Desktop Background Images - Postage Stamps

Click here to get to the top of this set of background image pages.

Some notes are probably in order:

1. Except as noted, none of the images are distorted (i.e. if your pixels are square then you're seeing the image in the correct aspect ratio).
2. These images are Copyright © 2001 Daniel Boulet. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to use these images in any context as long as the copyright notice on each image is intact and visible.
3. The 1280x1024 images aren't quite the same as the other sizes due to the obvious fact that 1280x1024 is a 5x4 aspect ratio whereas the others are 4x3.

If you use any of these images for commercial purposes or display them on your WWW site, please include a reference back to http://www.bouletfermat.com/backgrounds/.

Here's an 800x600 image of a collection of Australian postage stamps featuring Australian wildlife. The 1024x768 version is here. The 1280x1024 version is here. The 1600x1200 version is here.

Here's an 800x600 image of a collection of vintage Canadian postage stamps. The dark gray Queen Victoria stamp in about one hundred years old. The 1024x768 version is here. The 1280x1024 version is here. The 1600x1200 version is here.

Here's an 800x600 image of a collection of more recent Canadian postage stamps. Americans might sort-of recognize the St. Lawrence Seaway stamp in the lower left corner. Canada and the United States issued nearly identical stamps commemorating the completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The 1024x768 version is here. The 1280x1024 version is here. The 1600x1200 version is here.

Here's an 800x600 image of a collection of a set of 1932 Mongolian postage stamps. The 1024x768 version is here. The 1280x1024 version is here. The 1600x1200 version is here.

Here's an 800x600 image of a collection of postage stamps from the Danzig Free State, a country created by the Treaty of Versailles and effectively destroyed by the invasion of the Nazis on September 1, 1939. There is still a Danzig Free State Government-in-Exile. If this seems strange after 60 years, consider that a number of other Governments-in-Exile (eg. Poland) were established in the early part of the Second World War and remained in existence until the fall of the Iron Curtain in the late '80s. In that context, 60 years isn't all that long. N.B. I'm not making a statement or taking a position either in support or against the legitimacy of the Danzig Free State's Government-in-Exile. I'm merely trying to provide a bit of perspective and food for thought. Much as we might sometimes like to believe otherwise, the world is a VERY complicated place . . . Note the denominations of some of these stamps. The blue stamp at the far left of the middle row is 100,000 marks whereas the brown stamp next to it is 'only' 1,000 marks. The orange stamp in the lower left corner has been overprinted with a new denomination of 2,000,000 marks. This very wide range of denominations is an indication of the hyperinflation that Danzig (and other countries, including Germany) suffered in the early 1920s. Also note the middle stamp of the bottom row. It is a very early Danzig stamp which was produced by using a German stamp and overprinting it with the word Danzig and the denomination 60. Overprinted stamps are actually fairly common although the overprint usually just changes the denomination. It is somewhat unusual for stamps of one nation to be overprinted and then issued by another nation. The 1024x768 version is here. The 1280x1024 version is here. The 1600x1200 version is here.