The USA-based philatelic agents, Philatelic Collector Inc., has announced that it is issuing a number of free-form stamps to commemorate the Lunar New Year in the names of its client territories, Tonga, Cook Islands and Samoa. In addition there is to be a "3-Dimensional" issue from Tonga which can be folded up into "boxes" and hung up as a decoration (as shown above). The issues are:-
Tonga - 5 January 2015 - Year of The Sheep - 1 x $8 stamp and 1 x $27.20 "3-D" miniature sheet. Designed by Sophia Zhang (3-D sheet) and Shaohua Chen:-
Tonga Niuafo'ou - 5 January 2015 - Year of The Ram - 1 x $8 miniature sheet. Designed by Sophia Zhang and lithographed by BDT International. The total face value of the Tongan issues is $43.20 or £28.57p:-
Cook Islands - 5 January 2014 - Year of The Sheep - 1 x NZ$ 7.90 miniature sheet. Designed by Sophia Zhang and lithographed by BDT:-
Aitutaki Cook Islands - 5 January 2015 - Year of The Sheep - 1 x NZ$7.90 miniature sheet. Designed by Sophia Zhang and lithographed by BDT:-
Penrhyn Cook Islands - 5 January 2015 - Year of The Sheep - 1 x NZ7.90 miniature sheet. Designed by Sophia Zhang and lithographed by BDT International. The total face value of the Cook Islands issues is NZ$23.70 or £12.15p:-
Samoa - 5 January 2015 - Year of The Sheep - 1 x $12.10 miniature sheet. Designed by Sophia Zhang and lithographed by BDT International. The total face value of the Samoa issue is $12.10 or £3.27p
Anyone wishing to buy the complete set of Philatelic Collector Inc. Year of The Sheep issues will therefore find that the total of the local face values is £43.99p. I suppose these are original, colourful and attractive philatelic products but I wonder how many of them will ever find their way on to an item of local mail especially the 3-D stamps. Not many I shouldn't think. Then again, as demonstrated in Blog 500, very few Royal Mail commemoratives ever find their way on to commercial mail either.
The 3D stamp is amazing. I had never seen something like that!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. You are quite right, this, as far as I know, is the first time that such a philatelic product has been issued.
DeleteI have to agree the 3D stamp is quite an outstanding concept. Not to mention the other souvenir sheets, they all look very appealing. Thumbs up from me!
ReplyDeleteDear Garrett, thank you for your comment. There's no doubt that these designs are innovative, colourful and seem to be well produced.
ReplyDeletegorgeous photos and interesting post! A bit pricey for my budget but I'm glad I could see these stamps, so thanks!
ReplyDeleteOverpriced rubbish that has nothing to do with the islands, overpriced high face values of NO relevance to these splaces, you can not even buy these stamps in their post offices. PC or what ever LAZARstein calls himself needs to go and get an honest job.
ReplyDeleteDear Bearhunter, thank you for expressing your forthright opinion on these philatelic products. I am sure that you will understand that I must disassociate myself from your last sentence in particular. My personal feeling about these items is that they are indeed unnecessarily expensive and wholly irrelevant to the countries whose names are printed in them. I do not know whether they are freely available in post offices in the various territories. I have certainly NOT included them in my own collection. However there is no doubt that they are very appealing to some collectors and hopefully those who buy them understand the nature of such issues and spend their money on them in the full knowledge of what they are buying.
ReplyDelete