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# Math and France stamps

By on 15/02/2016

In this article we present the stamps that France has produced with mathematical theme.

Jean Le Rond d’Alembert

This stamp was issued in France in 1959 as part of the set “Celebrities”. An additional tax was charged for supporting the French Red Cross.

André Marie Ampère

This stamp was issued in France in 1949 at the occasion of the International Telegraph and Telephone Conference. Beside A. M. Ampère it also shows F. Arago.

Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina (Avicenna)

This stamp was issued in France in 2005. Below the portrait one sees the name in its French variant as well the years of his life.

Augustin-Louis Cauchy

This stamp with a portrait of the mathematician Augustin Cauchy (1789 – 1857) was issued in France at the occasion of 200th anniversary of his birth.
Above on the right Cauchy’s integral formula for holomorphic functions ist given. On the left the graph of the function y: [-1,1] → IR mapping x on $$x^2$$ is shown, simply labeled by $$y = x^2$$. But also the rectangles forming the lower Riemann sum for the meshwidth 0.1 are presented. Moreover the integral over the function y is given by 2/3. Another diagram on the right completes the ensemble.

René Descartes

This stamp shows a portrait of the mathematician René Descartes (1596 – 1650) but also pages from his book “Discours sur la méthode 1637” on the left and two more books on the right with the titles “Traité de l’homme” und “Géométrie”. The stamp was issued in France at the occasion of 300th anniversary of the publication of the “Discours”.

The title was then corrected to “Discours de la méthode 1637” for another edition of the stamp.

René Descartes

This stamp with a portrait of the mathematician René Descartes (1596 – 1650) was issued in France at the occasion of 400th anniversary of his birth.

Pierre de Fermat

This stamp was issued by the French post service at the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the birth of the mathematician Pierre de Fermat (1601 – 1665). To the left of his portrait one sees the formula with Fermat’s conjecture. Below this Fermat’s conjecture is formulated in French:

$$x^n+y^n=z^n$$
has no solution for the integers n>2

Due to the fact that this stamp was issued almost one year before introducing the currency Euro the nominal value is provided with unit Francs (FRF) as well as Euro.

Evariste Galois

This stamp was issued in France in 1984 as part of the set “Celebrated personages”. The text “Revolutionary and geometer” is assigned to the small portrait, certainly originally in French. An additional tax was charged for supporting the French Red Cross.

Nikolaus Kopernikus

This stamp was issued in France as part of the set “Celebrated strangers” (“Célébrités étrangères”) in 1957.

Nikolaus Kopernikus

This stamp was issued in France in the year 1974, the year after the 500th anniversary of the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus.

Joseph Louis Lagrange

This stamp was issued in France in 1958 as part of the set “French savants” (cf. the stamp with a portrait of U. J. J. Le Verrier).

Pierre Simon Laplace

This stamp was issued in France in 1955 as part of the set “Celebrities”. An additional tax was to be charged for supporting the Red Cross.

Jean Joseph Le Verrier

This stamp was issued in France in 1958 as part of the set “French savants” (cf. the stamp with a portrait of J. L. Lagrange).

Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis

This stamp that shows a portrait of P. L. M. de Maupertuis and mentions his name was issued 250 years after starting the measurements of meridian lengths in Lapland and Peru. The goal of these measurements was to verify that the Earth is not an ideal ball but a disk shaped ellipsoid (oblate ellipsoid of revolution).
On the left on the stamp the portraits of the heads of the expeditions P. L. M. de Maupertuis (Lapland) und C. M. de La Condamine (South America) are shown while on the right a quadrant for measuring angles is presented.

Gaspard Monge
This stamp was issued in France in 1953 as part of the set “Famous Frenchmen”.

Gaspard Monge

This set with 4 stamps was issued in 1990 by the French Post at the occasion of the bicentenary of the French revolution. The upper left stamp shows a portrait of the mathematician G. Monge who hold several high governmental posts.

Isaac Newton

This stamp is part of the set “Famous Europeans” that was issued in France in 1957.

Denis Papin

This stamp was issued by the French Post in the years 1962 as part of the set “1962 – Celebrities”. In the background some inventions of D. Papin are shown.

Blaise Pascal

This stamp was issued in France in 1944 as part of the set “Celebrities of the of the 17thcentury”.

Jules Henri Poincaré

This stamp was issued in France in 1952 as a part of the set “Celebrities of the 19th century”.