In the previous articles we’ve talks about explored top 10 forged stamps in history in Part 1and Part 2, and also about Top 10 Most Common Animals on Postage Stamps. Today, we’ll look at the top 10 most unusual stamp materials.
Portugal issued the world’s first cork postage stamp in 2007. It was manufactured from an extremely thin layer of self-adhesive cork. Because cork has its own natural grain, every stamp looks slightly different. The material was also a perfect choice for a country famous for its cork industry.
“Portugal's Cork Stamp. Issued on 06 December 2007, this unique stamp is printed on very thinly sliced cork (0.35 mm). Printed on the cork substrate is a stylized image of a cork tree sitting atop a hill. The stamp has a denomination of 1 Euro.
The stamp brings attention to Portugal's cork industry, which provides well over 30% of the world's market for cork.” - philaquelymoi
Switzerland’s 2000 St. Gallen Embroidery Stamp
Switzerland’s St. Gallen Embroidery stamp was not simply printed to look like fabric. Its design was genuinely embroidered using textile threads. This gave it the appearance and texture of a tiny piece of decorative lace. Swiss Post presented it as the world’s first authentic embroidered postage stamp.
The Naturally Switzerland stamp was cut from a thin layer of genuine Swiss pinewood. The wood reportedly came from trees that were around 120 years old. Since every piece of wood has a different grain, each stamp was slightly unique. It looked more like a small wooden souvenir than ordinary postage.
“The wooden stamps are roughly the thickness of a credit card and are made from 120-year-old pines felled in northern Switzerland.
The stamp was designed by Thomas Rathgeb, a graphic artist and Swiss Post employee.
“Rathgeb’s design focuses on the sustainability and uniqueness of this natural, living material – the structure of the wood, integrated into the contemporary design, produces a different picture on each stamp,” Swiss Post said on Thursday.
“This makes each stamp unique, just as each tree is unique.”” - swissinfo.ch
Austria’s Lederhosen Stamp 2015
Austria’s Lederhosen stamp was shaped like traditional Alpine leather trousers. It was made from Alcantara, a synthetic material with a leather-like surface. The stamp was also decorated with genuine Swarovski crystals. Its shape, texture and decoration made it look more like a miniature fashion accessory than a postage stamp.
Austria’s UEFA Euro 2008 football stamp
This circular Austrian stamp was made from the same type of material used for the official Euro 2008 football. The synthetic material contained polyurethane and gave the stamp a football-like surface. Its circular shape made the connection even clearer. Many stamps show footballs, but this one was actually made from football material.
Portugal’s A Time for Hope Philatelic Block, 2020
Portugal’s A Time for Hope souvenir sheet contained an insert made from graphene. An information circuit carrying Miguel Torga’s poem Contagion was incorporated into the graphene element and could be accessed electronically. The detachable stamp itself was not made entirely from graphene, since the material formed part of the larger philatelic block. Still, it was an unusual combination of traditional philately and modern technology.
Austria’s Viennese Rose was manufactured from genuine Augarten porcelain. Its floral design was added using screen printing. The hard and glossy surface made it resemble a miniature decorative plate. Porcelain is also fragile, so it is certainly not a material we would normally expect to find on an envelope.
Austria’s Pietà and Cross, 2016
The Pietà and Cross stamp was made from an actual piece of glass. Its design was applied to the reverse and then treated with heat. Printing it on the back helped protect the image while allowing it to remain visible through the glass. Austrian Post presented it as the first postage-valid stamp made from this material.
Austria’s Post from Another World, 2006
Austria’s Post from Another World contained powder from a genuine H-chondrite meteorite. The meteorite material was applied using a specially developed process and authenticated by Vienna’s Natural History Museum. Unlike stamps that only show meteorites, this issue actually contains matter originating in space. That makes every example a small piece of both philatelic and cosmic history.
“The ground meteorite has been applied to the stamp by the Austrian State Printing Company using a method specially developed for this purpose. The meteorite was first examined by the Vienna Natural History Museum, an institution that has acquired an excellent international reputation through over 200 years of collecting and investigating meteorites, and identified as being H-chondrite (a stone meteorite, subgroup of “ordinary chondrite”). The Vienna Natural History Museum’s examination provides proof beyond doubt that an original meteorite has been used for the stamp. The meteorite most probably originated from the Asteroid Belt, an accumulation of hundreds of thousands of chunks of stone, ranging in size from gravel stones to mountains, that orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter (at an orbital radius around three times the distance between the earth and the sun).” - post.at
Bhutan’s Talking Stamps were self-adhesive plastic stamps shaped and grooved like miniature records. When placed on a record player, they played traditional music, the Bhutanese national anthem and spoken information about the country.
Switzerland’s Musical Stamp, 2014
Switzerland’s later Musical Stamp used a specially engraved lacquer coating and played a brass-band version of the Swiss national anthem at 33 rpm. These stamps deserve first place because they were not only used for postage - they could also produce real sound.
“The 5fr stamp is designed to look like a vinyl record. The label area of the record surrounding the central spindle hole includes the country name “Helvetia”; the denomination “500” (for 500 centimes, or 5fr); the name of the national anthem Swiss Psalm in German, French, Italian and Romansh; and the name of the composer, Alberich Zwyssig.
The anthem’s lyrics came from a poem by Leonhard Widmer. The first verse is printed in fluorescent ink on four Swiss stamps issued May 5, 2011 (Scott 1422a-d), to commemorate the anthem’s 50th anniversary. Swiss Psalm was first performed in 1841, but did not become the national anthem until 120 years later.” - linns.com
Today, we’ve seen stamps made from cork, fabric, wood, porcelain, glass and several other surprising materials. Some represented an important national industry, while others were designed to demonstrate new technology or simply create something collectors had never seen before.
Top 10 Most Common Animals on Postage Stamps
