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1950s stamps to dazzle enthusiasts

Five Taiwan Post figures are displayed at a press conference yesterday. Taiwan Post will give away thousands of souvenir figurines at the Asian International Stamp Exhibition, which runs from March 7 to March 11 in Exhibition Hall 3 at the World Trade Center in Taipei. PHOTO: SHELLEY SHAN, TAIPEI TIMES

More than 1,000 frames of stamps cherished by collectors will be on display at the Asian International Stamp Exhibition next month, Taiwan Post said yesterday, inviting enthusiasts to view rare stamps from the nation's history.

The Asian International Stamp Exhibition is held every two years. China will not participate in this year's exhibition, hosted by Taipei.

Taiwan Post Vice President Su Tien-fu (蘇天富) said that 24 member countries of the Federation of Inter-Asian Philately will join the event.

On display will be stamps featuring a variety of themes, exhibited by the participating countries .

As part of this year's exhibition, Taiwan's Postal Museum will put on a display of "flying goose" stamps (飛雁郵票) issued between 1950 and 1952.

The stamps are in high demand among collectors because they mark a transition period between the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) postal policies in China and Taiwan.

The "flying goose" stamps were printed in Shanghai and brought with the KMT to Taiwan in 1949. They were placed in storage and first issued the following year.

In 1949, the KMT government launched a currency reform, but the post office had no stamps displaying values in the New Taiwan dollar at the time.

The office therefore used the "flying goose" stamps, which had no prices printed on them, and stamped New Taiwan dollar values on them.

In 1954, the post office decided to destroy the remaining "flying goose" stamps.

The going rate for a set of "flying goose" stamps today is about NT$280,000, or 1,000 times their printed value.

The exhibition will run from March 7 through March 11 at the World Trade Center, Exhibition Hall 3.

Visitors will have an opportunity to pick up a free souvenir figurine, the Su said.

Taiwan Post is offering 6,000 figurines in five varieties, four of which are modeled after post office personnel. The fifth is modeled after Chi Cheng (紀政), one of the nation's top track and field athletes and the spokeswoman for this year's exhibition.

The five varieties will each be handed out on separate days, with 2,000 figurines of Chi available on March 9.

Apart from Chi's miniature, the other four figurines can be purchased at post offices nationwide for NT$88 each.

Su said the post office is also selling 75,000 sets of the figures at post offices. About 16,000 sets had been sold as of yesterday, Su said.
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