Sunday 4 October 2015

PERU ( República del Perú / Piruw Republika / Piruw Suyu


Peru (Spanish: Perú / Quechua: Piruw Republika /Aymara: Piruw Suyu), officially the Republic of Peru (Spanish: República del Perú ), is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the west by the Pacific Ocean. Peru is a megadiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains vertically extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon Basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon river. At 1.28 million km2 (0.5 million mi2), Peru is the 19th largest country in the world, and the third largest in South America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a viceroyalty that encompassed most of its South American territories, with its capital in Lima. Peru formally proclaimed independence in 1821, and following the foreign military campaigns of José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar, and the decisive battle of Ayacucho, Peru completed its independence in 1824. In the ensuing years, the country enjoyed relative economic and political stability, which ended shortly before the War of the Pacific (1879-1884) with Chile.

Because of its varied geography and climate, Peru has a high biodiversity with 21,462 species of plants and animals reported as of 2003, 5,855 of them endemic, and is one of the megadiverse countries. Peru has over 1,800 species of birds (120 endemic), and 500 species of mammals and over 300 species of reptiles. The hundreds of mammals include rare species like the puma, jaguar and spectacled bear. The Birds of Peru produce large amounts of guano, an economically important export. The Pacific holds large quantities of sea bass, flounder, anchovies, tuna, crustaceans, and shellfish, and is home to many sharks, sperm whales, and whales. Peru also has an equally diverse flora. The coastal deserts produce little more than cacti, apart from hilly fog oases and river valleys that contain unique plant life. The Highlands above the tree-line known as puna is home to bushes, cactus, drought-resistant plants such as ichu, and the largest species of bromeliad – the spectacular Puya raimondii. The cloud-forest slopes of the Andes sustain moss, orchids, and bromeliads, and the Amazon rainforest is known for its variety of trees and canopy plants.

Peru began using lithographed stamps in 1857 that initially were provided by the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. Most copies of Peru's PSNC stamps in circulation are forgeries. Around 1860 Peru acquired a French-made device (the so-called "Lecoq" press) that was used to print, emboss and cut imperforate stamps from paper strips. The commemorative stamp illustrated to the right was one of the last Peru produced on this rare machine. For a catalogue used by collectors to classify early Peruvian (imperforate) stamps by their cancellations, see Lamy (and Rinck).
The cover sent on August 19, 2015 and I received on September 11 , 2015. Peru issues very beautiful stamps every year but limited number. their flora and fauna stamps are very popular and rare too.

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