Golden Monkey stamp

Golden Monkey Stamp
Country of production	People's Republic of China
Date of production	15 February 1980 (1980-02-15)
Designer	Huang Yongyu Shao Bolin
Commemorates	Chinese year of the Monkey
No. in existence	Up to 5 million
Face value	8 fen

The Golden Monkey Stamp or Gēngshēn Monkey is a postage stamp issued in China in 1980 of which 5 million copies were printed. Although not rare, the stamp has come to symbolise the strong market for collectable postage stamps in Asia. Demand for the stamp has made it one of the most sought after contemporary Chinese stamps.^[1]

Technical details

The stamp was designed by Huang Yongyu and Shao Bolin and printed by the photogravure and recess printing methods. It is perforated 11.5.^[2]

Chinese New Year stamps

The stamp is in the popular Chinese zodiac series for the Chinese new year, the most recent of which is the 2011 Year of the Rabbit stamp which sold out at post offices in China within a few hours.^[3][4] In Chinese culture the number 8 and the colour red are both seen as lucky.

Philatelic value

Although the stamp was initially common, a full sheet of 80 sold for 1.2 million yuan ($180,000 or £117,200^[5]) in 2011 with a single stamp selling for 10,000 yuan ($1,500), which was 125,000 times more than its original price of 8 fen.^[6] The stamp had a catalogue value of US$10 unused and US$5 used in 1988.^[7] In August 2011, a complete sheet sold for HK$1.44M (£117,300) in Zurich Asia's Hong Kong sale, and another sheet sold for HK$1.495,000 (£122,700) at an InterAsia sale in September 2011.^[5]

Forgeries

The stamp has become so valuable that it has been repeatedly forged.^[8]

See also

• Asian philately
• China Philatelic Society of London
• China Stamp Society
• Postage stamps and postal history of the People's Republic of China

References

1. Kolesnikov-Jessop, Sonia (18 November 2010). "Revival of Stamp Collecting in China". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
2. Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part 17 China. 7th edition. London: Stanley Gibbons, 2006, p. 136. ISBN 0-85259-639-1
3. "Who said modern stamps were not a lucrative investment?" Archived 5 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine World Stamp News, 30 January 2011, accessed 20 January 2011
4. "Rabbit Stamp Ignite the Collection Frenzy" Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine CRI English.COM, 8 January 2011, accessed 1 February 2011
5. Far East Collector's Guide, a supplement to Gibbons Stamp Monthly, November, 2011, p. 3.
6. "Rare stamps of Chinese zodiac "Golden Monkey" auctioned for 1.2 million RMB". People's Daily Online. 5 January 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
7. Page 592, Scott 1989 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue: Volume 2 Featuring Countries of the World A-F, Scott Publishing Co. (1988), softcover, 1160 pages, ISBN 0-89487-109-9
8. "Identifying Forgeries of China 1980 Year of Monkey stamp issue". Stamp2.com. Archived from the original on 4 May 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2012.