The Philatelic Museum, Singapore

Philately is the collection or study of postal materials such as the largely-collected stamps, postcards, post offices' stamp marks and so forth. And, Singapore has just the place to learn and experience about them; the Philatelic Museum, which is a few minutes walk from the Peranakan Museum. The Philatelic Museum is competitively interactive as the Peranakan one.

Before I go on to talk about the museum and its stamp collections, you may find more about our Brunei stamps on Brunei Resources' blog where he also keeps a separate blog about his money and stamp collections. His interesting entries on Brunei stamps are found here and here. And, there's also a nice history of Brunei stamps on the Brunei Postal Service Department website though many of the other links do not work.

Ok, back to the museum.....

In the first room, the concept of philately is introduced where records of living and non-living things, ideas and events can be finely-printed onto stamps. The picture below shows how learning philately jargons is done through invertible tile pieces.


As I walked along the walls of the rooms, I couldn't help but feel like I am reading a gigantic and responsive story book where along some paragraphs, something can be flipped, opened, magnified, turned on giving yourself the sense of discovery besides from just plain reading. And, whatever you may have to do to discover, these "doors" come in all sorts and sizes as shown in the following few pictures.






Interestingly, there were such things as fake or forged stamps! Those on display was a comparison between the fake ones from the real ones. Unlike counterfeit notes, their differences could be in ink colour, the price value and sometimes the design.


I know collecting stamps is a popular hobby but, never did I realised it is also a much revered one. They even have stamp competitions! And, distinguished international awards for stamp collectors! 0_o




So, for all you philatelists out there who didn't know, the closest, big stamp event is just a sea away. Look out for SINGPEX.


You will be surprised to find that stamps come in all novelties. Below is a Republique de Djibouti stamp that's made of wood.


From Bhutan, we have stamps in the form of vinyl records that could be played! The record has the national anthem and a brief description of Bhutan. Click here to see other distinctive stamps from Bhutan. Talk about a great tourism marketing strategy!


Crystal-studded stamps from Austria.


Halogram Stamps from New Zealand


Glow-in-the-dark stamps from Singapore of some nocturnal animals


Gold-plated stamps from Mauritius


Customising your own stamps with British stamps.


Here is the entire collection of Singapore stamps from its first to the current.


The Singapore stamp collection occupied more than half of a wall in the room.


Some other interesting facts about stamps. Genuine stamps with mistakes are definite-keeper items.


There is a room on the first floor of the museum dedicated to the olden times of Singapore where history is depicted in the stamps.


A cupboard of stored knowledge waiting to be opened. These are mostly describing the different cultures in Singapore.


Stamps of junks




No doubt stamps and letters carry a sentiment that emails cannot equate.