The 2009 Most Beautiful Stamps were unveiled today by the Czech Post, the magazine Filatelie and the newspaper Právo.

This year's 17th annual Most Beautiful Stamp competition welcomed the overall 8,681 voters, of which 2,462 voted for the stamp from the miniature sheet dedicated to the painter František Ženíšek and his monumental painting Oldřich and Božena. Bedřich Housa, the author of the engraved version and doyen of Czech engravers, has won already the sixth award in this competition, thus equalling the record set by the engraver Václav Fajt in the seventeen years' history of Czech stamp design.

1,376 votes, and the silver award, went to the stamp from the miniature sheet The České středohoří uplands - tertiary volcanic region, designed by Adolf Absolon and engraved by Martin Srb.

A stamp from the commemorative sheet The Křivoklátsko region, featuring a barn owl, attracted 693 votes and won the third award. The sheet of four stamps and four coupons, designed by Libuše and Jaromír Knotek and engraved by Martin Srb, is dedicated to protected animal and plant species in the protected Křivoklátsko region.

You can find last year's most beautiful stamps and other philatelic information in the philatelic section of our website. The complete 2009 set of Czech stamps costs CZK 603 and is available via our Philatelic Service (Služby filatelistům, P.O.Box 111, 360 02 Karlovy Vary 2).

Mgr. Marta Selicharová
Spokeswoman
Czech Post