New Zealand wins the Battle of Rock

| The Punk Philatelist

We’ve seen rock legends on stamps.

USA 1993 Legends of American Music Elvis Presly 29c stamp

We’ve seen classic rock album covers.

UK 2010 Classic Album Covers The Clash London Calling 1st stamp

You might have spotted some Classic Rock Posters at this very website.

Australia, 2006, Australian Rock Posters

Ireland’s Great Irish Songs issue from earlier this year had its share of rockers.

Canada wants you to know that it rocks.

Sweden doesn’t rock. It Roxette.

And then… there’s New Zealand.

Here’s New Zealand bringing us its Rock Legends.

…Geddit?

Take a closer look.

The Kiwis have trolled us all with an issue devoted to iconic rock formations, presented in the form of a rock poster sheetlet.

The subject rockers – sorry, rocks – are breathtaking, and could have formed a perfectly straight nature-themed issue. In fact, divorced from the sheetlet, the stamps DO look quite straight and dignified. The only clue to the fun that’s been had along the way is the metalesque insignia in the corner.

For those in the front row, the sheetlet produces a few more sniggers:

None of this detracts from the beautiful photos featured on the stamps. My favourite is probably Elephant Rock. Sad to read while researching this piece that Elephant Rock’s trunk has joint the pantheon of Rock Legend appendages in the sky. Or, more to the point, in the ocean.

New Zealand 2019 Rock Legends Elephant Rock $1.30 stamp

It seems somewhat unfair that, by wasting its Rock Legends issue on a dumb pun, New Zealand has once again chosen to deny Dave Dobbyn the glory he deserves. But apart from that, well played, New Zealand Post.

Rock on, bro.

What do you think of the Kiwis rocking the boat like this? Sign up and drop a comment below, or get involved over at my socials! I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Subscribe to my RSS feed and never miss a post!

© Philatelic product images remain the copyright of issuing postal administrations and successor authorities

Choo the fat with ‘Mainline Railway Stamps’

| The Punk Philatelist
Mainline Railway Stamps, Howard Plitz

A few months ago I received a new book: Howard Plitz’s Mainline Railway Stamps. As I’ve made clear on the blog, I am bang up for receiving free stuff, so I’m delighted to return the favour with this site’s first ever book review!

Howard is a lifelong philatelist and railway aficionado, and this book is the sequel to his Narrow Gauge Railway Stamps of 2018 (which I haven’t seen). He has chosen a dangerous path in life. What if he made a minor error? The consequences of incurring the combined wrath of philatelists AND trainspotters are too gruesome to contemplate.

Continue reading →

Storytime! Weekend at Punkie’s

| The Punk Philatelist

There’s a new post on the way shortly, but let me put the reviews and rants aside for a moment and tell you about my weekend. It was exciting, but in a way that only my people will understand. (Philatelists are much like those who like fishing: we LOVE telling you all about our big catch.)

So I’d I popped into a local club auction to check out a set of commemorative covers. One of those not-strictly-what-I-collect-but-maybe-I-could-have-it-around kinda deals. In the end, I decided I didn’t need them. Game over for me. I began to mosey through the rest of the viewing tables on my way out.

And that’s when I spied them.

Continue reading →

It’s getting steamy in here

| The Punk Philatelist

Lots of collectors like trains on stamps. But there are trains on stamps, and then, to paraphrase Samuel L. Jackson’s character Neville Flynn from Snakes on a Plane: there are motherfucking trains on motherfucking stamps.

Have a look at these beauties marking the 150th anniversary of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad across the USA:

USA 2019 150th Anniversary of the Intercontinental Railroad stamp strip

There’s some cute design work going on. The Transcontinental Railroad was built across the United States from each direction, with the ceremonial meeting of the tracks taking place at Promontory Summit in Utah in May, 1869. The two engines depicted each hauled a trainload of dignitaries to the ceremony – Jupiter from the west, and No. 119 from the east. The so-called golden spike was then driven into the ground between them to ‘finish’ the railroad. This significant engineering feat cut the time it took to cross the nation from months down to about a week.

American pop culture gives us a certain depiction of an old steam engine: the bulbous chimney, the cattle-grid cowcatcher, a giant headlight, a colorful paint scheme and brass trim all over. It’s only when I see old American locomotives that I’m reminded that they actually looked like that! If the framing was a bit wider, you’d see a moustachio’d villain tying a damsel to the rails. It’s a shame they went for the golden spike in the middle stamp, instead of two runaway convicts pumping one of those see-saw handcars. Continue reading →

Circuit books: WTF?

| The Punk Philatelist

Circuit book and catalogueHello and welcome to the new occasional segment I just decided to launch! Here’s how it works: you ask ‘WTF?’ and then I explain a thing. Got that? Great.

So a few years back I joined a local philatelic society. A stamp club. I hadn’t been in a stamp club since primary school, and it’s not something I mention to my normal friends, because we all know how it sounds (except for people who join stamp clubs, many of whom do not realize how it sounds). I also joined the club’s circuit book list.

Stop right there! “Circuit books” – WTF? Continue reading →

Fondue is big this year

| The Punk Philatelist

Switzerland 2018 Fondue CHF1 fondue caquelonSo I look away for one moment and suddenly everyone is putting fondue on their stamps. And by ‘everyone’ I mean mostly Switzerland, but also Jersey.

Switzerland can be forgiven. Fondue as a mainstream dish is a surprisingly recent development in cuisine, but it’s theirs, and it’s a thing of national pride. Back in the 1930s, sitting around dipping stale bread into a pot of melted cheese must have been a fun way to pass a cold Alpine evening while discussing in four languages how the nearby rise of fascism left you feeling completely neutral. Continue reading →

The 12 Stamps of Christmas

| The Punk Philatelist

UPDATE! I’ve added a couple of reader’s nominations to the bottom of the list! Read on…

It’s the 12th day of Christmas. The Christmas tree withers in the corner, unwatered for days. The batteries on the toys have expired. The gurgling remnants of Christmas lunch are in a fight to the death with New Year’s resolutions. So it’s the perfect time for me to give you my 12 Stamps of Christmas! After all, I am your true love.

As mail revenues continue to plummet, for the postal administrations of Christendom, Christmas offers one last chance to hear the bells jingling on their cash registers. (Do you know how many Christmas cards I got in the mail this year? None. That’s a first. It might be that I’ve been crossed off multiple lists. But I choose to blame The Pace of Change.)

So which countries brought their festive philatelic A-game in 2018? These are my favourites of the stamps that crossed my radar. Continue reading →