Top 10 Extraordinary Stamps of 2009

StampNews.com reports, "In spite of the global financial instability the year was rich in interesting philatelic events. Many countries issued a huge number of beautiful stamps."

The site has named what it considers the 10 most interesting 2009 releases from around the world.

These include...

#1. Guernsey Post: Sherlock Holmes stamps with added mystery (shown above)
#2. Iceland Post: Preserve Polar Regions and Glaciers
#3. Chocolate Stamps from France
#4. 3D Dinosaurs stamps from South Africa
#5. 3D postage stamps from San Marino
#6. Micro Monsters on Australian Stamps
#7. Bhutan Resumes World's First Philatelic CD-ROM Series
#8. Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy on Vatican stamps
#9. Slovak Post: Scented Stamp For Easter
#10. Lighthouses of New Zealand on stamps

In addition, Stamp News gave a special award to China Post for the world's first multimedia stamps.

For pictures and additional information on the award winning 2009 stamps, click here.