This is about the picture (or rather a painting) of a cheeky monkey that appeared on a piece of Chinese stamp ( a very small stamp indeed) during the Monkey Lunar year in 1982 which had a postage value of 8 cents. Why is this piece of stamp so special? Well, a single sheet of 80 such stamps was auctioned in China in 2011 for a whopping one million dollars RMB. Could you imagine, someone can just spend one million on a sheet of stamps instead of buying a house/property like we all do in Singapore. If you own a few sheets of such stamps, you can effectively call yourself a multi-millionaire. Having said that, you might not even have seen such a stamp, not to mention owning it. Anyway, I will show it to you one, but there again, I do not own one sheet of them (that is why I am still not a millionaire). I just have one which is in one full set of 12 animals. If you follow my blog you get to hear and see the unbelievable, from the one who has seen it all.
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| The Monkey is at the Top Right (Red) |
The monkey was painted by a renowned artist, but this is not the reason why it is so valuable. It is so expensive nowadays as I found out later that most of the stamps were damaged (for what reason I really do not Know). The universal rule of supply and demand applies here. I remembered in the 90s when I started collecting Chinese stamps, a single sheet of 80 stamps was selling as high as S$26000, even more expensive that one lot of OCBC or DBS bank shares. Anyway it was beyond me and I could only afford the next in line, the Chicken (which comes after the Monkey). At that time I spent S$168 for one sheet of 80 chickens hoping that the chickens could bring me good fortune. Just like stocks and shares, the chickens did not do as well as the monkeys. Maybe it is not in the same class as the monkey. This could be the reason why chickens appeared on our dinner table, but not the monkeys. The monkeys are definitely smarter and more cunning than the chickens. With all the shortcomings of the chickens, I can still manage to sell off the whole sheet of chickens to an agent from China last year for S$3200. Not bad, isn't it, for an initial investment of 168 dollars. There is hidden intrinsic value in stamps. More of such stories will follow.
A famous presenter in China CCTV programmes (on antiques, what else) once commented that whenever someone mentioned this Monkey in front of him, he will get very upset and bitter. Guess what, he once bought one whole sheet of the monkeys at actual cost (not for investment tough), and used up every single piece of them for posting letters. If he were to keep the stamps until now, he would become a millionaire. This is the reason why he cannot afford to retire early. His colleagues will always try to avoid telling the Monkey Story in front of him or when he is around.
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