Europa Stamp Jura Competition 2015 results announced

The winners of the 2015 Europa Stamp Jura Competition, which votes for the best Europa stamp of the year, have been announced.

The PostEurop administration, which runs the Europe-wide contest, hosted an awards ceremony at Brussels Town Hall during the Belgian Philatelic Grand Prix. The jury consisted of eight philatelic experts scrutinized all the displayed entries based on this year's Europa theme theme 'Old Toys'. The jurors cast their closed ballots and  two rounds of voting were necessary for the group of experts, co-chaired by Dr. Botond Szebeny and Dr. Guy Coutant, to announce the results as follows:

Gold was awarded to Russia for their carousel of old toys, including a Russian doll.

The silver medal was awarded to Sweden, who featured a sketch of a horse on wheels and a bi-plane with a rag doll.

Bronze went to Latvia, who featured a photograph of vintage toys, including a teddy bear.

A DIFFICULT CHOICE

Guy Coutant, co chair of the jury, said of the entries: 'This year, the chosen theme was "Old Toys". The collection presented is tinged with nostalgia: all these vintage toys bring back memories from our youth.

'Some countries display regional toys, which added an extra value to the stamp. In any case, those stamps will be appreciated both by the youth of today who are reminded of what their parents had as toys, as well as by the elder who will recall long forgotten memories.'

Post Europ's secretary general Botond Szebeny added: 'This initiative has proven its worth and we appreciate the time and effort each jury member has taken to participate in the judging process.  Beyond that it has also allowed us to regularly bring together a group of known experts to further engage in EUROPA stamps.'

For more on the work of the Post Europ agency, visit their website.

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