New commemorative stamps for Forum

Stamps created specifically for the Pacific Islands Forum were officially released yesterday.

The Cook Islands Philatelic Bureau has issued 100 sheets of them to the Cook Islands Post Office, which are now available for purchase.

Fifty sheets contain 16 stamps bearing the flags of participating member countries, and the other 50 sheets feature 14 stamps depicting the flags of dialogue partners.

The Bureau is also preparing 300 sheets – 150 of each variety – for distribution to leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum.

Aileen Piri of the Philatelic Bureau is busy slipping them into plastic sleeves this week. Others will be affixed to postcards printed with Cook Islands images, which will be slotted into baskets being presented to leaders upon arrival.

The stamps have been created by the Cook Islands Philatelic Bureau’s owners, Philatelic Collector Inc, which is based in New York, and shipped to Rarotonga.

Both sheets of stamps contain a quick reference code – a small, square bar code that, when scanned with a smart phone, takes viewers directly to the Pacific Islands Forum official website for further information about the high-level political gathering.

Both sheets feature the image of the $5 souvenir coin created for the Forum – which features the Queen’s image, and on the flip side a picture of a sprouting coconut tree against a lagoon backdrop.

In the centre of both sheets is an image of four puzzle pieces fitted together, which read ‘economic growth’, ‘security’, ‘sustainable development’ and ‘good governance’.

Chris Lazar of Philatelic Collectors Inc explained in an email the logic behind the puzzle image: ”The center (sic) image on the sheet was chosen to be four puzzle pieces that fit together. Each piece has the verbiage of one of the four pillars that the PIF feels are crucial to helping strengthen the countries. We felt the puzzle pieces were a good choice to display this as it shows while not everything just fits together simply and quickly but when it does all come together it connects the whole picture“.

The first sheet of stamps features the flags of participating countries. The second bears images of flags representing 14 dialogue partners.

All stamps are 90 cents each. The sheet containing flags of Forum nations is $14.40, and the other is $12.60.