Bhutan and unusual stamps

I was working on this post when I heard news about today's strong earthquake in the beautiful, remote country of Bhutan, located in the Himalayas.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/21/bhutan.quake/

Bhutan, as many very small countries do, derives significant income from the sale of postage stamps. Many of these stamps are highly unusual, and intended for collectors rather then for use.

Here are some record stamps from Bhutan, at the Internet Museum of Flexi/Cardboard/Oddity records:

You can listen to a couple record stamps here:

http://www.wfmu.org/MACrec/onebhut.html

Last year Bhutan began a series of CD-ROM stamps:


http://shitalphilately.blogspot.com/2008/02/worlds-first-cd-rom-postage-stamp.html


Here are two interesting and unusual stamps from the "Stamps of Distinction" blog.


This stamp actually has finely pulverized pieces of the Rock of Gibraltar in it.



This Austrian stamp contains .003 grams of meteorite dust.

http://www.stampsofdistinction.com/2008/06/8-of-worlds-most-unusual-postage-stamps.html