Magyar Posta’s comeback as winner of the EUROPA 2012 Competition

PostEurop proudly announced Magyar Posta (Hungary), Turkish PTT (Turkey) and Hrvatska Pošta (Croatia) as the top three winners of the 2012 EUROPA Stamp Competition at the Philatelic Forum in Paris hosted by La Poste France yesterday.

The results of this year’s Europa Stamp competition were announced yesterday at PostEurop’s Philatelic Forum in Paris in conjunction with the Planet Timbre’s exhibition.  Magyar Posta, postal operator for Hungary was declared the Gold award winner of this competition.  The winning stamp from Magyar Posta is one of two stamps designed by Ágnes Rozmann, a Hungarian graphic artist.The main motif of the stamp is Hungary’s online country code ‘.HU’, which is filled with peppers and grapes. 100,000 copies of the miniature sheet have been made by offset printing at the banknote printing company Pénzjegynyomda. 

“Philately remains an important part of the Hungarian community and collectors are keeping it very much alive.  We are proud of our entry this year and thank the public for their support” said Gábor Péterffy, Head of Philately from Magyar Posta at the Philatelic Forum.

The close first-runner of the EUROPA Stamp competition was Turkish PTT, postal operator from Turkey and finally, the second-runner up of the EUROPA Stamp competition went to Hrvatska Pošta, postal operator for Croatia.

EUROPA stamps are special stamps issued by European postal administrations/enterprises, under the aegis of PostEurop, in which ‘Europe’ is the central theme. In this20th consecutive year entries based themselves on the theme “Visit” promoting tourism for their own countries. Fifty-five beautiful entries were received and each told its own tale.  The public was invited to view the entries and vote online for their favourite stamps over a period of two months.  Compared to last year, another substantial increase of 45% in the number of public votes registered from all over the world was accounted for. 

“Stamps are a cultural heritage and a business reality.  I am encouraged by the results yielded from EUROPA stamps over the years. Each time I participate in the event, I gain a deeper perspective on its value and influence” commented Botond Szebeny, PostEurop Secretary General.

Markku Penttinen, Chairman of the PostEurop Stamps and Philately working group from Itella Posti added, “We can be proud of the work done so far and the increasing visibility of EUROPA Stamps.   Based on the entries, I am encouraged to see more and more Innovative stamps giving new life and possibilities to Philately.”

The prizes for both the Jury and public voting competitions will be handed out during the Belgian Philatelic Grand Prix to be held in the Brussels City Hall on the 22nd September 2012.