Christmas 2012
János (Giovani) Hajnal

Vatican City issued two stamps and a booklet for the 2012 Christmas season that include works by János (Giovani) Hajnal (1913-2010), an artist born in Budapest, Hungary, who worked in Rome after 1948. Stained glass and mosaics constitute most of Hajnal's works, such as the oval window in the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall, windows in the Duomo of Milan, and Roman Churches such as the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the Pontifical Scots College, St. Leo the Great and other churches. From 1977 to 1999 Hajnal designed eight sets of stamps, one set of postal cards, and five aerogrammes for Vatican City. Hajnal's philatelic art is featured in the 3rd Quarter 2011 edition of Vatican Notes. View the article in the reference below. The 200,000 Christmas stamps and 60,000 booklets were issued for 2012. A stained-glass window of the Annunciation is depicted on the €0,60 value. The Nativity of Our Lord appears on the €0,75 stamp. Both were issued in sheets of ten. The Christmas stamp booklet contains four stamps of each value. UFN also released a compact disc, Die Nativity MMXII, a collection of classical and popular Christmas music. Reference: James Hamilton, Vatican Notes, The Philatelic Art of Giovani Hajnal Technical Details: Scott Catalogue - 1513 - 1514a Date Issued - 06 November 2012 Face Value - €0,60, €0,75 Perforations - 13.65x13.77 Printing Process - Offset Printer - Printex (Malta) Max Printed - 200,000

(Source: Vatican Notes, Volume 61, Number 355, pp. 4-6, 2013)