Panama Black And White Topical Stamp

I could not think of any way of categorizing this post as there is not a heading for "Strange Decisions". My incipient OCD kicked in and I just had to share. It does, by the way, make me wonder if I should adopt the theme as a new topical collection.

I recently purchased a small lot of mounted Flower topicals and one stamp that had been shown in an auction photo caught my eye. It was not because of rarity or due to its outstanding design but because I thought that it was an illustration in the collection rather than an actual stamp. Then, when I was sorting through, I discovered that it was indeed a stamp.

It was reminiscent of looking through a photo album of full colour pictures and then stumbling onto one, in the middle of a page, that was a black and white snapshot. It just does not fit!

Now I realize that there are many B&W stamps. Indeed, Panama has several but none caught my attention like this one. What was the thought process that led a designer to produce a colourful subject, a blossom, this way? It just seems to be a very odd choice. Monochrome is OK but why this?

There's all kinds of things that can go awry from original designs to the final stamp with several individuals putting in their two cents worth with every step. I find the colors used for the overall set pretty unappealing. Was someone trying to be somber and formal for the country's 50th anniversary?

There's no context here. This stamp makes me want to make some popcorn right now. In real life, these are small cuplike orchid flowers on a stalk, cream with maroon spots in the throat. The whole stalk does not go into bloom all at once or stays that way -- fairly typical for a lot of flowers. The whole plant is much larger so showing that would give you tiny white dots against a bunch of plain leaves. Whatever they could do for a monocolor engraved stamp, it probably wouldn't have turned out well.

UPU used to have color code for most common international postage rates. I think at the time of issuing this stamp they may already have been abandoned, but countries may have chosen to continue that and may have used color code for domestic rates as well. If around the time of issue same value airmail stamps used to be that color, that might be simply color code.

On this one, I really was surprised at the stamp itself. Love the popcorn analogy!

I mean b&w has a definite history to it as witness GB #1 but anything that I have run across has picture a portrait, as in the Canadian Centennial Series, or a numeral, and occasionally a group picture. It just startled me to see it used with a topic that could so easily have been done in a different colour for more visual appeal.

Having seen it once, I just know I am going to be hunting for its use in the future.

I knew it was going to happen. Once you find something that catches your eye, you end up seeing them everywhere. Here is another example of the black and white used for a floral stamp, this time from Nauru. The design was re-issued in the decimal set but in a drab olive green which was not much of an improvement.