2020. The 'Year of the Rat' at the General Post Office

In January 2019, Singapore Post announced a new annual series of eSAM-type variable value stamps dedicated to Chinese zodiac animals. The initial design, the first in the series, was a composition that brought together all twelve animals (see article, published in VARIABLE 51). The 2020 design released in January is dedicated to the Year of the Rat.

This new eSAM kiosk design was issued in conjunction with a set of two 'traditional' stamps, for domestic and international mail, together with various associated philatelic products. The stamp is designed by local artist Lim An-ling, who attended a signing session on the first day of issue (see image below).

The Chinese Zodiac calendar is based on five cycles each of 12 years. Each cycle is tempered by one of the five Chinese elements; metal, wood, water, fire and earth, and each year features one of the twelve animal signs of the zodiac. The first animal in the zodiac series is the rat; one of the legends tells of the Buddha calling all the animals on the earth with only twelve appearing before him. Another legend tells of the Jade Emperor organizing a race to determine the fastest animal with the rat being the first to arrive.

		The 'Year of the Rat' design was available from January 8th 2020, while stocks lasted, from the GPO, the Singapore main post office and from only two of the three installed eSAM kiosks with codes S022 and S796. Because of the great interest shown, visitors were only allowed to purchase a maximum of 200 stamps per transaction during the first day of issue.

Unfortunately, on the morning of the first day, the S796 kiosk had several breakdowns, and the S022 kiosk had a print head failure, causing the final part of the face value indicator not to be printed on the stamps (right image). This problem was finally resolved with the installation of a new thermal printer in the machine.

On the date of issue, the SAM kiosks offered direct purchase of variable value stamps with 13 current basic postage rates ranging from 30c., the basic local postage rate up to 20 g. or '1st Local', to $3.35 the local mail rate for shipments up to 2 kilos (see article, also published in VARIABLE 44). The two basic values ​​for domestic mail i.e. letters up to 20 g and up to 40 g are issued as NVI stamps - '1st Local' and '2nd Local', respectively. By using the 'Custom Value' option on the main menu, users were able to buy stamps with any face value starting from 5c.

The rolls of 4,000 thermal self-adhesive paper labels were manufactured by Australia Post - Sprintpak, with the same characteristics as earlier label issues.