Joint issue of the Republic of Belarus and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM)

On June 21, 2010 the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus will issue a stamp “April 28, 2009. Postal agreement with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta”.

Designer: Yauheniya Biadonik. Printing: offset. Colour: multicoloured. Paper: chalk-surfaced, gummed. Perforation: comb 13^1/2. Size of the stamp: 52x37 mm. Sheet composition: 4 (2x2) stamps. Size of the sheet: 130x96 mm. Print quantity: 40.000 stamps.

 

There are elements of protection on the stamp.

 

April 28, 2009.

Postal agreement with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta

 

 

Face value H is equal to the surface tariff of a letter up to 20 gram abroad.

 

Historical reference: Order of Malta was one of the first knights' orders in Christian world. It takes its origin from the Knights Hospitaller, a group founded in Jerusalem as an Amalfitan hospital to provide care for poor and sick pilgrims to the Holy Land. After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade it became a Catholic military order under its own charter.

In different periods the seats of the Order were on the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, Gozo and Comino. Then after temporary seats in the towns of Messina, Catania and Ferrara the Order finally established itself in 1834 in Rome, where it holds, extraterritorially, the Malta Palace at Via Condotti. From this time the care for poor and sick people that was the principal foundation aim of the Order again became the main activity of SMOM as a sovereign entity.

In 1996 the Republic of Belarus and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta established diplomatic relations and on April 28, 2009 the Postal Agreement was signed in Rome.