Home rule returned to Cuba on Jan. 28, 1909, and a new set of portrait stamps was issued Feb. 1, 1910. Their designs closely resemble the single issue of 1907, Scott 238, which portrays Maj. Gen. Jose Antonio Maceo y Grajales, who was killed in the 1895-98 revolution and is considered by many historians to be the greatest Cuban war general.

The stamps of France reflect the dichotomy of French history. The French have been innovators in the arts and sciences, and people around the world enjoy the results of French creativity in food, wine, and fashion. Yet in modern times, the French polity has been in a near-constant state of turmoil until recently.

When collectors of classic stamps think of beautiful colonial issues, British and French colonies often come first to mind. But Portugal possessed an empire that was older, as widespread and almost as vast as the British and French imperial powers. Many Portuguese colonial issues are just as attractive as their French and British contemporaries.

The Khaleej Times is reporting that the world’s tallest standing building, the Burj Khalifa in downtown Dubai, has been issued its own commemorative stamp.

New stamps from Greece feature classic advertisements of that nation's products.

Greenland issued seven stamps Jan. 18 featuring the seasons, national costumes and children’s rights. The Seasons stamps are part of the Sepac (Small European Postal Administration Cooperation) multination series for 2016. Sepac’s themes for previous years include scenery, animals, flowers, and culture.

A friend gave me the label shown nearby. He knew nothing about its origin, and thought I might like to write an article about it. Because I had never seen it before, I did a Google search on “1911 Glasgow Exhibition.” Information from various Internet sites told me that in 1911 there was an exhibition held in Glasgow called the Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry.

The latest stamp in Canada Post’s Black History Month series, which began in 2009, salutes the No. 2 Construction Battalion, formed 100 years ago in 1916.

Overprinted stamps of New Zealand were used by Pacific islands beginning in the early years of the 20th century. At that time, several of the British protectorate islands were annexed to New Zealand.

Currently, most China stamp sets are selling at 55 percent to 65 percent of Scott catalog value. One item that has held its value well under these conditions is the 3-yuan Guan Yu’s Battle through the Five Passes souvenir sheet (Scott 2180) from the 1988 Literary Masterpieces set.

A new stamp from Sweden has a United States connection. It shows a reconstruction of a 75-million-year-old fossil found in the United States, according to the press release from Postnord, the company established in 2009 through the merger of Sweden’s Posten AB and Post Danmark.

Who’s up and who’s down in the politics of a nation is often reflected in the choices made for the subject matter of commemorative stamps. This dynamic is particularly evident in stamps issued in Poland in 1980 and again in 1990.

Linn’s introduced a dedicated web page in mid-January for World Stamp Show-NY 2016 on www.linns.com.

China issued three different stamps in January welcoming the new year and recognizing the Year of the Monkey as identified in the traditional Chinese zodiac. Something that’s caught the attention of collectors and international news reporters, however, is the fact that one of the stamps portrays an adult monkey holding two baby monkeys who are each giving the adult a kiss on the cheek.

My story (Linn’s, Nov. 30, 2015) about a registered cover from Qatar bearing a set of Sheik Ahmad gold-foil stamps that sold for more than $1,100 on eBay precipitated some fascinating feedback from readers. One of the more engrossing of these replies came from Canada dealer and specialist John Jamieson of Saskatoon Stamp Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

American adventurer and envelope-pushing (pun intended) designer, Burt Todd fell in love with the Southeast Asian country of Bhutan in 1972 – landlocked mass border by India, China, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Todd went on to befriend the king of Bhutan at the time, and convinced him to issue postage stamps as a means for raising government funds.

World Stamp Show-NY 2016 opens May 28, and now is the time to start getting ready to attend the largest international philatelic exhibition in the United States since the Washington 2006 exhibition 10 years ago. Hundreds of dealers, thousands of exhibit pages, dozens of stamp societies and postal administrations, and more await you.

Stamps and mail of the post-World War II era are an abiding interest because even issues you don’t collect can help you learn what to look for and where to focus. That’s why I enjoyed the handbook The Rates and Postal History of Canada’s Peace Issue 1946-1952 by H.M. (Mike) Street of Ancaster, Ontario, published in 2015 by the British North America Philatelic Society.

Linn's Stamp News looks ahead to the Ameristamp Expo stamp show taking place Jan. 29-31 in Atlanta, Ga., and the World Stamp Show-NY 2016 in May and June in two of this week's most popular stories.

On Sept. 18, 1961, Switzerland issued a set of four stamps (Scott 406-409) commemorating the authors of the four Gospels in the Christian New Testament. The designs featuring St. Matthew and an angel, St. Mark and a winged lion, St. Luke and a winged ox, and St. John and an eagle were based on 15th-century wood carvings from St. Oswald’s Church in Zug.