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.

Indonesia 2010 SYOG

The 2-stamp Indonesian issue for the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics was supposed to have been released 15 July 2010. However, I did not see anything on the Internet about it, until late October, posted on eBay for sale! The 2 se-tenant stamps together feature 2 badminton players in the foreground; and in the background are silhouettes of youth handling musical instruments, the obvious one is the angklong on the left stamp, and probably a brass gong on the right one.

Singapore 2010 Festivals

Singapore Post released the biennale festivals stamps on 20 October 2010. These stamps depict the festivals celebrated by the 4 main races in Singapore - Chinese New Year for the Chinese, Hari Raya Haji/Puasa for the Malays, Deepavali or Diwali for the Indians and for the Eurasians who are mostly Christians, Christmas. There are 2 stamps for each festival, the 1st local one for local addressee and the 55-cent post card rate for posting overseas; for many years Singapore Post has implemented special rates for posting greeting cards weighing not more than 40g at 55 cents. The 55-cent stamps are printed with metal foil on part of their designs, giving a holographic effect for the twinkling festival mood. This year, a collector's sheet is also released, containing 8 stamps with the same designs, but with the 1st local stamps face values changed to S$1.10, and printed with metal foil on some parts of the design, like the 55-cent stamps.

Romania 2010 Youth Olympic Games

The Romanian authority released the 1st Youth Olympic Games issue on 12 August 2010, in the form of a souvenir sheet. The single stamp on the sheet features a winner's medal over books, a certificate and a mortarboard head-dress, emphasizing the importance of the theme of education for the youth. The sheet selvage is decorated with the games mascots Lyo and Merly.

Serbia 2010 Youth Olympic Games

For the 1st Youth Olympic Games, Serbia issued a single stamp on 14 August 2010. The design on the stamp features a series of athlete silhouettes forming a circle, representing the sports of basketball, diving, handball, sprinting, volleyball, cycling, table tennis, badminton, and judo. The stamp was released in sheet of 8 with a central label featuring volleyball and a runner off a running block.