Prices of stamps depicting dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) have skyrocketed ahead of an expected increase in the number of tourists from China in July.
These stamps make popular souvenirs, shop owners said.
“I’m already out of stock, but I think the price will keep going up like crazy,” one stamp shop owner said.
PHOTO: LEE WEN-I, TAIPEI TIMES
Until recently to be found everywhere around the country, the stamps used to be worthless in the eyes of collectors — but not anymore. Prices of stamps portraying the Chiangs have risen three to five times on average, as Chinese tourists consider them good, inexpensive souvenirs.
To cater for the demand, souvenir shop owners in popular tourist destinations such as Alishan (阿里山), Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) and Dasi (大溪) are stocking up, but since stocks are running low, one shop owner said it could soon become very difficult to purchase the stamps.
A souvenir shop owner in Alishan surnamed Chien said that he was anxious to get more of the stamps before July.
PHOTO: CHEN WEN-CHENG, TAIPEI TIMES
“The older the stamps, the more popular they are,” Chien said, adding that Chiang Kai-shek stamps are more popular than those depicting Chiang Ching-kuo, while Chiang Ching-kuo stamps are more popular than former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) stamps.
A stamp released in 1978 to commemorate the third anniversary of Chiang Kai-shek’s death with a face value of NT$25 can now be sold for NT$700 to NT$900, Chien said.
Nevertheless, the price of stamps commemorating Chen’s first inauguration in 2000 has also increased from NT$20 to NT$40.
Chen Shih-ching (陳世清), operator of the Ching Ching Stamp Collection Network, attributed the rising prices to large-scale purchases by souvenir shop operators in tourist areas.
Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo stamps are the most popular because they cannot be found in China, Chen Shih-ching said.
Tsai Ta-chang (蔡大昌) of Ching-shui Stamps said that the presidential portrait stamps were issued in large numbers — between 2 million to 3 million — and thus seldom became collector’s items.
He said Chiang Kai-shek stamps issued in the 1950s and the 1960s that formerly cost NT$25 a set now sold for around NT$50 to NT$100.
But a 10-piece stamp set issued in 1952 to commemorate Chiang Kai-shek’s return to power, with a total face value of NT$20, can reportedly now be sold for as much as NT$20,000, Tsai said.
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