Friday, October 31, 2008

Penny Blue (1840)


The Penny Blue is an unissued type of postage stamp of Britain. It is from a series of proof impressions which were made at the time Rowland Hill was looking at the new colours which were to be used for the stamps which were to replace the Penny Black and the original 1840 issue of the Two pence Blue.

The decision to change the black stamp to red had already been made, and at the same time the colour of the ink used for the cancellations was to be changed from red to black. Although it had been decided that the two pence value would remain in blue, this was going to be printed using a different ink from that used on the original. (Thus when the stamp was printed it had the addition of white lines added above and below the inscription so that the new printings could be distinguished at a glance).

At the beginning of December 1840, Rowland Hill wished to see what the stamps would look like in the new colours and requested, (in sheet form), examples in the red brown which was to be used for the new one penny stamp as well as two sheets in blue as the choice of colour had not yet been made. The two blues used for the printing were full deep blue and prussian blue.

For the printing of these three sheets, plate 8 constructed for the production of the penny blacks was used. The choice of plates was probably just one of convenience as this plate was already on the presses being used.

Rowland Hill chose the full deep blue colour for the two pence stamp.

Some of the blue stamps made it onto postage but these are extremely rare. What became of the bulk of the 1840 impression is unknown.

Examples printed in the red-brown shade, if they made it onto postage, would be indistinguishable from later printings which were made in this colour as part of the general issue in 1841.

Penny Black (1840)


The Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp of a public postal system, was issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 May 1840, for use from 6 May of that year. Although all London post offices received official issues of the new stamps, other offices throughout the United Kingdom did not, and continued to accept postage payments in cash only for some time. Post offices in some other localities, such as those in the city of Bath, began offering the stamp unofficially after 2 May.

Games of the XXIX Olympiad (2008)


Ordered the following stamps from SingPost. It is to commemorate the Beijing Olympics which starts tonight on 08/08/2008! As you might know, the number 8 is considered auspicious to the chinese as when said in chinese, it sounds like the chinese word for "prosper".

The chinese characters on the 4 stamps show some of Singapore's favorite sports for this olympics namely shooting, badminton, table-tennis and sailing. These are the sports in which Singapore has any chance for bringing a Olympic medal back home.

In the Athens Olympics 2004, paddler Li Jiawei got into the semi-finals but was unable to bring any medal back as she finished fourth.

For badminton, hope is place on Ronald Susilo (Li Jiawei's ex boyfriend).

This year, Lee Wung Yew is also Singapore’s first shooter to qualify for the Games. Two sailors also earned berths for the first time at the Olympics in the 470 men’s and Laser Radial classes.

The nation's hopes are on their shoulders to bring a medal back for Singapore.

Singapore Macau Joint Issue (2008)

Miniature Sheet

Date of Issue: 04 Jul 08
Price : S$4.00Complete set of 8 stamps:

Price = S$3.64


This joint issue set of stamps features the local food fare of both Singapore and Macao respectively. It was launched in conjunction with the Singapore Food Festival (annual event) organised by the Singapore Tourism Board.

For Macao, the food fare shows the claypot rice, grilled cod fish lices, yangzhou fried rice, crispy fried chicken and Carne de Porco a Alentejana (traditional Portuguese cuisine)

For Singapore, the food shown are the Chilli Crab, Roti Prata, Satay, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Laksa.

The designers for these stamps are Thomas Au Man Hou and Carlos Goncalves. The photographer for Singapore Food is Aun Koh.

I believe Aun Koh is the website owner of a food blog called chubby hubby.

An interesting point to note is that both Singapore and Macao have a very high population density. I once read that based on Singapore's population density, we could squeeze the entire world's population into South Africa! But guess what, Macao has an even higher population density than Singapore