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14.09.2023
To commemorate the most notable milestones in Latvian basketball history and to celebrate the success of the Latvian national men’s basketball team in this year's World Cup, Latvijas Pasts releases a special stamp block, Latvian Sports – Basketball. The stamp is a tribute to one of the most significant achievements in the history of Latvian basketball: the victory of the Latvian national basketball team in the first European Basketball Championship in Geneva in 1935. The first-day cancellation of the philatelic release is scheduled to take place in the Latvian Sports Museum at 9 Alksnāja Street, Riga, from 10 AM to 3 PM on the 15th of September. The official presentation of the stamp will be held at 12 PM and it will see the participation of the representatives of Latvijas Pasts and the Latvian Basketball Association.
The stamp block Legends of Latvian Sports – Basketball has a print run of 9,000 copies and a face value of €5.05, corresponding to the postage of letter-post items in the weight class from 21 to 100 grams to the countries located in Group 12. The release of the stamp is accompanied by the issue of a special cover with a print run of 500 copies. The new philatelic releases have been designed by the artist Ģirts Grīva.
In the visual design of the philatelic releases, the artist has used materials from the collections of the Latvian Sports Museum.
The stamp and the cover feature fragments from the game of the Latvian national basketball team on the 4th of May 1935, when the name of Latvia was permanently etched into the annals of European and world basketball. The Latvian Dream Team, as it is called, defeated the Spanish national team 24:18 in the final game of the European Championship, becoming the first champions of the tournament. The historical team consisted of 12 athletes: Aleksejs Anufrijevs, Andrejs Krisons, Džems Raudziņš, Edgars Rūja, Eduards Andersons, Herberts Gubiņš, Jānis Lidmanis, Mārtiņš Grundmanis, Rihards Dekšenieks, Rūdolfs Jurciņš, Valdemārs Baumanis and Visvaldis Melderis.
The new stamp block and the cover of Legends of Latvian Sports – Basketball can be seen here.
The series of postage stamps Legends of Latvian Sports was launched in 2021: The first philatelic release in the series was dedicated to Jānis Lūsis, a legendary javelin thrower, and last year Latvijas Pasts issued a stamp block in honour of Kārlis Kļava, a master of shooting sports. The philatelic releases paying tribute to Latvian sports legends can be viewed here.
The new philatelic releases will first be available for purchase at the post offices of the largest cities, as well as in the e-shop of Latvijas Pasts https://veikals.pasts.lv/.
The next philatelic release is scheduled for the 6th of October.
About SJSC Latvijas Pasts
Latvijas Pasts ensures the widest availability of postal services throughout Latvia by maintaining more than 600 post offices and an extensive network of indoor and outdoor parcel lockers. The primary function of the company is provision of the universal postal service; Latvijas Pasts also provides commercial transport, express mail, parcel locker, payment, press subscription, retail and philatelic services. Latvijas Pasts is a wholly State-owned company with around 2,600 employees. The quality measurements of Latvijas Pasts domestic mail deliveries are regularly conducted by Kantar TNS, one of the leading market, social and media research agencies in Latvia. In turn, the quality measurements of the cross-border deliveries are provided within the framework of the International Post Corporation through the intermediary of the research companies Kantar TNS, Ipsos and Quotas.
Additional information:
Vineta Anna Sarkane | Senior Public Relations Project Manager
E-mail: pr@pasts.lv; vineta_anna.sarkane@pasts.lv
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