Wednesday 23 November 2011

Dutch Postcrossing Stamps / 荷蘭明信片交換活動郵票

  • This is an adapted article from Postcrossing official blog, and published on Postal Service Today, No. 647, November, 2011.
  • 本文改寫自Postcrossing官方部落格,並刊載於《今日郵政》第647期(民國100年11月)。
票中票是一種郵票設計的趣味,過去中華郵政也出過幾次,如羅蘭.希爾爵士逝世百年紀念郵票(圖1)其中的黑便士,或是集郵郵票(圖2-1、2-2)中的各式散票和集郵冊。上個月(十月)14日,荷蘭郵政(PostNL)出了一套有「票中片」的郵票(圖3),以推崇Postcrossing國際明信片交換活動(請另見今日郵政637、643期介紹),可說是郵票設計的創新。該套郵票針對固定、長期的用郵人設計、發行,除荷蘭明信片玩家(Postcrosser)主動使用該票外,世界各地的玩家也紛紛向荷蘭會員們發出「希望收到這套郵票」的需求。故本票一方面表現荷蘭郵政的活潑,另一方面也提昇了荷蘭明信片交換玩家的層次。

圖1:郵票發明人羅蘭.
希爾爵士逝世百週年郵票
圖2-1:集郵郵票1圖2-2:集郵郵票2
圖3:荷蘭Postcrossing郵票


本套票由荷蘭明信片交換玩家雷蒙推動,他是阿姆斯特丹的中學老師,投入Postcrossing三年多,寄收明信片共達八百多張,在他長期與荷蘭郵政交涉後,終於將自己的興趣與郵票發行結合。荷蘭郵政委託史東兄弟工作室(Stone Twins)設計,將各種風景明信片融合進郵票,展現出旅遊觀光時給朋友捎個問候的明信片傳統,散落的明信片又像是一早開門看到腳踏墊上郵差剛投遞來的樣子。面額為呼應明信片交換活動,分為歐洲區與世界各地兩種,邊欄也直接加印了「優先處理」(Prioriity)籤條,便利用郵人直接貼用。

荷蘭郵政於15日在海爾德蘭省的阿珀爾多倫(Apeldoorn)郵展(Postex)辦理郵票發行首日活動,除了請郵票設計者解說設計理念,還請到了Postcrossing的創辦人保羅(Paulo)向郵展與會者介紹國際明信片交換計畫,保羅也受贈編號第一號的郵票(圖4),並當場寄出明信片。除此之外,荷蘭郵政還辦理了一個明信片寄送比賽,首獎為五百歐元的旅遊基金,對於鼓勵用郵和文字書寫,應會有不錯的效果。

目前Postcrossing已經有將近二十六萬會員,遍佈全世界197個國家、地區,寄達將近九百萬張明信片。荷蘭在Postcrossing中有一萬八千多名會員,已寄了77萬張明信片出國,為寄出片數第四多的國家。臺灣目前也有一萬七千多名會員,寄了32萬張明信片到世界各地,排名第七。希望未來也有一天,中華郵政可以注重這樣的市場,發行這種有趣的郵票,讓眾多的「片友」可以使用這種精緻可愛的「國家小名片」,讓一萬七千多名片友為臺灣發聲。
圖4:郵票設計者葛瑞之.史東(Garech Stone)致贈編號第一號的郵票給保羅(Paulo)

Friday 20 May 2011

TW-300000 / 臺灣三十萬!


TW-300000
Originally uploaded by Dodd Lu
From: Taipei, Taiwan
Date: 7 to 17 May, 2011
Sender: Dodd
To: Agnieszka Ujma, Warsaw, Poland

寄自:臺灣臺北市
日期:2011年5月7日至17日
寄者:Dodd
收件人:波蘭華沙阿格尼斯卡.威瑪

Taiwan reached 300 thousandth of the Postcrossing ID, and I was the lucky guy to get it. In fact, I did not think to join the number fight until I accumulated 5 send-postcard quota about one week ago because I was too busy to write any postcard. When the number was close, I got  9 of quota. I thought I must be the one to get this milestone.

Saturday afternoon, many Taiwanese postcrossers stared at their computer screen. Some people joined plurk discussion and another few people talked on facebook club. When I saw someone reported TW-29997X, I thought it was time to draw.

It was so much fun to draw so many postcrossing ID and address at one time. I checked out the 300000th one first. She liked architecture and the sender's hometown.

I rarely sent the skyscraper Taipei 101 for postcrossing because it was not a common view in Taiwan. But to match this milestone, I thought Taipei 101 is a good choice for the receiver's interests. It was the modern representative of my lovely Taipei. Do you think I made a good choice?

國際明信片交換(Postcrossing)的臺灣三十萬號在五月上旬抽出,十天後順利寄到。原本我跟特別號就沒啥緣份,而且幾次為了留額度抽特別號還讓自己步調變慢,所66666號後,我就決定不跟了。只是這次剛好發懶,一週前開始累積了五個額度,到了要到號時,居然有九個額度,那我絕對是勢在必得了。

星期六下午,大家聽聞快要到號的消息,紛紛在電腦前等著抽號。有人在噗浪上,有人在臉書上即時報號。快到的前五十號,稍微卡了大概二十分鐘,接著有人報了七十幾號,我就覺得可以出動了。刷的一口氣抽了下去,果然毫無失手,三十萬前後七個都到手了。

一口氣抽一堆實在很過癮,不過後續寫片可辛苦了,好在週六抽出還有週日可以慢慢消化。我先把挑三十萬號出來檢查。是位波蘭女生,喜歡建築,也接受寄件人的家鄉風光,所以我挑了臺北一零一

我很少寄臺北一零一的明信片,摩天大樓並不是臺灣的都市基調,不過要搭配這個三十萬號的里程碑,還有對方的興趣,「驚豔101次的臺北天空」倒是個不錯的選擇。或許臺北一零一對外縣市的朋友沒什麼意義,不過這就是我的故鄉臺北城,也是我為三十萬號精選的明信片。

每個人心中都有適合特別號的片子,下次如果你抽到特別號,你要選什麼來配呢?

Saturday 30 April 2011

Third Taiwan Postcrossing Meetup /
第三次臺灣Postcrossing聚會

Taiwan postcrossing community held the third meetup on 23 April 2011. 23 postcrossers attended the meetup. Everyone enjoyed a day trip arranged by Taiwan Postcrosser Club on Facebook and National Taiwan University Philately and Penpal Association (NTU PAPA).

Because most of postcrossers in Taiwan live in Taipei, the capital city in the north of the island, it was not easy to organise an activity out of the city, and this discouraged some postcrossers in the south. To give everyone equal opportunity, the organiser of the meetup designed a day trip and hired a coach to take Taipei postcrossers to Taoyuan and to pick up other attendees from south at the Taoyuan Railway Station. The day trip consisted of visiting Taoyuan mail processing centre, a lighthouse sightseeing (the lighthouse was on the stamp issued last summer), the farmer cuisine lunch, and sharing postcards in the farmhouse.
The first stop of the trip was visiting the mail processing centre. It was the first time for the post company hosting this kind of internet base club. But with good communication in advance, the post company let us learn a lot in the centre. Everyone was so excited at seeing the backstage of the post office because every postcrosser was postal service heavy user. The amount of the postcards was a minor in the postal system and postcards were usually deal with hands, not by machine, though.

Chunghwa Post Company established five mail processing centres, Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung in 2000. Each centre cost the company NT$2 billions. The centres deal with ordinary post, while express posts go through local post offices directly. Therefore, all machines did not work on the meetup Saturday. Luckily, the Taoyuan Centre arranged a machine test. There were Culler Facer Canceller (CFC), Optical Character Reader / Letter Sorting Machine (ORC/LSM), Flat Sorting Machine (FSM), A/O Sorting Machine (AOSM), Parcel Sorting Machine (PSM), Material Handling System (MHS), and Management Information System (MIS).

The coach headed to a sunflower farm after the processing centre. Everyone enjoyed the lunch before going to Baisha Cape lighthouse. The lighthouse was the second tallest one in Taiwan. It was the historic site on Taoyuan county heritage list. The post company issued a set of lighthouse stamps last summer, and it was one from the set. The post company also issued a new postal card and the postage mark was it, too.

After all sightseeing, all postcrossers were ready to share postcards. There were too many things to do in the rest of three hours. They sold and bought nice stamps, exchanged postcards, printed date mark on the souvenir postcards, appreciated others postcards, passed and signed postcards, and talked, talked, talked.

Three hours happy time flew fast. No one had time to go to the flower field and it was time to go home.Hope to see you in the next meetup in Taiwan, and wish to have another meetup soon.

臺灣明信片交換社團在2011年四月23日舉辦了第三次聚會,共有23位玩家與會。透過臉書「臺灣Postcrosser明信片交換玩家社」與國立臺灣大學集郵筆友社的安排,每個人都度過了愉快又充實的一天。

因為多數的臺灣明信片交換玩家都住在臺北,所以要把聚會辦到臺北之外略有難度,前兩年的聚會儘管有中南部的朋友,最後也都還是辦在臺北。這次聚會的主揪特別費心把活動辦大,包了一輛遊覽車辦一日遊,終於把臺北人載出市區,也順利的吸引更多外縣市的片友。聚會行程有:參觀桃園郵件處理中心、民國99年版燈塔郵票主角之一白沙岬燈塔,最後於向陽農場花田小屋分享、交流明信片。

遊覽車在接到所有與會者後,第一站是桃園郵件處理中心。雖然風景明信片的處理多以手銷為主,和郵件處理中心中的機器關係不大,但是由於每位Postcrossing明信片玩家都是郵務的重度使用者,所以能夠一窺郵局的後臺秘密,大家都非常興奮。事前聯繫時,中華郵政公司表示是第一次有網路社團洽詢參觀,正因為是第一次,所以我努力扮演好認真的網友,跟郵政公司再三確認,讓每位片友都賓至如歸,也對郵務更加了解。

中華郵政公司於民國89年斥資新臺幣近百億成立了五間郵件處理中心(臺北、桃園、台中、台南、高雄),主要處理普通函件與包裹。因此聚會的週末日子,並沒有運作。不過處理中心特別安排了作業員進行測試,讓每位片友觀摩到郵件處理的流程。郵件在進到處理中心後,先經過分類理信銷票機CFC銷戳分類,再到光學辨識分揀機OCR按照郵遞區號分揀,一小時就可以處理完三萬件的郵件了。包裹類的郵件,則是在下一樓分揀,經過人工鍵入郵遞區號後,會以輸送帶送上傾斜式(Tilter)轉盤,再分到四十格集貨區。分揀完畢再沿著滑道滑入一樓的箱框裝載系統,送上籃車完成整個流程。每位片友對於郵件在機器中咻咻咻的運作,都驚嘆不已。除了找到自己家鄉的信件分揀格,也不斷地拍照、留念。一個小時的簡報、參觀時間一下就過去了,每個人都意猶未盡。
不過不管在怎麼沉浸在郵局中,也要趕往下個行程。大家先在農場用過農村風味餐後,先去欣賞白沙岬燈塔,這是全臺第二高的燈塔,也是民國99年版燈塔郵票的主角之一,更在當時被選為郵政明信片的郵資符誌,因此參觀這座燈塔,是個很棒的選擇。可惜事前沒有確認過參觀方式,沒有預約到團體入園,大家就只能在外圍欣賞拍照。

但也好在在白沙岬少耽擱了一下,接下來的重頭戲才能順利趕完。接下來就是各片友期待的交流時刻了。搭配餅乾與向日葵花下午茶,大家把想要出清的空白明信片拿出來交換,領取紀念明信片、加蓋日期與地址戳,欣賞他人的收藏、販賣購買可愛的郵票,分享明信片購買資訊、寄收明信片甘苦談等等。最刺激的就數最後壓軸的明信片傳簽活動,所有的片友座位上,依序傳簽所有人的聚會明信片,還有要寄給外國Postcrosser的PC官片,既熱鬧又有效率。


Tuesday 22 March 2011

Noah's Dove / 洪水過後


JP-154061
Originally uploaded by Dodd Lu
From: Taipei, Taiwan
Date: 17 to 22 March , 2011
Sender: Sinikka, Tokyo

寄自:臺灣臺北市
日期:2011年3月11日到22日
寄者:東京中央區 Sinikka

This is the first Japanese postcard I receive after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (10 days after the quake). Although I do not know the sender, the postcard still moves me. It's like the Dove which brought the Olive back to Noah's Ark. Everything is all right there in Japan, and the world is still turning.

I know that most damage was not caused by the quake but by the tsunami. The sea in the postcard looks so peaceful. No one can imagine that it brought such a big catastrophe. I hope that the radiation problem is solved sooner, and Japan back to the normal sooner.

The world is with all Japanese. We pray for Japan.

這張是日本東北大地震後收到的第一張日本明信片(震後十天)。雖然我不認識寄件人,不過從近災區(東京)收到報平安的信,有種微微的感動。就好像鴿子帶著橄欖枝回到諾亞方舟一樣,告訴你眾人均安,世界一切安好。

地震其實不是災害的主因,是海嘯才席捲了沿海地帶。圖案是千葉的勝浦灣,海面是如此的平靜,顏色是多麼暖和。誰知這片海會帶來殘酷的水,再帶走這樣多的性命。不論接下來的輻射災害最終如何解決,我相信人們都會更加懂得與自然相處之道。天空終究會出現彩虹。

也祝日本早日恢復。頑張って!日本!

Friday 11 March 2011

Shortest Travel Time of Postcrossing Postcard /
友情登錄,最速寄達


TW-271065
Originally uploaded by Dodd Lu
From: Taipei, Taiwan
Date: 11 March , 2011
Sender: Dodd
To: Wei-Siang Jhan, New Taipei

寄自:臺灣臺北市
日期:2011年3月11日
寄者:Dodd
收件人:新北市詹WS

This postcard was registered on the same day I sent it.

It usually taked two or three days to send a postcard to another Taiwanese postcrosser in Taiwan. So if I got the address on Thursday or Friday, it would take two days longer and reach after the weekend. So when I got this address, I was not quite happy. However, I laughed out after checking the receiver's name.

He was the younger classmates in my university club, Penpal and Philately Association (PAPA). I sent him a message on Facebook then he registered it earlier than I went out to mail it.


這幾天到片很順暢,一連到了三四張明信片,累積到今天下午才有空來抽。以這樣的額度,我想應該會抽中臺灣的同胞,果然第一張就是。一般臺灣島內郵遞,大約是隔天到過兩天可到,不過近期明信片似乎常常多一天,因此星期四或五抽到臺灣人,幾乎就註定要多兩天週末時間才會到了。因為少了趕截郵的壓力,加上可以寫中文比較輕鬆,所以就先擱著繼續往後抽。

等所有的額度都抽完了,一一檢視抽到的人。哈!這位臺灣人是集郵筆友社的學弟哩!我到臉書寫了個短訊給它,才剛傳好圖片,他就登錄了。創下了Postcrossing的0天記錄。(雖然是投機的方式得到的記錄。)

詹學弟最近看來很沈迷於攝影,還經營個攝影部落格,所以我挑了這張2008年臺博百週年攝影比賽的金獎給他。有時候比賽金獎不在於圖像記錄,還有一些是情感和美感成份,因此這張雖美但傳達較少「博物館」意象,我不太知道該如何對外國人解說。所以金牌獎還是留給在玩攝影的台灣人啦。有空多去逛逛博物館呀,學弟!


我寄完信回頭寫這篇時,才發現前一篇學弟有留言,更想收原圖卡。我還說被我抽到再寄一張給他。Orz真是挑錯片了。真抱歉。

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Traditional Chinese Stationery / 觀:文房四寶

彩漆雲龍筆
“Colored Cloud Dragon” Writing Brushes
↑ 明 嘉靖 彩漆雲龍筆
Colored Cloud Dragon Writing Brushes
Imperial Dragon Fragrance Ink Stick
明 隆慶 龍香御墨 →
龍香御墨
“Imperial Dragon Fragrance” Ink Stick

The postcards I sent are all written by hand. Thus, handwriting in postcard exchange is important. When we talk about writing, we can not miss out stationery. We now write with a pen or a ball-pen. However, Chinese has special traditional stationery, brush, ink, paper, and inkstone,  which we call four treasures of the study.

I went to a stamp dealer shop last September and found a set of maximum cards which I like very much, National Palace Museum postcards of traditional Chinese Stationery. They were issued by the post office in 2000.

While we could not have the treasure in the museum, we could have the same treasure in a stamp dealer's shop. Although my stationery is not very high class, those nice stationery was not used and was kept for ages. No one uses them.

青瓷蟾蜍硯
“Celadon Toad Inkstione”← 宋 哥窯 青瓷蟾蜍硯
Celadon Toad Inkstione
Clear Heart House Calligraphy Paper
宋 蔡襄 澄心堂紙 ↓
“Clear Heart House” Paper
澄心堂紙

每一張我寄出去的明信片,都是用心書寫的成果(畢竟很可能是一趟旅程給朋友唯一的土產紀念品)。因此書寫在明信片交換中扮演了非常重要的角色。我自認字寫得並不漂亮(倒是被形容為「秀氣」幾次),不過寫多了還是會在文具上找點花樣,像是用 玻璃筆,或是找復古的玉兔黃桿原子筆(我還沒到假文青那樣愛用鉛筆)。然後我也把「文具」這個選項加進我的收件清單,期待有人寄文具明信片給我。

2010年夏末,我在牯嶺街的郵幣社翻到一包原圖卡,裡面有三張國立故宮博物院明信片,主題分別是筆、墨、紙,顯然少了一張。所以老闆很隨興的讓我開個價,讓我輕鬆決定帶它們回家。年底我又去了一趟郵幣社,沒想到翻到了「硯臺」,隨即再講個價,湊齊一套。頭一次得到筆墨紙後,只把墨碇寄給一位想要「博物館收藏」的朋友,沒想到買齊全套後,陸陸續續抽到有在蒐集筆與想收原圖卡的朋友,三張分別在一週內就統統寄出去了。

這套明信片是郵局發行的預銷首日原圖卡,因此很容易就找到發行的資料了,明信片上也有很清楚的物件名稱,四件兩兩一組分別是宋、明兩代,正是中國文藝氣質最為濃郁的年代。我或許一輩子都用不到這樣雅緻的文具,不過這套文房四寶集成最終也沒人用掉。我也沒有古人的文采足以寫出什麼留名千古的文章,不過發一篇網誌傳遞這些文化瑰寶,倒還是個舉手之勞。(也不曉得網路伺服器上的資訊可以留存多久,每每欣賞傳世古物都會對現代科技有如此之感。)


Brush, Ink, Paper, Inkstone. 筆墨紙硯依序寄往以下地點:

From: Taipei, Taiwan
Date: 4 to 11 January , 2011
Sender: Dodd
To: Örn in Reykjavík, Iceland
寄自:臺灣臺北
日期:2011年1月4日至11日
寄者:Dodd
收件人:冰島雷克雅維克的歐恩
From: Taipei, Taiwan
Date: 22 to 30 September , 2010
Sender: Dodd
To: Ariana in Kesklinn, Estonia
寄自:臺灣臺北
日期:2010年9月22日至30日
寄者:Dodd
收件人:愛沙尼亞塔林的安麗阿娜
From: Taipei, Taiwan
Date: 4 to 11 January, 2011
Sender: Dodd
To: Chengqing in Fuzhou, China
寄自:臺灣臺北
日期:2011年1月4日至11日
寄者:Dodd
收件人:中國福州的王成慶
From: Taipei, Taiwan
Date: 5 to 10 January, 2011
Sender: Dodd
To: Yang in Taoyuan, Taiwan
寄自:臺灣臺北
日期:2011年1月5日至10日
寄者:Dodd
收件人:臺灣桃園縣桃園市的

Friday 7 January 2011

Auckland Museum / 奧克蘭博物館 我的澳課


Auckland Museum
Originally uploaded by Dodd Lu

From: Auckland, New Zealand
Date: 28 December, 2010 to 6 January, 2011
Sender: Kakatze Hsu

來自:紐西蘭奧克蘭
日期:2010年12月28日至2011年1月6日
寄者:許Kk


K Hsu sent some postcards from New Zealand (NZ) a few weeks ago. She, however, did not put enough postage on the cards. Thus, no one got her postcard. I did not expect she would send the second time so soon. But she did before the year end. This is not the first time I saw the image of the Auckland Museum. It appeared in my classmates' presentation when I studied in Australia. It also appeared in the postcard of One Tree Hill which Wang sent to me (on the small hill on top right).

許Kk前陣子從紐西蘭寄了一批明信片給親友,不過據說是沒貼足郵資,沒人收到。我以為接下來他會緩一緩,沒想到年底前他又寄了一次,昨日收到了。這不是我第一次收到紐西蘭的片子,也不是第一位認識的親友從紐西蘭寄給我,連圖像也不是第一次看到呢!我在澳洲上課時便有同學學期報告過這間博物館了。事情就是這樣幾年來個循環吧,有些東西不是在預告著未來,就是提醒著我們過去。我翻了一下之前王C寄給我的一樹山明信片,在右上方的小山丘上也可隱隱約約見到這間博物館。許Kk的文字總透露點信心不足,但是想到他年前可以這樣明快寄兩次明信片,人生也不斷進展。反觀自己卻還困在同一個階段,實在令人汗顏。這間博物館大概有收藏決心,而Kk把它寄給了我。

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