Liechtenstein – The 23rd Winter Olympics will be held in the city of Pyeongchang in South Korea from 9 to 25 February 2018. After the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, these are the second Olympic Games to be held in South Korea. Following two previously unsuccessful attempts in 2010 and 2014, this was Pyeongchang’s third go at being nominated to host the Olympic Games. With over fifty million inhabitants, South Korea is one of the most densely urbanised and thirty most populous countries of the world.
The Philately once again commissioned an artist from the host country to design the traditional Olympic stamps showing the motifs “Nordic Skiing” (face value: CHF 1.70) and “Alpine Skiing” (face value: CHF: 2.00). The Korean woman Sojung Kim-McCarthy, who meanwhile lives in Bournemouth, England, portrayed one athlete each from the two sports disciplines in a typical racing pose on the stamp and made the design appear particularly dynamic by adding colourful highlights. The face values of the special stamps appearing on a 20-stamp sheet reflect the overseas postage rates for A and B letter post to the host country.