Asian Stamp

The largest stamps on record ever issued were drafted by China. Measuring a whopping 210 by 65 mm, these stamps were special stickers for express envelopes. China isn't alone in terms of producing stamp oddities. Throughout Asia--in Australia, New Zealand, Bhutan, and the tiny island nation of Tonga--quirky stamps abound.For example, in 1973, the Bhutanese government decided to issue a stamp that played the country's national anthem. For a relatively poor country, this was probably a bad economic decision. However, philatelists the world over cheered at such an unusual decision. These musical stamps now fetch a pretty penny on the open market, so perhaps the Bhutanese government's decision to issue them in the first place wasn't so unwise.Australia, for its part, has spent much time and money on technology to make certain stamps appear as if they were opalescent. In 1996, similar technology was used to create stamps that looked like diamonds. All told, tens of thousands of different kinds of Asian stamps proliferate in public use and private collections. These stamps are sometimes overtly political, such as Vietnamese stamps that sing the praises of workers and of the ruling government.Knowing that rare and unused stamps can fetch a lot of money down the line, some stamp barons in repressive Asian governments intentionally create stamps only to sell to collectors. In the spirit of Nicholas Seebeck, who pillaged the Latin American postal system in the 1890s, these inside agents often do their work in private. That being said, most Asian stamps you will find on the market are produced in accordance with fair trade practices.