50^TH ANNIVERSAY OF POSTAL SERVICE TODAY

Ai Li-Shan

The 50^th anniversary of the Postal Service Today magazine was celebrated on January 15, 2008. For those of you not familiar with the magazine, this is the magazine that is issued by the Directorate General of Posts (now Taiwan Post, Ltd.). It was first issued on January 15, 1958 and consisted of 18 pages. Over the years it has continued to grow and now has approximately 80 pages in each issue, in color.

The magazine has information on the various new issues as well as interesting stories on the postal history of China, plus many other countries. Over the years it has produced some very good articles on the red revenues, large dragons etc. It has been a bi-lingual magazine most of the time, but with issues 421 to 528 (1993-2001) it had separate issues each month, one in Chinese and the other in English. However, the demand for the English edition was not sufficient to continue the publication, so it reverted back to the bi-lingual format.

The 50^th anniversary celebration was held on the 10^th floor of the post office management building (where the philatelic department is located). To celebrate the event, several products were prepared and given away free at the event.

Figure 1 is the Postal Service Today magazine #601 (it is 7.50 x 10.25 inches, the size of all the issues).

Figure 2 is a special souvenir sheet (from the personal postage stamps series). You will note the #1 postal service today magazine with the Santa Claus on the cover, then 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 cover illustrations. Actually there are 10 of the 5 NT$ stamps on the sheet that could of course be removed and used for postage. This sheet (size 11.75 x 8.25 inches), was only available at the ceremony and was given away free to those that attended. The quantity of the sheet was 1,200.

Figure 3 is a special cover that was prepared and is 160 x 115mm and was issued in a quantity of 10,000. These were also given away free.

Figure 4 is a special folder for holding the personal stamps sheet of stamps (8.5 x 12 inches). This was used to prevent damage to the stamps. Now, to put all your goodies in was a special shopping bag, figure 5. Many times the post office will prepare these bags for the special ceremonies, as well bags to hold your purchases from the various philatelic centers. There are even collectors of the various shopping bags! I presently know of at least two that have built up a most interesting collection!