New additions to my collection of philatelic passports

Philatelic passports are issued at stamp exhibitions. Collectors stick stamps in them and get them 'cancelled' or postmarked. Sometimes the postmarks are as interesting as the stamps (see this example I posted about in 2023). I did a presentation about them to my stamp collecting association a few years back too.

In the past couple of weeks I've received a couple of new philatelic passports, including my first one from India. That was issued in 2011. I also got an American one released in 1996 when the big international stamp exhibition was in Atlants, where the Olympics were being held that year.

The Olymphilex passport is interesting because it includes a lot of detail in the write up of the countries inside - both their philatelic heritage and their Olympic performances. 

There's a nice commemorative cancel on the USA page.

Meanwhile whoever owned this passport chose a Romanian miniature sheet that was too big for the space where it was meant to be stuck in.

The gymnast on the stamp in the middle of the sheet is Nadia Comăneci, who was the first ever gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympics (in Montreal in 1976). 

There was also a Britisb Olympics stamp in the passport, but the postmark is upside down. Come on, Royal Mail employee, you had one job!

There was a supplement issued for the passport, which also has a few stamps in.

The Monaco stamp in the supplement also ticks another interest of mine - baseball on stamps!

The Indian passport is much smaller. The heyday for these style passports was definitely the 90s when stamp collecting was much more popular and every big show had a big passport. This has died off now, as fewer national postal administrations go to the big shows (like Europhilex that I visited last year) and many of them don't bother with passports any more.

Philatelic passports have been a lot thinner in the 21st century. But there are some interesting countries in the Indiapex passport, and some interesting stamps. I particularly liked this Danish stamp with a cartoon of a kid who's foot has turned into a sock puppet.

A cool rabbit on the Malaysian postmark.

A mischievous looking truck on the Swedish postmark (over a rather dull looking owl).

My favourite stamp in the passport is this round one from the Pitcairn Islands. I'm a sucker for round stamps. There's a lovely flower on the cancellation too. Unfortunately there is a huge mistake on the page with two spelling errors in the heading rendering them as the "Pitcrain Inlands."

And the British page is very weird. An old, pre-decimalisatiom stamp, that was issued to celebrate the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) in 1967! 

I'm guessing Royal Mail didn't officially go to Indiapex, as the cancellation is by Stanley Gibbons, one of the world's best known stamp dealers. Quite a cunning way for them to use up some old stamps!