Latvijas Pasts releases a new stamp Reformation – 500
24.10.2017
To mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation of the Church, Latvijas Pasts has released a postage stamp dedicated to this event. 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, from 7:30 AM to 8 PM on the 27th of October 2017.
The print run of the stamp Reformation – 500 is 200,000 copies and its face value is €0.85, which corresponds to the cost of sending a regular Class A letter to any country of the world outside the European Union. The release of the stamp is accompanied by the issue of a special cover with a print run of 1,500 copies. The new philatelic releases have been designed by the artist Jānis Strupulis.
The stamp features two personalities who are closely linked with the Reformation: Martin Luther, an ideologist of church reforms and Andreas Knöpken (also known as Knopke and Knopius), the initiator of the Reformation movement in Riga, which was a Livonian town at that time. The stamp and the first day postmark also depict the Luther rose, a widely recognised symbol for Lutheranism.
The teachings of the pastor, theologian and professor M. Luther encouraged the Reformation, becoming the basis for both the Lutheran and Protestant traditions and, to a large extent, the common cultural-historical foundation of the Western civilisation. The movement emerged in the 16th century with the aim to implement the reforms of the European Catholic Church, breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, the church split with the formation of several new denominations that still exist today: Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Reformed Church, etc.
A number of authors mention Livonia as one of the first regions where the ideas of M. Luther spread outside German territory. The Reformation centre in Livonia was Riga.
The stamp and the cover
Reformation – 500 can be viewed
here.
The next philatelic release is scheduled for the 3rd of November.
About VAS 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 Kantar TNS, 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 Kantar TNS, Ipsos and Quotas.
Additional information:
Gundega Vārpa | Head of External Communications
Phone: +371 67608505
