Nature Protection: Šumava - UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

Catalogue number	A0691
Date of issue	31.8.2011
Face value	62 CZK
Print sheets	4 stamps + 4 coupons (se-tenant)
Size of picture	118 x 170 mm
Graphic designer	Libuše and Jaromír Knotek
Engraver	Martin Srb
Printing method	recess print from flat plate in black combined with multicoloured offset

The importance of the Šumava National Park and Protected Landscape Area grew in 1990 with the declaration of a biosphere reserve (part of the UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme) covering almost the entire Šumava region and the neighbouring Bavarian Forest National Park in Germany. The Šumava Biosphere Reserve is to preserve the typical Šumava landscape and all of its traditional elements including the way of its cultivation. The biosphere reserve is located in the mountain area along the Austrian and Bavarian borders with the Czech Republic. The entire region was affected by human activities (such as gold mining, glass industry) and frequently used from as early as the 10th century. Šumava is also the last big central European area with an extensive way of using. The area abounds in ancient mountain forests, lakes of glacial origin, peat bogs, rivers and their canyons and similar values that have been preserved until the present day. Unlike the Šumava National Park with a higher percentage of forest (83.8%), forests (flower and acidophilic beech woods, mountain spruce woods, wetland pine woods) are present in more than 65% of the Šumava Biosphere Reserve. Local peat bogs are clearly the highlight of the area. The plains that cover the central part of Šumava at more than 1,000 meters above the sea level are also extensively used. The vast area is used as meadows or pasture land. A large number of rare animals, such as Northern birch mouse (Sicista betulina) or the imported Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), live in the area. Prominent wild birds include wood grouse (Tetrao urogallus) and black grouse (Tetrao tetrix). The Blanice river headwater area has the highest presence of freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) in the Czech Republic. The Šumava-UNESCO Biosphere Reserve miniature sheet is the final one of the present series of six sheets featuring Czech biosphere reserves.
Cat. number - 0691: Face value 10 CZK - Tetrao urogallus, Turdus torquatus and Erebia euryale. Picture size: 50 x 40 mm
Cat. number - 0692: Face value 14 CZK - Colias palaeno Dactylorhiza traunsteineri. Picture size: 23 x 40 mm
Cat. number - 0693: Face value 18 CZK - Tetrao tetrix, Aeshna juncea and Alces alces. Picture size: 50 x 40 mm
Cat. number - 0694:Face value 20 CZK - Lynx lynx and Picoides tridactylus. Picture size: 50 x 40 mm

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Young Animals - Cricetus Cricetus

Catalogue number	0688
Date of issue	15.6.2011
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	á 50 pcs of stamps
Size of picture	23 x 40 mm
Graphic designer	Libuše a Jaromír Knotkovi
Engraver Printing method	Martin Srb multicoloured offset

The European hamster (Cricetus Cricetus) is a species of hamsters relative to voles. Some authors classify hamsters, voles and mice as a single family.
The European hamster is a medium-sized, stout-bodied animal with short legs. The tail is short and furred. It is often taken for a marmot, but unlike a marmot, the European hamster is more colourful, with yellow to orange brown dorsal fur with black ends, and a dark brown to black chest and belly. The top head fur is reddish, with white or yellow patches behind the ears and on the nose (and on the front legs). The animal changes its rather thick coat colour once a year. Other prominent features include very large cheek poaches, and flank glands of males that are much larger during the breeding season. 
The European hamster is a nocturnal species. It is an excellent runner and jumper. It lives in separate burrows, consisting of tunnels 6-8 cm in diameter, nesting chamber, hibernating chamber, food and storage chambers and droppings chamber. It can burrow as deep as 2 meters in winter months when it hibernates. Females usually have 2-5 litters each year. The gestation period is 20 days, and the size of the litter ranges from 3 to 12 young. 
The European hamster's diet consists of grains, seeds, plants, insects and baby young nesting birds. 
It is native to a large area extending from south-west Siberia (the Yenisey river) to Belgium and north-east France. It started spreading from its original habitat on steppes into central Europe during the extensive deforestation period, significantly earlier than marmots; its remains were found on neolithic archaeological sites dating back some 6-7 thousand years. In the Czech Republic it lives in an open landscape. Since the 1970-80s, when it has become almost extinct, especially in hills and mountains, its presence has been steadily increasing, reaching very high levels in some regions (around the Labe River, in south Moravia, etc.), although its occurrence in areas more than 500-600 meters above the sea level is rather rare.


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For Children: Zdeněk Smetana - The Little Witch

Catalogue number	0685
Date of issue	1.6.2011
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	30 stamps
Size of picture	30 x 23 mm
Graphic designer	Otakar Karlas, Zdeněk Smetana
Engraver Printing method	Bohumil Šneider rotary recess print in black combined with photogravure in brown, blue, red and yellow

This year's stamp of the series For Children commemorates Zdeněk Smetana, Czech animator, screenwriter and graphic designer. 
Smetana was born on July 26th, 1925 in Prague. He worked in the Bratři v triku film studio and as a director in the Krátký film Praha film studio, received more than fifty awards at both national and international film shows and festivals, including a Golden Lion, Golden Bear, British Academy Film Award, created a large number of characters and helped animate popular Czech TV bedtime stories, such as Pohádky z mechu a kapradí (featuring Křemílek and Vochomůrka),Rákosníček, Štaflík a Špagetka, Radovanovy radovánky and Malá čarodějnice (The Little Witch). He also illustrated several children's books.
Aged no more than a couple of centuries, the Little Witch is still too young for a fully qualified professional witch. Despite her poor command of magic, she's dying to see the fabulous annual witches' Sabbat soon to be held on an isolated mountain. Abraxas, her old raven, tries to dissuade her, but she won't listen! Hidden in bushes on the mountain, she finds it impossible to stand back and joins the dancing witches. The witch in chief commands the culprit to become a "good" witch in no longer than a year's time! The Little Witch understands it to mean that she is supposed to conjure the good, and not to be good in conjuring the bad, and immediately starts increasing her proficiency as a "good" witch. She conjures bundles of wood to help poor old women, helps an ill-treated horse, adds a charming smell causing euphoria to a poor flower girl's paper roses. But her good doings do not fail to leave heartburnings in a Little Witch's colleague, and when the Little Witch breaches the strict ban on Friday conjuring and helps two small children one Friday, she is punished with a heavy frost and snowstorm. She is able to turn the bad into a good magic, however, and the calamity ends in a merry carnival and snowmen building fun. By then it is time for the next annual Sabbat where the Little Witch is about to pass the qualification examination consisting of three tasks.

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The Čtyřlístek Comics - Bobík

Catalogue number	0681
Date of issue	4.5.2011
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	á 10 die-cut self-adhesive stamps
Size of picture	23 x 30 mm
Graphic designer Printing method	Jaroslav Němeček multicoloured offset

Bobík the Pig, sitting on the grass, playing guitar and singing a love song. The Bobík the Pigstamp is the final one of the series of stamps featuring the Čtyřlístek comics characters.

A stamp identified with the letter A corresponding to the price of Ordinary Letter - Standard up to 50 g in domestic service (current price according to the Price List of Basic Postal Services: CZK 10).
Price of the booklet as of the date of issue: 10times CZK 10, i.e. CZK 100.

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Easter

Catalogue number	0677
Date of issue	23.3.2011
Face value	10 CZK
Print sheets	á 50 stamps
Size of picture	23 x 30 mm
Graphic designer	Libuše and Jaromír Knotek

one of the Easter symbols - newly hatched chicks
Easter is a spring time festival in its origin. The originally Canaanite spring time festival obtained a completely new meaning some 3500 years ago when the Jews adopted and transformed it into their Pascha, commemorating the passover and exodus, or liberation of the Jewish people from their slavery in Egypt. Easter is also the central Christian religious feast, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, an event believed by Christians to take place the third day after his crucifixion. Easter is a moveable feast. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the first spring full moon. As such, the feast can be celebrated in March or April. The days preceding the Easter Monday have also their own names: Maundy (or Green in the Czech tradition) Thursday; Good (or Great in the Czech tradition) Friday; Holy (or White in the Czech tradition) Saturday, ended with the Easter Vigil starting after sundown on Holy Saturday and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter still enjoys much popularity in the Czech Republic. Ordinary people normally associate it with children who go carolling on Easter Monday and get decorated eggs, sweets and other treats.

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The Ctyrlistek Comics - Pinda

Catalogue number	0672 or VZS05 (booklet)
Date of issue	9.2.2011
Face value	A
Print sheets	á 10 die-cut self-adhesive stamps
Size of picture	23 x 31 mm
Graphic designer	Jaroslav Nemecek

The "Ctyrlistek - Pinda" stamp features Pinda the Rabbit as a painter with brushes in his hand and a box of water paints. Piňda is the next character of the comic book Ctyrlistek appearing on a stamp. The last of the Ctyrlistek boys, Bobik the Pig, is to follow soon.

A stamp identified with the letter A corresponding to the price of Ordinary Letter - Standard up to 50 g in domestic service.

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The CTYRLISTEK COMICS - STAMP BOOKLET

The Booklet will be issued on October 20 th.

Catalogue number	VZS04
Date of issue	20.10.2010
Face value	100 CZK
Print sheets	á 10 die-cut self-adhesive stamps
Size of picture	23 x 31 mm
Graphic designer	Jaroslav Němeček

Myspulin a Cat Scientist
As a true scientist, Myspulin, the second of the four Ctyrlistek comics characters featured on a stamp, creates a chemical reaction setting off a firework of flowers coming out of the heated flask. Stamps with Bobik the Pig and Pinda the Rabbit, the other two 'boys' of the four Ctyrlistek characters, are to follow.

A stamp identified with the letter A corresponding to the price of Ordinary Letter - Standard up to 50 g in domestic service (current price according to the Price List of Basic Postal Services: CZK 10). Price of the booklet as of the date of issue: 10times CZK 10, i.e. CZK 100.

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