Sea Creatures on Stamps

Singapore has a number of stamp issues with sea creatures on stamps, perhaps due to the nature of Singapore being an island state.

Ever since the early days of 1962 (pre-independence), Singapore already had the definitive series featuring sea horse, hariequin fish and other creatures. One of the stamps in this series, the 4 cents 'six banded bard fish' was later 'overprinted' in 1981 to become a 10cents stamp. Both stamps are shown below, and can you spot the overprint?

In 1977, there was another definitive series on marine life, but there wasn't any fishes and the series was about shell creatures instead. There was the 1 cent Lyrate cockle, 15 cents scorpion conch, the 75 cents Troschel Murex (pic below), and others.

In 1989 Singapore was back to featuring fishes, but with a limited set of 4 fishes of 15 cents Clown Triggerfish, 30 cents Majestic Angelfish, 75 cents Emperor Angelfish, and Royal Empress Angelfish. I know not all the fishes belong to the saltwater family but well, at least there is the clown triggerfish! After that the crabs clawed into the pictures in 1992 with 4 crabs; 20 cents Mosaic, 50 cents Johnson's freshwater, 75 cents Singapore freshwater, and $1 Swamp Forest crab. These series are all non-definitive.

The next definitive series with marine creatures was in 1994, featuring corals and reef life. There was 12 stamps in the series from 5 cents cowrie (pic below) to the $10 Octopus coral.

There was fishes again, and this time round the fishes were all marine fish. The series is the 1995 Marine Fish series of 4 stamps, bearing the Local Post Yellow-faced Angelfish (the designers like Angelfishes for some reason), 60 cents Harlequin Sweetlips, 70 cents Lionfish, and $1 Longfin Bannerfish. After the fishes Singapore was back to shell life in 1997. I think they alternate between fishes and non-fishes when featuring the water creatures. The 1997 series had 4 stamps on the different shells; Local 22 cents Drupa morum Roding, 35 cents Nerita chamaeleon, 50 cents Littoraria melanostoma, and $1 Cryptospira elegans.

1 fish (local postage Archer Fish) and 1 crab ($1 orange fiddler) were featured in the 2000 wetland wildlife series but the other 2 creatures were a bird and an otter.

Then we are back to definitive series in 2001 with a number of different marine fishes, including 5 cents moorish idol, 30 cents perlscale, and 80 cents palette tang fish. This set is a bit peculiar because the entire set was not released at a single date. Parhaps it was because of changing postage rates that caused the peculiarities. For example, this 31 cents butterfly fish was released only in 2004, for the second tier of local postage.

Then after the fishes and shell life, Singapore has a set of stamps on 4 dolphins in March 2006, followed by the Shores and reef series of 4 stamps in 2007. Once I have more pictures of these stamps, I will add them.

SingPost Magnet Stamps - 8th March 2000

Wonder if anyone still remembers the series of fridge magnets with SingPost stamps as the pictures? Here's a picture of one of them.

The series is the 8th March 2000 "Postal Landmarks" comprising of 4 stamps: NVI, $0.60, $1 and $2. There are also Miniature Sheet and Presentation Pack.

Personally I think it is a smart idea that SingPost released the fridge magnets. Thus whenever anyone passes by the fridge, they will see the SingPost stamps and remembers SingPost. Good prolong advertising strategy!

First Beaded Stamp in the World

In April 08, SingPost launched the first beaded stamp in the world to commemorate the opening of the Singapore Peranakan Museum. The beads are 'caviar beads' which are hand / manually pasted onto the stamps. Here's a picture of the 'collector's sheet' which is in the shape of a pouch with a $5 stamp.

Overall it is quite a unique set. There are two different designs for the four denominations (i.e. total 8 different stamps) - 26 cents, 32 cents, 65 cents and S$1.10. SingPost has also received an award from the Heritage Board at the same time when this set of stamps was publicly released.

Singapore Stamps & Philately Related Clubs / Societies

I've always wonder why the Singapore stamps & Philately related clubs / societies do not have a web presence. I did a simple search and all I get is some real physical addresses of these clubs. Guess it is a basic philosophy of real world letter / stamp based communities not touching the electronic communications tools?

Nonetheless here's the list of the clubs / societies that I could find. If you know of other such societies in Singapore, just let me know and I can add to the list. This list is also somewhat weird in the sense that many of the addresses do not appear permanent. If you have their web addresses that would be even more ideal!

• Association Of Singapore Philatelic - Jurong Point Post Office, P.O.Box 492. Singapore 916417. DID : 65-6261-2421 & Fax : 65-6266-2750.

• Kreta Ayer Stamp Society - Blk 4 #03-115 Sago Lane, Singapore 050004.

• Singapore Stamp - c/o Singapore Philatelic Museum (SPM), 23-B Coleman Street Singapore 179807. DID: 6337 3888.
  

• Singapore Philatelic Society - SPM (see above)
  

• Zui Yui Stamp Club - c/o 14 Moonstone Lane, Singapore 328456
  

Singapore '95 Orchids Theme

The theme selected for the World Stamp Exhibition '95 was Orchids. A series of 5 sets of the orchids stamp and miniature sheets was launched. The orchids and background for the sheets are as follow:

• Vanda Miss Joaquim & Dendrobium - Singapore Botanic Gardens
• Dendrobium Sharifah Fatimah & Phalaenopsis Shim Beauty - Singapore Skyline
• Vanda Sumatrana & Phalaenopsis Ambabilis - architectural scene of 1920s
• Paphiopedilum victoria-regina & Dendrobium smillieae - local fruits
• Vanda Marlie Dolera & Vanda limbata - illustrated impression of Singapore Zoo

There is another variation of the 5th set with Sentosa attractions as the background. This variant has two more sub-variants, and the sub-variants have serial numbers since they are limited runs.

These stamps and minisature sheets were designed by Mr Chua Ban Har. I have one of the sets (should have another one, but it is somewhere lost in the albums).

Orchids stamps are nothing new to Singapore, since orchids is the national flower (Vanda Miss Joaquim to be exact). At the tourists attraction shops, we could find many of these flowers immortalised in resins. Since 1962, Singapore already has stamps featuring orchids (see below).

Singapore World Stamp Exhibition 1995

Other than the World Stamp Championship 2004, Singapore had also hosted the World Stamp Exhibition 1995. It was a grand event, with the then President of Singapore (Mr Ong Teng Cheong) as the Patron, and supported by Federation of International Philately and Federation of Inter-Asian Philately. International judges (aka jury) were invited, and many outstanding exhibitions (over 3,300 frames) were displayed. Exhibitions included the recorded 'by accident' use of Penny Black prior to 6 May 1840 (David Feldman) and also 'Straits Settlements" Judicial and Revenue stamps (Koh Seow Chuan).

The event was held in Suntec City from 1 to 10 Sep 1995. Other than the exhibitions, there were other interesting events for the visitors, like "Traditional Trade" demonstrations showing works of Chinese Calligrapher, Indian garland maker, and Malay Batik painter. Another interesting event was the stamp perforating demonstrations that were performed hourly. Of course, we had the usual seminars on postal history, youth philately...etc. It was a free event, and well attended by many visitors.

The stamp theme for the event was Orchids and there was a different cancellation for each day of the event. Would cover more of the Orchids theme and other event news later.

Here's the list of the datestamp cancellations, and slogan die cancellations:

• 1 Sep 05 - Singapore '95 Day
• 2 Sep 95 - Thematic Philately Day
• 3 Sep 05 - Stamp Collecting Day
• 4 Sep 05 - Singapore Post Day
• 5 Sep 05 - Philatelic Museum Day
• 6 Sep 05 - Olympic Day - Youth
• 7 Sep 05 - Letter Writing Day
• 8 Sep 05 - Awards Day
• 9 Sep 05 - F.I.A.P. Day
• 10 Sep 05 - F.I.P. Day

IOC & Singapore Stamps (2004 & 2005)

With all the fervor about coming Olympics in Beijing, I can't help but notice that Singapore stamps too have some parts to play in the IOC history.

In Prix Olympia 2004, SingPost won the award for the most original stamp issued for the Athens 2004 Olympics Summer Games (see page 2 of this document). The stamps are shown below, and there is a short write-up accompanying the stamps in the 2004 yearbook. The award was presented by the IOC to SingPost during the 2005 session.

In 2005 we have the stamps series on the 117th IOC (International Olympic Committee) itself. Personally I prefer the 2004 design to the 2005 ones. The 2005 ones look a bit commercial somehow. Well, wonder if there will be stamps design for the 2008 Olympics, and also the Youth Olympics in 2010? Should have I would think. Let's hope the designs are good.