World Population Day Stamp - 1974

Singapore has just experienced a 'watershed' General Election and many voters have commented about the government policies. Thus I think it is timely to show this stamp that reflected one of the much talked about policy of the Singapore government in its yester-years.

The stamp was issued in August 1974 (if I am not wrong the date is 9th August, our national day). There were 3 stamps (10 cents, 35 cents and 75 cents) and two of them bear this message 'Plan Your Family Small' at the top of the stamp). This was a commemorative issue for the World Population Year.

It was the national policy to control the population back then. Families were encouraged to keep their size small, and two children per family was preferred.

This of course is starkly different from the situation today, where the government is giving out major bonus to families in order to maintain or grow the population. The declining birth rate is used as a justification for the much discussed immigration policy.

What a remarkable change in a span of 26 years!

Singapore Stamps: Anniversaries & Milestones

I came across the book "Singapore Stamps: Anniversaries & Milestones" and found it to be a good read. The authors (Tan Wee Kiat, Ivan Chew and Ong Yew Ghee) have taken pain to research and compile the many stories behind the diferent stamps issues.

Some stories had me taking another look at some stamps in my own collection. For example, the authors highlighted that the design of the 1969 issue on Public Housing has a 100,000 homes in the form of a '1' and many '0's stacked like a HDB flat.

There are many other books in this series of Singapore stamps, and the books are available from the library for those who want to take a quick look.

King George VI & Queen Elizabeth II

The stamps of Straits Settlement period have always offered little tidbits of history which I would not have known if not for my interest in the stamps.

One such example would be the year of death for King George VI and the subsequent coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Due to this event, the stamps for Penang & Malacca has to be changed. In the photo below, it could be seen that the King George VI portray had been replaced with Queen Elizabeth II's portray.

Other than Penang and Malacca, Singapore also used the King George VI stamps up to 1952. I wonder why I couldn't find any Queen Elizabeth II stamps for Singapore post 1952. Perhaps my collection is quite lacking in this area.

Stamps 'Error' - Royal Wedding Stamps from NZ

There are stamps errors, which are often overlooked at either the design stage (e.g. wrong facts) or the printing stage (e.g. missing colours). Most recently there is a stamp 'error' that is due to a lack of thought at the design stage, and that is the New Zealand Post's commemorative Royal Wedding stamp.

The 'error' is that the stamp perforation for this se-tenant pair is right in the middle, which split the royal couple into individuals, individual stamps that is. If it is done by the Brits, I'm sure they would have been a lot more careful.

I'm sure the couple is not happy with such a design, but oh well, who cares. I'm sure the stamp collectors will be keeping this issue, especially in light of such an 'error' story behind the design.

Stamps from Tokyo - PhilaNippon 2011 & Hello Kitty

During a recent trip to Japan Tokyo, I dropped by the Shinjuku Post Office or a visit. Of course, there is a philately corner with plenty of interesting stamps that attracted my attention (and some of my Japanese yen as well).

I bought a few sets of Japanese stamps, including a set about the Year of the Rabbit, a Hello Kitty Four Seasons set, and a PhilaNippon 2011 set. For the Japanese, there are a number of significant anime / manga characters such that these characters are featured in the stamps. Hello Kitty, Pokemon, Doraemon and Astro Boy. It is also amazing that the Hello Kitty craze seems to be never ending for the Japanese, judging from the nicely designed Hello Kitty set.

Before the visit, I didn't know that the Japanese are organsing the PhilaNippon 2011 this year. Well, I guess we will see more of these interesting sets when they are released for this major event.

Ziplock Bag as an Envelope

I've seen many different types of envelopes but I was still surprised when I received this corporate gift in an envelope that is actually a ziplock bag!


I guess this choice of an 'envelope paper' is in sync with the corporate gift's message of 'keeping your ideas fresh'. Very innovative.

Wonder how did they manage to persuade SingPost to accept this ziplock bag as an envelope for mail processing. Hmm.

Stamps Dispensing Machine - Unfriendly Quantum

I ran out of postage for local mail and decided to buy some via SingPost's stamps dispensing machine. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed at the lack of payment options when the machine displayed a message that I could only pay via NETS.

The trouble with such a payment is that the minimum payment quantum is $2. Thus I have no choice but to buy 8 stamps ($0.26 each) one shot. Makes me wonder why SingPost couldn't explore working with EZ Link cards, where surely the minimum quantum of payment can be lower. Afterall, we use EZ Link cards for bus fare payment, which has range of fares as low as $0.71.

Oh well, let me try to be positive, and perhaps take the view that now I have some more frama stamps of a new design. :) The 'Destination Singapore' tagline has a certain touristy feel somehow.