Travel through Philately - The First Currency of United Arab Emirates (Emirates Post)

I have wanted to add some Middle Eastern first day covers into my collection but had been reluctant to pay a premium in eBay for it. Fortunately Emirates Post manned one of the booths in Singapore 2015 World Stamp Exhibition, and I got myself a few remaining ones. One of those sets depicted the first set of United Arab Emirate's (UAE) currency - the UAE dirham.

UAE'S first set of banknotes, featuring AED 1, AED 5, AED 10, AED 50, AED 100 and AED 1000.

UAE's first set of coins, featuring 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 fils, and 1 dirham.

Singapore 2015 World Stamp Exhibition

My first ever stamp exhibition visit coincided with Singapore's grand celebration of its 50th birthday, making this year's visit a memorable one. It is an honor for the nation to host this high profile philatelic event, which gathered showcases spanning 66 countries and trade booths from various nations for collectors to fuel their obsession. The decennial exhibition was last hosted by Singapore 20 years ago (in 1995), and is held with the full support and patronage of the Federation Internationale de Philatelie (FIP) and under the auspices of Federation of Inter-Asian Philately (FIAP), so it is natural for this exhibition to gather postal authorities and philatelic traders from different corners of the world.

The last time Singapore hosted the World Stamp Exhibition was 1995, and they returned to the position to coincide with the nation's 50th birthday.

Travel through Philately - The Silk Road 丝绸之路 (China National Philatelic Corporation)

Continuing my stretch of First Day Covers of China themed philately, I uncovered another of my collection - The Silk Road, coinciding with my recent fascination with the trade route made famous by the journals of Marco Polo. This is a 2012 issued cover, and unlike the previous sharing of the Grand Canal cover, I managed to collect the full set this time.

The 4 stamps depict different topics, namely "Millenia-Old Capital" 千年帝国 (description of Xi'an), "Magnificent Pass in the Desert" 大漠雄关 (describing the relentless desert scenery), "Mysterious Kingdom" 神秘故国 (describing lost kingdoms of the Silk Road), and "Extraordinary Scenery of the Western Regions" 西域胜景 (describing the wild beauty of Central Asia).

The miniature sheet, titled "Exchange" 交流, shows the epic Kumtag Desert of Dunhuang 敦煌 with the entrance to Mogao Caves (莫高窟) and an inset stamp of preserved Buddhist artwork.