Monday Morning Brief | World War I anniversary stamps

Linn’s Stamp News senior editor Denise McCarty reports on World War I communication, including the pigeon post, as pictured on recent stamps from Belgium.

Full Video Transcript:

Good morning and welcome to the Monday Morning Brief for November 6, 2017.

This coming Saturday, Nov. 11, is Veterans’ Day in the United States, a day known as Armistice Day and Remembrance Day in other countries.

That date was chosen because in World War I, also known as the Great War, the ceasefire between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on Nov. 11, 1918, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. 

Next year will be the 100th anniversary, and many countries have been issuing series of stamps leading up to it.

These series began in 2014 to mark the first year of the war.

Just a couple of weeks ago, on October 23, Belgium issued its pane of five stamps not only commemorating war-related events of 1917 but also focusing on the theme of communications.

Some postal history items are pictured on these stamps, including censor markings and a field postcard. In addition, photographs show soldiers receiving mail and the use of pigeons to deliver messages from the front.

It has been reported that more than 100,000 pigeons were used during the war, and that they had a 95-percent success rate in delivering messages to their destinations.

For Linn’s Stamp News and the Scott catalogs, I’m Denise McCarty. Keep up on the latest stamp news by following Linn’s on Facebook and Twitter.