Stamps are issued by national authorities and national authorities have things that they want to say, promote or celebrate. No stamp exists without context, not even the relatively mundane monarch’s-head-in-profile.
This one (and its sister stamp sitting next to it in the book) kind of blew me away: a Vietnamese stamp from 1966, in the midsts of war, honouring the creation of a political party in another country. It’s a statement of political fealty and a message to the humble recipient of a letter that the nation has strong friends on its side. I wonder if there’s a South Vietnamese equivalent somewhere in this book…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_in_the_Vietnam_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_China
Stamp of the Day 