Showing posts with label Design error. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Design error. Show all posts

Thursday, February 17, 2022

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or someone else?

Here is something funny for the day. In 2002, Mozambique issued a series for famous composers. This is the stamp they issued for Mozart. Only problem is that they wrote Ludwig van Beethoven on the stamp.


Beethoven's image is bottom left. Interestingly enough is that the image shows the symbol of the Free Masons. Apparently both Mozart and Beethoven were founding members.

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Sunday, December 5, 2021

Irish Christmas stamps invoke anger

December 25th, Christmas Day, a time for rejoicing for the entire Christian / Catholic world (some celebrate a week or so later, like in Georigia). Despite being Jewish and not celebrating Christmas, it is nice to see the spirit of Christmas and the many pretty stamps that are issued all over the world.

Ireland innocently brought out a set of stamps, or adhesive labels for Christmas 2021. The set includes four stamps for local postage with the words "Peace and Joy", "Naughty or Nice?", "Ho Ho Ho" and "Sending Hugs" and two stamps for international postage for "Nollaig Shona" (which means Merry Christmas in Gaelic Irish) "Love". It was the local stamps that invoked the ire of the public. Who would have thought that these stamps would have invoked such feelings?

The outrage began with a call to a popular program named Liveline where someone emailed them to pent his frustration at the choice, saying that the stamps used for Irish addresses were secular and didn’t include scenes from Jesus’ birth, such as the Nativity scene or anything that wasn't to his liking.

He made a claim that instead of the Nativity scene, local stamps had phrases such as ‘naughty or nice’, and ‘ho ho ho’. This was actually a part of the problem.



Other callers felt that the phrase ‘naughty or nice’ implies sex and another said that she didn’t want to send a Christmas card to her local priest with a naughty or nice stamp. The phrase ‘ho ho ho’ stamp together with the sexual implication of the naughty stamp concerned people about the possible innuendo.


"The national Christmas stamp range, which supposedly celebrates a major and very ancient Christian festival on December 25, is, as one caller said to Joe Duffy, effectively discriminatory, because if you want a religious stamp you have to pay extra."








Monday, July 5, 2021

Egypt misspells its country name

Here is a short story for the day because why make a short story long. Actually that is what marketing is all about, taking an issue writing a lot about it without actually saying much, much like the character of Hawthorne in "Yes Minister". Check this out as an example:



Anyway on 20th Oct 2020, Egypt issued a £E4 stamp issued for CAPMAS, which is the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. Basically this is the official government agency in charge of collecting, processing, analyzing etc of statistical data and conducting the census.

However this stamp was withdrawn from all post offices after two weeks! Why? Because they misspelled Egypt in both places. The y and the g were transposed making it Eygpt.

How many hands did this pass through and no one noticed. However this kind of error is the most difficult error to catch, ask a bookkeeper.

This was fixed and reissued later but people who spotted the error in time and bought stock are now selling them for around $20. This may seem peanuts but £E4 is worth around 25c!


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Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Oops, Spain made a boo boo

In 2020 America lost it. A rogue cop killed a known criminal with whom he had a history with. The murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a White police officer sparked riots across the United States and around the world, including in Spain, where activists joined the global movement in seeking to raise awareness about discrimination and racism.

During one of the biggest such rallies in Spain, thousands marched in Madrid in June, making their way to the capital’s Puerta del Sol square, a popular spot for rallies and protests.

In May 2021, Spain’s postal service, Correos, decided to jump on the anti-racism and on the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death, issued a set of four stamps with images of skin-tone stamps, the lightest being the most valuable.
“The darker the stamp, the less value it will have. Therefore, when making a shipment, it will be necessary to use more black stamps than white ones. That way, each letter and each shipment will become a reflection of the inequality created by racism.” Correos said in a news release announcing the launch.

This prompted criticism worldwide as the issue itself was considered racist. People criticized the campaign upon its launch, calling it tone-deaf or "accidentally racist."  "Correos is an anti-racist company," said the Correos spokesman, but the damage was done!

The issue was withdrawn after three days. A new rarity? My only question is why are there not protests worldwide when Jews are killed? How often does it reach the headlines?




Tuesday, November 24, 2020

An error in design

This time I thought that it would be nice to show you an amusing stamp design error that fits nicely in my collection.

Who doesn't love watching basketball? Well I will not lie to you, I don't, I find it to watch sports on TV, unless it is Rugby, but that's just me. But, and there is a but, to this day I remember Israel's win in 1977, in the Final Four.



The European League ("EuroLeague") in basketball (or formerly known as the "European Champions Cup") is an annual basketball competition between the best teams in Europe. The eternal Israeli champion, Maccabi Tel Aviv, participated in the EuroLeague regularly and even won the European Championship five times, for the first time in 1977. I remember when we won, people rushed into the streets, cars were hooting, noise everywhere and way past my bedtime.

Zaire issued a stamp dedicated to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics shows and either accidentally or not, or probably just looking for a nice basketball image, used the image of one of Maccabi Tel Aviv's games in the EuroLeague. Sports fans among you will probably recognize Mickey Berkowitz, the greatest Israeli basketball player of all time.

Remember that in 1984, Google was just a big number (1 plus 100 zeros) and so it was not easy for them to do proper research.

As you probably know, the reason Israel, a Middle Eastern country, plays in the EuroLeague, is because of the cultural boycott of Arab countries over Israel.
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Monday, July 13, 2020

Suez Canal design error

Let us have a smile for the day. In 2014, the Egyptian government proudly announced plans to build a new section of the Suez Canal. 

Since it was completed in 1869, the Suez Canal has been coveted by European empires and local Arab nationalists alike. It was once a major gateway to the British Empire in India, but Egypt, under Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized it in 1956, which led to a war between the England, France, the two previous owners and Egypt. Oh wait, Israel was also involved in the war, alongside the British and the French.

Today, revenues from the canal, are now a huge channel of revenue for the Egyptian government. The new plan for a 45-mile extension of the canal would allow ships to travel in both directions for a section of the waterway. Not every Egyptian was happy as it turned out that thousands of Egyptians were evicted from their homes to make way for the bypass. 

The Egyptian government were very proud of the project, and of course needed money, and decided to commission a line of stamps showing off their humble multi-billion dollar project.  

The three stamps, issued August 5th 2014, feature images of a map of the Suez Canal, along with photographs of a waterway in a desert setting which do indeed appear to come from Egypt. The only problem is that the designers seem to have confused their canals. 



The middle stamp shows another two lane waterway in a green, fertile landscape which bears a distinct resemblance to the Panama Canal – the 48 mile Central American passage which links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.



Embarrassed authorities announced that they were halting the stamps’ production. Of course the mistake was widely mocked by Egyptians, but for us, it is another amusing anecdote to put a smile on our faces.

They redesigned the issue and released it. Here is the new design:



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