Balkan Stamp Collecting On Increase

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      Collecting On Increase               FRITCH, Texas -- Disintegration of former communist Yugoslavia has created a renewed  interest in the past and present stamp, coin and currency issuing entities of Southeast Europe and the Balkans.             Five out of six republics, making up the former <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Yugoslavia, have pulled out of the so-called “People’s Republic of Yugoslavia,” while Serbia until recently, continued using the besmirched name of Yugoslavia. In the spring of2002, Serbia dropped its former name, replacing it with a new name: Union of Serbia and Montenegro. Montenegro, Serbia’s former junior partner, by a large margin opted to end the union with Serbia in a May 21, 2006, referendum, ending a 90-year partnership. Only one autonomous region,   the multi-ethnic Voyvodina in the north, remained under Serbian control, while Albanian-populated Kosova, in southwest, continues its quest for independence.             Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia have issued their own postage stamps and national currency since l991-92.  Montenegro  is  nowalso issuing its own currency, stamps, and coins.            Eck  Spahich, managing editor of the Trumpeter,  stamp and coin journal dealing   with area’s collectibles and history, said NATO’s 1999 air campaign against Serbia in defense of Kosovo’s Albanians,  created a renewed interest in the region by collectors and historians. 

Spahich said Serbia’s extremist elements, headed by their former leader and indicted mass-murderer, Slobodan Milosevich,  used force in each newborn nation, and in Kosovo, to block democratic changes.

             He said the journal, in its 35th year,  currently has readers in 37  different countries. For a recent sample copy of the journal, collectors should send $5 in U.S., Canadian or Australian currency, mint U.S. postage stamps, or 5 international reply coupons to  The Trumpeter, P.O. Box 696, Fritch at Lake Meredith, Texas 79036-0696. E-mail address: <spahich@hotmail.com>.