SEPAC 2022 showcases local drink specialities, and two sets stand out. 12 countries make up SEPAC (Small European Postal Administration Corporations): Åland, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Greenland, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco and Vatican City. Not all participate in the yearly competition. Last year neither Isle of Man nor the Vatican issued a stamp and it looks like they’ll pass on the 2022 series as well.
This year’s theme is meant to draw attention to drinks unique to each country. Ranging from fresh water to wine, the topic offered some interesting choices. The two best come from Åland and Malta. Åland’s buckthorn berries juice Havtorn was designed by Johanna Finne. Photographer Tiina Tahvanainen provided sharp, rich images for Finne to work with. The sheet is the star of this set with this interesting label divider:
But my personal favourite comes by way of Malta. Daniel Spiteri designed 4 stamps for the Local Beverages set, but the Kinnie is the official SEPAC entry.
The illustration reminds me of classic 1930s posters, and perfectly captures long warm days in the sun. I’ve put Spiteri on my list of artists to watch and look forward to seeing more stamp designs from him.
The big disappointment was Monaco. Not the stamp, it’s pretty good, and I love anything from French engraver Elsa Catelin. The disappointment comes from the utter lack of details offered for the stamp. Catelin’s work deserved better.
If another stamp pops up before the end of the year, I’ll update the page. Gibraltar hasn’t posted one yet and we may still see something from them. Enjoy the drinks and if you’ve tried any, let the rest of us know what they taste like.
Åland
1 stamp, sheet of 24, FDC, cancel
offset
This local drink is made of buckthorn berries.
Åland is one of the few areas in Finland where sea buckthorn grows in the wild. Sea buckthorn grows best on rocky and gravelly shores, where it grows in dense thickets. The branches are prickly, which makes it inconvenient to pick berries. Small orange-yellow berries, fleshy and sour, ripen in the fall. The Sepac stamp offers a vitamin bomb – sea buckthorn juice from Åland | www.alandstamps.com
Åland Post produced a fascinating video featuring Tahvanainen creating this set. It has English subtitles, and the visuals are stunning. It’s a short, beautiful video.
Designer: Johanna Finne
Photographer: Tiina Tahvanainen
“My strength is delivering a depth and specific mood to a picture. I am also fascinated by the worn and love to study odd places. You can also often see a poetic tone in my pictures, and I love to see the small things in life.” Tiina Tahvanainen
If you have an Instagram account, you can see more of her photography here Tiina Tahvanainen (@photographertiina) • Instagram photos and videos
Release date: September 6, 2021
Faroe Islands
1 stamp, FDC, cancel, maxi card, postcard
Föroya Bjór Forsíða – Föroya Bjór (bjor.fo). This Faroese brewing company started 1888.
Föroya Bjór, “The beer of the Faroes”, was established in 1888 by a Símun í Vági who learnt the skills of the trade in Denmark, and upon his return set up the brewery in Klaksvík. Apart from numerous beers and stouts the company also produces soft drinks, and sells most of their produce in the Faroe Islands, and to “neighbours” Iceland and Denmark. Föroya Bjór Black Sheep – This Drinking Life
Founded by Símun í Vági who also designed the striking Faroese ram logo.
Designer/artist: Anker Eli Petersen
Release date: May 16, 2022
Greenland
1 stamp, sheet of 10, FDC, cancel
offset
Greenlandic bottled water
For thousands of years, and over several ice ages, water has been frozen and preserved in the Greenland ice sheet, which creates a unique encapsulation of one of the world’s most valuable treasures: Pure drinking water. The water from the Greenland ice sheet is bottled of different sizes.
I tusinder af år, og over flere istider, har vand været frosset og bevaret i Grønlands indlandsis, hvilket skaber en enestående indkapsling af en af
klodens mest værdifulde skatte: Rent drikkevand. Vandet fra Grønlands indlandsis tappes på flasker af forskellig størrelse. Det skaber drikkevand af
enestående kvalitet. Grønlandsk vand på glaseller plasticflaske sælges som produkt, både på det grønlandske hjemmemarked og på det internationale
marked.
Greenland Collector No. 2 May 2022
Designer: Lisbeth Karline Poulsen
Artist Poulsen lives in Ilulissat, near a large ice fjord, where she took her inspiration for this design. This is her 12th stamp design, with her first appearing 2012.
[For the] creation of the stamp motif of the bottle containing Greenlandic water, Lisbeth collected lumps of ice near the port of Ilulissat. She took the ice cubes with her home and used the melt water from the ice cubes to to mix in the blue colors seen on the stamp Greenland Collector No. 2
May 2022
Guernsey
4 stamps, FDC, cancel, 4 maxi cards, 4 postcards, 4 sheets of 10
lithography
Seagull Mischief
Instead of focusing on a single local drink, Guernsey decided to highlight seagulls enjoying local Guernsey’s food and drinks
- 52p – An opportunistic seagull has stolen a slice of Guernsey Gâche to share with his partner in crime.
- 79p – Always looking for an easy meal, this seagull has stolen a mackerel from an unsuspecting Guernsey fisherman.
- £1.10 – This audacious seagull takes a sip from a sunbather’s drink can. This stamp bears the SEPAC logo and the colours of the can are similar to that of a locally produced beverage. This stamp is the official SEPAC entry
- £1.35 – Cooling down with ice-cream provided by a generous human!
Designer/artist: James Colmer
This is Guernsey artist Colmer’s first stamps.
Release date: June 22, 2022
Jersey
6 stamps, 6 sheets of 10, FDC, cancel, presentation pack, 6 post cards
- Jersey wonders
- Jersey royals
- Jersey cider
- Jersey milk and ice cream
- Jersey black butter
- Jersey bean crock and cabbage loaf
SEPAC 2022
The 91p stamp is the official SEPAC entry. Jersey cider is actually a number of different cider varieties. Jerripedia has an interesting brief historical look at cider production on Jersey Cider – Jerripedia (theislandwiki.org). If you are interested in a more substantial look at the importance of cider production and it’s long history on the island, check out this pdf from the Jersey Heritage website, Jersey cider: THE PAPER TRAIL – FRAGMENTS OF HISTORY by James Crowden. Crowden is both an historian and cider maker and brings a unique perspective to the art of cider production.
Historical paper trails are fascinating in themselves and very quickly you can build up a picture of what cider
production must have been like in Jersey, an island devoted to apples and pears as if their cultivation was a
religion. James Crowden, Jersey Cider: The Paper Trail, pg. 1
Artist: Ian Rolls
Rolls is a watercolourist who makes his home on Jersey. You can see more of his water colours here Ian Rolls – Artist. This video is from 2020 and follows Ian through the entire process of how he paints from sketch to watercolour. It was produced by Little River Pictures. Hope you enjoy the short video.
Release date: May 24, 2022
Liechtenstein
1 stamp, FDC, cancel, maxi card, sheet of 9
Clean local drinking water
“Unimaginable for many people in many parts of the world, you can enjoy fresh water of excellent quality directly from the tap in the Alpine country.” News – Detail – Philately Liechtenstein (philatelie.li)
Release date: September 1, 2022
Luxembourg
1 stamp, FDC, cancel
offset
Luxembourg wine
The wine growing region of Luxembourg stretches along the banks of the Moselle some 42km from Wasserbillig to Schengen. At about 1,300 hectares, it’s smaller than a commercial Californian vineyard, and yet the Grand Duchy is home to more than 450 winegrowers and producers. Luxembourg’s wines in a league of their own (luxtimes.lu)
Photographer: Christian Aschmann
Layout: Fargo sàrl
Release date: September 13, 2022
Malta
4 stamps, FDC, cancel, presentation pack, 4 sheets of 10
offset
watermark: Maltese Crosses
- Kinnie – Welcome – Kinnie – a bittersweet soda introduced in 1952. Made of bitter oranges and wormwood extract.
- Gellewza Wine – Gellewza is a very famous red grape variety from the Malta region. (worldsbestwines.eu)
- Bajtra liqueur – Prickly Pear Liqueur that dates back to the 15th century
- San Blas – an Indian pale ale
Designer: Daniel Spiteri
You can read more about Spiteri and this set here Malta 2022 stamps are here! I wrote about the SEPAC series in the intro to Malta’s 2022 series.
Release date: September 5, 2022
Monaco
1 stamp
Monegasque beer – 1905 brewery
Designer/engraver: Elsa Catelin
Release date: June 14, 2022
Take a look at the 2021 SEPAC issues. Last year featured Old Maps. The 2020 series highlighted Works of Art in National Collections.
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