News Release: July 1, 2001Balkan Area Stamp Collecting On IncreaseDisintegration of former communist Yugoslavia has created a renewed interest in the past and present stamp, coin and currency issuing entities of Southeast Europe and the Balkans.
Four out of six
republics making up the former Yugoslavia have pulled out of the so-called
“People’s Republic of Yugoslavia,” while Serbia continues using the
besmirched name of Yugoslavia. Montenegro, Serbia’s junior partner, is
on the verge of declaring its independence.
Slovenia, Croatia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia have issued their own postage stamps and
national currency since l991 and l992.
Eck Spahich, managing
editor of the Trumpeter, quarterly stamp and coin journal, which deals
with area’s collectibles and history, said NATO’s 1999 air campaign
against Serbia in defense of Kosovo’s Albanians, has created a renewed
interest in the region by collectors. Spahich
said Serbia’s extremist elements, headed by their former leader Slobodan
Milosevich, had used force in each newborn nation, and in Kosovo to block
democratic changes.
He said the Croatian
Philatelic-Numismatic Society, publisher of the hobby journal, has
prepared a timely auction list of attractive stamps from the past and
present areas of former Yugoslavia. For a copy of the 927-item auction
list, collectors should send $5
in U.S. currency, mint U.S.
postage stamps or 5 international reply coupons
to: The Trumpeter, P.O. Box 696, Fritch, Texas 79036-0696. E-mail
address: <ou812@arn.net>.
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