BARCELONA'92 OLYMPIC SERIES

The Postal Administration has featured the Barcelona Olympic year in three series, a continuation of the pre-Olympic series released as a preview of the Games. The first series, now put into circulation, is made up of three items reproducing in symbol form, in the current stamp design line, motifs very closely related to the Olympics: The Torch; Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, who bestows her laurels only upon the winners; and with them, a cute little fellow, their faithful companion and mascot COBI, the Catalan cousin of Seville´s CURRO. With Madrid, the Capital of European Culture between the two trace a stamp diagonal across Spain, in an unrepeatable year for stamp collectors.

The Torch announced that the Games were to begin, a message of peace for the Hellenic peoples, at permanent war with their neighbors. The modern version of the Torch flamed into life at the Altis, the temple of Zeus son of Cranus, who marked the passage of time, and in 1936 it reached Berlin, which already augured war. Now, half by land, half by sea, the Olympic flame has reached Spain and is traveling through the regions of Spain as a symbol of unity and peace.

The winged Victory that Zeus held in one hand presiding over the front of his temple, probably carved by the chisel of Phidias, is transformed on the stamp into the joyful expression on the athlete's face upon winning both the traditional laurel and the medals, a modern reminder of the marble statues and plaques which perpetuated in Olympia the effigies of winners who had tasted more than one victory.

COBI is here as guest athlete, adding a note of humor and contributing greatly to collecting the necessary funds to help finance a sporting event of this magnitude. He has certainly won his place on this stamp, which makes him part of the philatelic history of the Games.

The blend of humanism and divinity which has always accompanied the Olympics will resurge in Barcelona, twinning the Hill of Cronus in Olympia, protector of temples and tracks, with Monserrat, the watcher over these Olympics: Zeus, the Moreneta and the competitors; the true Olympic spirit depicted on stamps.