Philpost releases dragon stamps for Lunar New Year

MANILA, Philippines - To mark the coming of the Year of the Dragon, the Philippine Postal Corporation (Philpost) recently released its two dragon-design stamps to commemorate the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese lunar calendar.

Chinese believe that the Year of the Dragon is an auspicious year.

“The Chinese have many beliefs and there are those who always wait for the release of our New Year stamps because the designs would always depend on the character of the year according to the Chinese calendar. For 2012, it’s the Year of the Dragon, so our designs are dragons,” said Philpost Philatelic Division chief Elenita San Diego.

The Philpost New Year stamps are also a hit with philatelists or postage stamp collectors, especially those who collect by themes.

The New Year 2012 stamps would be sold in denominations of P7 and P30.

Around 35,000 pieces have initially been printed for both the P7 and the P30 stamps, while there are 5,000 souvenir sheets, each worth P74.

The stamps, designed by Jesus Alfredo de los Santos, have been released since Dec. 5.

The head of a fire-breathing dragon can be seen in the P7 stamp, while the full picture of a dragon has been printed on the P30 stamp. The words “2012 Year of the Dragon” are written at the bottom of both designs.

Meanwhile, the greeting “Manigong Bagong Taon” and its English translation “Happy New Year” are written on the P7 and P30 stamps, respectively.

The stamps, measuring 40 mm x 30 mm, were printed by APO Production Unit.

Imported unwatermarked paper was used for the stamps.