Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH Post) 2008 "Shells from Tuzla"

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Issue Date	01.09.2008
ID	Michel: 531, Scott: 632, Stanley Gibbons: 946, Yvert et Tellier: 607, Category: pR
Designer	Radmir Zilic
Stamps in set	1
Value	BAM1.50 - fossil shell Turritella turris from city of Tuzla
Emission/Type	commemorative
Issue place	Tuzla
Size (width x height)	42mm x35 mm
Layout	8 stamps in mini-sheet with one tab in the middle
Products	FDC x1, MS x1
Paper
Perforation	13,25 x 14
Print Technique	Offset multicolor
Printed by	CPU B&H
Quantity	30,000
Issuing Authority	Entreprise Publique La Poste de BH Bosnia and Herzegovina Federal authority

On September 1^st 2008, the Post Authority Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH Post), issued the stamp "Shells from Tuzla". The shows a fossilized shell of the gastropod Turritella turris.
The text below was written by Dr. Sejfudin Vrabac, professor of geology of the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Civil Engineering of the Tuzla University for the Bosnian Post in 2008.

Shell of gastropod Turritella turis on stamp with tab of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2008, from the middle of the Mini-Sheet

The Pannonian Sea is popular name for a part of the Parathetys which covered areas of today's Pannonian lowlands during Miocene era. This sea flooded the areas of Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
One of the most important sedimentary areas within Pannonian Sea was the Tuzla Basin. Here, sea sedimentation started before about 16 million years and ended before 5 million years. In these 11 million years, sediments thick around 300 meters were left in the Tuzla area, including deposits of rock salt and coal. Therefore, Tuzla is a unique town in the world, considering that in the geologically short time in the town area, in the Pannonian sea two minerals sediments were left, with the deposits that require rather different conditions to be created.
Rock salt had a decisive influence on the development of Tuzla. The name of this town changed as well as it rulers, but they always denoted the salt: Catron de Salenas, Ad Salinas, Salenas, Solina, Soli, Memlehatejn, Memleha-I-zir, Tuz....Tuzla.
Salt lake "Pannonica" (Latin Pannonicus - Pannonian) has been built in Tuzla in remembrance of the Pannonian Sea. Adding of cascades to the lake in underway, as well as building of the geological museum of Pannonian Sea. In the museum, fossils are exhibited, beside other things, proving that the Pannonian Sea used to be in the Tuzla area.

One of these fossils is Turritella turris Basterot represented on the postal stamp. This gastropod lived in the "sublithoral" in the depth of 70 meters. It is a "stenohalin" species that lived in the Pannonian Sea of Tuzla during Badenian time (16 to 13 milion years ago) when sea salinity was between 30 and 40 pairs mils. The fossil was named Turritella turis due to the fact that with its turbospiral morphology the fossil resembles the tower. (Lat. Turristower).

Products and associated philatelic items

FDC	Mini-Sheet	Example of circulated covers
First-Day-of-Issue Postmark

References

Bosnian Post, Information card

Acknowledgements

• Many thanks to fellow stamp collector Zeljko Vasilik from Croatia, for his help finding information about these stamps.
• Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for his help to find an information for this article, the draft page review and his very valuable comments.

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