Coolest Shaped Postage Stamps Ever?
Stamps don’t always have to be the typical boring rectangular shape. You’ve probably seen triangular, square, diamond and other fairly common shapes in postage stamps before. But what about these beautiful and very unique postage stamps from Tonga?
This is a complete set of stamps from 1962, all unused and unhinged. Not only are they beautiful and unique but they are also quite large (that’s a U.S. quarter dollar at the right of the photo for a size comparison). These stamps were released to commemorate the first gold coins of Polynesia. They are quite thin and made of a gold colored foil with embossed decorations. They have a backing paper that must be removed in order to adhere the stamps to an envelope.
In keeping with the theme of round stamps are those above from 2001 depicting different shells and a souvenir sheet from 2002 depicting pearls. For the millennium in the year 2000 the “Peace” series of stamps is mostly rounded but the stamps then follow the cut out shape of the doves wings (you can just make it out in the souvenir image above) giving them quite a unique shape.
Let’s not stop there – how about banana shaped postage stamps from 1970, tent shaped stamps to celebrate the Boy Scouts in 1980 (not the complete set). 1982 sees the oval shaped fruit series and a double overlapping circle shape in 1975 to commemorate FAO which includes a bunch of round stamps that look like coins.
1974 see stamps commemorating the UPU (Universal Postal Union) centenary (set of 3) and the UPU XVII Congress in 1975 (set of 5).
The 1980 Rotary stamps are easy to describe as they are in the shape of a cog. I will not try explain the shape of the 3 sets of stamps commemorating the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 1977 though.
While Tonga’s more regular stamps are the usual perforated sheets of “lick and stick”, the stamps above are typically stickers on a backing paper allowing more intricate and unique shapes to be produced. The below silhouettes are to scale for the stamps shown on this post.
While I usually focus on collecting items from the Philippines I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add these unique pieces to my collection.