You wood, woodn’t you?

Regular readers of this blog would know I’m not averse to some saucy double entendre, which ought to be difficult when I’m talking about philately. But not when Australia Post’s marketing department is around.

AP has just printed stamps on wood.

You can insert your own joke here. I refuse to sully my lips by nibbling at such easy bait.

The issue celebrates Australian Trees. Here are the four stamps in their native environment of a minisheet.

I was underwhelmed by the advance publicity, but I changed my tune when I saw them in the flesh. They’re quite striking. It’s an unusual angle for a tree stamp. These designs place us at the tree’s base, allowing us to appreciate the detail of the trunk and the scattering of the branches. Shame they had to go and chuck the explanatory text right across the most interesting bits.

But back to wood. If you buy the Wooden Stamp Sheetlet Pack, you get a self-adhesive sheetlet of ten stamps printed on a thin slab of wood. Here’s a scan, thanks to user Tassie_Stamps at the Stampboards forum, which has a thread dedicated to this issue. It’s not a fuzzy scan. It’s just that it turns out wood is not a suitable material upon which to print stamps. Who’da thunk it?

The stamps can be used for postage, as Stampboards users like john6625 have demonstrated. That’s a paper stamp on the left, a wooden stamp on the right. Nice first day cover, john6625, you clever man.

The release of wooden stamps must be an enormous relief to the countless thousands of people who you see standing in the Post Office saying “I like this stamp, but does it come in wood?” These thousands are countless, of course, because they don’t exist. No one has ever requested stamps printed on wood. No, this issue is designed to milk the collector. Call in the Con Cow!

My thanks to Tassie_Stamps and john6625 for letting me nick their scans. I recommend Stampboards if you have any interest in the hobby, whether you’re a beginner or a massive geek. Just make sure you take the time to follow the rules when you sign up and read the FAQs before you jump in, or the regulars will get grumpy. You’ve been warned. x

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