The first stamps of Laernu to reach our shores was the Continental issue. Laernu has many parallels with our world and its continents are no exception. From the postmarks on used stamps we see that there is a Meriq, an Afriq, an Arcta, and of a course a Uropa.

The stamps themselves are six in number, but could be considered two sub-sets of three each. The three one Fillis values include little quotes in the design frame and written in some foreign language. Decipher these yourselves. You can find complete sheets of each value, and a mixed sheet of eight stamps. Each of the three stamps shows one of the indigenous Laernuans.
The higher values of 3F, 5F and 7F lack the quotes, but again also show up in a mixed mini-sheet. These show groups of the various peoples, perhaps posing for photographs for the intrepid adventurers from our world

The stamps are of a classic style with complementary two colour printing, one for the frame and one for the central picture. The frame makes use of the the ethnic patterns of Laernu.

There were at least two printings. The original single stamp sheets had thinner paper and a rough matt gum but the later mixed sheets (as shown above) were printed using thicker paper and the stamps had shiny gum. A third print of the single stamp sheets can be identified by the different marginal text, but it is unknown which paper these were printed on.

Imperforate colour tests or trial prints using ungummed paper of this issue exist. The range or extent of these is unknown, and while they cannot be considered stamps, they do give an insight into the evolution of the true stamps.

What to look for with these stamps.

• Se-tenant pairs from the mixed sample sheets
• The stamps from the two printings
• Tete-beche pairs from the same sheets
• Stamps cancelled with the different continental franks
• Any of the trial prints
• and of course the sheets themselves