2021 Serbian stamps – a visual feast

by catpaw | 28 Mar, 2021 | Stamps

The 2021 Serbian stamps offer some real treats for the eye. I spent a lot of time cruising through the Serbian Post Office site. Not, for a change, because I was hopelessly looking for information, but because it was well organised, and the stamp designs were so fun to explore. I dug deeper and deeper into the archives, enjoying everything.

What really struck me is the way Serbian designers incorporated colours from their stamps into the First Day Covers. Instead of the usual white envelope, the covers became a canvas.  I’ve become especially fond of graphic artist and designer Boban Savić’s work. His Lunar New Year series is a good example of using the cover as canvas:

There is an amazing continuity to each FDC design. The colours, all the elements, the cancel, they all flow together. Occasionally, he also slips in a bit of cheekiness, like my favourite the rat for 2020’s Lunar New Year and 2019’s pig.    

If you enjoy FDCs then Serbia needs to be on the top of your list. They also offer great thematic treats such as military, architecture, science, art and wildlife. The covers are exquisite. 

Cancels & maxi cards

If you are a cancel collector, then Serbia is a rich hunting ground. Serbia Post makes it easy to track cancels. They keep an archive of material dating to 2013. The cancels are well designed and appealing. Last Easter’s cancel is a good example of the quality:

Easter 2020

A couple maxi cards will be issued this year. The first will be in April, Tourism in Serbia, and later in the year the Stamp Day issue will come with one maxi card to celebrate the event. Last year’s Nikola Tesla’s series was outstanding. It ticked a couple of collecting boxes: cancels, science, history, maxi cards. 

Designer Nadežda Skočajić used rich, earthy colours that made the subject pop. Now you see why I spent so much time wandering the virtual halls of the Serbian post office. Not quite sure what it is about Serbian artists that has me enthralled. It’s more than the topic.  If I figure out what it is, I’ll share it with you. In the meantime, just enjoy the work.  

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 As always, I’ll be updating this page throughout the year. You can follow me on Facebook & Twitter for update details. You can also leave me messages and question on either platform or in the comments below. I enjoy chatting with readers.

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2021 Serbian stamps – February 

Lunar horoscope – year of the ox

2 stamps, FDC, cancel, sheets of 25

Designer: Boban Savić, MA 
Savić has designed numerous stamps for Serbian Post, including 2020’s Ljubomir Klerić and the Belgrade Hand and the spectacular Beethoven’s Birth. He has also designed all Lunar New Year stamps & covers since 2013. 

See all the Year of the Ox stamps for 2021 

Release date: Feb. 23, 2021

March

Easter

2 stamps, FDC, cancel, 2 sheets of 25

Designer: Marija Vlahović, MA
with Miljana Matić, PhD in Art History, Curator of the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church

Release date: Mar. 5, 2021

1 stamp, FDC, cancel, sheet of 10

Featuring portrait of Sima Andrejević Igumanov (Uroš Knežević, National Museum in Belgrade), in the background the building of the Prizren seminary.

Prizren Seminary (kosovo.net)

Designer: Anamari Banjac
with Dr. Aleksandra Novakov, expert associate of the Lexicography Department and Secretary of the Kosovo-Metohija Board of Matica Srpska, with the blessing of Bishop of Raška and Prizren Eparchy Mr. Teodosije, Rector of the Seminary

Release date: Mar. 10, 2021

Doyens of Serbian Acting

part of a series

• Ljiljana Krstić (31 October 1919, Kragujevac – 12 April 2001, Belgrade)
• Tatjana Lukjanova (6 November 1923 – 18 August 2003, Belgrade)
• Radmila Andrić (17 July 1934 – 20 November 2018, Belgrade)
• Milena Dravić (5 October 1940 – 14 October 2018, Belgrade)
• Miodrag Radovanović Mrgud (20 August 1929, Čačak-14 January 2019, Belgrade)
• Mihailo Miša Janketić (24 May 1938, Novi Sad – 15.5.2019, Belgrade)
• Marko Nikolić (20 October 1946, Kraljevo – 2 January 2019, Belgrade)
• Predrag Ejdus (24 July 1947 – 28 September 2018, Belgrade)

8 stamps, 4 FDC, cancel, sheet of 8

Designer: Marina Kalezić

Release date: March 26, 2021

1 stamp, sheet of 10, FDC, cancel

Designer:  Jakša Vlahović

Release date: Apr. 2, 2021

1 stamp

Designer: Nadežda Skočajić

Release date: April 9, 2021

1 stamp

Designer: Nadežda Skočajić

Release date: April 12, 2021

60 Years since the First Manned Space Flight

• Yuri Gagarin
• German Titov
• Valentina Tereshkova
• FDC  graphic includes ground trace of ”Vosto–1″
• FDC  graphic model includes Vostok capsule with its upper stage
• FDC  graphic model  includes “Vosto–6” capsule

3 stamps, souvenir sheet, booklet, 3 FDCs, cancel

Issued in collaboration with the State Space Corporation ”Roscosmos”

Designer: Nadežda Skočajić

Release date: April 12, 2021

• Ruins of the Đurđevi stupovi Monastery
• Studenica, monastery complex
• Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God in the Gračanica Monastery

3 stamps, sheets of 8, 3 FDC, cancel

Designer: Miroslav Nikolić
In collaboration with Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia – Belgrade

Release date: Apr. 15, 2021

1 stamp, souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel
POSTMARK PLACE: Belgrad

Designer: Nadežda Skočajić

Release date: Apr. 22, 2021

Civil Engineering
175 Years of the Faculty of Civil Engineering University of Belgrade
75 Years Since the Reconstruction of the Road-Railway Bridge Over the Danube

Designer: Anamari Banjac

Europa – Endangered National Wildlife

2 stamps, 2 sheets of 8, FDC, cancel

• Saker Falcon – Falco cherrug
• Shore Lark – Eremophila alpestris

Designer: Marija Vlahović

Release date: May 5, 2021

Stamp Day – 150 years since sending the first Serbian postcard

1 stamp, sheet of 25, FDC, cancel

I think this is the single most awesome dragon stamp  & FDC ever! It’s AMAZING.  

First Serbian postcard, popularly called ”Zmaj” (Dragon), was sent by Jovan Manojlović on 19th of May 1871 from Vienna, from the editorial board of the newspaper ”Zmaj” to Sombor, to the address of a lawyer Dimitrije Manojlović. It was written in Serbian language, in Cyrillic. The postcard was printed on a cardboard of 155 mm x 105 mm format, in the coloured copper engraving technique, done by the Vienna typographer and carver Rudolf Schürer von Waldheim at the beginning of 1871. The postcard was ordered by the editorial board of the satirical newspaper ”Zmaj”, which was one of the first and the best edited humorous newspapers in Serbian language. It was the reason why its founder and editor-in-chief, poet Jovan Jovanović was nicknamed Zmaj. This satirical newspaper was founded by Jovan Jovanović in 1864, and the name ”Zmaj” is a play on words, since May 3 was the date of the May Assembly in 1848 (in Cyrillic 3. мај – Змај).

Only one known postcard is known to survive. 

1871
Original artist: Petar Manojlović
Typographer & Engraver: Rudolf Schürer von Waldheim 

Stamp designer: Jakša Vlahović

Release date: May 19, 2021

1 stamp, FDC, cancel, sheet of 8

Designer: Nadežda Skočajić
Consultation with Museum of African Art, Belgrade; Society Adligat for Culture, Arts and International cooperation.

Release date: May 25, 2021

1 stamp, sheet of 100 

Designer: Boban Savić

Release date: May 27, 2021

June

Digitization

2 stamps, FDC, cancel, 2 strips of 10

Designer: Boban Savić

Release date: June 14, 2021

650 years of the city of Kruševac

1 stamp, souvenir sheet of 4, FDC, cancel

Grad Kruševac | Dobrodošli na zvaničnu Internet prezentaciju grada Kruševca (ls.gov.rs)

Designer: Miroslav Nikolić

Release date: June 28, 2021

XXXII Summer Olympic Games – Tokyo 2020

2 stamps, sheets of 8, FDC, cancel

Designer: Nadežda Skočajić

Release date: July 1, 2021

 

 

 

 

 

Francophonie is an international organisation representing countries and regions where French is a national, official, working or the language of international communication. Francophonie comprises 53 full member countries and 13 observers, one of which is Serbia. Франкофонија – еФилателија (posta.rs) (English version available)

Cities of Serbia

2 stamps, 2 FDCs, cancel, 2 sheets of 9

• Kraljevo – Monument to the Serbian Warriors
• Novi Pazar – panorama of Novi Pazar with the Old Bazaar

Designer: Anamari Banjac

Release date: September 8, 2021

75 years of diplomatic relations between Serbia and Mexico

1 stamp on a souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel

Designer: Marija Vlahović

Release date: September 12, 2021

100th Anniversary of the Albanian Commemorative Medal

1 stamp, souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel

Designer: Jakša Vlahović

Release date: September 15, 2021

Centenary of Serbian Water Polo 

1 stamp, FDC, cancel, sheet of 9

Designer: Anamari Banjac

Release date: September 23, 2021

Serbian-Turkish War – The 145th Anniversary of Russian Volunteers Arrival

1 stamp, sheet of 8, FDC, cancel

Designer: Nadežda Skočajić

Release date: September 24, 2021

Joy of Europe

1 stamp, sheet of 8, FDC, cancel

Designer: Jakša Vlahović
This beautiful set used the artwork from the following children:
Single stamp: drawing by Dunja Sudžum (11 years, Serbia)
Vignettes on sheet of stamps: Alina Pagaeva (12 years, Russia), Simon Haburcak, (7 years, Slovakia), Aurora Tsang, (6 years, Hong Kong), Sofia Zakharkina, (7 years, Russia), Gleb Kolchev (6 years, Russia), Dzerassa Ikaeva, (11 years, Russia), Alisa Chernova, (13 years, Russia)
FDC: drawing by Tanisha Vihol (15 years, India).

Release date: September 30, 2021

The 60th anniversary of the First Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement – Belgrade 1961

2 stamps, sheet of 10, FDC, cancel

History and Evolution of Non-Aligned Movement (mea.gov.in)

Designer: Nadežda Skočajić

Release date: October 11, 2021

140th Anniversary of the Serbian–American Diplomatic Relations

2 stamps on a souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel

Designer: Jakša Vlahović

Release date: October 14, 202

World Boxing Championships – Serbia 2021

1 stamp, sheet of 8, FDC, cancel

Designer: Jakša Vlahović

Release date: October 18, 2021

100th Anniversary of Sports Aviation in Serbia

1 stamp, sheet of 8, FDC, cancel

The Serbian Aeroclub formed by WW1 pilots on October 22, 1921 in Belgrade. Founding members were:

Matija Hođera, Orestije Krstić, Dragoljub Ristić, Sava Mikić, Dragiša Vujić, Rodolphe Archibald Reiss PhD, Dragoljub Mitrović–Janković, Dragoš Adamović, Jovan Šrepalović, Atilije Raspor, Dragomir Nikolić, Sava Simić, Mihajlo Bošković, Petar Đurković, Đorđe Mirković i Bogdan Bogdanović.  
Web sajt ==> PREDRAG ALIC <== Aeroklub “Nasa krila” (50webs.com) 

Designer: Miroslav Nikolić

Release date: October 22, 2021

Tourism in Serbia – Gamzigrad ‒ Felix Romuliana

1 stamp, sheet of 10, FDC, cancel

Felix Romuliana, home of the last Roman god – Serbia.com

Designer: Nadežda Skočajić

Release date: October 29, 2021

Slava – Celebration of Family Saint Patron’s Day

1 stamp, sheet of 8, FDC, cancel

Saint George’s Day (Djurdjevdan) – St. George slaying a dragon 

Designer: Marija Vlahović

Release date: November 2, 2021

The Life and Work of Duke Živojin Mišić

1 stamp, sheet of 8, FDC, cancel

WHO WE ARE AND CAN! From right here, Zivojin Misic, from the 13th little one of the cooperative household, reached the rank of Duke and Fearless Warrior / VIDEO / PHOTO / | Welcome to Serbia (welcome-to-serbia.com)

Designer: Boban Savić

Release date: November 10, 2021

Serbia–Germany 100 Years since the Birth of Great Artists

2 stamps, 2 FDCs, cancel, 2 sheets of 8

Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos (1921 – 1987)   

Trained in art history and philosophy, and known as an influential critic and curator in what was then Communist Zagreb, Mangelos (a pseudonym of the late Dimitrije Bašičević) offers a distinct approach to language as an aesthetic material. Unlike his Conceptualist contemporaries in the West, who came to this subject as the logical conclusion of modernist reduction and dematerialization, the artist adapted painted and drawn words in different languages as a way to extend his philosophical reflections into the material world, a physical counterpart to abstract thinking. His practice was essentially concerned with introspection, note-taking as an art form. Galerie Martin Janda – Artforum International

Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos – Dimitrije Bašičević Mangelos
Mangelos (Dimitrije Bašičević) | MoMA

Joseph Beuys (1921 – 1986) 

Beuys’s insistence on the fundamentally democratic nature of human creativity suggested that every fully thinking and feeling person is, by definition, an artist, has left a widely influential and creative legacy since his death in 1986. While Beuys had always made an impact on his fellow Fluxus colleagues since the early 1960s, he would ultimately come to play a larger role in lending credence to the notion, increasingly popular since the mid 1990s, that art should address social, political, and related concerns by blurring the boundaries between its own practice, as a professional discipline, and everyday reality.  Joseph Beuys Biography, Life & Quotes | TheArtStory

Joseph Beuys | National Gallery of Canada
Joseph Beuys | Art Gallery of Ontario (ago.ca)

Germany issued a stamp in 2021 celebrating Joseph Beuys. You need to skip down a couple issues to see it. 

Designer: Jakša Vlahović

Release date: November 23, 2021

125th Anniversary of the Belgrade Museum of Pedagogy 
Series: Museums of Serbia

2 stamps, 2 FDCs, cancel, 2 sheets of 10

Founded November 24, 1896 as the School Museum.  First director: Dimitrije Putniković 

Today, the Museum of Pedagogy is a modern institution that preserves about 50,000 exhibits of the history of Serbian schooling and education, from Cyril and Methodius to modern age (books, textbooks, school supplies and teaching aids, archival documentation, photographs, media library, etc.). The Museum of Pedagogy offers professional guidance to the visitor of all ages through a permanent exhibition, gallery and treasury, organizing educational and entertainment workshops, birthday celebrations with “Escape Room” for the youngest, a library with a reading room for all who want to get acquainted with the past of Serbian schools, and a lot more. In this way the Museum of Pedagogy remains a lighthouse in the field of care for the tradition and past of Serbian education and culture as a whole. Пригодна издања – 2021 – еФилателија (posta.rs)

Designer: Anamari Banjac 

Release date: November 24, 2021

Christmas 2021

2 stamps, FDC, cancel, 2 sheets of 25

… the Orthodox celebrate it on January 7^th, and the Catholic on December 25^th, but its message remains the same – the message of peace and love.

We celebrate Christmas for three days. It is primarily family holiday, and there are numerous traditions and customs regarding Christmas. On the day before Christmas and Christmas Eve, the yule log is being brought into house, cresset lit and hay with hidden candies, prunes, walnuts, sugar and coins, spread all over the house. The hay is a symbol of the manger in which Christ was born. The yule log represents longevity and substance of Christianity, as well as of the warmth of the love Christ brought to us when he was born and arrived to the Earth. On the very day of the Christmas, early in the morning the church bells of all Orthodox temples are ringing, announcing the nativity of Christ. People go to church to attend Christmas liturgy and they all greet each other by “Christ has been born” and “Indeed he has”. Пригодна издања – 2021 – еФилателија (posta.rs)

Designer: Marija Vlahović

Release date: November 26, 2021

100 years of the Communist Party of China

3 stamps, FDC, cancel

Designer: Nadežda Skočajić

Release date: November 29, 2021

100 years since the establishment of The Postal Savings Bank, a.d. Beograd

1 stamp, sheet of 10, FDC, cancel

Designer: Miroslav Nikolić

Release date: November 30, 2021

December

Renowned World writers

4 stamps on a booklet sheet, 4 FDCs, cancel, postcard (?) 

• Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
• Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 – 1881)
• Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
• Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006)

Designer: Boban Savić

Release date: December 1, 2021

Serbia – United Arab Emirates: 50 Years of Friendship

2 stamps on souvenir sheet, FDC,cancel

Designer: Miroslav Nikolić

Release date: December 2, 2021

Monument to Stefan Nemanja

1 stamp, FDC, cancel, sheet of 10

Unveiling of the monument to Stefan Nemanja | Serbian Orthodox Church [Official web site] (spc.rs)

Designer: Miroslav Nikolić

Release date: December 3, 2021

140th Anniversary of the Journalists’ Association of Serbia

1 stamp, FDC, cancel, sheet of 25 

The Journalists’ Association of Serbia was founded on December 21, 1881 in Belgrade, under the name of the Serbian Journalists’ Society. It is one of the oldest professional journalist associations in the world. The first president was Laza Kostić, famous journalist and poet. Пригодна издања – 2021 – еФилателија (posta.rs)

Designer: Marija Vlahović

Release date: December 7, 2021

Red Star’s Family

2 stamps, FDC, cancel, sheet of 10

Red Star football club – founded March 4, 1945
ФК Црвена звезда – Насловна (crvenazvezdafk.com) 

Designer: Jakša Vlahović

Release date: December 8, 2021

Renowned Serbian Personalities

4 stamps, 4 FDCs, cancel, 4 sheets of 10

• Jovan Dučić (Trebinje, 15 February 1874 – Gary, Indiana, USA, 7 April 1943)  
• Stanislav Vinaver (Šabac, March 1, 1891 – Niška Banja, August 1, 1955)
• Branko Pešić (Zemun, 1 September 1921 – Lignano, Italy 4 October 2006) 
• Dobrica Ćosić (Velika Drenova, 29 December 1921 – Belgrade, 18 May 2014)

Designer: Boban Savić

Release date: December 12, 2021

60 years Since the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Ivo Andrić

1 stamp, FDC, cancel, sheet of 8

Nobel Prize in Literature 1961

Ivo Andric – Biographical – NobelPrize.org

Designer: Anamari Banjac

Release date: December 10, 2021

25th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Kazakhstan

2 stamps on a souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel

Designer: Miroslav Nikolić

Release date: December 10, 2021

Tennis: Novak Đoković, World Number One

2 stamps on a souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel

Designer: Boban Savić

Release date: December 16, 2021

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