Drones, Drones on Drones

You can't watch the news without something being reported about drones. Drones for warfare, medical transport, surveillance, delivery, or setting up production facilities for drones. But what about stamps? Freestampcatalogue recently added a separate page for drones on stamps. At the moment, only 12 issues are listed there. This is partly because Freestampcatalogue does not include new stamps from countries with extreme issuing policies, and possibly partly because some issues were missed due to the recent inclusion. However, it is nice to see that many different perspectives are already visible in these issues. The first stamp featuring a drone shown is the above block from Micronesia from 2003. During Operation 'Iraqi Freedom', the Americans used the 'Preditor', an unmanned aircraft, for the first time. It can be seen in this block on the middle stamp in the second row. In 2019, Japan issued a sheet related to land surveying. On the first stamp in the bottom row, we see a drone at work. By now, the drone was being deployed increasingly everywhere. A sporting element could no longer be ruled out. In 2019, North Macedonia also issued a stamp commemorating a Drone Race. In 2020, Spain is issuing a stamp featuring a drone to commemorate 30 years of Tragsatec, a Spanish organization dedicated to monitoring, planning, and deploying innovations in the environment, land use, and infrastructure. In 2021, Macau issued a block to mark the occasion of the Customs Services. A surveillance drone can be seen above the ship. In 2022, Hong Kong is issuing a series of 11 stamps regarding the developments in the Greater Bay area. One of the stamps shows a man piloting a drone. In the same year, Lithuania introduces a surcharge stamp. A crowdfunding campaign is set up to provide Ukraine with defense.   The Dominican Republic and Israel are both issuing stamps in 2023 featuring drones for agricultural use. MAHA is an organization in Malaysia involved in the development and organization of trade fairs in the field of agriculture. In 2024, the organization celebrates its 100th anniversary, and two stamps featuring trade fair scenes are being issued. On the stamp on the right, we see a drone being presented at the fair. Slovakia certainly sees a future for drones in postal delivery. Witness this stamp from 2024. Undoubtedly, many more stamps featuring drones will appear. Perhaps a nice new (additional) collecting area. Click here to see the drones on freestamp catalog or here to see which ones are currently for sale at PostBeeld. Do you have any stamps featuring drones that do not appear in the Freestampcatalogue overview? Let us know via email or in a comment on this article. We can then make the overview more complete. As previously indicated, countries with extreme issuing policies (which are not included in the Freestampcatalogue) have issued various blocks featuring drones, almost all related to the Ukraine war. Below is a small selection with reduced-size images.