This time, it’s sardines!
Sardines are small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae.
The term “sardine” was first used in English during the early 15th century, it comes from the Italian island of Sardinia, around which sardines were once abundant. Pilchard is another term for the same group of fishes.
Some authorities consider the sardine to mean smaller, younger, pilchards.
The FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations considers 21 species that may be classed as sardines.
Sardines feed on zooplankton, and school wherever this is abundant.
This Ecuadorian stamp is from a series on export items. It was issued on April 22, 1986 and has a Scot number of 1137a. It has a watermark of the Coat of Arms of the Ecuador Military Geographic Institute. This commemorative stamp was designed by H. Galarza Gomez and printed by Instituto Geográfico Militar, Quito.
It has a perforation of 12½ and was printed by offset lithography, it has a face value of 10 Ecuadorian sucre. It had a print run of 200,000, and is from a souvenir sheet.
Sardines are commercially fished for bait; for eating fresh, or for drying, salting, or smoking. They are also used for fish meal and oil. Their oil is used for paint, varnish, and linoleum.
From South Korea, this stamp comes from a 1986 fishes series.
This commemorative has a Scott number of 1418, and was issued on July 25, 1986.
It has a comb perforation of 13¼ x 13 and was printed by photogravure.
The stamp has a face value of 70 South Korean won.
Though still fished commercially, the sardine business has collapsed in the United States and the United Kingdom. In the UK, what’s left of the industry is centered in Cornwall, and those are branded Cornish Sardines.
This stamp, featuring a Cornish Sardine comes from Great Britain, in a series on sustainable fish. It was issued June 5, 2014, and has a Scott number of 3299. There are variants.
The stamp was designed by Kate Stephens and printed using offset lithography by International Security Printers.
It has a perforation of 14 x 14½, with ordinary gum and phosphor paper.
This stamp has no face value, but is printed for 1st class postage.
John Steinbeck centered his novel Cannery Row in Monterey, California. It was once the sardine canning capital of the United States. The last U.S. cannery closed in 2010.
The Monterey canning industry began with salmon around the turn of the 20th century, but 1.4 million cases of sardines were being turned out by 1918 in support of the troops in World War I.
This Tunisian stamp, is from a series on the fishes of Tunisia. It was issued on July 15, 2012, and has a Scott number of 1535.
This commemorative was printed by offset lithography, and has a comb perforation of 13½.
There were 500,000 printed with a face value of 600 Tunisean milim.
After the second World War, the sardine fishery collapsed, and the canneries started to close.
Today the area is a tourist destination, and sardines can be seen in the Monterey Bay Aquarium at one end of Cannery Row.
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