Old Stamps - Impressions At A Stamp Exhibition

Old stamps feature pictures of stamps from theadjacent to the Malaysian state of Kelantan. It's
20th Asian International Stamp Exhibition inalso currently gripped in a Muslim insurgency. Who
Bangkok at the Royal Paragon Hall, Siam Paragoncould have sent that letter from Sungei Golok, an
held from 3 - 12 August 2007.obscure little town in Narathiwat, to Paris in 1936?
Walking through the rows of old postage stampsCommemorative stamps - coronation of HM
flooded my mind with a mix of memories ofQueen Elizabeth II
momentous events, of the rise and fall of greatThe first day cover for the coronation of HM
empires, some of which have occurred in myQueen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953 reminds me of
lifetime. These were some of the pictures ofmy mother. She still treasures the crockery set
stamps that caught my eye.commemorating the event in 1953, that's proudly
Penny Black stampsdisplayed in her showcase at home in Singapore.
England's Penny Black, the first pre-paid adhesiveOld stamps in the turbulent decades
stamp in the world, was issued in 1840 in theThe red stamps of China's Cultural Revolution
reign of Queen Victoria at the height of the Britishwere reminiscent of a turbulent age; the
Empire. The demise of the Empire came aanti-colonial struggles in the 50s, the Communist
century later, when Japan shattered Britain'sinsurgencies in the 60s and the climax of the
invincibility in World War II.Vietnam War in the 70s.
Old stamps SolotIn April 1975 after the North Vietnamese took
In 1883, in the reign of King Rama V the firstSaigon, the Prime Minister of Thailand, M R Kukrit
Thai stamp Solot (named after the price of thePramoj, asked the Thai army high command how
stamps in the old Thai currency) was issued. Thelong it would take the Vietnamese to reach
postal service was one of the many reforms inBangkok. The answer was a matter of days!!!
the Chakri Reformation during the Fifth ReignWe shuddered when the Vietnamese marched
from 1868 - 1910.into Phnom Penh in 1976. By then, the fanaticism
These two seemingly simple old stamps changedof Mao's Red Guards paled in comparison to the
the lives of millions.killing fields in Cambodia and the grim prospect of
Chinese military mailbattle hardened troops knocking on our doors.
Chinese military mail during the Sino-Japanese WarGenghis Khan - man of the millennium
1894 - 1895, a long forgotten war, was aMongolia's Genghis Khan resurrected images of
harbinger of worse to come. In the followingthe great warrior, in my school books, whose
century, Japan invaded China in the 1930s andEmpire stretched from Beijing to the Caspian Sea
South East Asia in the 1940s. Born after the war,and the Danube as his horsemen rattled the gates
I was spared the horrors of Japanese occupation.of Eastern Europe. His military feats have been
My grandparents and parents weren't so lucky.unsurpassed since.
Letter from MafekingThese were the old stamps that caught my eye,
Lord Baden Powell's letter from Mafeking broughtimages of men and women whose actions have
back pleasant Boy Scout memories, the outdoormoved the lives of millions around the world.
adventures and the wholesome values imbued byStamps tell different stories through different
the international Scouting movement.eyes. Take a journey through the pictures of
Old stamps on a letter from Sungei Golokstamps and find out, what's your story?
Narathiwat is the southern province in Thailand,