1990 Tourism Definitive Stamps - High Values

The 1990 definitive series featured a series of tourism related stamps. There are stamps with the zoo, Sentosa, Jurong Bird Park etc for the lower value denomination stamps.

The 4 high value denomination stamps featured the four races instead.

These stamps are:

- $1 Chinese Opera Singer
- $2 Malay Dancer
- $5 Indian Dancer
- $10 Ballet Dancer (Eurasian)

In the background of the stamps there are also four buildings but I recognised only two of them, i.e. the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple at Little India for Indian Dancer, and the Victoria Concert Hall for the Ballet Dancer. I thought the mosque was the Sultan Mosque, but the drawing does not matched up somehow. I am clueless about the Chinese Arch. Anyone can help?

P.S.: Thanks Yesterday.sg for helping me about the two buildings.

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.