SLOVAK Post issued a stamp on February 11 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Visegrad Group (V4) with a nominal value of €0.90. The stamp is also available with a numismatic cover that contains a memorial €2 coin issued by the National Bank of Slovakia.
The coin is particularly special because its memorial motif on the national side of the coin bears the geographic outlines of the four countries that make up the V4 – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The border outlines are overlapped by the letter “V” denoting the Visegrad Group.
The stamp has two hands with open palms with the fingers of one hand forming the letter “V” and the other hand showing four fingers for the Roman numeral IIII along with the Arabic numerals 2 and 0 written in the palm of each hand to commemorate the 20 years of the V4.
A First Day Cover (FDC) was issued together with the stamp and its graphic form has the letter symbol of V4 as its main motif. The motif of the V4 postmark is a pictogram of the Visegrad Group countries.
Barnabás Baticz designed the stamp and Slovak artist Robert Jančovič designed the FDC and postmark. The stamp can be used for domestic as well as international mail.
The Visegrad Group was formed in the wake of the post-1989 changes in central Europe when the countries decided to forge closer cooperation with the aim of “returning” to Europe. At a meeting of representatives from Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary convened in Bratislava in May 1990, the groundwork was laid for developing this trilateral cooperation. On February 15, 1991, presidents of the three countries signed the Visegrad Declaration.
After the separation of Czechoslovakia and the independence of the Slovak and Czech Republics in 1993, the trilateral cooperation was transformed into the current V4 format. At a May 1999 summit held in Bratislava, the prime ministers of the V4 countries agreed to deepen cooperation in all areas of mutual interest and to offer each other support in joining the EU, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on Slovak Post’s website for avid philatelists, www.pofis.sk.
