0468 - EU Flag card sent from Windsor, UK - in BREXIT day - FOTW 137

Sent: 31.01.2020

Recieved: 7.02.2020

Travel time: 7 days

Sent by Nathanial - private swap

Special Postmarks if UK - Royal Mail
https://www.royalmail.com/postmarks

Amazing handling of Royal Mail - hand postmark- this is how I received the postcard:

And I choose Windsor Castle postmark from different models available for that day of 31st  January:

0455 - Madeira Flag of The Country FOTW 136

Sent:17.10.2019

Received: 28.01.2020

Travel time: too much: 103 days! 

Sent via private swap

0318 Singapore Flag of the country FOTW135

Sent: 17.02.2020

Received: 21.02.2020

Travel time 4 days

Sent by a friend - Facebook swap

0299 Cayman Islands Flag of Country FOTW134

Sent 27.02.2020
Received 09.03.2020
Travel time: 11 days

Sender Denise via private swap (Thank you!)

0277 Guernsey Flag of country FOTW133

Sent: 12.02.2020

Received 17.02.2020

Travel time 5 days

Sender: Ilze from UK.

Get your shere:

https://postcardsmarket.com/products/guernsey-fw

Wiki: The flag of Guernsey was adopted in 1985 and consists of the red Saint George's Cross with an additional gold Norman cross within it. The creation was prompted by confusion at international sporting events over competitors from Guernsey and England using the same flag. It was designed by the Guernsey Flag Investigation Committee led by Deputy Bailiff Sir Graham Dorey. The flag was first unveiled on the island on 15 February 1985. The gold cross represents William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy (who became, after the conquest, William I of England). William purportedly was given such a cross by Pope Alexander II and flew it on his standard in the Battle of Hastings. Since 2000, a red ensign with the cross in the fly has been used as the government's civil ensign and as a blue ensign.

0267 Uruguay Flag of Country FOTW132

Sent 4.12.2018

Received 23.01.2019

Travel time 50 days

Get yours here: http://postcardsmarket.com/product/uruguay/

0258 Suriname Flag of Country FOTW131

Sent: 23.10.2018

Received 29.10.2018

Travel time 6 days

Sender Lissa AK from Kazakhstan - private

Wiki:

The flag of Suriname is formed by five horizontal bands of green (top, double width), white, red (quadruple width), white, and green (double width). There is a large, yellow, five-pointed star centered in the red band.

The flag was adopted on November 25, 1975, upon the independence of Suriname. The star represents the unity of all ethnic groups, the red stripe stands for progress and love, the green for hope and fertility, and the white bands for peace and justice.

0256 Zimbabwe Flag of country FOTW130

Sent: 17.03.2018

Received 25.10.2018

Travel time 222 days (!)

Sender Valery and Virva. - private

0209 Jamaica Flag of country FOTW129

Sent: 20.09.2018

transit postmark - central sorting office - 21.09.2018

Received: 28.12.2019

Travel time 68 days

Sender Holger from Germany.

Get yours here: http://postcardsmarket.com/product/jamaica-fw/

Wiki:

The flag of Jamaica was adopted on 6 August 1962, the original Jamaican Independence Day, the country having gained independence from the British-protected Federation of the West Indies. The flag consists of a gold saltire, which divides the flag into four sections: two of them green (top and bottom) and two black (hoist and fly).[2] It is the only current national flag in the world that does not feature any of the colors red, white, or blue.

0208 Curacao Flag of country FOTW128

Sent 05.12.2018

Received 28.12.2018

Travel time 23 days

Sender Jurgen from Switzerland.

Get yours here: http://postcardsmarket.com/product/curacao/

wiki:

The national flag of Curaçao represents the country of Curaçao as well as the island area within the Netherlands Antilles from 1984 until its dissolution in 2010. The flag was not flown for Curaçao and Dependencies for which the flag of the Netherlands was used.

The flag is a blue field with a horizontal yellow stripe slightly below the midline and two white, five-pointed stars in the canton. The blue symbolizes the sea and sky (the bottom and top blue sections, respectively) divided by a yellow stroke representing the bright sun which bathes the island. The two stars represent Curaçao and Klein Curaçao, but also 'Love and Happiness'[citation needed]. The five points on each star symbolize the five continents from which Curaçao's people come.

0198 DR Congo Flag of country FOTW127

Sent: 29.11.2018

Received 04.01.2019

Travel time 37 days

Sender Deo Nyiongeso from Burundi.

wiki:

The national flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a sky blue flag, adorned with a yellow star in the upper left canton and cut diagonally by a red stripe with a yellow fimbriation. It was adopted on 20 February 2006

0192; 0269 Saint Lucia Flag of country FOTW126

#0192
Sent: 02.02.2018

Received: not written

Travel time: ?

Prepared by me (20.11.2017) and sent via a friend (non postcrosser) travelling there from Belgium - thanks to Jurgen !

#0269
Sent 07.01.2019
Received 23.01.2019
Travel time 16 days

Sender Simone from Germany.

The flag of Saint Lucia consists of a cerulean blue field charged with a yellow triangle in front of a white-edged black isosceles triangle. Adopted in 1967 to replace the British Blue Ensign defaced with the arms of the colony, it has been the flag of Saint Lucia since the country became an Associated State of the United Kingdom that year. Although the overall design of the flag has remained unchanged, specific aspects of it have been altered over the years.

0191 Saint Kitts and Nevis Flag of country FOTW125

Sent: 11.12.2017

Received: 22.12.2017

Travel time: 11 days

Prepared by me (20.11.2017) and sent via a friend (non postcrosser) travelling there from Belgium - thanks to Jurgen !

Get yours here: http://postcardsmarket.com/product/kitts/

Wiki:

The flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis consists of a yellow-edged black band containing two white stars that divides diagonally from the lower hoist-side corner, with a green upper triangle and red lower triangle. Adopted in 1983 to replace the flag of Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla, it has been the flag of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis since the country gained independence that year. Although the flag utilizes the colors of the Pan-Africanist movement, the symbolism behind them is interpreted differently. The three islands later became part of the West Indies Federation in 1958; after this dissolved four years later, they were granted the status of associate state as Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla. However, Anguilla decided to secede from the federation in 1969, owing to fears that their population, which was already small, would be further marginalized in parliament. This was eventually formalized in 1980, and a new flag for the remaining parts of the federation was needed, since the symbolism of the previous flag centered on the concept of a union of three.

A national competition was held in the early 1980s to choose a new flag. The winning design by student Edrice Lewis was one of 258 entries. It was first hoisted one minute after midnight on 19 September 1983, the day Saint Kitts and Nevis became an independent country

0190 Rwanda Flag of country FOTW124

Sent: 05.09.2017

Transit: Cairo, Egypt - 10.09.2017

Received: 25.09.2017

Travel time:  20 days

Sender Ali Kryeziu from Kosovo, via Deo Nyiongeso from Burundi! (such international card :) ) 

Wiki:

The flag was adopted in October 25, 2001.

The flag has four colors: blue, green, and two forms of yellow (standard yellow for the middle band and what the Pantone system calls "sun yellow" for the sun). The blue band represents happiness and peace, the yellow band symbolizes economic development, and the green band symbolizes the hope of prosperity. The sun represents enlightenment.

The new flag represents national unity, respect for work, heroism, and confidence in the future. It was adopted to avoid connotations to the 1994 genocide. The flag was designed by Alphonse Kirimobenecyo.

When hung vertically, the flag should be displayed as the horizontal version rotated clockwise 90 degrees

0189 Russia Flag of country FOTW123

Sent: 12.02.2017

Received: 07.03.2017

Travel time 23 days

Sender Julia, from Sankt Petersburg.

Get yours here: http://postcardsmarket.com/product/russia-fw/

Wiki:

The flag of Russia (Russian: Флаг России) is a tricolor flag consisting of three equal horizontal fields: white on the top, blue in the middle, and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for Russian merchant ships and became official as the flag of the Tsardom of Russia in 1696. It remained in use until the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR) in 1917.

During the Soviet Union's existence, it used a flag with a red field with a golden hammer and sickle and a golden bordered red star on top. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the pre-revolutionary tricolor was re-introduced as the flag of the Russian Federation in 1991 in the 1:2 ratio. The Tsarist tricolor was fully restored in 1993 after the constitutional crisis as the current flag.

0188 Portugal Flag of country FOTW122

Sent: 3.10.2016

Received 10.10.2016

Travel time: 7 days

Sender Ana Sofia from Portugal.

Get yours here: http://postcardsmarket.com/product/portugal-fw/

Wiki: 

The Flag of Portugal (Portuguese: Bandeira de Portugal) is a rectangular bicolour with a field unevenly divided into green on the hoist, and red on the fly. The lesser version of the national coat of arms (i.e. armillary sphere and Portuguese shield) is centered over the color boundary at equal distance from the upper and lower edges. On 30 June 1911, less than a year after the downfall of the constitutional monarchy, this design was officially adopted for the new national flag of the First Portuguese Republic, after selection by a special commission whose members included Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, João Chagas and Abel Botelho.

The conjugation of the new field colors, especially the use of green, was not traditional in the Portuguese national flag's composition and represented a radical republican-inspired change that broke the bond with the former monarchical flag. Since a failed republican insurrection on 31 January 1891, red and green had been established as the colors of the Portuguese Republican Party and its associated movements, whose political prominence kept growing until it reached a culmination period following the Republican revolution of 5 October 1910. In the ensuing decades, these colours were popularly propagandized as representing the hope of the nation (green) and the blood (red) of those who died defending it, as a means to endow them with a more patriotic and dignified, therefore less political, sentiment. Although the flag flown from Porto city hall in the morning of 31 January 1891, symbol of the republican uprising was red and green. Totally red with a green circle in the center, to which were added the inscriptions referring to the republican center to whom it belonged - the Centro Democrático Federal 15 de Novembro.

The current flag design represents a dramatic change in the evolution of the Portuguese standard, which had always been closely associated with the royal arms, blue and white. Since the country's foundation, the national flag developed from the blue cross-on-white armorial square banner of King Afonso I to the liberal monarchy's arms over a blue-and-white rectangle. In between, major changes associated with determinant political events contributed to its evolution into the current design.

0187 Qatar Flag of country FOTW121

Sent: 19.02.2017

Received: 08.05.2017

Travel time: 77 days (!)

Sender: Trond from Norway

Get yours here: http://postcardsmarket.com/product/qatar-fw/

Wiki:

The national flag of Qatar (Arabic: علم قطر‎) is in the ratio of 11:28. It is maroon with a broad white serrated band (nine white points) on the hoist side. It was adopted shortly before the country's declaration of independence from Britain on 3 September 1971.

The flag is very similar to the flag of the neighboring country Bahrain, which has fewer points, a 3:5 proportion, and a red color instead of maroon. Qatar's flag is the only national flag having a width more than twice its height.

0185-186 Poland Flag of country FOTW120

 #185
Sent: 25.07.2017
Received - not written.

Sender Beatka from Poland.

Get yours here: http://postcardsmarket.com/product/poland-fw/

It is interesting that - the card have Polish Stamps but Deutsche Post postmark. The stamps are low denomination - but they are send via Deutsche post due to big cost difference for postal tariffs:
- in Germany - to send a card - costs 0,9 euro
-in Poland - same service - 5 złoty (~1,2 euro)
If you send 100 cards - here are 40 euro saved....

#186 

Sent: 4.11.2017

Received: 17.11.2017

Travel time: 13 days

Sender - myself from a postcrossing meeting in Frankfurt Oder/ Slubice organized by Holger Kaufhold. (I will write about it soon) - was also in local newspaper: 

http://www.moz.de/landkreise/oder-spree/frankfurt-oder/artikel9/dg/0/1/1616699/

Wiki: 

The flag of Poland consists of two horizontal stripes of equal width, the upper one white and the lower one red. The two colors are defined in the Polish constitution as the national colors. A variant of the flag with the national coat of arms in the middle of the white stripe is legally reserved for official use abroad and at sea. A similar flag with the addition of a swallow-tail is used as the naval ensign of Poland.

White and red were officially adopted as national colors in 1831. They are of heraldic origin and derive from the tinctures (colors) of the coats of arms of the two constituent nations of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, i.e. the White Eagle of Poland and the Pursuer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a white knight riding a white horse, both on a red shield. Prior to that, Polish soldiers wore cockades of various color combinations. The national flag was officially adopted in 1919. Since 2004, Polish Flag Day is celebrated on 2 May.

The flag is flown continuously on the buildings of the highest national authorities, such as the parliament and the presidential palace. Other institutions and many Polish people fly the national flag on national holidays and other special occasions of national significance. Current Polish law does not restrict the use of the national flag without the coat of arms as long as the flag is not disrespected.

Horizontal bicolor of white and red being a relatively widespread design, there are several flags that are similar but unrelated to the Polish one. There are two national flags with the red stripe above the white one: those of Indonesia and Monaco. In Poland, many flags based on the national design also feature the national colors.