Latvijas Pasts dedicates the first stamp in the new series of historical ships to Andreas Weide, the largest sailing ship built in Latvia

25.10.2016

Latvijas Pasts has launched a new series of stamps Historical Ships of the 19^th Century, and the first stamp released in the series is dedicated to Andreas Weide, the largest sailing ship ever built in Latvia. The first day cancellation of the stamp is scheduled to take place in Riga post office No. 50 located in the shopping mall Origo, 2 Stacijas laukums, Riga, on the 28th of October 2016, from 8 AM to 7 PM.

The face value of the new stamp Andreas Weide is € 0.61, which corresponds to the cost of sending a regular Class A letter within Latvia. The print run of the stamp is 100,000 copies. The release of the stamp is accompanied by the issue of a special cover with a print run of 1,500 copies. The stamp and the cover have been designed by the artist Elita Viliama. 

The new stamp features the largest transatlantic sailing ship of Latvia Andreas Weide, which was built in Ainaži in 1891. The length of the sailing ship was 47.6 metres, its width was nine meters, the depth of the hold was 4.9 metres and the deadweight was 1,050 tons. Andreas Weide made transatlantic voyages until it sprang a leak in the vicinity of Cape Verde Islands off the North West coast of Africa in 1901. In 1902 the sailing ship with all the cargo was sold in Dakar.

Latvijas Pasts has launched the series of stamps Historical Ships of the 19^th Century in honour of the period of the rapid development of Latvian seafaring and shipbuilding in the 19^th century.  

The first releases in the series Historical Ships of the 19^th Century are available for viewing here. 

The next new philatelic release is scheduled for the 8^th of November. 

About SJSC Latvijas Pasts

Latvijas Pasts ensures the widest availability of postal services throughout Latvia by maintaining more than 600 post offices. The primary function of the company is provision of the universal postal service; Latvijas Pasts also provides commercial transport, express mail, payment, press subscription, retail and philatelic services. Latvijas Pasts is a wholly State-owned company with more than 4,200 employees. The quality measurements of Latvijas Pasts domestic mail deliveries are regularly conducted by TNS Latvia, one of the leading market, social and media research agencies in Latvia. In turn, the quality measurements of the cross-border deliveries are provided within the framework of the International Post Corporation through the intermediary of the research companies TNS, Ipsos and Quotas.

Additional information:
Gundega Vārpa
Latvijas Pasts
Head of External Communications 
Phone: +371 67608505
E-mail: pr@pasts.lv; gundega.varpa@pasts.lv
twitter.com/latvijas_pasts; 
facebook.com/latvijas.pasts