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Postage stamps can reveal the communication between different fields of knowledge, transforming elements of nature into emblems for the representation of biodiversity, economic resources, national identity, and the cultural identity of countries. Brazilian philatelic issues that represent timber species express the dialogue between forest resources and the bioeconomy. The historical relationship between man, his territory, and the use of forest resources is established through visual records of the management, use, and valorization of Brazilian timbers over time. This editorial seeks to demonstrate how postage stamps become instruments for publicizing the country’s timber potential and how they disseminate knowledge about the diversity of species of economic interest.

We would like to think that Maramureş mining and thematic philately had a common destiny. The merging of the two areas of interest, although it started timidly, has continued to capture the public's interest more and more frequently in the period after 1988 and up to the present. Through the present work, we aimed to highlight the philatelic elements (postage stamps, first day of issue envelopes/FDCs, illustrated postcards, special and anniversary envelopes, maximum postcards, etc.) that appeared and promoted part of the activity of local mining, especially the one in Maramureș County. The identification, indexing, analysis, and description of the philatelic pieces were carried out starting from the existing material on several specialist websites with a philatelic profile and e-commerce platforms (Allnumis®, Colnect®, Delcampe®, eBay®, Jurnalul Filatelic, Romfilatelia, WOPA+®, WorldStamps®, etc), as well as that placed at the disposition of colleagues, philately enthusiasts and frantic collectors. The results of our current research have materialized in an impressive series of manifestations of the creation of Maramuresi philatelists, who have not forgotten for a moment that the basis of local development in the past was mining, through its economic, operational, and cultural contribution.

The identification of peaks or maxima in probability densities, by mode testing or bump hunting, has become an important problem in applied fields. For real random variables, this task has been approached in the statistical literature from different perspectives, with the proposal of testing procedures which are based on kernel density estimators or on the quantification of excess mass. However, none of the existing proposals for testing the number of modes provides a satisfactory performance in practice. In this work, a new procedure which combines the previous approaches (smoothing and excess mass) is presented together with a revision on the previous proposals. The new method is compared with the existing ones in an extensive simulation study, showing a superior behaviour, with good calibration and power results. Theoretical justification for its performance is also obtained. A real data example on philatelic data is also included for illustration purposes, revising previous approaches and discussing the results with the new procedure.

The role played by postage stamps in the history of malaria control and eradication has largely gone unrecognized. Scientific investigators of malaria, especially Nobel laureates, were commemorated with special issues, but the work of the World Health Organization (WHO), which promoted an ambitious and global philatelic initiative in 1962 to support global eradication, is generally overlooked. This review examines the philatelic programme that helped to generate international commitment to the goal of malaria eradication in 1962 and established philatelic malaria icons that had worldwide recognition. Malaria-related postage stamps have continued to be issued since then, but the initial failure of malaria eradication and the changing goals of each new malaria programme, inevitably diluted their role. After the first Global Malaria Eradication Campaign was discontinued in 1969, few Nations released philatelic issues. Since the Spirit of Dakar Call for Action in 1996 a resurgence of postage stamp releases has occurred, largely tracking global malaria control initiatives introduced between 1996 and 2020. These releases were not co-ordinated by the WHO as before, were more commercialized and targeted stamp collectors, especially with attractive miniature sheets, often produced by photomontage. Having a different purpose, they demonstrated a much wider diversity in symbolism than the earlier stylized issues and at times, have been scientifically inaccurate. Nonetheless postage stamps greatly helped to communicate the importance of malaria control programmes to a wide audience and to some extent, have supported preventive health messages.

It is proposed that philately and the study of parasitic plants can be conflated for educational purposes. Of the 12 lineages of parasitic flowering plants, eight are currently represented on postal stamps. The most frequent genus seen on stamps is Rafflesia, closely followed by Viscum. These stamps convey messages about the history and importance of parasitic plants such as witchweed (Striga), sandalwood and mistletoes. Some of the parasitic plants are beautiful wildflowers such as Castilleja, Euphrasia and Pedicularis, whereas many mistletoes in Loranthaceae have flowers that rival orchids. Countries with rich parasite floras that currently do not have stamps featuring these plants should consider them as worthy subjects.

In 1999, the U.S. Postal Service issued the Ayn Rand commemorative stamp, an out-of-place addition to their long-running Literary Arts series. This article tells the story of the stamp—how it came to be and why.

This article presents the first comprehensive study of six unprovenanced Sasanian clay bullae from Iran, held at the Framji Dadabhoy Alpaiwalla Museum in Mumbai. Bearing impressions from personal, official, and administrative seals, the seal impressions are here analysed for their iconography, stylistic characteristics, and Middle Persian inscriptions. The study proposes a chronological framework for the seals that produced their impressions on the bullae and situates the visual motifs within broader Sasanian artistic and symbolic traditions. It explains how these seal impressions reflect the intersection of visual culture, administrative function, and personal identity in Sasanian society, highlighting the complexity of interpreting sigillographic material where artistic convention and institutional roles converge. The inscriptions have been deciphered and enhance our knowledge of administrative practices in the Sasanian Empire. In particular, the study revisits the much debated term ⟨mgwh⟩ within the context of Sasanian administrative epigraphy.