Large Czech Republic souvenir sheet features stamp-on-stamp design

By Denise McCarty

Postal administrations often use stamp-on-stamp designs to commemorate significant stamp anniversaries.

The Czech Republic expanded this concept by issuing a souvenir sheet June 20 showing images of 33 different stamps to mark the 100th anniversary of the first Czechoslovak stamps.

However, only eight of the stamp images are actually included on postage stamps in the new souvenir sheet; the other stamp images are on perforated labels. Czech Post (Ceska Posta) describes the souvenir sheet as resembling pages of a stamp album “containing significant Czechoslovak and Czech stamps.”

The large souvenir sheet only includes two stamps: a 27-koruna denomination in the upper left and a 44kc denomination in the lower right. Each stamp includes the emblem of Praga 2018, the specialized world stamp exhibition to take place Aug. 15-18 in Prague.

Images of eight Czechoslovak stamps are arranged in two rows on the 27kc stamp, starting with a 1919 25-haler semipostal showing a Bohemian lion breaking its chains (Scott B125).

Also pictured on the top row are a 1918 Windhover newspaper stamp (Scott P3), a 1938 Legionnaires commemorative (244), a 1945 newspaper stamp showing a newspaper delivery boy (P27), and a 1953 Josef Dobrovsky commemorative (575).

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The bottom row begins with a 5h Coat of Arms definitive stamp issued in 1931 (Scott 152), followed by the 1947 Grief commemorative for the fifth anniversary of the destruction of Lidice (329). Less than half of a 1962 1.60kc Praga commemorative (1133) also is shown on the 27kc stamp.

The image of that 1962 commemorative is continued on the label in the upper right of the sheet. More images of stamps of Czechoslovakia are featured on that label, as well as on the large label in the center of the sheet.

The 44kc stamp and the label beside it picture stamps of the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic’s first stamp, the 3kc National Arms issued Jan. 20, 1993 (Scott 2877), is reproduced on the label.

Included on the 44kc stamp are the 14kc stamp from the 2003 Tropical Fish sheet (Scott 3210b), a 2010 Beauty of Flowers stamp (3467), the 2013 Europa stamp showing a horse-pulled vehicle used to deliver parcels (3567), and the 2016 Art stamp showing Clown with Monkey by Frantisek Tichy (3692).

In addition, parts of two stamps are included on both the 44kc stamp and the label: a 1998 stamp depicting Charles IV (3040b); and the stamp from the 2014 souvenir sheet honoring the 670th anniversary of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague (3615).