Philately

In 1840 the first postage stamp was issued and after the Great Britain introduced the stamp as a postage payment, other countries followed suit. The first postage stamps were issued on the occasion of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, on 6 April 1896. The authors are engraver Louis-Eugène Mouchon and designer Émile Gillièron. A commemorative series of 12 postage stamps with sports motifs was printed, showing: wrestlers (in red and yellow colour), discobolus (in light pink and grey colour), a vase depicting the goddess Athena (in brown and purple colour), four-wheel drive races (in black and red colour), Acropolis and Panathinaiko stadiums (blue), Acropolis with Parthenon (brown), Hermes (olive green), Goddess of Victory (green).

The first sports postage stamp in Republic of Croatia is dedicated to the Winter Olympics in Albertville. In 1992 Croatian Olympians performed under their own flag. Since then, every year Croatian Post has been issuing commemorative postage stamps or blocks to mark sports competitions in Croatia, world and European competitions, Croatian sports successes, anniversaries of famous athletes or sports organizations.

When it comes to basketball, the first postage stamp with the motif of this sport was put into circulation by Philippines in 1934, followed by Panama (1938 and 1939), Ecuador (1939), Bulgaria (1947), Nicaragua (1949) and Hungary (1950). Interestingly, United States of America issued its first basketball postage stamp only in 1961 to mark the 100^th anniversary of the birth of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. In Croatia, the greats of Croatian basketball Dražen Petrović in 1994 and Krešo Ćosić in 2004 received their postage stamps. In 1997 a postage stamp Basketball – silver, Barcelona 92 was published within the series “Olympic Medals“ dedicated to 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. It also includes tennis, water polo and handball dedicated to Atlanta 1996.

1. On the occasion of the first anniversary of the tragic death in a car accident on 7 June 1993, Croatian Post and telecommunications issued a postage stamp dedicated to Dražen Petrović along with occasional First Day Cover (FDC-11-94) and First Day Sheet.

1. Commemorative postage stamp Dražen Petrović (1964 – 1993); author Danijel Popović, size: 29.82 x 35.50, material: white paper 90 gr. rubberized, comb perforation: 14, print: multicolour offset, Printing house: Zrinski d.d. Čakovec, edition: 1000000, date of issue: 7 June 1994, value: 1 HRK. The stamp was printed in sheets of 20 pieces.
2. Commemorative First Day Cover. FIRST DAY ENVELOPE (FDC) is a special commemorative envelope containing the appropriate stamp, commemorative postage stamp and accompanying drawings and texts. 11,3 x 16,3 cm.
3. First Day Sheet – postal issue, is a sheet with a stamp on the front which is canceled with a First Day Stamp. 20.9 x 14.3 cm
4. Dražen Petrović commemorative album (AL-1/94) – hardcover publication filled with a philatelic content (stamp series, sheets, FDC, commemorative paper, etc.) with accompanying text about special events or anniversaries in the Republic of Croatia. 30.2 x 28.5 cm.

• Postage stamp Olympic park, Lausanne 29 April 1995. Hommage Dražen Petrović, author Zlatko Jakuš, 3×3,6 cm.[1]

• Dražen Petrović postcard was published at the suggestion of Dražen Petrović Foundation on the occasion of Museum and Memorial Center Dražen Petrović opening on 7 June 2006. The stationery has a stamp without face value, it was printed in Čakovec printing house Zrinski in multicolour offset on 190 gram white recycled paper in 200.000 copies. The selling price of the postcard was 1.80 kuna and it was designed by Danijel Popović.