"Issued in 1972 in a set of seven, the stamps are miniature, one-sided, 33 1⁄3 rpm vinyl records playable on a standard turntable. You peeled off the backing paper and stuck them on an envelope or postcard. Content includes Bhutanese folk songs and histories of the country in English and Dzongkha, the local language. "
I work in IT. I used to be a philatelist (can you stop?). How on earth did I never think of this.
It makes those bloody awful business card CDs (off of the 90s n noughties) look pretty naff.
In the 70s and early 80s you might get a record like this made of flimsy plastic as a toy in a cereal box, or as a happy meal toy, etc. never heard of postage stamps but seems like a similar use case.
Now I wonder if these were ever really used as actual postage stamps? Besides the size and weight, stamps need to be "cancelled" by, well, stamping them with another kind of stamp (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancellation_(mail)) before an envelope goes in the mail, and I can't imagine how that would work with these...
I searched @Techmoan’s channel for coverage first, because he seems exactly like a bloke who’d be interested in doing 40 minutes documenting these.
Just from eyeballing the video you linked, I would worry that the playing surface is so small, a normal turntable would refuse to play. An override may be required, because most tonearms would sense the runoff grooves or label boundary simply by distance from the center spindle.
The stamps look barely wider than a standard record’s label.
As kids we collected pokemon cards. Even less inherent value and we didn't even really play the game well or certainly didn't know the proper rules.
Stamps are collectibles from all over the world, that keep/kept getting made with varied art, history, etc on it often having interesting factoids to know about em, etc
And with some effort if you were writing letters and postcards anyway you got them for free (with some stamp lines on em from time to time)
Sure stamps are collectible, and have some value, but at the end of the day it should be within reason. At the end of the day stamps are simply brightly coloured bits of paper, and their price should reflect that. Some of the more expensive stamps go for hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions, which goes so far beyond what is reasonable that the only logical explanation is that the buyers are paying purely for status. Which makes them no different from NFT's.
"Issued in 1972 in a set of seven, the stamps are miniature, one-sided, 33 1⁄3 rpm vinyl records playable on a standard turntable. You peeled off the backing paper and stuck them on an envelope or postcard. Content includes Bhutanese folk songs and histories of the country in English and Dzongkha, the local language. "
I work in IT. I used to be a philatelist (can you stop?). How on earth did I never think of this.
It makes those bloody awful business card CDs (off of the 90s n noughties) look pretty naff.
Barking mad and quite beautiful. Love it!
Given the timelines and lead times for production, I assume this was conceptualized on a mid-1960s acid trip.
People can have a lot of imagination.
With or without any chemical encouragement :)
When acid got popular and was not the least bit unlawful or anything, tons of people never imagined there could be life-changing legal issues someday.
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In the 70s and early 80s you might get a record like this made of flimsy plastic as a toy in a cereal box, or as a happy meal toy, etc. never heard of postage stamps but seems like a similar use case.
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Previous discussion:
The curious tale of Bhutan's playable record postage stamps (2015) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22896682 - April 2020 (30 comments)
Does anyone know how large these stamps are? (I didn't see any dimensions in the article.)
I don't own any, but https://www.megaministore.com/stamps/asia/bhutan-stamps/bhut... lists the sizes as 69mm and 100mm. I suppose that would be the diameter, not radius. Either way, pretty big, I'd say.
Now I wonder if these were ever really used as actual postage stamps? Besides the size and weight, stamps need to be "cancelled" by, well, stamping them with another kind of stamp (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancellation_(mail)) before an envelope goes in the mail, and I can't imagine how that would work with these...
EDIT: there are also first day covers using these stamps available (https://boingboing.net/2022/07/07/look-at-these-cool-1970s-p...), and the photo shows that it actually works, but not really well, especially with the black one...
In case you’re curious how they sound:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H0DXyCiKbDI
I searched @Techmoan’s channel for coverage first, because he seems exactly like a bloke who’d be interested in doing 40 minutes documenting these.
Just from eyeballing the video you linked, I would worry that the playing surface is so small, a normal turntable would refuse to play. An override may be required, because most tonearms would sense the runoff grooves or label boundary simply by distance from the center spindle.
The stamps look barely wider than a standard record’s label.
Interesting! Now I'm wondering if Leighton or Feynman was aware of these stamps (my ddg/google-fu is bad today).
I find it fascinating that something so inherently worthless like stamps can sell for such large sums. Old fashioned NFT's?
These stamps however are very cool. And the prices are actually reasonable.
As kids we collected pokemon cards. Even less inherent value and we didn't even really play the game well or certainly didn't know the proper rules.
Stamps are collectibles from all over the world, that keep/kept getting made with varied art, history, etc on it often having interesting factoids to know about em, etc And with some effort if you were writing letters and postcards anyway you got them for free (with some stamp lines on em from time to time)
>worthless like stamps
Stamps used to be almost like money. I have payed for stuff with stamps.
> inherently worthless
There are many things that different people places different value on. The things I don’t place value on aren’t inherently worthless.
In the end, it's all supply and demand - even gold is no exception.
Sure stamps are collectible, and have some value, but at the end of the day it should be within reason. At the end of the day stamps are simply brightly coloured bits of paper, and their price should reflect that. Some of the more expensive stamps go for hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions, which goes so far beyond what is reasonable that the only logical explanation is that the buyers are paying purely for status. Which makes them no different from NFT's.