Postboxes from London & Stockholm

I was away for a work trip in London and Stockholm, and I took some pictures of their post boxes. The London postbox looks historical, i.e. like those postboxes from the colonial era. I think Singapore no longer has such red tubular postboxes, except for the one outside the Philatelic Museum. Posting personal letters from such historical looking postboxes should be fun. The postboxes from Stockholm look a lot more modern and fancy.

London Postbox with details about posting timing

Stockholm Postbox - Outside the Central Train Station

I didn't have much time for any philatelic related visits, partly because my work meeting timings were pretty tight. There is this Post Museum in Stockholm which looks interesting, and given time I would have pay a visit. Nonetheless I've sent some post cards back home, and once they reached I could post the pictures of them on the blog.

Cinema Theatres of Yesteryear Stamps - Cathay, Majestic, Capitol, Queens, & Rex

I read in the Zaobao Weekly that SingPost is releasing a set of 'Cinema Theatres of Yesteryear' stamps featuring the old cinemas of Cathay, The Majestic, Capitol Building, Queens, and Rex cinemas. The details about the stamp release (First Day Cover $4.65, and presentation pack costs $5.60) could be found in the SingPost pdf file. The SingPost writeup has some interesting historical details about these 5 cinemas.

According to the papers, the launch of this 'Cinema Theatres of Yesteryear' will be accompanied by an exhibition of Singapore's cinematic materials (my own translation from Chinese to English, thus please forgive any errors) from 20th March to 22nd March at The Cathay Gallery located at 2 Handy Road, #02-16 The Cathay (located near Dhoby Ghaut MRT). The First Day Cover, presentation packs... etc will be on sale at the event.

Those collectors who want to grab the release, mark the date on your calendar!

Postcards - Health Promotion Board ZoCards (set of 12)

We are all familiar with postcards, but this set of pop-up postcards by Health Promotion Board is especially interesting. It seems there is a whole set of 12 cards, but I've managed to obtain only 5 of them.

Each card contains a simple message about health and living. For example the green card in the upper left corner says 'the more we get together' (front), 'the merrier we'll be' (back), with a additonal para of 'Dear ______, you are invited to a) a game of tennies, b) a makan (eating) session, c) a party, d) _______. Make your way to __________.

Very meaningful message isn't it. Imagine receiving this postcard in your letterbox, which serves both as a postcard as well as an invitation. An example of the front and back of another card is shown below.

This is a series launched from April 2008 to March 2009. I noticed that whenever the cards are put on the ZoCards rack, it will be gone within 1-2 days. The card below is the last of the series. I guess it is a pretty popular series. The cards also contain a message to check out 'www.healthymind.sg', the promotional website for Health Promotion Board, and the entire set of cards could be viewed on that website.

Taiwanese Girl Band S.H.E. on Singapore Stamps?

When I first heard the news that the Taiwanese girl band S.H.E. will be featured on Singapore stamps, I thought it must be a joke. Later I found the news on Straits Times, dated 21 February 2009, so I guess that must be true to some extent. Quotes from the article:

Taiwanese girl band S.H.E's management are either shrewd or behind the times, depending on what you think of the state of snail mail.

The pop stars' record label has arranged for them to appear on local stamps.

S.H.E, consisting of Ella Chen, 28, Hebe Tien, 26, and Selina Jen, 28, are the first foreign artists to be featured on Singapore stamps.

I have always thought that the celebrities i.e. artists / actors...etc should not be featured on stamps until well, certain 'anniversaries' like the 50th years of Elvis. It is rare for living persons to be featured on stamps actually, unless they are the royalties (e.g. Queens, Kings, and Princes are featured on Royal Mail stamps while they are /were alive).

Oh well, when the actual stamps are published, let us see how the issue is done. Perhaps it's the 'My Stamps' concept where photos of the girl band are printed on 'a seperate tabs' adjunct to the actual postage stamps.

Afternote: I saw the stamps and picture of them could be found at this website, accompanied by more writeup about the S.H.E. stamp release.

'UOB' Cancellation on 1962 25cents definitive

Among the different stamps, I found this 1962 25 cents fish definitive with a cancellation of 'UOB Singapore' on it. Curiously I wonder what is this cancellation for. I understand some stamps have perforations within the bodies of the stamps, i.e. perfins with small holes in the stamps, because in the older days, stamps were a high value commodity and companies add perforations to prevent theft.

However, this 'UOB Singapore' cancellation on a 1962 definitive surely cannot be a perfins? UOB as a bank existed since the 1930s, while Singapore as a soverign country existed from August 1965. Moreover, the bank adopted the 'UOB' as its name only in 1965 (See article). So the 'UOB Singapore' cancellation on a 1962 may not make much sense, perhaps it is a 'cancellation' for other purposes? Anyone with any clue let me know ok?

Singapore's Submarine Cables & Stamps

Stamps and submarine cables are both tools of communications needed to transfer information around the world. So it is not surprising that Singapore has issued quite a number of stamps (three to be exact) to commemorate the installation of SEA-ME-WE (South East Asia - Middle East - West Europe) cables. Some of the stamps are shown below. These sets are attractive because they are the rare 'circular' stamps issued, compared to the traditional square / rectangular ones. The different sets are similar, but note the boldfaced white lines denoting the cables.

Due to the nature of such international communications tools, the installation of cables is celebrated not just by Singapore, but also by the other partners linked by the submarine cables. The last stamp in this picture below is by a middle-east country. So these are actually international events commemorated by different countries.

Other than the three sets of stamps, the events are captured when a set of 'Stamps in stamps' were issued for the BangKok International Stamp Exhibition 1983.

I'm not aware if there are other submarine cables events captured by stamps in Singapore. Going forward, I don't think there would be any more such events captured by stamps, since submarine cables installations are no longer special events in light of the wide networks of such cables around the world.

Year of the Ox - Stamps & Hongbao Packets

SingPost is welcoming the Year of the Ox with their set of OX-picious Zodiac Stamp (auspicious!) with 2 x free hongbao packets. Similar to the previous Rat stamp release, there is a 'double' image of the other two immediate Chinese Zodiac signs in the Ox stamps, one of the Rat (the animal before the Ox) and one of the Tiger (the animal after the Ox). Take a look at the news release from SingPost about this issue, which also contains other details like prices, denominations of the stamps ...etc.

Here's a picture of the stamps and the hongbaos. I think the hongbaos giveaway is a smart idea of promoting the stamps.