The unveiling ceremony for the Bingshen Year special stamps on Jan 5 [Photo by Gao Dongfeng / hcwang.cn]

The Bingshen Year special stamps were issued by China Post on Jan 5.

Lots of stamp collecting enthusiasts queued up early in the morning to purchase the stamps in the urban area of Hechi, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

There are two stamps in the new monkey stamp series: one shows a male monkey swinging with a big longevity peach; the other with a golden monkey holding two orange babies. The stamps carry the meaning of family reunion, happiness and longevity, to celebrate the coming Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb 8 this year.

The stamps have a nominal value of 1.2 yuan ($0.18), and were designed by Huang Yongyu, a contemporary renowned painter, who is 92 years old. It is the second time for Huang to design Chinese zodiac stamps, the first being the "Gengshen Year" monkey stamp in 1980.

At present, 127 countries have issued 3,580 kinds of Chinese zodiac stamps. The first Chinese zodiac stamp – the "Gengshen Year" monkey stamp – was in hot demand shortly after it came out and its price now can reach one million yuan, 150,000 times its original nominal value.

The new stamp is the first of the fourth round of Chinese zodiac stamps. It had become popular even before it was published.

Many stamp collecting enthusiasts queue up, waiting to purchase the new edition of monkey stamps. [Photo by Gao Dongfeng / hcwang.cn]

A stamp collector shows the new monkey stamp series. [Photo by Gao Dongfeng / hcwang.cn]

Edited by Peter Nordlinger