ARMENIA, FRANCE TO ISSUE JOINT POSTAGE STAMPS ON TUESDAY
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
May 21, 2007 Monday 08:26 PM EST
Joint Armenian-French postage stamps are to be issued in Yerevan and
Paris on Tuesday for the first-ever time.
The issue is timed to coincide with the Year of Armenia in France
(YAF), which began in September last year. A ceremonial presentation
of the postage stamps is to be held at the French Embassy here on
Tuesday in the presence of members of the general public, philatelists,
and postal service employees.
The post offices of Armenia and France issue two postage stamps each
with similar representations but with the name of each country and
denomination given in national currencies.
The first postage stamp represents a fragment of the manuscript
Christmas from the 15th-century Menaion, the book of commons, which
is kept at the Yerevan-based Ancient Manuscripts Research Institute.
The other postage stamp represents a fragment of the 15th-century
Smiling Angel statue, which is part of the Church of the Holy Virgin
in the French city of Reims.
Independent Armenia began to issue postage stamps in 1991. Since then,
it issued joint postage stamps only in conjunction with Russia.