United States returns stolen remains of 70 million year old Tyrannosaurus skeleton Mongolia

Collecting rare artifacts and other historical objects is one of the major hobbies of the rich around the world. But sometimes a costly auction may land a collector into trouble. And this is exactly what happened to a collector who landed up in jail for 17 years and also the remains of very unique and rare skeleton returned to country to which it belonged.

Tyrannosaurus [Photo: My Jurassic Park]

In what is being termed as a rare cultural return, the United States has returned the fossilized remains of a 70 million year old Tyrannosaurus skeleton stolen from the Gobi desert in Mongolia.

The remains which were sold at auction in New York last year for more than a million dollars, the near complete skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus Bataar - a cousin of the better-known T-Rex - is being repatriated at Mongolia's request.

Skeleton of Tyrannosaurus [Photo: Wikimedia Commons]

In the meantime, collector Eric Prokopi pleaded guilty last December to smuggling the remains and faces up to 17 years in jail.

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Save Vanishing Species

The efforts to save endangered and vanishing species under the auspicies of the UN and WWF is a long struggle - but a lot needs to be done to preserve these mightly and beautiful animals and wildlife like African elephants and rhinos, the Blind Indus Dolphin and the near extinct Snow Leopards only to be found in the rugged and extremely inaccessible mountain areas of Pakistan. 

Adding to the efforts of the WWF, the US Postal Service is also joining hands by issuing a new stamp with the theme of Save Vanishing Species around the world. By purchasing these stamps everyone will be contributing to a coalition of great wildlife conservation organizations. 

The stamp itself has a beautiful drawing of an Amur tiger cub created by Nancy Stahl.

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My collection of Air Mail stamps of USA

The US air Mail stamps appeared as early as 1918 with the inauguration of the Washington – Philadelphia – New York air link. A number of stamps were issued between 1918 and 1975 when the domestic air mail finally came to an end. Though, the international air mail continued till 1995.

The earliest stamps that I have of the US Air Mail are in the second row above which were issued in August 1947. The stamp on the top was issued in January 1948 of six cents face value. The set of four stamps in the third row was issued in 1960. The blue air mail stamp in third row on the left was issued in July 1958, while the red stamp in the centre was issued in August 1960, with its variant issued in October 1960. The stamp on the right, Jetliner over Capitol Building was issued on 5th December 1962.

I have more airmail stamps, which were issued subsequently, and will appear as I unfold my stamp album.

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