Used as a historical source, heraldry is an important mean of putting theoretical principles into practice, interpreting and researching the evolution of a country’s coats of arms, of a domain, a city or a family. The denomination of heraldry derives from the Latin term used during the Middle Ages: heraldus = herald. During the Medieval period, heralds were the messengers of the war but they would also make the presentations of fighters during jousting competitions and their armorial bearings. The coat of arms was a conventional symbol, characteristic for the state, city, family, individual, etc. The oldest Romanian coats of arms representing Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania bear the seal of Occidental influence.
For history lovers and equally for collectors of heraldic symbols, Romfilatelia introduces into circulation the postage stamp issue “Romanian Heraldic Symbols”, accomplished according to an original graphic concept signed by the famous artist Octavian Ion Penda.
The stamp with the face value of Lei 0.60 depicts the heraldic symbols of Moldavia, based on sigillary and monetary springheads. The first representation is found on the backside of the grosses, coins struck during the reign of Petru I Musat, Moldavian ruler (1375-139), as well as his sigillum from 1387. The Moldavian coat of arms shows the bull head with a 5-ray star on its forefront between its antlers, flanked by a rose on the right side and a crescent on the left. This is also illustrated on a seal from 1430 belonging to Alexander the Good (Alexandru cel Bun). This heraldic representation of the Moldavian coat of arms can also be seen on religious monuments and historical documents.
The stamp with the face value of Lei 1.00 presents the heraldic symbols of the region of Wallachia. Ever since its creation, the main element of the symbol was the eagle, accompanied by the sun and the moon. The image of the coat of arms of Wallachia, highlighted on the seal of Voivode Mircea the Elder (Mircea cel Batran) on a document dating since 1390, is considered to be the oldest and the most accurate representation of the symbol. If the initial coat of arms presents the eagle with folded wings, it later on suffered some visible modifications such as a richer plumage with unfolded wings, on the edge of taking off, as envisaged on the seal of Patrascu cel Bun in 1557.
The stamp with the face value of Lei 3.00 shows the heraldic symbols of the region of Transylvania. At the end of the 16th century, certain printed works showed the printed images of a cut shield with an eagle in the upper part and seven mountain ranges in the lower one, tended by crenellated towers. Along the time, the mountain ranges disappeared from the heraldic representation of the region of Transylvania but the red towers on golden fields were preserved in the upper part, together with the eagle flanked by the sun and the moon. Bearing in mind that the coat of arms of Transylvania suffered, in time, no noticeable modification, after the accomplishment of the Great Unification on December 1st, 1918, its elements were incorporated in the Romanian coat of arms.
The stamp with the face value of Lei 3.10 illustrates one of the variant of the coat of arms of the Romania’s capital, Bucharest. Created in 1930 by the de Heraldic Consulting Commission, the symbol was used until 1948. After 1989, the City Hall of the Municipality of Bucharest decided to give the city its ancient coat of arms. The emblem represented the golden eagle holding a cross in its beak, bearing the steel Romanian crown on its head. The central part shows Saint Great Martyr Dumitru – military saint, protector of the city of Bucharest. The eagle has a silver sword in its right claw and a golden scepter in its left one. The motto accompanying it is My Country and my right.
The souvenir sheet of the postage stamps issue also presents other coats of arms and seals used in the city of Bucharest between 1864 and 1888. The stamp of the souvenir sheet has the face value of Lei 6.00.
