{Underneath the Stars.

Friday, December 19, 2008

6:08 PM

20th December 2008 [Saturday] 10am

here's just a short post.

Basically, there are many other ways to collect stamps. For example, in the previous post, I have mentioned that stamps can also come in the form of First Day Covers. In fact they can also be found in other forms.

Souvenir packs are one of the various forms that stamps are sold and collected. Usually in a souvenir pack, they commemorate certain dates or events, like what a first day cover do. But instead of the envelope, buyers often find themselves getting a small booklet or a hard cover 3-fold holder that holds the stamps as well as an elaborate description of the history of whatever event the stamps are commemorating.

Another way of collectings stamps is to buy a set of themed stamps. For example, I am interested in transports so I have several sets of stamps that are related to transports. There is a set of stamps on boats, a set on trains, and another set on airplanes. If you are interested in botany, you could purchase a set of stamps that feature various plant species.

Some stamp collectors also look out for post marks on the stamps. Certain postmarks are very memorable or special. For example, on 8th of August 2008, the some post marks would show 080808, and to chinese people, that group of digits is very auspicious. 070707 would be of equal value to some eurasians.

This concludes my post about other ways to collect stamps.

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Monday, December 1, 2008

10:35 PM

1st December 2008 [Monday] 10:10pm

This is officially the last post to be graded for SIWM. However, I will keep this blog updated as often as i can, partly for my interest in blogging, partly for SIWM class participation marks.

For this week, I will be posting about unique ways to collect stamps. As we all know, there are often more than one way to doing things, and same goes for collecting stamps. Other than the normal way of collecting stamps by cutting the stamps from envelopes, processing them and then placing them in stamp albums (rather time consuming), stamp enthusiasts can also choose the simpler route.

When new series of stamps are first introduced to the consumer market, the philatelic or related organisations usually create a unique item as a momento to commemorate the first day that the new series of stamps are made official. They call those unique items "First-Day Covers". Indeed as the name implies, it marks the first day of issue of a series of new stamps. A first-day cover basically consists of all the available designs of the newly released stamps, affixed onto envelopes with related images printed on them. There are also special issues that are similar to first day covers. However, they often serve the function of promoting the issuing country's cultures and traditions.

Here are some pictures of special issues and souvenir sheets. Namely Figures 1.1 - 1.3.
Figure 1.1

1995 Singapore '95 Daily Souvenir Sheets
Credits go to: http://www.cs.com.sg/1995.htm

Figure 1.2

1997 Transport Definitives - Low Values
Credits go to: http://www.cs.com.sg/1997.htm
Figure 1.3

1997 Transport Definitives - High Values
Credits go to: http://www.cs.com.sg/1997.htm

People commemorate special dates with special items, what happens when a chinese deemed auspicious icon, the dragon, with the millenium year 2000, with the olympic games all come together?

This is the result. (Figures 2.1 to 2.5)

Figure 2.1

2000 Zodiac Series - Dragon
Credits to : http://www.cs.com.sg/2000.htm

Figure 2.2

2000 Zodiac Series - Dragon (GuangZhou)
Credits to : http://www.cs.com.sg/2000.htm

Figure 2.3

2000 Zodiac Series - Dragon (Switzerland)
Credits to : http://www.cs.com.sg/2000.htm

Figure 2.4

2000 Zodiac Series - Dragon (London)
Credits to : http://www.cs.com.sg/2000.htm

Figure 2.5

2000 Games of the XXVII Olympiad
Credits to: http://www.cs.com.sg/2000.htm

(Disclaimer: I do not own these images. They belong to the following website. http://www.cs.com.sg/)
I thank the website and its owner(s) for the valuable images.

First-Day covers and special issues are usually sold at stamp exhibitions worldwide. They are also available at major events such as the locally held World Book Fair. The following are some pictures of the first day covers that i bought at various World Book Fairs held in Singapore's Suntec Convention Centre.

I'll start off with the China First-Day Covers. (Figures 3.1-3.2)

Figure 3.1 & 3.1.a

1996 First Day Cover featuring various major railways in China
(notice the price tag? It is rather memorable to me so i decided not to remove it)
(Keeps track of cost/inflation too)

Figure 3.2

Also 1996 First Day Cover featuring various vehicles in China
(I'm a transport fanatic, I still have another FDC (First Day Cover) on planes in China as well as one on China's War Vehicles, its Army's 70th Anniversary's FDC.)

Next is the millenium year First Day Covers. (Figures 4.1 -

Figure 4.1 & 4.1.a

This is the Singapore Millenium 2000 FDC, Issued on 1st January 2000.
It features the areas of importance in Singapore's growth, namely from left to right,
"Information Technology", "Arts and Culture","Heritage", and "Globalization".
This series was designed by Sylvia S H Tan.

Figure 4.2, 4.2.a & 4.2.b

This is Singapore's Zodiac Series - Dragon FDC.
This First Day Cover was very popular especially amongst chinese who believe that dragons are auspicious beings. Coupled with the rarity of the occurence of a millenium, I believe this FDC was quickly sold out and i was really lucky to have obtained one.
This beautiful masterpiece was designed by Nicodemus Loh Fook Chee.

Figure 4.3, 4.3.a & 4.3.b

This First Day Cover was issued on 23rd April, 1997. It features the Singapore transport system and is considered to be one of my personal favourites. The four modes of public transport featured are (Figure 4.3.a from left to right) "Taxi","Bus","MRT-Mass Rapid Transit", & "LRT-Light Rapid Transit".
This series was designed byDesign Business (S) Pte Ltd.

In addition to the beautiful front of First Day Covers, the back of the envelopes contains detailed information about that particular series of stamps. The details include, but are not limited to, Denominations, Stamp size, Perforation, Printing Process and even the Printer which, for the case of the transportation series, is Joh Enschede Security Printing.
That was all to the First Day Covers. I hope it helped you (all my readers) to understand more about First Day Covers and other unique ways of collecting stamps. Hope all of you enjoyed visiting my blog. Please come back again as my blog will still be updated despite the conclusion of the assignment for SIWM. Thank you.

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