Tag: UNPA

Launched in 2020, this is the second in a series of United Nations Crypto Stamps issued by UNPA. The stamps in this series feature symbols of peace and the word “peace” in six languages.

The stamps, which were developed in conjunction with the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology connect a new generation of United Nations stamps with blockchain technology.

Each stamp carries a unique secret code hidden behind a scratch-off area. There are seven variations of the peace design that may be obtained (including a limited-edition variation) when the digital stamps are claimed online.

To learn more about how United Nations Crypto Stamps work and how to activate and redeem them online, please visit crypto.unstamps.org

Date of issue:              18 November 2022

Designer:                   Sergio Baradat (United Nations)

Denominations:         $4.50, CHF 3,80, € 3,65

Stamp size:                 25 mm x 35 mm

Sheet size:                  84 mm x 55 mm

Format:                      Mini-sheets of one stamp

Printer:                       Royal Joh Enschedé (The Netherlands)

Process:                      Hexachrome plus foil

Quantities:                 $4.50              30,000

                                   CHF 3,80         30.000

                                   € 3,65              30.000

2022 Word Heritage – The Great Spa Towns of Europe

Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.

 The Great Spa Towns of Europe is a World Heritage Site comprising 11 famous historic spa towns and cities in seven countries. Together, they make one “property” inscribed on the World Heritage List on 24 July 2021 as a transnational series. The Great Spas, in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom represent a unique cultural phenomenon which reached its height in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as a particular urban type and form. As a World Heritage Site, it has been given global recognition as a phenomenon which helped to shape Europe.

60¢ – Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

Karlovy Vary is known as the largest open-air salon of Europe, and has hosted royal families, European heads of state, aristocracy and prominent artists. It is distinguished by a geyser-like spring phenomenon and unique composition of thermal water, innovative methods in balneology (the study of therapeutic bathing and medicinal springs), and a prolific and outstanding architectural spa ensemble. The spa quarter follows the numerous hot springs that emerge in the Teplá (Warm) River valley and displays rich historicist and art nouveau styles of architecture. The surrounding spa landscape is characterized by terraced valley sides, extravagant villas, promenades and pathways, and solitary lookout buildings. Nowhere today is the “drinking cure” more evident than in the numerous beautiful colonnades, where thousands of daily visitors may be seen drinking from traditionally shaped porcelain cups.

$1.40 – Montecatini Terme Italy

Montecatini Terme, with its early distinguished role in the recognition of the medical properties of mineral water, is an important representation in a country rich in thermal springs. Attracting important intellectuals and artists, such as Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and Ruggero Leoncavallo, the town is an ambitious revival project that transformed a late-eighteenthcentury garden spa into a landscape spa. Monumental spa architecture, centred on four main springs, can be found among an oasis of gardens, formal parkland and promenades. Greenery continues in a swathe of pine trees and terraced olive groves that, together with the historic funicular railway, ascend steep slopes crowned by Montecatini Alto – also the focal point of the central boulevard. With its eclectic spa architecture reinterpreted in Tuscan style, Montecatini Terme continues to serve as a centre for balneological treatment.

CHF 1,10 – SPA Belgium

Spa, Pearl of the Belgian Ardennes, played an important role, as early as the seventeenth century, in the recognition of the medical properties of mineral water. Its carbonated waters were ideally suited to drinking and have been widely distributed across Europe ever since, leading to the introduction of the name “spa” in the English vocabulary. Since the early eighteenth century, Spa’s many springs, located on a wooded hillside south of the town were used for both crenotherapy (a branch of balneology in which mineral waters are used as a therapeutic internal cure by ingestion) and physical activity, with a network of walks linking the various springs and connecting them to the town. Spa became internationally renowned as the Café of Europe, and a pioneer of gaming. From the second half of the nineteenth century, it was transformed into a modern spa resort with French classicist architecture. Today, thermal tradition and know-how is sustained by the addition of a new thermal centre overlooking the town.

CHF 1,50 – Vichy, France

Vichy, Queen of Spas, and France, greatly contributed to the creation of nineteenth-century European spa culture. It is the most prestigious and well-known French spa town, the model spa. Situated on a flat plain beside the River Allier, it combines Parisian urban principles with a spa promenade inside the city. Napoleon III encouraged the building of a new spa town laid out with parks and boulevards, a cosmopolitan Little Paris of grand bath complexes, pump rooms connected by covered promenades, casino and theatre, hotels and villas. The success of Vichy resumed after difficult times in the Second World War, and bottled water, reine des villes d’eaux, continued to be exported in large quantities worldwide. This further provides the basis for trademark cosmetics and skincare products of the Vichy Laboratories, the leading skincare brand in European continental pharmacies.

€ 1,00 – Baden-Baden, Germany

Baden-Baden, known as the summer capital of Europe, was patronized by the ruling and cultural elite of nineteenth-century continental Europe. Situated on the western edge of the Black Forest, it became one of Europe’s largest and most fashionable spas with an unbroken tradition of using mineral water for healing from antiquity to the present. Reflected by the separate spa quarter, newly developed across the River Oos from the old town, it was here, in the Kurhaus and Casino, that Baden-Baden acquired a worldwide reputation as the supreme example of the German gaming spa. It was also a place of inspiration for major artists and works of universal significance. Today, balneological treatments and bathing continue with great popularity in both historic and new thermal establishments, while an outstanding tradition of music and theatre is vibrantly sustained.

€ 1,80 – Baden bei Wien, Austria

Baden bei Wien is just 30 kilometres from Vienna, the historic seat of one of the world’s greatest imperial dynasties – the Habsburgs. Baden was one of their favourite summer resorts, known as a spa of emperors and a magnet for high-level politics. The town combines the classicist architecture of the beginning of the nineteenth century with the architecture and infrastructures of the turn of the twentieth century, when Baden became a world class spa resort. The spa district is centred on the spa garden that contains the Kurhaus, Trinkhalle, Sommerarena and music pavilion. The therapeutic and recreational spa landscape extends into a scenic terrain of hills and a valley that contain a distinguished belt of villas and parks. Musical heritage of outstanding universal significance is linked to one of the favourite workplaces of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Strauss.

Date of Issue:               9 September 2022

Designer:                     Rorie Katz

Printer:                        Cartor Security Printing (France)

Process:                       Offset Lithography

Perforation:                 14.5 x 14.25

Stamp size:                  50mm x 35mm

Stamps per sheet:        20

Quantities:

Stamps

60¢                  4,500 sheets (90,000 stamps)

$1.40               4,500 sheets (90,000 stamps)

CHF 1.10          3,500 sheets (70,000 stamps)

CHF 1.50          3,500 sheets (70,000 stamps)

€ 1,00               3,500 sheets (70,000 stamps)

€ 1,80               3,500 sheets (70,000 stamps)

Prestige booklets

New York         6,000 booklets

Geneva            6,000 booklets

Vienna             7,000 booklets

Source:            UNESCO

On 19 August 2003, a bomb attack on the United Nations office in Baghdad, Iraq, killed 22 humanitarian aid workers. Five years later, the General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 19 August as World Humanitarian Day to express solidarity with people affected by conflicts or natural disasters and pay tribute to the humanitarian workers who help them.

Each year, World Humanitarian Day brings together partners from across the humanitarian system to raise public awareness of humanitarian work; to advocate for the survival, well-being and dignity of people affected by crises; and to call for the safety and security of aid workers.

This year, on 19 August, UNPA will issue three stamp sheets for World Humanitarian Day, featuring beautiful artwork by award-winning illustrator Olga Shtonda from Kharkiv, Ukraine, to raise awareness and funding for humanitarian action. A surcharge will be added to the stamps, which will go directly to the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help people in need.

Managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), donating to CERF is one of the fastest ways to get urgent aid to the world’s most vulnerable people whenever and wherever crises hit.

From Ukraine to Yemen and beyond, CERF funding reaches millions of people trapped in disasters and conflict, allowing humanitarian partners to save lives by providing urgently needed food, water, health care and much more.

Find out more about World Humanitarian Day at https://about.worldhumanitarianday.org

Donate to CERF: https://crisisrelief.un.org/cerf.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Olga Shtonda is an illustrator and artist from Ukraine. She studied Graphic Arts at Kharkiv Design and Arts Academy (2009ª2015), where she fell in love with printmaking techniques and textures, which greatly influenced her style.

Olga has received awards at many international illustration competitions. In 2019 she won the Ars in Fabula Grant Award and it gave her the opportunity to study in Italy and get the master’s degree in editorial illustration. She is constantly learning and loves to apply her knowledge of illustration in a wider range of fields, for example, animation. Her illustrations adorned children’s books, book covers, board games, music posters, etc.

Olga enjoys working with textures and vibrant colours, but most of all she appreciates humor in her illustrations. In between illustrating, she loves traveling, riding her bicycle and observing people. It always helps Olga to collect materials, stories and ideas as inspiration for her next artworks. Her works are highly inspired by humans and nature. They are fun and cheerful because she likes to make people smile.