With no fewer than four different varieties issued Aug. 8, John Franklin’s HMS Erebus, the flagship of his 1845 voyage in search of the Northwest Passage, becomes the most commemorated ship of any Canadian explorer, although the expedition he commanded was anything but a success.

Royal Mail will issue 10 stamps Aug. 18 featuring seven species of bees from different parts of the United Kingdom. Four of the stamps are se-tenant (side-by-side) in a souvenir sheet, and the other six were printed separately in sheets of 50 (sold as panes of 25 in most postal outlets).

Speed is of the essence of any postal service. The dramatic admonition written by the sender on the letter from the court of Queen Elizabeth I sent in 1598 shown here urges “Hast Hast Post Haste,” encouraging speedy delivery.

Lighthouses of Australia, Croatia, Norway and Poland are pictured on new sets of stamps. Australia Post issued four se-tenant (side-by-side) stamps July 7 to commemorate 100 years of the commonwealth, or national, management of lighthouses.

Common stamps are called that because they are, well, common, except for when they’re not. A case in point is a group of definitive (regular-issue) stamps produced by Australia Post from 1959-62. The six Australia Native Animals stamps are a subset of a larger group of definitive stamps issued during the same time frame.

The Singapore Philatelic Museum has launched an exhibition that celebrates the country's 50th anniversary with more than 240 philatelic items, according to a museum release.

In a special ceremony July 22 at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in the historic port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Post unveiled stamps commemorating John Franklin’s ill-fated 1845 search for the Northwest Passage and the discovery in September 2014 of the sunken remains of his expedition’s flagship HMS Erebus.

By the end of 1905, Costa Rican postal authorities found that they were running short of 1-centimo stamps, even though 200,000 of the current 1c stamp (Scott 45) already had been printed by Waterlow & Sons. The 1c stamp pictures Costa Rican national hero Juan Santamaria.

The Dominican Republic, occupying the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, is the second largest Caribbean nation in both area and population, Cuba being the largest. The island was discovered by Columbus on his first voyage, and the capital, Santo Domingo, is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Western Hemisphere.

Among the riches of our stamp hobby is its remarkable literature. This ranges from weekly publications such as Linn’s, to which many contribute, to authoritative handbooks that a dogged scholar creates through years of research, to catalogs that are quite literally the work of generations.

My monthly column in Linn’s usually features programs written to help collectors keep track of stamps, sources of album pages for saving stamps and websites where they can find out more information about stamps.

Everything about a set of four airmail semipostal stamps issued by Latvia in 1933 is notable. They were a new type of back-of-the-book stamp that still is seldom seen — one that combined the still new (in 1933) rage for aviation with charitable intentions to create the category known as airmail semipostal stamps.

Postage stamps, or lack thereof, might have affected the outcome of the UK general election in May, according to The Telegraph.

Every once in a while it is fun to buy a big stamp mixture or even an entire collection. And, having done so, you may find that the most fun is in finding mysterious stamps you may have never seen before, and then spending time with a catalog to unravel the mysteries.

Five recent stamps from Slovenia not only picture birds, they also spell out the word “Posta” when placed horizontally in order of denomination. Posta Slovenije (Slovenia’s post office) issued these self-adhesive definitive (regular-issue) stamps May 29.

One of the more popular topics that people collect is cats. One of the reasons I have been a bit delayed in my postings is our cat, Tabitha, needed some medical attention. She and her adopted brother, Conrad, have been inseparable since the day we brought them home together. Tabitha, at this moment, is sitting on my shoulder overlooking my work so I felt compelled to write about some cat new issues.

Swiss Post announced July 7 that it is testing the use of drones as a mail-delivery option this month.

Canada Post announced in a July 9 release that it plans to raise the rate of stamps bought in booklets, coils or panes next year.

Alice Munro, acknowledged master of the short story and the first Canadian woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, is celebrated on a new stamp that pays homage to important elements of her work.

A new Australia Post stamp issue is focused on four of the country's famous bushwalking trails.