Perhaps it is not fair to call these stamps "gimmicks', although, in the minds of most serious collectors and dealers, that is what they are. Make no mistake about their value. When one set of stamps issued by the island of Tonga was first out, it went begging for buyers. The prices remained small for years, until very recently, when suddenly collectors wishing to add them to their collections were unpleasantly surprised to find the value of the stamps going up rapidly, and they are continuing to rise.

Tonga and Sierra Leone issue stamps printed on foil, with a self-adhesive gum covered by a peelable paper back. These stamps were first in the design of coins minted by the two countries and were issued to commemorate the minting of the money.

Tonga then, it seems, went all out in gimmick stamps and has issued some rather odd specimens, to say the least. One stamp, also on foil, is in the shape of the island itself. The country has also issued many self-adhesive stamps in very bizarre shapes, printed on paper, and backed with a peelable paper bearing various slogans.

Tonga has issued stamps in the shape and color of coconuts, bananas, a foot racer, the Red Cross, an open book, and many others. These are all peelable and self adhesive, and when once affixed to envelopes are practically impossible to remove. Canceled stamps of this type should be collected on full cover or at least, cut square as though they were printed on the envelope.

Bhutan and other countries have issued stamps in socalled "3-D" printing. These are mode the same way as the very beautiful post cards from Japan, on which the pictures look as though they were in three dimensions. The stamps are issued by the same printing process and are indeed beautiful. Some of them are now very costly, especially the souvenir sheets of the space issues.

- Mrs. Nagalakshmi Tadakaluri, Philatelist.

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