Special Stamps of Malaysia

This stamp set was issued in 2010.

Red Packet - Julie's 2012

I knew that this year (2012) Julie's placed a pack of three cute red packets inside a cream roll biscuit tin (to promote this product for Lunar New Year). I don't fancy much the cream roll biscuit, but I had to buy it in order to get these three cute red packets - it sounds stupid, doesn't it? :)

the left red envelope represents "happiness", the middle one represents "wealth" and the right one represents "Luck"

I will be eating this cream roll biscuits every night for the next 1-2 months....... torturing.... :P

Red Packet

Actually, I have been collecting red packets of Lunar New Year for a couple of years. These red packets mostly come in free from commercial banks, companies, manufacturers, organisations etc. I shall be sharing with you here my little collection of red packets from time to time.

Click here to know more about red envelopes.

A Returned Cover from Japan

Dragon Has How Many Legs?

After knowing about different number of toes on dragon (click here for the story), then I counted the number of legs of dragon. Well, I think I am safe to say that dragon has four legs. However, when I looked at the angpau (red packet; see the image below) of CIMB (bank) that I received during Lunar New Year a few days ago, I was totally shocked! The dragon depicted on the CIMB angpau has five legs! Well, I guess the dragon in the CIMB angpau should have six legs with one leg hidden by the long body of the dragon. Can you believe this?

Well, I am still in the mood of dragon....... :)

Dragon Has How Many Toes/Claws?

All this while I have never given a thought on this question - Dragon has how many toes/claws? I always take it for granted that dragon has five toes - typical human centric thinking :)

I found out today that dragon actually has different number of toes!!!! In general, Chinese dragon has five toes, Korean dragon has four toes and Japanese dragon has three toes. Well, the Chinese dragon has also got four toes and three toes. The 5-toe dragon is an imperial dragon, the 4-toe dragon is for high ranking officials, and the 3-toe dragon is for low ranking officials and public....

There were explanations why dragon never reached Western:

"The Chinese tradition states that dragons originated in China with five toes. As they travelled abroad they lost more toes the further they went from home. This is why Oriental dragons never reached the West - they would have run out of toes."

"The Japanese tradition has a similar story that differs in one important respect: dragons originated in Japan. In this version of the legend, dragons grew more toes as they travelled further from home. Once they reached five toes they found it difficult to walk which is why they never reached the West."

Anyway, happy dragon year..............

A Dragon Cover from China

Among the many postal authorities issuing dragon stamps for this coming Lunar New Year, the dragon stamp from China is the most beautiful one. I've finally had this real dragon stamp in front of me.... what a master piece!

Happy Lunar New Year.....

Too Hot to Handle......

I think year 2012 was started excellently for philately in Malaysia. The dragon miniature sheets (below image) issued on 12 January 2012 are so hot.... I mean really really hot. Stamp collectors in Malaysia have not seen for many years the enthusiasm of people (collectors and non-collectors) queuing up (very long queue) at post offices throughout the country to buy these miniature sheets. Many early birds went to post offices, but came back becoming angry birds as the miniature sheets were sold out early on the day of issue (within half an hour in some post offices).

The printing number for RM3 miniature sheet is 25,000 and RM5 miniature sheet is 20,000. At the GPO Kuala Lumpur, the RM3 miniature sheet has totally been sold out. However, there are still a few thousand of RM5 miniature sheet (at GPO Kuala Lumpur) to be sold later to SODA members ONLY. So, for those SODA members who are not able to buy the RM5 miniature sheet at the day of issue, they may order this RM5 miniature sheet by filling up special order form. Bear in mind also, there will be issue of annual book (for 2012) by Pos Malaysia later after completing all the stamp issues for year 2012, and the dragon miniatures should appear in the annual book. So, collectors are still able to get these dragon miniature sheets from Pos Malaysia much later.

Among the many countries issuing dragon stamps for year 2012, I personally think the dragon stamp from China is the most beautiful. The pair of dragon stamps (the two miniature sheets) of Malaysia is also one of the most beautiful ones, if it is not better than that of China.

I was learnt that Pos Malaysia has received many new application forms from collectors to become SODA members due to these dragon miniature sheets (these non-SODA members failed to get the miniature sheets on the day of issue). So, the philately of Malaysia started excellently for year 2012. I wish the dragon miniature sheets would bring some life to the dying hobby of stamp collecting in Malaysia.....

Malaysia Maxicard - Dragon

Beautiful Stamp of China

The below stamp of China was issued in 2003 to commemorate SARS. I bought it in 2003 at a price of RM1-RM2. I was shocked when I checked the price in eBay for this stamp - it is being sold roughly at RM140! I do not know what is the story behind this rocketing price.

2012 - The Legacy of Loom

Pos Malaysia released today (12 January 2012) its first stamp issue for year 2012. The topic of the stamp issue is "Legacy of the Loom" consisting a set of 5 stamps (in format of strip) with denomination 60s each, and two miniature sheets with denominations of RM3 and RM5. The miniature sheets contain an image of dragon, this seems to coincide the year of dragon. The miniature sheets are very hot items. I was learnt that the miniature sheets were sold out nationwide in the morning of the day of issue.

The Coming Issue

Pos Malaysia is going to release its first stamp issue for year 2012 on 12 January 2012. A set of five stamps with denomination 60s will be released, and this comes together with two miniature sheets, one with denomination RM3 and the other is RM5. I believe that the focus of this stamp issue is on the miniature sheets because both the miniature sheets depict dragon - it is no doubt the miniature sheets are issued to coincide the year of dragon. These miniature sheets would be hot items for collectors, and it is safe to assume that many collectors would buy extra copies.....

You guys should get ready for these miniature sheets!

Get Annoyed....

Probably, you have noticed that the Cbox (the place where you could place a message) on the left side of this blog has disappeared. Yes, I removed it from my blog because I got annoyed by people leaving advertisement message in the Cbox. So, I have got enough with it. If you have any message for me, please send it to my email address at rocoto98 at yahoo dot com.

Beautiful Stamps of China

This zodiac stamp set of China was released in 2000 for the year of dragon. This stamp set is catching up the price rapidly...

Shadow Play Stamps

Just to share with you some of the beautiful stamps depicting shadow play. You may click here to know more about shadow play.

Thailand 2008

China 1995

Malaysia 1982

Beautiful Malaysia Stamp Set

This beautiful stamp set was released in 1982.........

Poll Results: Most Favourite Stamp Issues For 2011

Consecutively for the third year I put up a poll asking visitors to this blog to vote on their most favourite Malaysia stamp issues. After roughly two weeks of poll race for the 14 stamp issues for year 2011, 94 times of vote casting had been recorded. Visitors were asked to choose three most favourite stamp issues. However, I noted that not all vote casting followed strictly the instruction (some only chose one or two stamp issues instead of three). Nevertheless, my great appreciations go to those who had taken part in the poll. The result from the poll is shown in the graph below.

It looks like the Personalised Stamps and Virtues issues had a close race, both of them top the list having 44 and 43 votes respectively. This is closely followed by Royal Institutions issue with 39 votes. Post Boxes issue is also not doing badly by having 27 votes. The Children’s Pets (20 votes), Highland Tourist Spots (18 votes), Aviation in Malaysia (16 votes) and Smart Tunnel (17 votes) issues are doing moderately. Spices (14 votes), Palaces (13 votes), Artifacts (8 votes), Malaysia-Indonesia Joint Issue (6 votes) are not that palatable. Suzuki Cup (3 votes) and Visual Arts – II (2 votes) issues are placed at the bottom of the list.

I think the stamp issues in year 2011 are average good, however, not having one or two outstanding issues. It is clearly demonstrated by the best choices (Personalised Stamps and Virtues) not having more than 50% votes (50% of 94 votes is 47). Some voters complained stamp set is nice but not the miniature sheet or vice versa for some stamp issues. So, they were having difficult time to make their choices. As for myself, I had chosen Children's Pets, Post Boxes and Highland Tourist Spot.

Different people have different preferences. We all have chosen what we like, and we respect each other's preferences.

I assure you that a similar stamp poll for year 2012 will be conducted. Please do come back to cast your votes in December 2012!

Happy collecting……………

Postcards from Blog Readers

A few readers of my blog had gone overseas for holiday or work lately. They sent me postcards from the countries they visited.... it is really very thoughtful of them :)