The Answer's A Lemon

THE earnest type of philatelist who peers lovingly through a glass at the pages of his albums and who regularly refers to Stanley Gibbon’s Stamp Catalogue, will cough politely, or smile uneasily, when he sees Tonga’s latest stamps.

Tonga, ever a land of stamp extro verts, has, over the years, offered the world a variety of way-out styles, in cluding circular ones of metal (the size of cartwheels), embossed stamps to represent coins, and stamps in the shape of Tongatapu.

Her latest, which appeared on April 21, are described officially as the first definitive issue in 16 years.

They are about an inch wide by a quarter of an inch deep—and they’re in the shape of bananas.

Each value (from 1 to 5 seniti) is packed in a special dispensing box containing 200 copies—the stamps are sold on a self-adhesive paper. The bananas are the first of a fruit series.

Coconut stamps should be issued in August.

According to a notice in the Tongan Chronicle, technical and ship ping delays in the delivery of the new issue caused a postal emergency in Tonga during November and December last year.

This meant that a quantity of with drawn 1 seniti commemoratives had to be surcharged and these were

supplemented by an airlifted supply from England of the 1953 definitives.

In all, a total of nine different provisionals were placed on sale in Tongan post offices.

The new stamps are yellow, which is reasonable, with red lettering, which isn’t, and postmarks, too, are in the shape of bananas. The stamps carry the inscription, “The Best in the Pacific”, but whether this refers to Tonga’s bananas or her stamps is not too clear.

How do stamp dealers in Sydney feel about Tonga’s latest fling? The three we phoned knew nothing of the issue. One dealer said: “We gave away Tongan stamps a long while ago”. There is a feeling that Tongan stamps are too gimmicky.

Tonga’s new banana definitives will no doubt receive the raspberry for aesthetic appeal, but you have to give Tongans an apple for gameness.

Besides, the stamps probably make good licking.

The banana stamps and their banana

postmark.