Monday, January 10, 2005

Four or Five Corners of Luxembourg?

This morning the Grand Dutchess Joséphine-Charlotte of Luxembourg died. [story in French] She was the mother of the current Grand Duke Henri and the sister of Belgium's King Albert II. Here is a picture of a First Day Cover celebrating her marriage to Grand Duke Jean in 1953:

1953 First Day CoverPosted by Hello

The source of this picture is this website on Luxembourg Philately by Gary Little, which has pictures of almost all stamps ever issued by Luxembourg. (It hasn't been updated for about two years. For more recent stamps, go to the Luxembourg Posts and Telecommunications philately webpage.)

Here is a 2003 stamp celebrating the Golden Anniversary of the royal couple:

source: timbremania.lu Posted by Hello


The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is currently holding a 6-month term as president of the Council of the European Union. To celebrate, Luxembourg Post will issue a special booklet of stamps on January 25, 2005.

"The Colours of the Four Corners of Luxembourg" booklet  Posted by Hello


Since the booklet is entitled "The Colours of the Four Corners of Luxembourg," I wondered if Luxembourg has four corners. Is it shaped like Wyoming or Colorado? I surf over to the Perry-Castañeda Map Collection at the University of Texas to look at some CIA maps of Europe. Here is the Ghost Town Orange cut-and-paste where-is-Luxembourg-and-what-is-it-shaped-like? map:

The somewhat pentagonal shape of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Posted by Hello

The Four Corners of Luxembourg, according to these stamps:


  1. The Capital, representing the services sector.

  2. Echternech basilica, representing small towns and villages.

  3. The Moselle, representing the countryside.

  4. Rust, representing the iron and steel industry in the southern part of the country.

UPDATE 7:37 pm CST

I noticed that accents and the n with tilde characters aren't showing up properly in my browser, so I used the table found here to find the correct number codes to use. I may place a link to this table on my sidebar...

This is a day of new beginnings,
time to remember and move on,
time to believe what love is bringing,
laying to rest the pain that's gone.

For by the life and death of Jesus,
God's mighty Spirit, now as then,
can make for us a world of difference,
as faith and hope are born again.

--Brian Wren
This is a day of new beginnings, 1978, alt.
(1st 2 verses)