Stamps issued by Poland and Turkey have won the 2020 Europa competition hosted by PostEurop, a trade association representing public European postal operators.
A total of 55 European postal administrations each entered one stamp in the competition, whose 2020 theme was ancient postal routes.
Poland’s five-zloty stamp, issued on April 29, features critical 16th-century communication and postal routes along the Vistula, the country’s longest and largest river (and the main postal route for hundreds of years). It won the judged competition while Turkey’s stamp won the popular vote open to the public online.
Turkey’s 5.50-lira stamp featuring a map and mail carriers on foot and horseback won the Europa competition’s popular vote.
Turkey’s 5.50-lira stamp, issued on May 9, features a map and mail carriers on foot and horseback alongside ships and buildings.
“As the theme, ancient postal routes, was not an easy task, we were really surprised by the artists’ solutions,” said jurors Stefan Klein and Olaf Neumann, both of Germany’s KommunikationsDesign. “Especially the winning design from Poland, with its special proportions in vertical format, expressed the theme in a perfect manner – colours and technique of the artwork are really modern and perfect for a small stamp.”