Page 14 - Demo

Most of the ballooning milestones described above%u2014as well as many more%u2014have been honored on hundreds of postage stamps by Post Offices in scores of countries all around the world. In the United States, the first balloon stamps were the, now scarce, Zeppelin issues of 1930. The year 1983 was a particularly good one for balloon stamps, because it was the 200th anniversary of the first manned balloon flight by the Montgolfier brothers. More than 50 countries issued balloon stamps or Miniature Sheets in that year alone. Worldwide, there are an estimated 1,700 postage stamps and Miniature Sheets that depict balloons, dirigibles, Zeppelins, and other airships. This particular topical collection contains a sampling of roughly 30% of them%u2014from almost 100 countries.