Straits Settlements Stamps 1885 and 1892 Surcharge

This are 2 Straits Settlements stamps that I bought some time back. Apologise for the lousy scan as it was done through a stock sheet and there was another protective covering inside the stock sheet so the image is not very clear.

The first stamps is an 1885 stamp 3 cents surcharge on 32 cent pale magenta.

The second stamp to the right is an 1892-1894 3 cents surcharged on a 32cents carmine-rose stamp.

Bought both of these stamps off ebay at the price of USD$4.50.

Singapore Stamp - 1980 Fujian Junk

This stamp was issued in 1980 and depicts a Fujian Junk ship. The Fujian Junk is a traditional Chinese ship. In fact, there was a Fujian Junk moored in Philippines that was restored by ship restorer Graeme Morris.

Where To Buy Stamps

There are actually many places that one can buy stamps from in Singapore. If you are simply looking for postage stamps to send your letters, you can simply buy it from any post office or a self-service automated machine (SAM). SAMs are conveniently located all around the island and you can find them in shopping malls or at mrt stations. There is a minimum purchase though so one will have to buy quite a few of the postage labels. The ones sold at SAM are usually the adhesive postage labels and I don't think there is much philatelic interest in them even amongst stamp collectors.

If you are looking to buy the traditional kind of postage stamps for collecting, you can always buy it from Singpost's online store which is called VPost. Just search for the link to philatelic and you will be able to browse and buy a great deal of both local and foreign stamps. Delivery charges are pretty cheap and they usually reach my home in 3 working days.

Another source where I buy stamps from is EBay. I have spent lots of money buying postage stamps from EBay and have always received my stamps on time and in order. The prices are bait more steep compared to the actual prices they were originally sold at as the sellers have to make a profit at the end of the day. You can find tons of stamps on EBay and they include both used as well as mint stamps.

I have also heard that some countries even have a system where you can buy stamps online and then print out the postage stamps to use. Now how cool is that?

Singapore Ship Definitives - 1980 Caravel 50 cents

Lately, I have been scanning the various stamps that I have. When I am free, I upload them onto this blog. It is pretty entertaining just to do so and besides, I think people like reading about stamps too since it is a pretty cool hobby where you basically learn a lot more about the things/history/people that is depicted on the various stamps.

The used stamp below was issued in 1980 and depicts a Caravel which is a kind of boat that was used by the Portugese in their exploration. Their speed and agility made it possible for the Portugese to travel down to India and eventually Asia where the spice trade was pretty profitable. Singapore was part of these cross-roads in the spice trade though I don't recall in my history lessons ever reading that it fell to Portugese or Spanish hands.

So the caravel was really an important invention and it did have an impact on the spice trade in Asia.

Singapore Honey Bee Stamp 1985 10 cents

This is a Honey Bee stamp from Singapore issued in 1985. It is part of a set of insects low definitives and I actually have quite a few duplicates. Would like to think that this is one of the first few stamps that I had when I first started my collection many years ago.

Community Chest Stamp 1989

Managed to scan another Community Chest Stamp that was printed in 1989. It is probably from the same series as the first community chest stamp that I wrote about just yesterday. Like I said, it most probably is not a postage stamp per se. The scan of this stamp is shown below. The plan depicted in the stamp is quite a common potted plant that is often bought by Chinese families during the lunar new year in Singapore.

Lunar New Year 1989 Community Chest

I came across this stamp in my stamp album and realised that it was not in the stamp catalogue. Tried to do a search on the internet to find out what kind of stamp this is. I am figuring that it is really not a postage stamp at all but it really looks like one. It clearly shows the Community Chest of Singapore which is sort of a charity in Singapore.

Singapore Stamp Catalogue

Have been using this particular stamp catalogue which I find extremely useful for searching up on old stamps issued in Singapore. It is titled "Singapore Postage Stamps Catalogue". The one that I have is the 2nd edition. Bought it at a retail price of S$20. It was written by I think one of the owners of CS Philatelic Agency which has an outlet in Peninsula Shopping Centre. I have bought some of my stamp supplies from there and I must say that the shop is pretty well-stocked. There are not many stamp shops around Singapore and one is hard pressed to find shops that specialises in postage stamps nowadays.

Singapore Tourism Low Value Definitions -1990

Bought a set of  9 stamps of Ebay that were from 1990.  They are basically low value tourism definitions.  Sorry that the scanned picture did not come out well and the colors are not really depicted correctly.  Need to get my scanner to work properly.

The stamps depicted are as follows:
5 cents - Singapore Zoological Gardens
15 cents - Sentosa
20 cents - Singapore River
25 cents - Dragon Boat Festival
30 cents - Raffles Hotel
35 cents - Bird Singing/Watching
40 cents - Jurong BirdPark
50 cents - Boat Float
75 cents - Peranakan Place

UK Christmas Stamps

I bought some stamps and had lots of duplicates of this UK Christmas stamps that feature Santa Clause and also a snowman. When I say duplicates, I really mean lots and lots of extras. I really like UK stamps and Christmas stamps as a whole but I don't know why these 2 stamps don't really look attractive to me at all.

Singapore Vietnam Joint Issue Stamps

Just got my hands on a new set of stamps. It is the Singapore Vietnam joint issue fruit stamps. I bought the presentation pack at $3.45 and the set of stamps too at $1.75.

If you look at the picture above, you can probably see the 2 stamps featuring the two different fruits. One is the dragronfruit while the other is the durian. The cover of the presentation pack (bottom picture) shows the dragronfruit plant and a durian on a branch.

Both these fruits are tropical fruits and I am not sure how many people have tried both fruits. I have since I live in tropical Singapore. Unfortunately, being a city, most of our fruits are imported from neighboring countries.

Dragonfruits are usually grown on wooden stakes around 1m high. The plant looks like a kind of cactus. There are two kinds of dragonfruit. One has red flesh while the other has white flesh. It tastes sweet and I like the red flesh one much better. The texture of the fruit is abit like peach (well that is the closest fruit I can think of).

Most people are probably familiar with the durian fruit so I shall not bother explaining it. What most Westerners probably don't know is that there are really many different "brands" of durian and each so called "brand" really has their own unique taste and texture. The best place to eat a durian is to go to a durian plantation where they will probably have a eat all you can kind of buffet where you get to sample the various kinds of durian. Durian has a texture like custard and there are those that tastes sweet as well as those that tastes bitter.

Fujeira 101 Dalmatians Stamp Set

Was dusting off the dust from some of my old stamp albums when I came across this set of stamps which I thought was a set of Cinderella stamps. The words Fujeira was printed at the bottom of each stamp and it featured scenes from the cartoon 101 Dalmatians. I had never heard of Fujeira before so I decided to do some Googling.

To my surpise, this was not a Cinderella stamp. Fujeira or Fujairah is actually one of seven states belonging to the UAE. This explained the somewhat Arabic prints on the bottom of the stamps which I could not make out too. I can't really recall how I landed my hands on this set of stamps but it is a set of MNH stamps cancelled out nicely in the year 1972. A total of 20 stamps, the market value of this stamp is around US$3 based on a quick check from eBay thought I am sure the actual value might be somewhat lesser since eBay prices are always sort of marked up by a fair bit of 10-30%.

Collecting Stamps and Collecting Domains

I have been collecting stamps for sometime and now I have just collected my first piece of internet real estate by owning my very own domain name. It can be found here at Singapore Stock Screener.

Guess that could be my new hobby on top of collecting stamps!

Started Soaking Lots of Stamps

After receiving the Miniature World update from the post office which depicts all the lovely stamps that were issued in the year of 2010, I finally got off my butt and started to soak some of the repeat stamps that I had in my possession which were taking up quite a bit of space.

The wife was angry that I used her hand towel to dry the stamps. The set of stamps were largely repeats from England Christmas series.

I am not too sure what I am going to do with them. Perhaps I will sell some of them on eBay for extra cash to buy new stamps.

Categories of Singapore Stamps

Found some interesting information from a recent brochure that I got from Singapore Post.

There are mainly 4 categories of stamps in Singapore:

1. Definitive stamps. These are stamps printed to meet Singapore's normal postal demand. New definitive stamps are usually released every 3 to 5 years.

2. Commemorative Stamps. These are stamps that celebrate significant national and international events like YOG, APEC 2009, etc.

3. Special stamps. These stamps depict subjects of general interest such as flora, fauna, culture, history and architecture.

4. Greetings Stamps. These stamps can be used on special occasions to convey joyous messages. An example will be Christmas stamps or Chinese New Year stamps.

Singapore Postage Stamps Catalogue

For those that need a reference to a stamp catalogue that has details about Singapore stamps, I strongly recommend the Singapore Postage Stamps Catalogue that is published by CS Philatelic Agency. It is the only catalogue that I know about that deals solely with Singapore stamps.

The 2nd edition catalogue contains information about the Straits Settlements, Japanese Occupation, BMA and Issues till 2007. I am not sure whether the 3rd or 4th edition has been published. It retails for S$20 or US$24.

Good things about the Catalogue

The catalogue is very detailed and provides pictures of a comprehensive list of all Singapore stamps and even before Singapore gained its independence. It publishes the price of the various stamps and from it, you can find out lots of information like the number of stamps printed, the date of issue, number of stamps in a set, etc.

Bad Things about the Catalogue

The only misgivings I have about the catalogue is the haphazard arrangement of advertisements at both the front and back of the catalogue. Usually, advertisements should be kept to the back of the catalogue as I have to flip through various pages before I get to the front page of the catalogue.

Ruined Stamps by Poor Soaking Method

I ruined some stamps because I did not soak them properly.

The mistake I made was to use cool water instead of lukewarm water. Was too lazy and figured that cool water would work just as well. I waited and waited and realised that the stamps did not come off even after half and hour.

By then, a lot of the paper was starting to disintegrate and the stamps were still stuck to them!

What followed was me trying to use my fingers to "rub" away the paper that was still stuck to the back of the stamps. Some stamps were spoilt as they got torn as I was trying to do that.

Oh well. Guessed I learnt from my mistake. ALWAYS USE LUKEWARM OR WARM WATER TO SOAK STAMPS. Remember that my friends!

3 Reasons to Invest in Singapore Stamps

I have been thinking about how profitable it is to invest in Singapore stamps.

Here are a few reasons why I think collecting Singapore stamps might be a worthwhile investment. (Do note however that this posting does not constitute any recommendation to the reader to buy Singapore stamps for the sake of investment purposes.)

Reason #1 - Singapore's Small Population

Singapore has a really small population of around 5 million. The small population means that there is an equally small amount of stamp collectors around. In fact, speak to any Singaporean below the age of 30 and you will find that most of them do not collect stamps at all.

Because of this, you can expect that the number of mint stamps that are being collected are actually very little compared to other countries which have a larger population.

Reason #2 - Singapore's GDP growth

When a country grows, its people become more affluent and are able to afford high prices for worthy collections. While there is no trend that affluent Singaporeans are turning to stamp collecting as a hobby, there is still a likelihood that this could be the case in the future.

When a country's population is rich, they will be more willing to pay a good price for rare items like error stamps and the like.

Reason #3 - The number of Stamps Being issued

Due to the lack of demand, the number of stamps that are being issued are very little. Singapore Post however issues stamps quite frequently and this results in poor collectors (like me) being unable to afford purchasing every single stamp that is being issued. With the high frequency of stamps being issued and the low number of stamps that are printed, you can safely expect that there will be less and less stamps that are being collected by the general public.

Invest in Singapore Stamps

Singapore stamps are perhaps a good investment. With a small stamp collecting population, rising GDP and the small number of stamps being issued, mint stamps from Singapore will probably be very hard to find 50 or 60 years down the road.

How To Soak Stamps

Very often, we get stamps that we would like to collect. However, these stamps might be fixed on envelopes.

Below is the method that I use for soaking my stamps:

1. Prepare a tub or basin of lukewarm water.

2. Separate your stamps into the "whites" and "colored" based on the evelopes they are stuck on.

3. Soak the "whites" first. The stamps should be facing up when you soak them so that the heavier part (the envelope) will peel off nicely.

4. Try to separate the stamps such that they do not stick to one another.

5. Leave for 5 to 10 minutes and remove.

6. Lay them out on a piece of paper to dry facing up. Make sure that there is no gum remnants on the back otherwise the stamps will stick to the paper.

Singapore Stamp: Zodiac Series Tiger

The date of issue for this zodiac series - tiger is 08 January 2010.

There are a total of 12 animal signs in the Chinese calendar. According to Chinese beliefs, the traits of these zodiac animals shape the personalities and life events of the people born under the respective sign.

Famous personalities born in the year of the Tiger include Beethoven, Karl Marx, Stevie Wonder and Ho Chi Minh.