"Philatelia" Magasine
Selections from the summary number 5/2002 (553)

With the occasion of the anniversary of 110 years of philatelic activity in Bulgaria, under the high patronage of his excellency Plamen Petrov, Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications of the Republic of Bulgaria, in the city of Plevna, during the period of the 8th - 12th of May, 2002, the Bulgarian Post, the Philatelists' Union from Bulgaria, and the Plevna City Hall, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications, the Ministry of Education and Science from the Republic of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Telecommunication Company, the Bulgarian Olympic Committee and the National children's Palace from Sofia have organized the sixth edition of the traditional maxima - phily Exposition Balcanmax 2002...
...For the novelty of the theme and its judicious treatment, using a great number of old illustrated maximums (among which we point out the presence of two pieces with obliteration before 1910) mr. Victor Surdu from Cluj receives a great vermilion medal and a valuable special prize, offered by the famous maxim - philist from Greece, mrs. Margarite Kotopouli (winner with its collection of illustrated maximums of many gold medals at expositions organized under FIP patronage).

I.L. CARAGIALE AND GH. MATHEESCU-SINAIA

I have no knowledge of commemorations, in larger details, of the moments of togetherness between Caragiale and Matheescu besides those of the famous researcher into the life of Caragiale, Serban Cioculescu, which notes: "Caragiale made from the start a good entrance, regarding the young owner of a colonial shop, offering to compose its advertising in verse". Matheescu become the owner of the colonial shop Paradis, the most important unit of its kind in Sinaia and in that period such shops were visited by the high society, amateurs of "first class olives", "caviar…ghiudem, salted meat, halvah and other delicatessen of the oriental cuisine" much appreciated by mister Iancu.

Recently, during the days of the 26th and 27th of April of this year, in Monaco took place the manifestations dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the European Philatelic Academy - AEP.
AEP was created in April 1977 by Jean Storch and Robert Fracon as an European Academy of European Postal Studies, uniting specialists in philately, macro - phily, maxima - phily and card - phily, as well as traders, authors of catalogues, chief editors of philatelic magazines and presidents of philatelic federations. The idea was to make possible the meeting of various actors of postal studies.

Dan N. DOBRESCU-
Active member of the European Philatelic Academy

About the postal marks over - printed with the occasion of the monetary reform in Romania from January 1952 is not much written, and about the pieces stamped with this marks and effectively in circulation through the post even less. It is a fascinating field, which can offer to those interested pleasant surprises. At the same time with the appearance of the present over - printings, the interest for the over - prints resulted from the monetary reform of 1952 has grown. Quite common are the illustrated postal cards stamped with such marks with over - print, this being, maybe, because the people generally keep the postal cards they receive, throwing the envelopes. Still, many cards have been destroyed when was tried to unglue the postal stamps from them, at some period, when the fashion of collecting complete pieces, effectively in circulation through the post, was not yet introduced.

Matei G. DINU
Toronto, Canada

The organizing committee, led by Rene Van der Sande, the president of the Bulgarian Railway Philatelists, has managed to overcame all the obstacles that arose, some of which have been extremely difficult, and realized an international exposition which, without hesitation, can be considered a success. The performances, but also the work done for their achievement, can be a good example for Romanian philatelists. This is why we will present some impressions, with the hope that they will be useful to the Romanian exposition organizers

Engineer Cristian Scaiceanu
Member of the jury of the FERPHILEX 2002 Exposition

For me philately means not only relaxation time, but also the fact that I gain knowledge of new, interesting things. A few hours in front of various stamp collecting albums, some more beautiful that others, and it feels like flying into their world without wanting to come back. Even though philately is expensive, it is worth dedicating to it, to make an effort sometime, because it is also and educational tool in our life. I collect stamps with all that includes religion: monasteries, icons, road shrines and I consider it quite a nice and interesting theme. So philately is the road to knowledge.