Australia Post is celebrating the technological revolution of the 21st century with the release of five domestic rate (60c) stamps featuring the mobile phone, modern refrigerator, flat-screen television, digital media player and the Global Positioning System (GPS). This stamp issue is available from 7 February 2012.

“Businesses such as Australia Post continue to make use of technological advances to provide maximum convenience and choice for their customers. This stamp issue reflects on those advances and highlights the difference they make in our daily life”, said Australia Post Philatelic Manager, Mr Michael Zsolt.

Mobile phones have revolutionised our daily communication. New technologies, such as the 4G mobile phone, allow us to be connected globally. Fixed line phones could only provide aural communication but today’s smart phones have a myriad of functions such as internet, video and audio.

The modern refrigerator, sometimes equipped with entertainment devices such as a high-definition LCD screen and FM radio, is a far cry from the ice chest which kept food cool through insulation rather than electricity. Early ice chests relied on the deliveries of the ice man to keep food cool.

Public television was introduced to Australia for the 1956 Olympic Games. Early units transmitted in black and white for limited periods. Today’s flat-screen television sets are larger and thinner compared to early units and transmissions are increasingly digital rather than analogue. Television transmission in Australia is now 24 hours a day.

Unlike vinyl records and turntables, digital audio players (or MP3 players) are portable, compact and have a huge storage capacity. Gone are the days when listening to favourite music involved carefully placing a vinyl record on a turntable in the lounge room. Today’s music is portable, compact and readily available by simply downloading to an MP3 player.

Today many cars are equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) that informs the driver the best route to any destination. This device uses satellites to provide information on driving activity including location. Printed street directories and road maps are increasingly a thing of the past.

The Technology – Then and Now stamp issue was designed by Stacey Zass. Stacey’s recent stamp designs include A Bicentenary: Governor Lachlan Macquarie (2010) and Centenary of International Women’s Day (2011).

Source: Austrailia Post

published March 6th, 2012