Taiwan issued stamps each day of the Taipei exhibition, April 24-28

By Denise McCarty

The images featured on two new stamps from Taiwan were created using numbers and words. Both stamps were issued April 24, the first day of the Taipei 2015 30th Asian international stamp exhibition.

Organized by Chunghwa Post Co. (Taiwan’s postal administration), the Chinese Taipei Philatelic Federation and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, the show was held April 24-28 at the Taipei World Trade Center in Taipei, Taiwan.

The year “2015” repeated in varying sizes and shades of red and purple forms the outline of the symbolic dragon and cloud pictured on the NT$5 stamp. Chunghwa Post compares the design to China’s first stamps of 1878, nicknamed the Large Dragons.

The NT$25 stamp also is reminiscent of the design of another Chinese stamp issue, the 1949 Flying Geese Over Globe. On the new design, the geese and globe were created through repeated uses of the words “30th Asian International Stamp Exhibition” in English.

Delta Design Corp. designed the stamps. Southern Colour Print of New Zealand printed them by offset in panes of 16 and souvenir sheets of four.

The pane of 16 includes eight pairs of the stamps with the two designs separated by a label showing a cloud pattern forming “30” for the 30th Asian international stamp exhibition.

The souvenir sheet includes four stamps with the two designs se-tenant. The center perforation between each pair is in the shape of conjoined diamonds.

The geese design is repeated in the selvage of the souvenir sheet.

Chunghwa Post also issued a NT$25 commemorative April 24 marking the 100th anniversary of the Control Yuan Building. Now a national historic monument, it originally served as the government building of Taihoku prefecture.

Designed by government architect Matsunosuke Moriyama, the building blends elements from various European styles.

A computer-vended postage label also was available at various locations in Taiwan on the first day of the exhibition. The design of this postage label includes the exhibition’s logo and images of Taiwan trout. This rare fish species is protected as a national treasure.

Bird species are featured on a pair of stamps issued April 25, the second day of the exhibition, Ecology Day.

The NT$10 denomination shows a scene of black-faced spoonbills (Platalea minor) at the Zengwen River estuary wetlands. The spoonbills are winter visitors to the wetlands. The NT$25 denomination pictures a black-winged stilt against a backdrop of mangroves at the Sicao wetlands in the Taijian Inland Sea.

Cartor Security Printers of France printed the two stamps by offset in panes of 16, with two vertical se-tenant pairs of the top of the pane and a block of 12 at the bottom with nine labels separating the two stamp designs.

April 26 was Family Day at the show, and the two se-tenant stamps issued that day depict families playing together.

On the NT$5 stamp, a mother, father and son are assembling large building blocks. Another family of three, this time with a daughter, are enjoying a bike ride on the NT$25 stamp. Flowers and a bird are part of the scene of the latter design.

China Color Printing Co. printed this issue, called Family Comes First, in a souvenir sheet of four and a pane of 16.

For Tourism Day on April 27, stamps showing scenes of a lantern festival and a coral formation were issued.

The NT$12 stamp depicts a crowd watching the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival. Several people in the crowd are taking photographs as thousands of lit lanterns ascend into the night sky. Also, silhouettes of two symbolic tourists are included in the lower left of the design, and one of them also is photographing the event.

Pictured on the NT$25 denomination is Vase Rock, a coral formation resembling a vase filled with flowers. The formation is located off a beach on Xiaoliuqiu, Taiwan’s only large coral island. One of the two symbolic tourists included on this design is looking at Vase Rock with binoculars.

The two stamps are in a pane of 16 with the different designs separated by small labels. Cartor printed the stamps.

On the last day of the exhibition, Culture Day, Chunghwa Post issued two stamps reproducing details of paintings of literary gatherings.

The first, called Literary Gathering, is a hanging scroll  from the painting academy under the direction of Emperor Huizong (1082-1135). The second, Elegant Gathering in the Western Garden, was painted by Zhao Mengfu (1243-1322). The stamps are denominated NT$9 and NT$25, respectively.

Cardon Enterprise Co. printed them by offset in a souvenir sheet of two and in a pane of 16 with two blocks of eight.