Hongkong Post - Guide on Developing Stamp Exhibit

Guide on Developing Stamp Exhibit

I. What is Stamp Exhibit?

Stamp Exhibit comprises stamp products, explanatory narratives and album pages (figure 1). Each stamp exhibit must have a theme which is presented with stamp products and narratives arranged in the exhibit.
Stamp products include e.g. mint stamps, souvenir sheets, postage prepaid picture cards, postmark etc.

Figure 1

II. How to make a Stamp Exhibit?

According to the quantity of stamp product that you have collected and also your preference, choose a suitable topic for your stamp exhibit.
There should have introduction and index on the first page of a stamp exhibit to provide a brief outline for the exhibit. All sub-titles listed in the index page must be elaborated in the content, instead of covering only part of them. Every album page should be marked with a page number (e.g. P. 1 for the introduction and index page, P. 2 for the next album page and until the last page of the exhibit).
Insert the stamp products into the stamp mounts, and affix them to the album pages. Based on the researched information, present the subject with the relevant narratives with the stamp products. Every album page of a stamp exhibit should have narratives but narratives should not be long as stamp products are the "heroes".
The basic unit of a stamp exhibit comprises 16 album pages (1 frame). A two-frame exhibit contains 32 album pages, three-frame one contains 48 album pages and so on. In other words, an exhibit with 15 or 17 album pages is not qualified.

III. Tips in Making your Stamp Exhibits:

Setting the theme of a stamp exhibit is important. For example, you should use "Sports Car" instead of "Vehicle" as the theme if your collection contains mainly sports car. Since the topic "Vehicle" is very broad, it covers not only sports car but also train, tram, bicycle and the like. Besides, avoid drawing pictures and using non-stamp items in the exhibit, e.g. affixing a train ticket in a stamp exhibit introducing train.
In general, one page of thematic exhibit could be affixed with 7 to 8 stamps. The salient point is to maintain a balanced presentation and not to give a congested or empty appearance. Each stamp product should have a separate stamp mount, avoid using a single stamp mount to carry 4 to 5 stamps. Stamps, souvenir sheets, sheetlets etc. should be put into stamp mounts before affixing to the album pages.
A 2mm margin should be reserved between each side of the stamp mount and the edge of the stamp product. For example, the top and bottom edges get 4 mm as margin while the horizontal edge only has 1mm as margin on each side is not desirable. The opening of stamp mount should face upward so as to avoid the enclosed stamp products falling off from the stamp mount when putting on a display panel.
Album page should be presented vertically but not horizontally (figure 2 & 3).

Figure 2 - Vertical (correct)

Figure 3 - Horizontal (incorrect)

Stamp products should be presented evenly on the album page. Avoid putting most of the stamp products on the upper half of the album page which results in an unbalanced layout.
Stamp products should be presented in a nice and neatly manner (figure 4).

Figure 4 - Avoid improper positioning of stamp products

Should you have any difficulties in making your stamp exhibit, please e-mail your questions to us at spd_phm@hkpo.gov.hk.