Postcrossing Blog

Every year, stamp lovers across Europe (and beyond!) come together to vote for the best-looking EUROPA stamp — and the time has come once more! The 2025 competition kicked off last month, and this year’s theme is “National Archaeological Discoveries”.

Archaeological discoveries tell the story of where we come from, revealing some clues about life in centuries or sometimes even millennia past. From cave art and ceremonial masks to statues, jewelry or simple tools, these items help piece together the cultural puzzle of Europe’s shared history.

According to the EUROPA stamps website:

“The highly anticipated 2025 EUROPA Stamps Competition is set to captivate philatelists and history enthusiasts alike with its theme, “National Archaeological Discoveries.” Issued by European postal operators, this year’s stamps will celebrate the extraordinary archaeological findings that have shaped Europe’s rich cultural heritage. The 2025 edition will take collectors on a journey through time, uncovering hidden treasures, ancient civilisations, and ground-breaking discoveries.”

That said, this theme is a little trickier to turn into a visually stunning stamp… and you’ll notice many countries went with a more simple approach, showcasing the artifacts’ photos in minimalist layouts. Still, there’s something compelling about the diversity of objects and the stories behind them — and some designs found really clever ways to bring these ancient items to life!

So come learn a little about what each country chose to highlight, and cast your vote for your favorite design!

Vote for the most beautiful EUROPA stamp! 😍

And as always, we’d love to hear what you think in the comments below! Which stamp caught your eye this year? Did your country make a good pick? What other artifacts would you like to see on a stamp?

Belgium might be known for chocolate, waffles and some famous comics (like Tintin, Lucky Luke or my personal favorite, Gaston Lagaffe!)… but from today onwards, it will also be known for some cute Postcrossing-themed stamps! They are out there in the world now, ready to make postcrossers happy both in Belgium and abroad!

We love the unique format of the stamp sheet, designed to look like a postcard itself! Featuring cheerful scenes of all the stages of Postcrossing, it really does a good job of showing what the hobby is all about. The text on the stamp sheet is written both in Dutch and French, the two most widely spoken languages in Belgium.

Naturally, also the cancellation mark is available in two languages!

Also, bpost is also issuing a special First Day Sheet, featuring the stamps in the front and some information about Postcrossing and this commemorative issue on the back.

A meetup was scheduled for today in Brussels to welcome in the new stamp, and we’re sure many postcrossers are heading to the philatelic boutique in Brussels (or more likely, to bpost’s online shop) to get themselves some. They can also be ordered at any post office in Belgium to then have them delivered to your address.

Wherever you are, we hope you’ll soon receive a postcard with one of these colorful stamps!

PS: Veerle (aka veke250) got some of these new stamps at the Skalafila pre-sale event, and took some pictures to show the community what they look like! 😍

Last month, we invited everyone to join or organize a meetup in celebration of the website’s upcoming 20th anniversary, and since then, dozens of them have popped up all around the world! 😍 It’s been a joy to see all of these meetings being organized, and that so many of you are planning to attend. The celebrations don’t stop there though!

To mark this special milestone, we want YOU to be part of the celebration — with a photo challenge!

Your mission: grab 20 postcards and take a photo with them! You can hold them up, fan them out like a giant deck of cards, arrange them into a big “20”, or take them to your favorite spot in town, a sunny postbox, your local post office, or anywhere that brings a smile to your face. Be creative, be playful, and above all, be part of the party!

We’ve set up a special gallery to collect all your happy pictures from around the world. Just like in past years, it’s a way to celebrate together, even if we’re all in different places.

📮 Upload your photo and join the celebration! ✨

We can’t wait to see your smiling faces, your postcards, and the beautiful ways you choose to celebrate this special milestone with us. 📮 Let’s make this a birthday to remember — go go go!

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

When choosing this month’s writing prompt, I’d just happened across some news articles about a pretty weird… sporting(?)… event in the UK. So it seemed like the perfect time to ask you all about unusual and conventional sports you have in your country. Or maybe even really, really local events!

The item in the news that I happened across today was… cheese-rolling. To be accurate, the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling event, held at Cooper’s Hill near Gloucester. Apparently there’s a cheese-rolling event in Chester, too, but the one at Cooper’s Hill has been running longer, and gets in the news each year because. Well. It consists of rolling a cheese down a really steep hill, then having people chase after it, and inevitably people get themselves hurt!

Apparently the event hasn’t been run officially in a while because of the safety concerns, but rogue cheese-rollers go ahead and organise it anyway. If you catch the cheese, it’s yours, which admittedly is some slight temptation to me because I do love cheese—except I know that I’d be well behind the competition, and also, I could just get cheese that hasn’t been rolled down a hill on a warm day.

Are there any weird sporting events local to you? Something famous from your country? As ever, we’d love to hear about it in your comments, but also on your postcards this month if you don’t know what to write!

Can you believe it? Postcrossing is turning 20 years old in just under two months, on July 14! We’re not quite sure how that happened either… Time flies when you’re sending postcards! Over the years, we’ve heard from postcrossers who joined back in high school, took a break during university and early adulthood, and then found their way back to the project years later to introduce it to their own children. It’s been quite the journey, and we’re happy every single one of you is here to share it with us.

But we’ll save the emotional stuff for later — right now, it’s time to get ready to celebrate! 🎉 And what’s a celebration without friends? So your first mission is to join or organize a Postcrossing meetup around July 14 to mark this big milestone. Whether you’ve been around since the early days or just joined recently, this is a good opportunity to meet fellow postcrossers, share stories, and enjoy some quality postcard-writing time together.

Since the anniversary falls on a Monday, we know it might not be the easiest day for everyone to meet. So feel free to plan your meetup for the weekend before or after! A casual get-together at a coffee shop, a sunny picnic in the park, or even a group trip to a local museum — anything goes, as long as it brings people together in the spirit of Postcrossing. There are a few planned already, but we hope to see lots more pop up in the coming weeks!

To help make these meetups feel extra special (and a bit more connected), we’ve created a special postcard template just for the occasion. You can download it from the 20 Years page and customize it with a photo — for bonus points, we suggest using a picture of a local postbox, if possible! Then just update the details with your meetup location, date, and image credit information, and you’re ready to go. With many meetups around the world using the same design template, we’ll have a shared visual celebration: one postcard, many places!

We hope you’ll join in the fun, wherever you are. Let’s make this a anniversary to remember, filled with laughter, postcards, and lots of new connections! And stay tuned for more anniversary activities coming soon… 😊