Treskilling Yellow - Again the Most Expensive Stamp

It has been a long while since I last posted anything on this blog. I've done a re-vamp of the blog and decided that the first post shall be a post about the most expensive stamp in the world - the 3 banco Yellow Skilling.

When it was auctioned off at 1996, the price was US$4.5 million! The price now remains unknown, but if we factored in inflation of 5%, it could easily be anything above US$8.9 million now.

The story behind this rare stamp (and most expensive item by weight in this world) is an interesting one. It was found by a young boy who rummaged through his grandmother's items and discovered this odd looking stamp which was different from the rest that he saw at the local dealer. I guess the stamp errors are the ones which fetch interesting prices in world auctions.

I guess that is a good story for any beginners in stamp collecting, i.e. keep an eye lookout for anything odd in the stamps, and there will be rewards.

2009 Collection of Singapore Stamps

2009 is coming to a close today, and I must say it has been a good year so far. We have joint issues with our ASEAN neighbours, and also for APEC event that spans regions. There are also issues of culture interests in sculpture and food (yes food is an important part of local culture).

2010 will look even better from the economic perspective and here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

I think it is somewhat meaningful to close off 2009 with pictures of the '2009 Collection of Singapore Stamps'. Yes the layout of this blog need some re-designing too since the background picture is missing. I will do that in Jan 2010, to mark a new start.

For those who are interested to buy the 2009 Collection, it is selling at the post offices for $54.90, and includes the following:

• Zodiac Series - Ox
• Greetings - Let's Celebrate
• Cinema Theatres of Yesteryear
• Definitives - Flora and Fauna
• SMRT Circle Line
• 150 Years of Singapore Botanic Gardens
• Desserts
• Sculptures
• Countdown to the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games
• Singapore - Philippines Joint Issue - Bridges
• Singapore - Indonesia Joint Issue - Tourist Attractions
• Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2009 Meetings
  

Jose Rizal Philippines Stamp during US Administration

Here's another piece of history of the ASEAN region, where the stamp marks the administration of Philippines by United States. That is part of the fun I had in sorting out old stamps.

I think the person being depicted in the stamp is Jose Rizal, but do correct me if I am wrong. However, I am not sure what the O. B. stands for in this case. It is interesting that the currency used back then was centavds. Is that a smaller unit compared to peso?

State of Singapore Stamp

It is always interesting to see Singapore stamps that were used during the pre-independence days, i.e. before 9th August 1965.

Here's one such stamp, where the 'State of Singapore' stamp (blue stamp on the right) was used together with the Johor stamp. It sort of reminded me that not too long ago this region was still a relatively messy region with its many conflicts.

Anyone knows the 'national day' of the 'State of Singapore'? That date is not 9th August, but 3rd June, i.e. when Singapore was one of the many states of the Federation of Malaya.

 

See related:

- 3 June & 9 August - Singapore's National Days on Stamp

贺 - 中国邮票 2007 (China Stamp Album 2007)

I acquired this album (贺 - 中国邮票 2007) sometime back and was tidying it together with the rest of my stamps. It struck me while I was flipping through the pages that the China album has a lot more stamps issues than Singapore mere 10+ issues per year.

It is also interesting to see that countries do go through somewhat similar path in development. The reason I said that is because from this set of Postal Saving Bank of China stamps, I see the Singapore POSB equivalent. Both saving banks started as a branch department of the postal agencies, simply because it was convenient for people to deposit saving money when they conduct their frequent visits to the post office. Given the less frequent travels to the post office, this habit died.

Given the rich cultural history of China, it is no wonder that they have more issues where artists can express their creativity. Of course, the larger population of stamp collectors properly helps a lot too.

Similarly, they have stamps with nation building theme in mind, e.g. this set of stamps commemorate their 17th National Congress. There are a lot more different stamps sets in the Chinese album but I guess a smaller number of stamps issues in Singapore's case properly also help to reduce the cost of stamps collecting, which is important to encourage the take up of stamp collecting as a hobby.

What Happens When You Post a Letter Without Stating Address

I was tidying some stamps pile and envelopes, and came across this envelope that I kept from some time ago. This is a pretty interesting envelope, and gives a good indication of what will happen when you post a letter in Singapore without stating any address.

I am guessing that the cancellation machine will still cancel the stamp, and the envelope will get stuck when the machines try to sort out where to post the letter.

Luckily in this case the envelope has the address of the sender (in this case it's the SPM!), and the letter was sent back, with a mark that says 'Return to Sender Received without address.'

MyStamp - To Fu Set & Competition @ STGCC 09!

I was at the Singapore Toys Games and Comics Convention 2009 when I spotted the SingPost booth. Wondering what could SingPost be doing at the toys / comics convention, I popped by for a look, and surprise surprise - there is a MyStamps To-Fu Competition!

For info: To-Fu Oyako are toys modeled after soy beancurd and thus have cubic heads shaped after the squarish beancurd. They are toys designed by the Japanese designers Devilrobots. Details of the competition can be found here. So the competition is over and we have the different winners' products being displayed at the STGCC 09.

Other than displaying the winners' designs, SingPost has also launched the MyStamps series for To-Fu, complete with the To-Fu toys and also a game board set. The MyStamps is going for $29.90 while the game board set s going for $39.90.

I think this is a good move by SingPost to target the younger generation and promote stamps collecting. It is always good to link stamp collecting with the other hobbies / interests, of the target audience e.g. toys and comics. This is not the first time SingPost tried to link stamps with other toys and comics, and examples of previous attempts include the Hello Kitty collection as well as the DC Superheros MyStamps (2008). Actually SingPost had even launched a MyStamps set for the popular Taiwanese girl band S.H.E. earlier this year.

Guess we will have more of such interesting stamps sets in future from SingPost. :)