Sunday, July 20, 2014

Pteranodon Flying Reptile Stamp

Here is a picture of the Pteranodon flying reptile stamp. It was issued in 1965 by the small republic of San Marino (located on the Italian peninsula). It had a value of 3 lire but the country now uses the euro as their currency. The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) website has a 1965 listing of currency rate exchanges. One United States dollar was equivalent to 625 Italian lire. So this stamp was worth about 1/2 American cent in 1965. The stamp was part of collection of nine issued that year.

The Pteranodon existed in the Late Cretaceous Period (100-66 mya). The fossil was named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1876.

San Marino is a very small country located inside of northern Italy. It is about 61 square kilometers in size with a population of about 30,000 people. One of their chief sources of income is tourism. They sell stamps and coins to tourists. More than likely these ancient animal stamps were part that income stream.