40 Years of the RSAF

Will be adding this set of beautiful stamps into my collection soon. It is the 40th anniversary of the RSAF.

1953 Coronation (Queen Elizabeth II)

This is a relatively beautiful Singapore stamp issued in 1953 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth is married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Her father is King George VI who passed on in 1952.

She is the second longest serving monarch after Queen Victoria.

1949 - 75th Anniversary of Universal Postal Union

This is a picture of another set of stamps that I acquired in my early days of stamp collecting. I have both a mint set as well as a used set:

Some information about the UPU from Wikipedia:

The Universal Postal Union (UPU, French: Union postale universelle) is an international organization that coordinates postal policies between member nations, and hence the world-wide postal system. Each member country agrees to the same set of terms for conducting international postal duties. Universal Postal Union's headquarters are located in Berne, Switzerland.

Prior to the establishment of the UPU, a country had to conclude a separate postal treaty with each other country that it wished to carry international mail to or from. The United States called for an international postal congress, which was held in 1863. This led Heinrich von Stephan, Royal Prussian and later German Minister for Posts, to found the Universal Postal Union, the second oldest international organization (after the ITU). It was created in 1874, under the name "General Postal Union", as a result of the Treaty of Berne signed on 9 October 1874. In 1878, the name was changed to "Universal Postal Union".

The UPU established that

1. there should be a more or less uniform flat rate to mail a letter anywhere in the world;
2. postal authorities should give equal treatment to foreign and domestic mail; and
3. each country should retain all monies it collected for international postage.

One of the most important results of the UPU treaty was that it ceased to be necessary, as it often had been previously, to affix the stamps of any country through which one's letter or package would pass in transit; the UPU provides that stamps of member nations are accepted for the whole international route.

1948 Royal Silver Wedding (King George VI)

This was one of the first few stamps that I purchased off Ebay. It is issued in 1948 and I bought it for over US$60.

I have also a similar set of stamp from Morocco Agencies

National Day (Singapore Today)

Just ordered the following stamps from SingPost

Date of Issue: 09 Aug 08
Price = S$3.80

In this issue to commemorate Singapore's National Day 2008, photos from 5 Cultural Medallion recipients : Mr David Tay, Mr Tan Lip Seng, Mr Chua Soon Bin, Mr Foo Tee Jun and Mr Teo Bee Yen are specially reproduced.

All the stamps depict pictures from these 5 photographers capturing various scenes of Singapore

Note: The Cultural Medallion was instituted by the late President Ong Teng Cheong in Mar 1979 and recognises individuals who have attained artistic talent in their respective fields.

Games of the XXIX Olympiad

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 Macao Joint Issue

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