The duck stamps of Canada welcome a new piece to the series, as Surf Scoters grace this newly released stamp.

Canada Post revealed images of two stamps with a Star Trek theme. The two permanent-rate stamps show William Shatner as Captain Kirk, and the Starship Enterprise.

Renowned British poet William Wordsworth was a key figure in the founding of the Romantic movement of poetry. The stamp honoring him shows a scene from Britain's Lake District.

The Saudi Ministry of Post, Telephone and Telegraph built three new postal centers in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, in accordance with modernizing its postal service, during the third Five-Year Development Plan (1981-1985). State-of-the-art for their time, they were equipped with mechanized sorting machines, private postal boxes, mosques, restaurants for the staff, and a training center.

‘A distinguished display of quite exceptional quality’ was how Peter Cockburn, Honorary Secretary of The Royal Philatelic Society London, described the material shown to the Society on 31 March.

On Oct 1, 1943, Japan issued a set of seven occupation stamps for use only in the Shan provinces of Burma (Scott 2N51-2N57). This set is in demand from Burma specialists, British Empire collectors and collectors of Japan in both unused hinged condition and used condition.

Considerable attention was devoted during 2015 toward marking the 150th anniversary of perhaps the world’s best-known children’s book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll’s ingenious tale of Alice’s fall down a rabbit hole and her resulting escapades in Wonderland has captivated the world since it first appeared in 1865, and subsequently was translated into as many as 175 languages. For its part, Britain’s Royal Mail commemorated the anniversary with a set of 10 stamps on Jan. 6, 2015.

Grosvenor’s Feb. 24 sale in London offered a worldwide assortment of cinderellas from the collection of brothers Francis and Charles Kiddle.

Mystic Stamp Co., based in Camden, N.Y., became an employee-owned company effective April 1 via the formation of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). Owners Donald and Chacea Sundman announced April 2 that they have sold all their Mystic stock to the ESOP. They will continue in their current roles with the company. Donald Sundman is president of Mystic Stamp Co., and Chacea Sundman is director of human resources. They will stay at Mystic and continue to manage the business.

Sparks Auctions, in Ottawa, held a sale on March 1-3. The highlight was an unused 15¢ gray “Large Queen” stamp of 1868, on watermarked paper perforated 11½ by 12.

Cherrystone held a sale Feb. 23-24 in New York of United States and worldwide material, including some seldom-seen early Newfoundland airmail provisionals.

Christoph Gaertner Auktionshaus, based near Stuttgart, Germany, held another of their customary gargantuan sales on Feb. 22-27. The 37,000 lots came from 1,500 consignors, according to the firm, and pushed the sale catalog to eight volumes.

As the 20th century approached, Paris was preparing to host a world’s fair in 1900. Responding to public demand, French postal authorities decided to replace the long-running Sage series that featured allegories of Peace and Commerce. A committee selected three designs by French artists, one each for low, middle, and high values. All of the stamps were printed by typography.

Czechoslovakia’s final stamp issues of 1938, Scott 253-254, celebrated the nation’s 20th anniversary of independence from the Austro-Hungarian empire.

In many parts of the world, early spring is associated with rain. According to an old English folk rhyme, “March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers.” When it comes to postage stamps, though, you can find rain year-round.

After that grueling day in the legislature, Aug. 24, 1848, with the authorizing law for postal reform fully in place and with the approval of the stamp design by the cabinet, France’s Postmaster General Etienne Arago set out to work assiduously towards dissemination of new postal regulations and the production of the necessary stamps.

An important figure in the development of classical music, Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, in 1732, and became renowned throughout Europe during his lifetime.

His paintings have appeared on stamps all over the world, but during his lifetime, Vincent van Gogh was little known, struggling with physical and mental illness as he created what are today celebrated as masterpieces.

“I have never before seen so many die proofs in one go.” So commented Frank Walton, President of The Royal Philatelic Society London, when introducing to the Society the display of The Dutch Antilles in The West Indies.

The son of an Anglican priest, Thomas Clarkson devoted his life to abolishing slavery and the slave trade in the British Empire and throughout the world.