We see all over the world that postal services are pouring all their creativity into issuing stamps in all kinds of shapes and, literally, flavours. This is primarily to encourage collectors to include these special issues in their collection.
We already have stamps in three-dimensional form, in the form of gramophone records (that you can actually play), with smell and taste, made of wood, gold leaf, embroidered, and all kinds of other materials. But is that so new?
Almost 67 years ago, on October 24, 1958, a postage stamp was released in Poland on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Polish Post. This 2.50 Zloty stamp was printed in black on coloured watermarked and serrated paper. On the occasion of the anniversary, Polish Post published an illustrated book. A sheet was pasted in the front containing the same stamp, but in a slightly larger size. That was the first peculiarity. 1,405,033 copies of the regular stamp were sold. The book sold 30,240 copies. But that wasn’t all! On December 12, 1958, Polish Post surprised eveybody. The same stamp was reissued, now in the value of 50 Zloty. The colour was changed to blue-black and the stamp paper was replaced with…. silk! Despite the relatively high amount of the ‘postage value’, 167,810 of these pieces of silk were still sold. Quite a lot of material in total! This block is highly sought after by thematic stamp collectors of horses, means of transport or anniversaries.
