postcard or my other creations with your help as a way of thanking you.

Please contact me if you should like to join this global effort at showing solidarity for Ukraine. There is still high chance that my letters to these countries will arrive by the 24th of August if I put everything into the mailbox in Montreal, Canada, before Monday 7am (so in 4 days). After that, the probability for things to arrive on time will decrease with each day passing by.

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A second family of questions related to this project:

Is there anyone who will be interested in collecting the complete set of these cards? The complete set will consists of at least 13 cards from countries other than Ukraine (including Germany and Japan whose participation I am sure), plus maybe 7 cards from Ukraine (I haven’t decided how to make the Ukrainian varieties yet), totalising in about 20-30 cards. I plan on making at most 2 complete sets, to keep the items rare. Or do you think I would have better chance to find potential collectors for individual cards instead of a whole set?

Also, I am looking for an organisation who might be interested in taking over the business side of the project once I produce these cards – that is to say, the marketing and the auction. Do you have anyone in mind to whom I should get in touch? I have written to 5 Ukrainian organisations in Canada and various philatelic associations but to date I received no reply.

P.S. The photograph featured on my postcard was taken in Prince Edward Island, Canada. I believe it’s a canola field.

[Dorinco]

I’m glad you posted here, as I recommended you.
I think you’ll receive many offers of support, from all the countries in your want list.
Also, post the link to your initial post in the sub-forums here of the countries you need.

[Dorinco]

For purchasing your Project creations, ask known Ukraine benefactors like Mila Kunis, JK Rowling…and a famous stamp collector called Queen Elizabeth II (yeah, the monarch!).
Try them.

[Smitti92]

I can support for Austria if you want. Mail from CA to AT is quite fast at the moment. We would have a good chance to get the cancellation on August 24th.

[delda]

I am surprised that you didn’t mention Angelina Joly!

[Dorinco]

I only know Angelina Jolie…not Joly.

[delda]

Opps! (I must acknowledge that I don’t really know her that well before seeing the news of her recent visit to Ukraine.)

[duck2006]

I can help with a cancellation from Germany if you still need anyone from here

[delda]

Thank you But I ran out of German stamps of canola and sunflower
Unless you can get these stamps by yourself?

[duck2006]

I assume you mean these stamps, right?

Unfortunately they are not available for sale at post offices anymore as they were issued quite a long time ago… and are only sold online by stamp dealers at more than double of their face value

I don’t think I’ll be able to help you here, sorry…

[delda]

Yes, these are the stamps I once had.
No worries, I really appreciate your support and kind offer. It would be great if you can help to spread the word before it is too late

[pollymart]

Thank you for supporting Ukraine! Your support is very valuable to us!

[HookedonPostcards]

Hello @delda, what an interesting and worthwhile project to raise funds for Ukraine. How will the funds be channeled? For example, have you considered The Canada-Ukraine Foundation, which is the recipient of the funds raised through the “Help support Ukraine” postage stamp issued last month by Canada Post.
I am interested in the set. Perhaps you could PM me about your thoughts on how you might distribute / sell the sets that you compile?
Thanks.

[delda]

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation is one of the organisations to which I emailed almost a month ago. Sadly they gave me no reply; maybe they are too busy or they don’t know the value in stamps / postcards. Next week, I will try to reach out to some benefactors as @Dorinco recommended.

For the moment, I still hope that a certain organisation will take over the business side of the project, as I am not (yet) an artist with a following or a reputation, there is a limited audience I can reach. However, in case no one wants to collaborate with me, I will have to put the cards on auction by myself (on eBay probably), then make a personal donation to the Foundation after it ends. If I am to do it by myself, the auction will have to wait till the end of this year, after I come back from my upcoming 3-month bike tour.

There will be at most 2 complete sets being produced, to keep the items rare. The first will be on sale. I will keep the second with me for a little while. I plan on arranging and framing the second set in an artistically significant way, then presenting it to the world of fine art to see if any gallery or art institution is interested in collecting it (yes, as a work of art). This is to say, everyone will have equal chance to bid on the first set, while the second set is (at least currently) reserved for a narrower audience. Right now, I am hoping to compile 25-30 cards in the set; so the starting price would be somewhere around $400 (Canadian dollars).

There will also be individual cards available for purchase, but I can’t tell how much of them nor of which countries they will be for the moment. It all depends on how many helpers I can get and if everything comes back to me usable. It’s almost certain that most of the cards from the added countries (those outside of the 11 countries which had issued special stamp to support Ukraine this year) will only be available in the complete sets. Likely, the Ukrainian variety (produced using the famous warship stamps and the 5 independence stamps issued in previous years) will consists of 7 cards, and there may be one extra smaller Ukraine set (7 cards) available, together with a couple of ‘warship’ duos (2 cards using the first F+W warship stamps and the second F+W warship stamps).

If you are on Facebook, I recommend that you follow the event page I linked in my original post. I will give updates there and on several forum (including this one) as the project goes. If you have any other question, feel free to comment here or message me.

[omatsu]

I will be able to go to the post office on the 24th, so I would like to help you.
However, What should I do if it does not arrive until 24th?

Also, in the case of Japan, is it OK to use a normal postmark?
Since the 24th is the date of issue of the stamp,I can also use this postmark.

[delda]

What a beautiful postmark! I would love to include it in my project.
My last letter to Japan took little more than 7 days to arrive, so I have high hope that if I dispatch the postcard to you shortly, it will reach you right before the 24th. (If it arrives late, you may keep the card as a souvenir )

However, I don’t have any sunflower / yellow flower stamp of Japan left. This year Japan issued two sets (named ‘Summer’s Greeting / 夏のグリーティング’) that include suitable stamps for my project. The first is kind of difficult to get now, but the second one can still be purchased from Japan Post’s online shop. Are you able to get this precise sunflower stamp? Or do you have other older sunflower / yellow flower stamp?

[omatsu]

Summer’s greeting stamps may still be on sale at my local post office.
I will try to find it!
Or I have this stamp of a Japanese painter.

Can I send you my address by PM?

[delda]

Oh lovely! Yes, these sunflower stamps will do the job!
Please PM me your address.

[Dorinco]

@delda, I exchanged recently some flora/fauna maxicards with @omatsu.

[Superchick3]

i am not quite sure what you are asking me to do. i think i may be the only person in cambodia to help.
i know that the mail wont reach cambodia in time unless it is expressed here.