200th birth anniversary of Louis Braille

On January 4, 2009 the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus will issue a stamp “200th birth anniversary of Louis Braille” prepared by the Publishing Centre “Marka” of the EUR “Belpochta”.

Designers: Yevgeni Simonenko & Ivan Lukin. Printing: offset. Colour: full colour. Paper: chalk-surfaced, gummed. Perforation: comb 13½: 13¾. Size of the stamp: 37x26 mm. Sheet composition: 6 (2x3) stamps. Size of the sheet: 95x99 mm. Print quantity: 60.000 stamps.

There are elements of protection on the stamp.

Historical reference. Louis Braille (4.01.1809, Coupvray 6.01.1852, Paris) was the inventor of braille, a world-wide system usedby blind and visually impairedpeople for reading and writing. Louis Braille became blind at the age of 3, when he accidentally stabbed himself in one eye with an awl.

At age 15 in 1824 he invented his raised-dot system of reading by passing the fingers over characters made up of an arrangement of one to six embossed points. Later Braille extended his system to include notation for mathematics and music. Now it has been adapted to almost every known language.

The first book in braille “History of France” was published in 1837.

200^th birth anniversary of Louis Braille

700 BYR

Special cancellation: a special cancellation on FDC will be carried out at the Main Post Office of Minsk on the stamps issuing day.

Colour of the postmark — black.

Special postmark and FDC
designed by Yevgeni Simonenko & Ivan Lukin.