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Stamp of the Month: August 2026

80th birthday Freddie Mercury

Germany 05.09.2024

Freddie Mercury (alias Farrokh Bulsara) He would have turned 80 on June 5th. Sadly, this exceptional artist passed away on November 24, 1991. Rock in peace, Freddie.

Stamp of the Month: August 2026

The “Kölsch-dialect”-Band BAP

Germany 06.08.2026

BAP, the Kölsch-rock band led by singer-songwriter Wolfgang Niedecken, has been one of Germany’s most successful musical acts for decades. Although all their songs are performed in the local dialect, the band enjoys immense popularity far beyond the boundaries of the Kölsch-speaking region, filling concert halls across Germany and boasting loyal fanbases elsewhere in the world. The album “aff un zo” (now and then) was released in 2001. It features an image of a “So-da-Brücke” (a bridge built “just for the sake of it”) near Euskirchen; constructed in the 1970s but never put into service, it has stood as a bridge fragment, lost in the landscape, ever since. I think bands singing in local dialect appearing on postage stamps is a real rarity!

In Memoriam: Dolly Parton

On August 25, 2026, the American country singer, songwriter, and actress Dolly Rebecca Parton died in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 80.

Dolly Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in Pittman Center, Tennessee. Growing up in a very musical family, her talent was discovered and nurtured at an early age. She learned to play the guitar at the age of seven. Three years later, she made her first public appearance on a TV show.

Since the 1970s, she was one of the most successful country and pop singer-songwriters. She scored 25 number-one hits, and more than 50 of her songs reached the top 10 on the US charts. She sold over 100 million albums, won ten Grammy Awards, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. As a songwriter, she held the copyrights to over 3,000 songs she had written herself.

The video shows Dolly Parton at one of her shows in 1988. “Jolene” is one of her best-known and most successful songs.

Yehudi Menuhin Trophy 2026 – Most popular Music Stamp 2025

The Winning Stamp: Austria
Designed by Kirsten Lubach

Stamp issues marking significant anniversaries of famous figures from the worlds of culture, science, and politics have long been highly popular among postal authorities and collectors alike. Against this backdrop, it comes as no surprise that the stamp commemorating the 200th anniversary of the “Waltz King,” Johann Strauss, was voted the most popular music-themed stamp of 2025 by collectors worldwide, garnering 6.07% of the vote. Issued by Austrian Post on January 18, 2025, the stamp combines the figure from the Johann Strauss monument in Vienna’s Stadtpark with a detail from the title page of the first edition of the piano score for the waltz “The Blue Danube” (*An der schönen blauen Donau*), published by C.A. Spina in Vienna in 1867. The stamp was designed by Viennese artist Kirsten Lubach, who is being honored with the 2026 Yehudi Menuhin Trophy for her work.

Born in Troisdorf in 1973, Kirsten Lubach trained as an engraver at the Zeichenakademie in Hanau. She subsequently pursued further studies in Lahti, Finland, on a scholarship and qualified as a master engraver there in 1999. After working for a specialiced firm for several years, she moved to the Austrian State Printing Office in 2003, where she was initially responsible for correcting and retouching printing plates. The first stamp she engraved — part of the “Wildlife of Austria” series — was released in 2006. In 2012, Lubach became self-employed, opening her own copperplate engraving and printing studio in Vienna. Over the years, she has designed numerous stamps for various postal authorities and already received the Yehudi Menuhin Trophy in 2023 for the “Trombone” stamp — part of the “Musical Austria” series — which was voted the most popular music-themed stamp of 2022.

With 4.59% of the vote, the Christmas stamp “The Pixies’ Christmas” from the Faroe Islands — issued on October 20, 2025 — took second place. The stamp was designed by Janus á Húsagarði, a Faroese photographer and visual artist based in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland.
Taking third place with 4.43% of the vote was the German stamp “Semper Opera House” from the “Historic Buildings in Germany” series; for its design, graphic artist Jan-Niklas Kröger — part of Deutsche Post’s graphic design team — utilized the AI image generator DALL·E.
It is fascinating to observe the diverse graphic approaches taken with these three stamps: ranging from collage and poetic, fairy-tale-style illustration to the use of artificial intelligence — though one hopes that postal authorities will not succumb to the temptation of replacing the craftsmanship of graphic artists with AI.
Once again, stamps from 66 postal authorities were in the running for the title of “Most Popular Music Stamp of 2025” and collectors from 36 countries participated in the online vote.

4th Place

5th Place

6th Place

7th Place

8th Place

9th Place

10th Place

Here you will find all the candidates for the election of the most popular music stamp of 2025.
Here you will find all previous winners of the Yehudi Menuhin Trophy.

Please Save the Date: New Stamp Fair in Mülheim an der Ruhr, 2027

It took a while, but as a successor event to the Essen Stamp Fair, an International Stamp Fair is scheduled to take place in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, from May 21 to 22, 2027. Please save the date; we are planning to host an information stand for the Motivgruppe Musik. Further details will follow.

PREMIO PHILATEA 2026

The exhibit “The Ring of the Nibelung” by our Spanish member Luiz Arnaiz was awarded the PREMIO PHILATEA 2026 by the PHILATEA jury as the best exhibit.

Congratulations on this achievement !
Here you can find the award-winning exhibit.

8 … 9 … 10 … ready !

There are so many topics and stories hidden in our stamp albums that never come to the public eye …
… because there is too little material to create an exhibit,
… because far too many collectors shy away from the effort of assembling an exhibit or
… because collectors don’t want to accept the strict rules of a jury.

We’ll put an end to that and show, …
… that you can tell a story with just 10 stamps.
… that no great effort is required to do this and
… that you can show what’s in our albums even without rules!

And the best thing about it: it’s fun and you really want more!
Join in … 8 … 9 … 10 … ready!
The next place on this website is reserved for your story.

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