Pteranodon Flying Reptile Stamp

Here is a picture of the Pteranodon flying reptile stamp. It was issued in 1965 by the small republic of San Marino (located on the Italian peninsula). It had a value of 3 lire but the country now uses the euro as their currency. The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) website has a 1965 listing of currency rate exchanges. One United States dollar was equivalent to 625 Italian lire. So this stamp was worth about 1/2 American cent in 1965. The stamp was part of collection of nine issued that year.

The Pteranodon existed in the Late Cretaceous Period (100-66 mya). The fossil was named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1876.

San Marino is a very small country located inside of northern Italy. It is about 61 square kilometers in size with a population of about 30,000 people. One of their chief sources of income is tourism. They sell stamps and coins to tourists. More than likely these ancient animal stamps were part that income stream.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_marino

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_San_Marino

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GOVPUB-T63_100-d2630baf32592aadaaefa5ce3310fb36/pdf/GOVPUB-T63_100-d2630baf32592aadaaefa5ce3310fb36.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pteranodon

Terror Saurus Kite

Here are some pictures of a Terror Saurus™  kite. It appears to be an image of a creature based on the flying reptile Pterodactylus. The Pterodactylus lived in the Jurassic Period and it's fossil forms are found in Bavaria, Germany. An adult was thought to have a wing span of about 1.5 meters.

This kite has a wingspan of just over 1 meter (42 inches). It was manufactured in the United States by Gayla Industries Inc. of Houston, Texas, USA. My kite was bought at a neat little store called HobbyTown USA located off Shelbyville Road, in Louisville, Kentucky (see web page). It costs $2.99 US.

Kites originated in China in maybe 500 B.C. Learn more at Wikipedia.

TM - Gayla Industries Inc.

U.S. Postal Dinosaur/Reptile Stamps

Unearthed (so to say) from my stamp collection are two blocks of unused flying reptile and dinosaur stamps.  These 25 cent stamps were issued by the United States Post Office in 1989.  I covered each stamp in its cancelled form earlier in the year.  It was educational for me, as I learned the difference between a dinosaur and flying reptile. An added bonus was learning about issues with the Brontosaurus stamp. 

The following links lead to those entries:

http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2011/04/tyrannosaurus-postage-stamp.html

http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2011/04/stegosaurus-postage-stamp.html


 http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2011/04/pteranodon-flying-reptile-postage-stamp.html

http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2011/05/brontosaurus-apatosaurus-stamp.html

Pteranodon Flying Reptile Postage Stamp

Here are two cancelled U.S. postage stamps from 1989 depicting the flying reptile Pteranodon.  This stamp was part of four set with the other three featuring dinosaurs.  The Pteranodon roamed the skies of the Late Cretaceous period with its range extending over the states Alabama, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

Earlier posts show the Tyrannosaurus stamp: HERE and Stegosaurus stamp HERE.