"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!
xattt · 6h ago
Given the timelines and lead times for production, I assume this was conceptualized on a mid-1960s acid trip.
efitz · 1h ago
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 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!
The curious tale of Bhutan's playable record postage stamps (2015) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22896682 - April 2020 (30 comments)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H0DXyCiKbDI
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...
These stamps however are very cool. And the prices are actually reasonable.
There are many things that different people places different value on. The things I don’t place value on aren’t inherently worthless.