Hong Kong 2012 Issues

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu May 03, 2012 20:04:00 pm

We are going into the hot and humid weather here in Hong Kong, and passing the May month, Hong Kong Post had issued 4 sets of stamps already.

The Year of the Dragon issue in January.

The Fragrance Heartwarming Stamps in February.

The Queen's College 150th Anniversary in March.

and today... the joint issue with France on Art.

Details to follow...

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu May 03, 2012 20:58:37 pm

First issue of the year was Year of the Dragon. Given this is the first issue for Cycle 4, there were 3 different products released on January 14.

You would ask what's "Cycle 4"? Well, Hong Kong had been issuing the 12 Chinese Zodiac stamps for many years. Cycle 1 was from 1967 (Year of the Goat) to 1978 (Year of the Horse) where there are only 2 stamps for a set. Cycle 2 was from 1987 (Year of the Rabbit) to 1998 (Year of the Tiger) where there are 4 stamps and 1 Miniature sheet, Cycle 2 was also memorable because the first 11 sets have the British crown on it while last set don't (because HK had returned to China). Cycle 3 was from 2000 (Year of the Dragon) to 2011 (Year of the Rabbit) where there were 4 stamps, 1 miniature and 1 imperforate sheetlet.

And this Cycle 4 have 4 stamps, 1 stamp sheetlet and 1 silk stamp sheetlet (with a very high face value of HK$50!)

You would note that all these stamps are gold foiled. So it might be a challenge to keep the gold from tarnishing.

The Silk sheetlet was actually less than spectacular. If they didn't tell me, I wouldn't know that it's made from silk.

I was told that the stamp pane of the stamps were changing hands for more than HK$500 (face value of HK$295) recently as the demand from China had been huge due to the dragon theme.

The second set is the Gold and Silver Sheetlet on Rabbit/Dragon.

This is also the last G&S sheetlet of this series which started in 2001 when HKP released the Dragon/Snake G&S sheetlet (another high face value - HK$100!)

And since Cycle 3 has just ended, HKP decided to release the third product - 2 miniature sheets with 2 designs from each year printed in "gold" and "silver" colors to become Gold and Silver Stamp Sheetlet!

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu May 03, 2012 21:21:20 pm

Next issue was the 2006 version of heartwarming stamps mini-pane with fragrance sheet.

As titled, HKP used the one of the heartwarming stamps from 2006 and created this fragrance sheet. The heartwarming stamp are similar to the Personalised Stamps of Australia.

This issue was released on Valentine's Day with the intention that people can use the customised service of the personalized stamps to send their love thoughts to their other half.

This is the second set of stamps issued with fragrance - the first was back in 2001 "Tea culture" where fragrance of tea were applied to the stamps.

Oh BTW, funny though that the control number for this set starts with GF...

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu May 03, 2012 21:32:55 pm

The third set issued this year was the 150th anniversary of the Queen's College. Another novelty issue with an irregular stamp - shield shaped stamp and this was modelled after the shape of the school badge.

The College was quite famous as Dr. Sun Yat-Sen was one of the alumnus. The stamp had a sepia tone to bring out the nostalgic feeling, showing both the old and new school buildings of the College.

The highlight of the issue was the mini-pane with 4 shield-shaped stamps but each with different printing - thus making this set - 5 different stamps!

The stamp on the upper left corner is the one with the silk-screen glitter ink.

The stamp on the upper right corner is the lacquer one.

The stamp on the lower left corner is the embossing stamp.

And the stamp on the lower right corner is the stamp with 22K gold plated with embossing.

aethelwulf · **Posted:** Thu May 03, 2012 21:40:41 pm

HKStampsGuru wrote:

First issue of the year was Year of the Dragon. Given this is the first issue for Cycle 4, there were 3 different products released on January 14.

You would note that all these stamps are gold foiled. So it might be a challenge to keep the gold from tarnishing.

I got a batch of promotional info. from the philatelic bureau in the post yesterday. One brochure pointed out that sales figures for issues are now being put up on the HKPost website. From the details they gave in the flyer, the PO had sales of about HKD$35m for CNY issues. :shock:

Considering the huge quantity that people turn around and have turned into FDCs, thus rendering them not even a liability to the PO as "outstanding mint postage", that's a darned good money-maker.

About the gold tarnishing--the PRC strip of Mao quotations with gold borders has held up not bad for 45 years, so if they could make OK gold ink then, surely HKPost could source something equally good at least? The $100 sheets were printed by at least a couple different companies in Europe, so they obviously sourced around for expertise.

aethelwulf · **Posted:** Thu May 03, 2012 21:42:49 pm

HKStampsGuru wrote:

This issue was released on Valentine's Day with the intention that people can use the customised service of the personalized stamps to send their love thoughts to their other half.

A fail by the PO on this one. Issue a stamp intended for people to use to mail Valentine's Day cards...but issue the stamp on Feb. 14th...so anyone holding out for the stamp would be rendering their cards "late". Of course issuing a V-Day stamp on V-Day has symbolism. All-in-all: Can't have your cake and eat it too.

aethelwulf · **Posted:** Thu May 03, 2012 21:44:14 pm

HKStampsGuru wrote:

The third set issued this year was the 150th anniversary of the Queen's College. Another novelty issue with an irregular stamp - shield shaped stamp and this was modelled after the shape of the school badge.

Fiddly nuisance to tear them out of the sheet to use as solo stamps. Sometimes I got 'lazy' and just did a cut-to-shape square from the M/S--let the eventual soaker of the stamp from kiloware tear it to shape if they want.

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu May 03, 2012 21:45:54 pm

And today's issue - Joint issue with France on Art.

As usual, HKP had issued 4 stamps and a MS for this issue, with the lower 2 values Art pieces from Hong Kong and the higher 2 values Art pieces from France. Each location has reproduced a painting and a sculpture.

This is the twelfth joint stamp issue of Hong Kong. The art that were depicted are:

HK$1.40 - Douglas Castle by a Chinese artist, 1860s from Hong Kong.
HK$2.40 - Crab #4 by Cheung Yee, 1985 from Hong Kong.
HK$3 - The Racecourse. Amateur jockeys close to a carriage by Edgar Degas from 1876 - 1887 France.
HK$5 - The Horse by Raymond Duchamp-Villon, 1914 from France.

Very interesting choice of stamp themes as France have both horses on theirs while Hong Kong have an old painting and a crab.

And the overall theme of the MS is quite nice - very French feeling given the red background and blue Art wording.

Also available were the usual FDC...

and the joint issue FDC of both Hong Kong and France.

I kinda like the French version of the stamps as they had added the painter/sculptor and the name of their work.

One last thing - when I passed by the Post Office in Wanchai today, I saw this posted on their glass door.

Very interesting...

aethelwulf · **Posted:** Thu May 03, 2012 21:48:25 pm

Was at the local PO at work today and saw they had ample stocks of the newest commem, issued today, the joint issue with France for art.

The clerk's counter book was bulging with a dozen sheets of each value--for a small local office the PO did a good job of distributing the stamp so that it will see sales beyond the GPO philatelic counter.

Attractive-looking stamps; I wouldn't say I'm a great fan of some of the artworks illustrated, but they are nicely presented.

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2012 10:11:24 am

aethelwulf wrote:

HKStampsGuru wrote:

The third set issued this year was the 150th anniversary of the Queen's College. Another novelty issue with an irregular stamp - shield shaped stamp and this was modelled after the shape of the school badge.

Fiddly nuisance to tear them out of the sheet to use as solo stamps. Sometimes I got 'lazy' and just did a cut-to-shape square from the M/S--let the eventual soaker of the stamp from kiloware tear it to shape if they want.

Same here. I got tired of tearing the Heart shaped stamp from last year's Volunteerism MS, I just did what you said, cut-to-shape square!

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2012 10:18:16 am

aethelwulf wrote:

Was at the local PO at work today and saw they had ample stocks of the newest commem, issued today, the joint issue with France for art.

The clerk's counter book was bulging with a dozen sheets of each value--for a small local office the PO did a good job of distributing the stamp so that it will see sales beyond the GPO philatelic counter.

Attractive-looking stamps; I wouldn't say I'm a great fan of some of the artworks illustrated, but they are nicely presented.

That's not the case for this PO I went to though. I don't see the new stamps in their stock book (usually the case so any one posting on the issue day will get the new ones without asking), this PO have them separately and I guess it's only when you ask them that's when they sell it to you, otherwise you'll get a normal bird definitives.

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Sun Jun 17, 2012 23:54:28 pm

The next set of stamps was issued last May 22nd featuring 5 different traditional Chinese festivals. Size of the stamps was slightly different from the usual rectangle (this being longer on the vertical side) and main design of the stamps uses symmetrical shapes to accommodate the main characters of the stamps.

Of all the 5 festivals, both the high values (stamps and MS) were featured before on Hong Kong stamps, while the rest are first timers.

HK$1.40 - Tin Hau Festival - Tin Hau is the Goddess of the Sea and she's regarded by fishermen and seafarers as their protector. The stamp shows a statue of Tin Hau and fishing boats that are on parade to pay homage to Tin Hau. The background I believe signifies the sail of the boats.

HK$2.40 - Kwun Yum Festival - Kwun Yum is the Goddess of Mercy and the stamp shows a statue of Kwun Yum and a huge scaffolding plaque celebrating the Kwun Yum Festival. The background is lotus which is a symbol of Kwun Yum.

HK$3 - Birthday of Buddha - The festival celebrates the birth of Sakyamuni Buddha. The stamp shows a statue of Buddha used in the Buddha bathing ceremony and the Giant Buddha (Tian Tan Buddha) in Lantau Po Lin Monastery (which was featured in many HK stamps).

HK$5 - Tuen Ng Festival (Dragon boat Festival) - The dragon boat festival is celebrated every fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar calendar and the festival is becoming a major sporting competition. It is also this day that people will eat the rice dumpling to commemorate the death of the Qu Yuan. The stamp features the dragon boat head and the dragon boat competition in action. Background is a hexagon - no idea why they chose this shape... maybe the shape of the drum?

HK$5 Miniature sheet - Mid-autumn Festival - The mid-autumn festival is celebrated every 15th day of the eight month on the lunar calendar and this is the day when the moon is the fullest and brightest (closes to the autumnal equinox). This is a day when family members come to reunion and have dinner together as a family, afterwhich go out to the park to play and watch lanterns as well as enjoy the bright moon night. The stamp shows a traditional Chinese lantern and the mooncake. Background is an octagon - I have 2 guesses for this - it's shaped like the mooncake and because it's the eighth month?

The rest of the MS lists out all the Hong Kong Festival featured in this set as well as a giant mid-autumn festival lantern.

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Mon Jun 18, 2012 00:02:22 am

And a quick head's up...

The next 2 weeks are going to be a very busy week -
this coming Tuesday (Jun 19) will see 2 issues being released - Working Dogs in Government Services (stamps, MS, booklet, postcards) - great thematic release for all dog lovers. And on the same day, a special edition of heartwarming stamps (2012 edition) called "Dragon Baby" will be released. This mini-pane is going to be a personalized stamp for babies that were born this year. The stamp designs were taken from the Year of Dragon released earlier this year, with major modification - different size, non-denominated. Of course, as with all personalized stamps, the mini-pane is sold above face value. My suspicion is that, if demand for this picks up, you'll see the continuation of this mini-pane next year and for the next 11 year...

Then on Jul 1, which marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, a MS will be released. More details will follow as I get hold of the stamps.

Until then, happy collecting!

aethelwulf · **Posted:** Mon Jun 18, 2012 01:00:18 am

HKStampsGuru wrote:

And on the same day, a special edition of heartwarming stamps (2012 edition) called "Dragon Baby" will be released. This mini-pane is going to be a personalized stamp for babies that were born this year.

And all of the 24 stamps (12 for girls, 12 for boys--and I think the boys feature on the higher-value airmail stamp while girls are on the local rate?) are different, unlike some of the Heartwarming panes where there were only 4 stamps repeated across the sheet, so like Pokemon, you have to "collect them all". Nice money-maker for the PO...I thought they are selling at face value though? I didn't stop to calculate, I just put in an order for a couple sets when I received the advertising notice in the mail.

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Mon Jun 18, 2012 01:46:20 am

aethelwulf wrote:

And all of the 24 stamps (12 for girls, 12 for boys--and I think the boys feature on the higher-value airmail stamp while girls are on the local rate?) are different, unlike some of the Heartwarming panes where there were only 4 stamps repeated across the sheet, so like Pokemon, you have to "collect them all". Nice money-maker for the PO...I thought they are selling at face value though? I didn't stop to calculate, I just put in an order for a couple sets when I received the advertising notice in the mail.

I didn't pay notice to the girls/boys vs values on the stamps... Hmmm... interesting!

Nope, the FV of the local postage is HK$16.8 vs the selling price of HK$40. The airmail FV is HK$36 vs selling price of HK$66.

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Tue Jun 19, 2012 22:29:35 pm

Here are today's issues.

First take - Working Dogs in Government Services. 6 stamps in this set, 1 miniature sheet and 1 stamp booklet with 3 sheetlets of 2 stamps each.

This set of stamps feature all the working dogs in 6 different government departments.
$1.40 - this is a Quarantine Detector Beagle, from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.
$1.80 - this is a Correctional Services German Shepherd, from the Correctional Services Department.
$2.40 - this ia a Customs Detector English Springer Spaniel, from the Customs and Excise Department.
$2.50 - this is a Fire Investigation Labrador Retriever, from the Fire Services Department.
$3 - this is a Quarantine Detector Labrador Retriever, from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.
$5 - this is a Police Malinois, from the Hong Kong Police Force.

The Miniature Sheet features all the 6 dogs on the stamp. BTW, this is the biggest stamp of Hong Kong.

The prestige stamp booklet on the other hand, is a very neatly done.

Cover of the booklet

It's got a brief description of what these dogs are doing in their respective departments in both Chinese and English.

Here's the first sheetlet.

Here's the second sheetlet.

Here's the third sheetlet.

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Tue Jun 19, 2012 22:32:59 pm

This is the Special Edition Heartwarming Stamps (2012 Version) "Dragon Baby" Mini-pane.

Compared with the earlier released Year of the Dragon stamps, this looks like photocopied stamps.

Here's a close-up look at the stamps.

aethelwulf · **Posted:** Wed Jun 20, 2012 00:36:14 am

Didn't realize there was a booklet as well. Wow, they really are milking collectors for this one. A set of 4 would have been sufficient I thought at first glance, when I saw there were 2 "quarantine" dogs, then one for Food & Hygiene Dept. The prestige booklet is necessary really, to know what these dogs do. Apart from the police K-9 unit, and drug-/bomb-sniffing dogs, I was hard pressed to think of other canines. Dalmation for the fire dept?

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Wed Jun 20, 2012 02:34:16 am

Needless to say, a lot of dog lovers were buying the stamps in bulk. I was at Taikoo Shing post office this afternoon for about an hour making FDC for the dragon stamps, aside from those people collecting their standing orders, there were also people buying a few sheets (one of them at least 15 sheets of HK$2.40)!

aethelwulf · **Posted:** Wed Jun 20, 2012 02:42:53 am

Half the time I forget to put in a pre-order through my philatelic-bureau account, so make it a point of showing up FDI at the GPO to pick up a sheet or two of everything, as you never know how fast they'll sell out.* The festivals went fast; after a couple weeks, the only value left in stock was the $5. I'm sure dog lovers will be...lapping up...these stamps. :lol:

*I use 'nice stamps' on my mail to family, not that the used are commercially-valuable, and the last few years worth of such soaked clippings are piled in a stockbook, but its pretty much up to us collectors to make sure there's used examples for the future.

texnatl · **Posted:** Wed Jun 20, 2012 09:22:43 am

I just received a shipment from a new service company for Hong Kong and it contained the 4 festival stamps. I must say China and Hong Kong both put out some very attractive stamps.

Nick

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Wed Jun 20, 2012 13:41:48 pm

texnatl wrote:

I just received a shipment from a new service company for Hong Kong and it contained the 4 festival stamps. I must say China and Hong Kong both put out some very attractive stamps.

Nick

Great to hear that Nick. Did you get all 4 stamps and in multiples? That's great!

texnatl · **Posted:** Wed Jun 20, 2012 23:59:47 pm

Yes I get 4 of every stamp. When I get around to working on Hong Kong those will also be showing up in my duplicate batches. I understand I have rules to read, absorb and follow before I attempt to sell or trade any stamps. So that is now on the to do list. Once I get the hang of this I hope to expand the countries I collect in ernest and get some extra change for supplies. Nick

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Mon Jul 02, 2012 01:37:19 am

Today Hong Kong celebrate the 15th anniversary of return to China and the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and a MS was issued to commemorate this event.

I must say this is not a very attractive sheet and when I saw the bulletin prior to the issuance that the MS was printed in lithography plus hot foil stamping and I kept looking for the hot foil stamping from the photo.

Guess what.... they were not on the 3 stamps, but rather on the upper left corner of the sheet - which means when you torn out the stamps, the gold foil is useless....

Anyway, the Bauhinia is the city flower of Hong Kong and using it as the backdrop to feature scenes of prosperity and core values of Hong Kong. The 3 petals that are "made to stamps" are Lady Justice, Hong Kong Airport, and IFC building. The other 2 - China and Hong Kong flags and cranes holding container boxes (I think it means commerce) are just on the MS.

On my next post, I will show you all the previous issues to celebrate the HKSAR establishment, but here's a quick summary first...
1997 - set of 6 stamps and 1 MS
2002 - set of 4 stamps and 1 MS
2007 - set of 6 stamps and 1 hologram MS, 1 stamp (issued as joint issue with China)
2012 - 1 MS

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 18:26:56 pm

I completely forgot to dig out those previous HKSAR stamps, should do that one of these days....

Back to our regular programming... a bit late, since Olympics finished more than 2 weeks ago.

Hong Kong released a set of 4 stamps and an MS for the London Olympics. It was released on July 27 and the 4 stamps when put together resembles a circular collage of stars, circles, Olympic sports and the numbers 2012.

HK$1.40 - Windsurfing and canoeing and '2'
HK$2.40 - Badminton and Archery and '0'
HK$3 - Tennis and Cycling and '1'
HK$5 - Swimming and Track and Fields and '2'

The MS put all 4 stamps into a block of four with London Bridge, London Eye, Big Ben and Gherkin (Swiss Re Building).

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu Aug 30, 2012 19:33:11 pm

Today Hong Kong released a new set of stamps called "Hong Kong Delicacies". This set of stamps celebrate the distinct local favorite delicacies of Hong Kong!

Again the usual 4 stamps and a MS format.

HK$1.40 - Egg Tart and Milk Tea and the word "tea". A favorite afternoon tea item for a lot of Hong Kongers. Shown on the right side is the word "tea"on a typical tile wall of a traditional Hong Kong style restaurant.

HK$2.40 - Wanton noodles and the word "noodle". The wanton is actually a shrimp and lean pork dumpling. Restaurants selling noodles would have the word shown outside so that people could see from afar what kind of food the shop is offering.

HK$3 - Roast goose and the word "Roast". Roast goose is a must eat food if you are in town. The perfect roast goose should have the skin crispy and the meat tender and juicy! Yum! You'll see the word "Roast" as part of the restaurant name that offer roast meat (siu mei in Cantonese)

HK$5 - Crab dish. Seafood is also a big local favorite, so be it steam fish, shrimp, scallops, crabs, it sure is a delight for the diners! The word "fresh (sin)" is actually part of the word "hoi sin" which means seafood (hoi meaning sea and sin meaning fresh).

The MS incorporated all 4 stamps and surrounded them with pots, kettles and cutlery in silver color.

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2012 19:50:42 pm

The "World Heritage in China Series No. 1: The Great Wall" miniature sheet was issued last Sep 27. This is the start of another long series of MS with the focus on the World Heritage sites in China. The previous series was the "Mainland Scenery Series" which started in 2002 and ended last year.

A quick check on the subject confirmed that as of Nov 1 2012, there are 43 world heritage sites in China. It could mean.... the series will finish in 2054 IF there are no new sites added... :lol:

Kidding aside, let's take a look at the sheet.

According to the Hong Kong Post, the MS was printed in Lithography and silk screen printing which you can see is embossed on the Great Wall portion in the stamp.

There is also a SPECIMEN sheet (in a nicely made presentation pack) issued together with the MS. This is, however, available only via points redemption.

Since 2001, Hong Kong Post had introduced a standing order reward scheme, wherein every registered customer can earn points while buying stamps from them. Currently, it's HK$1 = 1 point and there are a variety of things that you can redeem. Chinese Zodiac sign souvenir card, red packets, personalized folder with Chinese New Year covers, and SPECIMEN sheets.

Here's the cover of the pack.

Inner portion of the pack.

Back of the pack.

Note there are 3 major difference between this SPECIMEN and the normal MS.
1- Of course, the SPECIMEN is printed in SILVER
2- There's no phosphorous band on the specimen sheet (whereas there is for the normal MS).
3- This specimen sheet is imperforated (whereas the normal MS is perforated), in lieu of perforation, you'll see lines instead of holes. Which means printing of this specimen sheet is completely different from that of the normal MS. You don't see any lines surrounding the stamp of the normal MS.

Here's a closeup comparison of the stamps from both sheets.

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2012 20:07:43 pm

Hong Kong Post issued the 12 Western Zodiac Signs stamps today.

As discussed elsewhere in Stampboards, Hong Kong Post had issued 12 water-based stamps (in sheet of 10 format), a miniature sheet (also water-based), a booklet (12 self-adhesive stamps), a box of self-adhesive stamps (5 sets of 12 stamps), and 13 personalized non-denominated stamps.

As I forgot to order the non-denominated stamp sheet, I will discuss only the denominated stamps.

In terms of cost, all the stamps were issued in the basic local postage rate (HK$1.40 = US$0.17).

The water-based stamps were issued in sheet of 10, the fourth time HKP had issued in this format. The usual format since 1997 is 5x5. The other sheet of 10 formats were: Rural Heritage (1995), Urban Heritage (1996) and 18 districts of HK (2006).

Closeup view of the stamps. Represented by the sign name in English and Chinese, a graphical depiction of the sign and its related constellation.

Here's the miniature sheet feature the same stamps with a boy and a girl with a telescope to gaze into the skies of stars.

Comparing the stamps from the sheet to the MS...

The only noticeable difference is the Cancer stamp where the background is darker and more defined in the sheet of 10 stamp than the MS one.

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu Nov 01, 2012 20:25:01 pm

Continuing now with the self-adhesive stamps.

Hong Kong hasn't issue a lot of self-adhesive stamps, this is the third self-adhesive stamps issued. The other 2 were Children stamps (2001) and Alphabet (2005).

Front and back cover of the booklet

Inside and closeup view of the booklet

Distinguishing between the water-based and self-adhesive stamps is pretty easy. Just look at the perforation and you'll know.

There's also a new product issued and this is the self-adhesive reel stamp. This is the first time this box of 5 sets of stamps was issued in box format.

Closeup look of the box.

Inside the box is the roll of stamps.

Here's a comparison of the booklet and the reel stamps

If you think there's no difference between the booklet and the reel stamps, then you're wrong!

Take a look!

The difference lies in the phosphorous bands that were applied to the stamps. The booklet version is pretty transparent, while the reel version is white on the stamp.

The white phosphorous bands are not that evident in some stamps, like the Pisces stamp with light color background.

But hold the stamp against the light, you'll see the difference. The booklet stamp will not "glow" (left stamp), while the reel version you'll see the bands "glowing" (right stamp).

Also, I was given an A4 sheet of instruction on how to setup the box.

Very interesting set! I will report the non-denominated stamps once I receive my sheet. Just one thing I know, the stamp is bigger than this.

Denominated - 26x26mm with 13.9 perforation
Non-denominated - 30x30mm with 13.25 perforation

aethelwulf · **Posted:** Fri Nov 02, 2012 01:42:50 am

HKStampsGuru wrote:

Denominated - 26x26mm with 13.9 perforation
Non-denominated - 30x30mm with 13.25 perforation

So right there is the kicker...the personalized sheets are non-denominated, whereas everything else is...so to be "complete", even to have just 1 of each stamp, not even full sheets of the personalized stamps, will require buying all those personalized sheets...at $30HKD each is it not?

And the reel stamps have different phosphor tagging, so will be given a separate catalogue listing? So that's $84 for the box of stamps...sure after keeping back 1 set, the rest can be used for postage, but this whole exercise seems like overkill. Why not some postcards or a presentation pack to boot? Or imitate Australia Post or Canada Post and do coffee mugs, drink coasters, keychains... :roll:

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Fri Nov 02, 2012 01:50:47 am

aethelwulf wrote:

Why not some postcards or a presentation pack to boot? Or imitate Australia Post or Canada Post and do coffee mugs, drink coasters, keychains... :roll:

Stop giving them ideas! HKP already have the framed stamp series- for a MS with the FV of HK$5, the framed version is selling for HK$188! I mean.... DUH!

Who would buy that?

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu Nov 29, 2012 00:35:08 am

aethelwulf wrote:

HKStampsGuru wrote:

Denominated - 26x26mm with 13.9 perforation
Non-denominated - 30x30mm with 13.25 perforation

So right there is the kicker...the personalized sheets are non-denominated, whereas everything else is...so to be "complete", even to have just 1 of each stamp, not even full sheets of the personalized stamps, will require buying all those personalized sheets...at $30HKD each is it not?

And the reel stamps have different phosphor tagging, so will be given a separate catalogue listing? So that's $84 for the box of stamps...sure after keeping back 1 set, the rest can be used for postage, but this whole exercise seems like overkill. Why not some postcards or a presentation pack to boot? Or imitate Australia Post or Canada Post and do coffee mugs, drink coasters, keychains... :roll:

Haha... just when you gave them ideas... HK Post are releasing a gift set, just give them a photo, they will make it into a greeting card (with your preferred zodiac sign), 2 panes of the non-denominated stamps with the photo tab and a sterling silver bracelet and charm (with the zodiac sign on it). And your damage? HK$428 (US$54.87)!

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu Nov 29, 2012 01:26:48 am

Released last November 22nd was the second series of Hong Kong Insects. The first series was issued back in 2000 with 4 stamps and a MS.

This time, we've got 6 stamps and again - a miniature sheet was released.

The insects featured are:
$1.40 - Spittle Bug
$1.80 - Flower Mantid

$2.40 - Mangrove China-mark
$2.50 - White dragontail

$3 - Four-spot Midget
$5 - Bent-winged Firefly

The set was printed in stochastic lithography - which means it uses smaller printing dots to create a higher image detail. That's why they had hide both the Chinese name and the scientific name of the insects in the design... So with the help of a copy machine, I was able to find them.

$1.40 - Cosmoscarta bispecularis

$1.80 - Creobroter gemmata

$2.40 - Eristena species

$2.50 - Lamproptera curius

$3 - Mortonagrion hirosei

$5 - Pteroptyx maipo

One thing I don't understand though, why color the circles in the letters and words?

HKStampsGuru · **Posted:** Thu Nov 29, 2012 02:19:50 am

As a bonus, I'm going to give you a preview of the last issue for the year.

Coming Dec 8, it'll be 150th anniversary of the first postage stamp issue in Hong Kong. There is going to be... 6 stamps, 1 MS and 1 prestige booklet (all denominated) and 2 minipanes which are non-denominated (gasp!)

Anyway, at the GPO, they have all 6 stamp sheets shown (while the rest are just photos).

Very interestingly, the control number for this set is GP, so the first 9,999 sheets will be GP0xxxx (which looks like GPO!)

The general concept of the issue is to match each of the first Victorian definitives with a mode of communication method. Thus you have the quill, fountain pen, ballpen, typewriter, keyboard, Qcode and barcode.

And this is how the prestige booklet looks like:

The first 3 stamps were matched with a picture of the first GPO.
The rest of the 3 stamps were matched with a picture of the second GPO.
The single $10 was matched with the current skyline of Hong Kong and Queen Victoria's statue (at Victoria Park) on the left.

I tried to scan the QR code on the $5 and yes, it works.

It gives a brief history of Hong Kong stamps...

But hold the press.... did you notice anything wrong with these Victorian definitives???

I give you... 10 seconds...

9...

8...

7...

6...

5...

4... any luck?

3...

2... found it?

1... time's up!

Yes, the color on the 18c stamp (HK$2.50 stamp) DOESN'T MATCH!!!!!

I've combined the Victorian definitives (from the scanned page) with the cropped actual stamps... You might see some color difference due to lighting or some other factor.... but lilac (Victorian def) vs blue ($2.50 stamp)??? Uhm.... what do you think?

I've checked with Yang's catalog as well as Scott's, but I don't see a blue (or shades of blue 18c!) Any thoughts?

Princestamps · **Posted:** Thu Nov 29, 2012 14:13:43 pm

Okay Hong Kong issues a lot fo stamps, but then it again its reasonable compared to some places like here. We had 15 issues this year and Face Value of all of them including minisheets was over $150. We also have the Chinese new year and are in our second cycle with Dragon being 4th year. They have now released gold foil limited edition sheetlets at $500 each, makes yours lokk cheap.
Also the $1.40 standard postage rate is very reasonable, thats 22cents our money and even the top rate of $5 is still only 72 cents of our money or just above standard postage, Our top rate of $2.90 would be about $19 in Hong Kong dollars.
Plus I think your stamps are very beautiful and colourful, unlike ours. They are mostly relevant to the local culture and well designed.


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