Flags: Sunday Stamps

Wow! Due to the general business of life it has been more than two weeks without blogging - in fact I haven't blogged at all this month - and I am seriously suffering withdrawal symptoms!! (One of the symptoms included rocking up to small soiree with a bottle of wine in one hand, and my stamps in the other - and a polite request to use the host's scanner before the other guests arrived. Thanks Ben!)

Anyhow, needless to say I am very excited about participating in this week's Sunday Stamps. The theme is national flags; inspired partly by the fact that it was Bastille Day during the week. And within my collection, I found the perfect stamp for the theme, which has the French flag behind three figures of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity and commemorates the French Revolution, but is in fact an issue from the USA:

It is hard to tell from the scan of course, but part of the appeal of this stamp is its size - it is about double the size of a standard stamp. A nice stamp, yes?

Of course, there are plenty of stamps featuring the Australian flag in my collection, so I thought I better share one of them too. I like this one because it has a bit of a tech-y computer-chip thing going on, to make it more interesting.

The Australian flag features the Union Jack, the seven pointed star representing the Commonwealth, and the southern cross.

I also started pondering alternative Australian flags, and hoped that I would be able to share a stamp featuring the Aboriginal flag - but alas, there doesn't seem to be one in existence. This is a bit sad, in my view. I think Australia Post should rectify that, quick stat.

The other alternative flag I thought about was the Eureka flag. The Eureka Flag, which pre-dates our national flag, also features the southern cross, and was born out of a miners strike on the Ballarat goldfields in 1854. The flag is now used by the Workers Union movement. The Eureka flag has been chosen by Australia Post to feature on a stamp, and I have a mint pair. I really like that the image features a rippled fabric effect.

Peter Lalor, the rebel leader at the Eureka Stockade, standing beneath the Eureka flag, swore the first oath to a non-British flag on Australian soil. He said:

"We swear by the southern cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties."

The gold diggers at Ballarat were fighting their own revolution against an unjust licensing system and a corrupt administration. And in a way, Lalor's oath ties in nicely with the mantra of the French Revolution, taking us back to our starting point: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

Thanks for joining me once again for Sunday Stamps, please click on the link to find out what other bloggers have been pondering in relation to flags and stamps.