Singapore related stories in the Stamp Magazine

When I read through magazines like 'Stamp Magazine', I realised that there is a considerable amount of interest in Singapore's philately development. Part of the reason is our colonial heritage, where the British and Commonwealth collectors would be interested in each area's philately development.

The interest exhibited by the journalists covered both recent stamps issues as well as old Straits Settlement era items. For example the first beaded stamp issue attracted quite some attention. By the way, the item shown in the picture below is now fetching $68, and it originally cost only $8 (last year)!

Here's another two articles from Stamps Magazine, touching on the Straits Settlement era stories. Frankly I don't see how people of the early nineteen century would have enough money to keep a $500 postage stamp. So the stamp on the bottom left is rare indeed, and likely used more of revenue accounting purpose.

Occasionally one picked up snippets of historical development, e.g. Malayan Postage Union's Postage Due ceased to be in circulation in 1968, 3 years after Singapore gained independence. So one would expect to see these postage due stamps on letters between 1965 to 1968 then. What is also interesting is the story of how there is only 32 mint specimens left. These snippets of philately related development added much colour and fun to stamp collecting.

When you pass by our libraries, take a look at these stamp magazines and you may find other interesting stories inside.

Postcards from Thailand, London, Stockholm, and Berne

I have cultivated a habit such that I will send myself a postcard whenever I travel overseas. Over the years I have collected a number of these cards from Europe and Asia. I guess they served as mementos from the travel, with date and stamp attached.

Here's a few of the postcards from London, Berne, and Stockholm. The Christmas theme postcard (upper right corner) is shiny when under the right light conditions, and the postcard from London (left) depicting a postal activity is actually quite funny.

The back of the postcards, with the cancellations and stamps attached.

One of the countries that I frequent more often is Thailand for both work (mostly) and leisure reasons, and so I have three of the postcards. Sometimes I will use the free postcard available from the hotels, but at other times I simply buy an interesting looking card from the shops.

Postcards are interesting, and I think recent years there seems to be more interests surrounding postcards, e.g. post-crossing and such. I think that is partly due to the casual networking associated with such a postcard, with relevant pictures depicting the cities, that make them interesting.

SingPost's MyStamp - Hello Kitty & The Stars

I was walking past the post office at night and saw these cute displays at the glass windows. It seems SingPost has recently release the Hello Kitty and The Stars MyStamp Collection to celebrate Hello Kitty’s 35th anniversary. These stamps are released from 18 Mar 2009 and here is a picture of the cute looking stamps.

The set is selling at $68.00 with the 12 horoscopes in sheets and encased in a hard album. There is also the pop up effect for the centre page as shown below. The set up is clearly targetting at kids or Hello Kitty fans.

Collectors can also buy the Hello Kitty MyHoroscope MyStamp in a single sheet featuring one horoscope at $5 or a complete set of single sheets of 12 horoscopes at $60. SingPost has also thrown in a special Hello Kitty 4GB USB thumbdrive that I understand is a limited colelction item, and it will only be available from 30 Mar 2009.

I guess it is pretty clear this release is targetted at niche audience, and possibly non-stamps collectors? Personally I think the cuteness of these pictures does not really match with the stamp collecting theme and look somewhat too commercial. It reminded me of the Hello Kitty toys craze some years ago where people queued overnight to buy Hello Kitty soft toys from MacDonald. Oh well, different people collect stamps for different reasons.

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.