Best used with something flat, funny tasting - & controversial… What am I?

• Can you guess what this historical item is?
• Video Transcript
• Did you guess what it was? Read on to see if you were right!
• Little did we know that’s exactly the idea!
• 4 Fun facts about stamps — no really!
• 4 tiny stamps that caused big controversy
• 1994 — USA Stamps
• 1999 — UK Stamps
• 1977 — Australia stamps
• 2017 — Ireland stamps
• We hope you’ve enjoyed our quirky journey through the world of stamps!

Antony’s favourite game is to guess what the item is. He’s been doing this for more years than there are fingers in our customer service team. He always gets this cheeky look on his face when he’s asking, and you know that he knows, but it doesn’t stop you guessing the stamps !

When the History Channel team found out we played this little game, they grabbed their cameras and started rolling, so you guys could play along too with stamps!

Can you guess what this historical item is?

Take a look at the video, or read the transcript below. This one was really hard! Take a guess, then read on to find out if you were right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7NUJC3xTBY

Video Transcript

Here are a few things that we like to play games with on an afternoon at Vintage Cash Cow. So we’re going to show you a few items and maybe you’d like to give us a guess at what some of them are.

This is a piece of porcelain. Now here at Vintage we don’t normally take porcelain items that don’t travel very well in the post but we would like your help in solving this problem.

What it is, it’s a roller, that sits in this tray here, this porcelain tray / dish. It’s got holes in the top of the roller.

Now we’ve had people suggest, put water in here and it’s to press something down. But I don’t think that’s the answer because, there’s another hole at the other end and I’m sure all the water would come out. But it would be really nice to know, if you knew what it was.

Did you guess what it was? Read on to see if you were right!

Antony caught us off guard with this one!

“Now we’ve had people suggest, put water in here and it’s to press something down. But I don’t think that’s the answer because, there’s another hole at the other end and I’m sure all the water would come out.”

Little did we know that’s exactly the idea!

It’s a vintage stamp wetter. You fill the little roller with water, pop it in the tray, spin the roller (which then gets wet) and dab your stamp onto it — voila, no more counting calories from stamp licking.

This got us thinking about stamps, surely there are some juicy secrets out there to be had about stamps?! (yeah we’re a weird lot really). Anyway, you won’t be disappointed! Here we present 4 fun facts about stamps and 4 small stamps that caused big controversy.

4 Fun facts about stamps — no really!

You don’t have to be a stamp collector to enjoy these quirky little stamp facts!

The term stamp collector pre-dates the invention of postage stamps by more than 100 years! Before postage stamps, a stamp collector was responsible for collecting stamp duties (a tax levied on legal documents). In 1973 Bhutan issued a stamp that would play the national anthem when put on a record player. Now that's some innovative stamp making. In 2013 Belgium made stamps that smelled and tasted of chocolate - those are stamps you'd want to lick!

4 tiny stamps that caused big controversy

From surfing Santa’s to socialist revolutionaries, find out who’s stamps have caused the most arguments.

1994 — USA Stamps

To honour the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII the U.S. postal service designed a special stamp featuring... an atomic mushroom cloud. The Japanese government were quite unhappy to say the least and eventually the White House stepped in and withdrew the stamp.

1999 — UK Stamps

A stamp featuring Freddie Mercury caused a very British outcry. The stamp shows Freddie stage front, with drummer Roger Taylor a mere speck in the background. The problem was that Roger Taylor was still alive. In Britain, the laws state that the only living people that can be portrayed on stamps are Royals.

Royal Mail did say it was unusual for them to break the rules, but because Roger Taylor is so tiny on the stamp they didn’t feel it was a big deal.

1977 — Australia stamps

 A Santa on a surfboard seems innocent enough, but this little stamp caused big problems. Every year previous the Australian postal service had produced religiously themed stamps, so this departure to secular design wasn't that well received. Despite the stamp being tested by a focus group and being approved by respected religious leaders before being launched, it was still incredibly unpopular.[/caption]

In a twist of irony, the Australian postal service re-released the surfing santa stamp in 2007 to mark 50 years of postage stamps.

2017 — Ireland stamps

 Who better to put on a stamp than Che Guevara? That's what AN post thought too. It's not surprising that it caused huge controversy as Che Guevara's legacy is somewhat mottled. On the one hand, he murdered a lot of people, on the other, he fought for rights for the truly oppressed. The stamp was released to mark the 50th anniversary of his passing and it's first print run sold out almost immediately.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our quirky journey through the world of stamps!

Want more insights into the weird and wonderful world of vintage curiosities? Delve into the vault: https://blog.vintagerobot.net/blog/vintage-lovers/the-most-expensive-watch-sold-and-other-fascinating-facts/