Lee Hsien Loong appeared on a Micronesia souvenir sheet

A son of Singapore appeared on a foreign stamp issue - that of Micronesia, on the subject of President Barack Obama's visit to Seoul in the 2010 G20 Summit. The souvenir sheet, shown above, is just one of the two in the issue; this one has on the lower part of the sheet selvage a group photo of the world leaders at the summit, and standing right in the midst, circled in yellow, is Lee Hsien Loong.

Singapore 1986 25 Years of Industrial Progress

The 4 stamps were released 1 August 1986 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Economic Development Board of Singapore. From the themes shown by the illustration on the stamps, it seemed that the road to economic development was very clear - industrial progress - via automation, precision engineering, electronics and computer engineering, and horticultural research. Compared to the 2 stamps issued in 2011, exactly 25 years later, this set of stamps is much easier to appreciate and to understand.

Singapore 2011 50 Years of Economic Development

These 2 stamps released on 1 August 2011 mark 50 years of economic development in Singapore. The lower right corners of both stamps is printed with the current logo of EDB or Economic Development Board of Singapore, and the main panes in the stamps feature modern abstract art, which lends poorly to collectable themes. The only saving grace is the merlion hidden among the red whorls in the background of the 1st local stamp; but as a tableau, the solid green circle, the black triangle and the solid red rectangle enclosed by the 2 lower prongs of E in HOME make the piece looks like a half-hearted effort, or at best work that was hurried with a tight schedule. The futuristic tree in the $2-stamp remains in the future; it is definitely difficult to tie it with the stamps issued by other countries to celebrate the International Year of the Forest. Altogether, a very forgettable issue.

2011 Spices

Tamarind, cinnamon, turmeric, coriander, and star anise are the 5 spices featured on the stamps released on 15 July 2011. Each of the 5 stamps featuring spices are also illustrated with a local favourite dish or drink in which the spice is used, tamarind in assam prawn, cinnamon in masala tea, turmeric in fish head curry, coriander in satays and star anise in braised duck. So this set of stamps can be placed under the themes of flora, spices/herbs, and cuisine/food.
Tamarind comes from the elongated velvety pod of the tamarind tree (Tamarindus indicus).The pod contains shiny black seeds enclosed in a sticky pulp. The sweet and sour juice extracted from the pulp is widely used in local cuisine.
Cinnamon sticks are made of dried strips of the inner bark of the cinnamon tree (Cinnamomum verum), an tree that can grow up to 10 metres tall. It is principally used as a condiment in beverages and desserts locally, and also as flavouring for cookies and breads. It also has high antioxidant properties, hence considered to be of medicinal value.
Turmeric is derived from the rhizome of the turmeric plant (Curcuma longa). The rhizome is harvested, dried and ground into a fine yellow powder. In this form, it is a versatile substance, used as a fabric dye, in cosmetics, and to impart colour to mustard condiments; in cooking it is commonly used, together to salt, to lightly coat fish before frying. Much medical research are being conducted to study the property of the various compounds found in this substance, for their medicinal property.
The edible coriander plant (Coriandrum sativum) is a common herb used in local oooking, and in marinating satay.
The star anise is obtained from the star-shaped dried fruit of the tree (Illicium verum) native to southwest China. The star anise is widely used in Chinese cuisine, especially for braising meats.

2011 Oriental small-clawed otters

SingPost released on 1 June 2011 a se-tenant strip of 4 stamps featuring the endangered oriental small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinerea), also known as the Asian small-clawed otter. The geographical range of this creature appears large, they are currently found from the Himalayan foothills of Himachal Pradesh eastward throughout south Asia, extending southwards to the Philippines and through Indonesia, its actual distrubution however is very thin. The only areas in which these animals are known to be common are Peninsular Malaysia, especially in Kedah, and in the western forests and southern marshes of Thailand. In Singapore, sightings have been recorded from the northern coast of Singapore, namely the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong. The otter feeds on crabs, mollusks, mudkippers, fish and other small aquatic animals with its hand-like paws. The stamps feature the otters in a mangrove swamp environment, with the propping roots of the mangrove trees, a fiddler crab and a dragonfly. The designer of these stamps is Edmund Chen Zhi Cai, an actor well-known in Singapore. who has also signed on as a stamp ambassador with SingPost. A special serialised imperforated souvenir sheet was also released, and only 1000 of these were printed.

2011 Hawker Centres

Singaporeans love food, and hawker centres are places where very affordable popular and indigenous cuisines are found. These 4 stamps, issued on 16 May 2011, features 4 iconic hawker centres in Singapore - Lau Pa Sat, Newton Food Centre, Maxwell Food Centre and East Coast Lagoon Food Village - places where tourists may find snippets of authentic Singapore.
Lau Pa Sat means old market in the Chinese dialect of Hokkien, was Singapore’s first wet market where fresh produce was sold. was Designed by James MacRitchie and built in 1894, Telok Ayer Market as it was originally called, is located in the middle of the city and is an octagon looking from its top. Its Victorian cast-iron frames with intricate filigree ornamentation were shipped all the way from Glasgow. In 1973 it was renovated and converted into a food centre offering a wide variety of local food. In that same year it was gazetted as a national monument.
The Newton Food Centre, opened in 1971, is located at Newton Circus, and is usually the food centre featured in tourist brochures to sample authentic Singapore cuisine. Currently it is also the nearest major street food centre to the shopping belt of Orchard Road. Because of its high touristy profile, the food offered has biased towards the pricier seafood, overshadowing other reasonably priced Singapore cuisine.
Located between the northern fringe of the business district and the southern fringe of Chinatown, the Maxwell Food Centre which began its roots in 1935 as a vegetable produce wholesale centre in the city. In the 1980s it was converted into a temporary premises for food hawkers from China Square along China Street, it remained a hawker centre since then, closing for a year in 2000 for renovations. Today it serves many iconic Singapore dishes and is one of the cheapest eating places in the area.
The East Coast Lagoon Food Village is not to be confused with the East Coast Seafood Village that is a congregation of pricey seafood restaurants. It is a favourite haunt for affordable street food among sea and beach sports enthusiasts, a perfect place for a meal after a tiring afternoon of cycling, rollerblading, swimming, kayaking or sailing.

2011 Pond Life

The 2011 definitives issue has as its main theme "Pond Life" with 14 stamps altogether. All the stamps are found in the Collector's Sheet released on 13 April 2011. Pond life is probably not a common theme for stamp collectors, looking at the individual stamps, one can see a few common themes: flowers, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, spiders, and fish.
The 1st and 2nd local stamps featuring the water lily (Nymphaea odorata) and water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) represent the floral theme; the 1st local stamp is also issued as a self-adhesive stamp in a stamp booklet. The 5c and 55c stamps featuring respectively the white-collared kingfisher (Todirhamphus chloris) and the white-breasted waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) cover the avian theme. The reptiles are represented by 50c stamp featuring the black marsh terrapin (Siebenrockiella crassicollis). For the entomologically inclined, there are the diving beetle (Cybister rugosus) on the 20c stamp, the red bolt dragonfly (Rhodothemis rufa) on the 30c stamp, the ornate coraltail damselfly (Ceriagrion cerinorubellum) on the 55c stamp, the water strider (Neogerris parvulus) on the $5 stamp, and the water scorpion (Laccotrephes simulatus) on the $10 stamp. The amphibians are represented by common greenback frog (Rana erythraea) on the 65c stamp and the Asian toad (Bufo melanostictus) on the 80c stamp. The pond wolf spider (Pardosa pseudoannulata) on the $2 stamp represents the arachnids. And finally, the fish enthusiasts has the common tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) on the $1.10 stamp.
The Scott catalogue numbers for this issue are:
1474 5c White-collared kingfisher
1475 20c Diving beetle
1476 1st local Water lily
1477 30c Common redbolt
1478 2nd local Water Hyacinth
1479 45c Ornate coraltail
1480 50c Black marsh terrapin
1481 55c White-breasted waterhen
1482 65c Common greenback
1483 80c Common/Asian toad
1484 $1.10 Common tilapia
1485 $2 Pond Wolf Spider
1486 $5 Water strider
1487 $10 Water scorpion
1487a Collector's sheet
1488 1st local Water lily, self-adhesive (from stamp booklet)
1488a 1st local Water lily stamp booklet

Scott numbers update for Singapore 2010 stamps

Year of Tiger, 3v 1408-1410
Year of Tiger London 2010 MS 1410a
Year of Tiger Bangkok 2010 MS 1410b
Year of Tiger Collector's Sheet 1411
Year of Tiger 1st local self-adhesive 1412
Anniversaries, 4v 1413-1416
Playgrounds, 6v 1417-1422
Butterflies, 4v 1423-1426
Butterflies 1st local self-adhesive from booklet 1427
Butterflies 1st local self-adhesive booklet pane of 10 1427a
10 Trees - Saga 1428
10 Trees - Raintree 1429
10 Trees - Yellow flame 1430
10 Trees - Tembusu 1431
10 Trees - Angsana 1432
10 Trees - Sea almond 1433
10 Trees - Broad-leafed mahogany 1434
10 Trees - Sea apple 1435
10 Trees - Senegal mahogany 1436
10 Trees - Trumpet tree 1437
10 Trees - self-adhesive booklet pane of 10v 1438
10 Trees - self-adhesive from booklet 10v 1438a-j
Flora - Simpoh air 1439
Flora - Rhododendron 1440
Flora - Simpoh air - self-adhesive from booklet 1441
Flora - Simpoh air - self-adhesive booklet pane of 10 1441a
National Monuments, 6v 1442-1447
National Monuments MS 1448
Youth Olympics Singapore, 4v 1449-1452
Youth Olympics Singapore MyStamp Sheet 1425a
Heritage Trail, Kent Ridge Park strip of 4 1453
Heritage Trail, Kent Ridge Park 4v 1453a-d
Festivals - Chinese New Year 1st local 1454
Festivals - Christmas 1st local 1455
Festivals - Aidil fitri 1st local 1456
Festivals - Deepavali 1st local 1457
Festivals - Chinese New Year 55c 1458
Festivals - Christmas 55c 1459
Festivals - Aidil fitri 55c 1460
Festivals - Deepavali 55c 1461
Festival Collector's Sheet 1462
Festival Collector's Sheet 4x55c 1462a-d
Festival Collector's Sheet 4x$1.10 1462e-h
Festivals - Chinese New Year 1st local self-adhesive from booklet 1463
Festivals - Chinese New Year 1st local booklet pane of 10 1463a
Festivals - Christmas 1st local self-adhesive from booklet 1464
Festivals - Christmas 1st local booklet pane of 10 1464a
Festivals - Aidil fitri 1st local self-adhesive from booklet 1465
Festivals - Aidil fitri 1st local booklet pane of 10 1465a
Festivals - Deepavali 1st local self-adhesive from booklet 1466
Festivals - Deepavali 1st local booklet pane of 10 1466a

Uzbekistan 2009 Asian Youth Games Singapore

These are the only 2 stamps that I know of that commemorate the 2009 Inaugural Asian Youth Games, held in Singapore, from 29 June to 7 July 2009. They are from Uzbekistan, issued on 1 July 2009; the sports featured on the stamps are football and basketball. Singapore, the host country of these games, did not issue any stamps for the event, but semi-private special MyStamp sheet was released for the games. The MyStamp sheet is semi-private because it was not an official issue by the Singapore Post, but is available for sale at all post offices and philatelic counters during the period of the games. The sheet was commissioned by the merchandising body of the games.

Perforation error in Singapore 2010 Year of Tiger 1st Local NVI

It is very rare to find major errors in modern Singapore stamp issues. This se-tenant sheet of 10 of the Singapore 2010 Year of Tiger 1st Local NVI stamp containing extra perforation on the right column just appeared on an on-line auction site. This error looks like an outcome of a shifted perforation process; this might mean the existence of another sheet of 10 of the same stamp, which is perforated only on the left column, and has no perforation on the right column!

Sri Lanka 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games

Sri Lanka released a single stamp on 12 August 2010 to commemorate the 1st YOG (Youth Olympic Games), held in Singapore. The colourful stamp features the official games mascots Merly and Lyo, and icons representing various sports and activities for the games participants.

Bulgaria 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games

Bulgaria released the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games issue on 30 July 2010. The single stamp, with a denomination of 1.40 leva, was issued in sheetlets of 4 stamps, with official sports icons decorating the sheetlet border. The stamp is just illustrated with the official logo of the games, with the silhouettes of runners at the top left corner. The sports represented with icons on the borders are badminton, canoeing, basketball, judo, weightlifting, equestry, rowing, gymnastics, sailing, football (soccer), boxing and athletics. The same sheetlet of 4 is also available in gray-scale, with no denomination on the stamps.

Paraguay 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games

I recently come across this set of Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games issue from Paraguay. The set has 2 stamps, one featuring tennis and the other shows some youth participants of the games. I have not found out the issue date, and would appreciate help from any quarter on this matter.

Singapore 2011 Centennial of First Flight in Singapore

5 stamps were issued on 16 March 2011 to mark a centenary of the first flight in Singapore. Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane for 12 seconds on 17 December 1903, and in only 7 years and a few months later, on 16 March 2011, Mr Josef Christiaens (1879-1919), Blegian engineer and aviator, took off from the Singapore Farrer Park racecourse in a Bristol Box-Kite biplane! This historical event is featured in the 1st local stamp from this current issue, as well as the commemorative postcard together with the special postmark, released by the Singapore Philatelic Museum. The 45-cent stamp captured the landing of a Fokker F-VIIA at the civilian airport in Seletar on 10 February 1930, this being the first commercial flight from Batavia (now Jakarta) to Singapore. The 65-cent stamp features the Airspeed Consul with Kallang Airport as the background, and the 80-cent stamp features the F-15SG against the backdrop of Paya Lebar Airport. The $1.10 stamp features the Airbus A380 flown by Singapore Airlines, with Changi Airport in the background, Singapore Airlines was the first commercial operator in the world to provide flights on the A380.

Armenia Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games Complete Sheet

I finally managed to get hold of a complete sheet of the Armenian issue for the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. I had previously implied that the sheet selvage is printed with 14 different sports logos; I was wrong, the actual number of logos printed is 15, but only 11 different sports were represented. The sports so represented are athletics, football (soccer), weightlifting, shooting, gymnastics, rowing, taekwando, water polo, cycling, hockey and tennis.

Singapore 2011 Spirit of Giving

Singapore Post released 2 very large stamps on 24 january, under the theme title of "Spirit of Giving", in conjunction with the 21st IAVE (International Association for Volunteer Effort) World Volunteer Conference. The size of both stamps is 73.8 mm x 76 mm; it would be hardput to find space to stick these stamps onto a regular envelope; the last time a very large stamp was issued was in 2006 with a 98 mm x 66.7 mm $2-stamp marking the first Art Biennale (pronounced as bi-na-le) in Singapore.

Unlike many other countries where stamps in aid of a movement include a surcharge, for this issue a sum of S$0.50 was donated to the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) for the sale of every pre-cancelled first day cover or every presentation pack. The stamp design showcases winning entries of a children art competition organized by th NVPC in 2010.

This set of stamps can be obviously classed under the theme of children's art, there is also a very clear drawing of an elderly woman on a wheelchair in the $2.00 stamp, pointing to the theme of the disabled and the handicapped. Surprisingly, the $1.10 stamp design contains the word "vitagen", a specific brand of cultured milk drink, coupled with the rubric "less sugar". I just wonder if this is free advertisement for Vitagen.

Guinea Bissau 2010 SYOG Gold Medalists

A commercial issue marking the Youth Olympics Games in Singapore has come to light. This first set is issued for Guinea Bissau with a sheetlet containing 4 stamps, and miniature sheet with a single stamp in it. The issue actually celebrates the gold medalists for several events: judo, kayaking, tennis, teble tennis and swimming. The 4 stamps in the sheetlet features the following young athletes: judo men 100 kg winner Ryosuke Igarashi from Japan, swimming women's 50 m backstroke winner Mathilde Cini from France, tennis women's single winner Daria Gavrilova from Russia, and kayaking women's K1 slalom winner Jessica Fox from Australia. The stamp on the miniature sheet features judo women 53 kg winner Miku Tashiro from Japan; the sheet selvage features 2 other gold medalists: table tennis women singles winner Gu Yuting and tennis women doubles winner Zheng Saisai, both from China. Neither sheet contains any official logo for the Singapore Youth Olympic Games, however, judoka Miku in the miniature sheet is shown clasping the games mascot Merly. Every medalist at these games were given a mini stuffed mascot, Merly for girls and Lyo for boys.

Armenia 2010 SYOG

The Armenian Post released the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games on 26 November 2010. The stamp features representative icons for 3 sports - weightlifting, wrestling and boxing. The icons on the stamp are not the official ones for the Youth Olympics, however, the official icons are printed on the sheet margins. The stamp is issued in sheets of 2 x 5 stamps, so there are 14 different icons on a sheet.

2011 Year of Rabbit

The first stamp issue for 2011 rightly gives us the Year of Rabbit stamps. The set follows the general design theme for this 2nd cycle of the Chinese Zodiac, with 3 stamps - 1st Local NVI, 65c and $1.10. However, the collector's sheet is slightly different from the previously 3 for the Years of Rat, Ox & Tiger. The collector's sheets for those 3 years contain real holographic transitions of the animals of preceding, current and following years, for 2011, the collector's sheet is coated with a UV sensitive layer, which supposedly brings out the tiger in the $5-stamp and the dragon in the $10.00 stamp.