France’s best stamps of 2024

By Dingguo Dai

The best French stamps of 2024 were announced at the 34th Stamp of the Year awards ceremony on June 10 at the La Poste group headquarters in Paris. Philippe Val, chairman and CEO of La Poste Group, attended the ceremony. The results included one special award from the jury and eight awards from the public selection.

The voting period began Jan. 10 and was scheduled to conclude March 31. Unfortunately, the competition’s voting website, www.electiondutimbre.fr, was the victim of a cyberattack, forcing La Poste to suspend access to the site and take necessary protective measures. Due to this, and in accordance with the rules of the contest, the decision was made to close voting on Feb. 25. Thankfully, no sensitive data was affected.

The 30th poll in 2021 received 112,024 votes; 2022 saw 104,095 votes; 2023 brought 109,767 votes; 2024 about 85,000 votes; and 2025 garnered more than 40,000. A much smaller number of votes were received in comparison to previous years. However, with the shorter voting window, this year’s participation rate is comparable over the same period to participation rates in previous years.

The number of votes each year reflects the enthusiasm of the French public for philately.

JUDGES’ SPECIAL AWARD

The special jury prize is awarded only to intaglio stamp engravers. It is the first and most prestigious award presented at the awards ceremony. The jury includes artists, philatelists, journalists and other experts.

This year’s special jury prize went to Louis Genty, the designer and engraver of the New York City Skyline souvenir sheet (Scott 6624) issued April 12. The sheet, shown in Figure 1, commemorates the 500th anniversary of exploration of New York Harbor by Giovanni da Verrazzano (1495-1528), an Italian Florentine navigator, and more than 50 crew members of the expedition fleet sent by King Francis I of France.

The New York City skyline is illustrated on the souvenir sheet. Wall Street, Manhattan, the Financial District and the ferry terminal to Governors Island are bound inside the stamp on the sheet. Outside the stamp, the right side of the sheet shows the East River landscape and the Brooklyn Bridge across the East River, while the left side features the Hudson River and buildings such as Battery Park. United States stamp collectors will be glad to see the skyline of New York City illustrated on a souvenir sheet from France.

The second-place winner of the special award was the Framework of Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris souvenir sheet (Scott 6625) issued April 12, 2024.

AWARDS FROM PUBLIC VOTING

In the Linn’s U.S. Stamp Popularity Poll, voting is divided into the best and worst designs and most and least necessary, but the eight awards chosen by the public in France are quite different. Some awards are not commonly found in other countries, such as the best souvenir sheets, booklets, postage machine labels, partner stamps, tourist stamps and first-day postmarks.

To better understand each category, I will introduce these awards one by one in the order in which they were presented at the awards ceremony.

Best collector’s stamp. France has a type of personalized stamp called a collector’s stamp. Each set consists of four or more self-adhesive stamps, printed in limited quantities and sold above face value. The small gray squares on the side of the stamps indicate that they are personalized stamps. Awards for this type of stamp are rare in other countries.

There were 14 sets in competition for this award. First place was awarded to the Our Faithful Partners - Cats and Dogs set, shown in Figure 2. The stamps were issued Jan. 2.

In describing the stamps, La Poste said that cats and dogs have different body language, but they can be friends as long as they are properly socialized and trained from an early age to live in harmony. The stamps, designed by Bruno Ghiringhelli, show photos of the domesticated animals harmoniously playing together in the snow.

Also in the collector’s stamp category, the Olympic torch Light up our hearts set came in third, while the Paris 2024 Olympics issue finished second in the voting.

Best first-day postmark. With 84 first-day postmarks up for this award, ...

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