The 50p stamp, designed by Wang Huming in Beijing, China, shows a pig in gold against a red background.
The pig which features on the stamp represents the brown Earth pig denoted by Jihai and in the background is the Chinese word for pig. The Chinese seal which appears on the left side of the illustration denotes Jihai.
The stamp sheets give the discerning collector access to all the printer's marks and any additional information on the selvedges. The selvedges include the traffic lights which is a term used by collectors to denote the check dots (or colour dabs) printed in the sheet margins of stamps printed by modern offset litho or photogravure methods. They assist in checking that all the colours have printed correctly.
Most of our selvedge sheets also contain a plate number; a numeral, occasionally with a letter suffix, usually inscribed on the sheet margins to denote the plate from which the stamps were printed - for example 1A.
All our mint/cto products are carefully prepared by our own team and supplied in glassine bags to ensure you receive them in pristine condition.
The fourth issue in our Lunar New Year stamp series celebrates the lunar Jihai year (2019) which is the Year of the Pig. Also known as the Spring Festival, it is the most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. It is celebrated by Chinese and ethnic communities around the world and is a time when families come together.
In Chinese culture, pigs represent good luck and fortune and are thought to attract wealth. They can be materialistic but this is due to their motivation to work hard and reap the rewards, accumulating wealth gradually and into later life. People born in the year of the Jihai pig are friendly and popular although they can also be gullible and judgmental.