EUROPA. Letter

PostEurop has picked the letter as the theme of this yea’s Europa stamp. The letter is a missive from the sender to the receiver and for its delivery postal services have been set up in all world countries today. Regular postal carriage in Europe started on the initiative of Franz von Taxis in 1495 on the Vienna-Brussels route. Estonia received its first regular postal link with Sweden 1638. For the linguistic expression of the contents of letters men have devised sign systems that have developed from ancient pictograms and cuneiform signs into powerful and supple instruments of human communication. Whether alphabetic, syllabic or hieroglyphic, writing can express the whole range of human thought and can besides take highly artistic forms. Although e-mails are winning more and more popularity today, the traditional "hard copy" letter is still very much alive and kicking as the millions of letters postal systems daily deliver to addressees prove.