Gift

A kind soul by the username of u/tarkaleancondor was giving out stamps unconditionally on Reddit last month and I happened by chance to stumble upon the post she had created to do that. There were already many people who had requested stamps from her in that post. So, I wasn’t sure if she had any left. I tried my luck and dropped her a private message and to my astonishment, she still had plenty left to give away! After a quick exchange of pleasantries, I gave her my mailing address, thanked her profusely and waited eagerly for the stamps to arrive.


After consolidating everyone’s requests.

The stamps took about 2 weeks to reach me in Singapore from The USA. 

It finally arrived! Awesome handwriting.

A pretty sticker securing the back of the envelope.

Checked my mailbox yesterday and saw this small envelope inside waiting for me. I was so happy to receive it, it was like an early Christmas present! I rushed home, filled with excitement from wanting to see what was inside this small packet of happiness. I also love the stamps she has used to send me this mail, particularly the ones with the orange Sun and a pink Rhodochrosite, a type of rock mineral. Don’t think I am going to wash off those stamps, I will just keep them as they are on the envelope.

Ta-da!

She was kind enough to include a written card as a backing to hold these wonderful looking stamps. There are used stamps, CTOs, a mint block of 4 and a machine label on a paper piece. Some of these stamps look really interesting. I shall do a little research followed by a short write-up on a select few and then update them on this post soon. Once again, if she’s seeing this, many thanks to Reddit user u/tarkaleancondor for giving out free stamps to fellow Redditors!

Update (22/12/21)

The first stamp that I found interesting and would like to talk about, is this USA block of 4 that was issued on 3 October 1994. This is actually a se-tenant set of stamps that form an underwater scene, with all of them sharing the same face value of 29 cents. Designed by Charles Lynn Bragg, it was issued by the USPS during the National Stamp Collecting Month to encourage youths to partake in the hobby of stamp collecting. The name of this stamp issue is called “Wonders of Sea”. One fascinating thing I came across while reading up about this block of stamps is that during its first day of issue, the FDC was brought about 24.3 metres undersea off Hawaii’s Waikiki Beach in a submersible vehicle and was then cancelled near a shipwreck site. Some of the marine animals that are depicted in these stamps, such as the Black-nosed Butterfly fish, Pacific Dolphin and Clown Fish, can all be found in those waters.

Image source: John McCallum on stampmagazine.co.uk

The next stamp which I would like to talk about, is this machine label from Ireland. Designed by Zinc Design Consultants, this is part of a series of 16 stamps issued by An Post on 21 January 2016 to commemorate the Centenary of the Easter Uprising in 1916 and the events that led to the birth of the Irish Republic. The women featured in this stamp are Dr. Kathleen Lynn and Elizabeth O’Farrell, both of whom were medically trained and took part in the Easter Uprising to resist British rule. I will link 2 articles from Wikipedia for further reading. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Lynn

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_O%27Farrell

The next stamp is from The USSR a.k.a. The Soviet Union, which no longer exists. Designed by Yuri Bronfenbrener and issued on 14 June 1984, this stamp with a face value of 10 kopeks, depicts the Marekan Lighthouse on the Sea of Okhotsk, the far Eastern side of Russia. Sadly, the history and specifications of the Marekan Lighthouse has eluded me as I couldn’t find any information about it on Google. Oh well, lighthouses have always captivated me, so I’d thought of sharing its story.


Featured on this USSR stamp, is a composer known as Aram llyich Khachaturian. He was widely considered as one of the top Soviet classical composers of the 20th century. The musical score on the stamp shows one of his popular pieces of work, a symphony for a play called “Masquerade”. This stamp was designed by V. Koval and was issued on 25 May 1983.

Further reading of A.l. Khachaturian: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aram_Khachaturian

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