Scott No: 1965
Serial number: T101
Values in set: 1
Date of issue: December 25, 1984
Denomination: 8 fen
Designers: Huang Li
Size of stamps: 27*40mm
Perforation: 11
Sheet composition: 49 (7*7)
Printing process: Photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

T101 "Chinese Insurance" special stamp was issued on December 25, 1984. The set consists of 1 stamp, printed by photogravure, designed by Huang Li, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. This is New China's first insurance-themed stamp, issued at a time when domestic insurance business was in the stage of recovery and development.

Theme of the Set

After reform and opening up, domestic insurance business gradually recovered. This stamp popularizes the meaning of insurance to the public, promotes the role of insurance in disaster prevention and compensation and in stabilizing people's livelihood, and uses traditional auspicious patterns to interpret insurance's function of safeguarding life and mitigating risks, so that the public understands the value of insurance in benefiting the country and the people.

Stamp Design and Historical Background

Flower of Insurance

The main subject of the design is a blue-and-white porcelain vase, with cranes painted on the body and the seal-script character "Shou" (longevity) in the middle, holding a bunch of calla lilies. From among the flowers, delicate hands appear, putting gold coins into the vase; on the right side of the design is a gourd shape with "Zhong Guo Bao Xian" (China Insurance) written on it. The porcelain vase implies peace, the cranes imply longevity, the gourd is a homophone for "fortune and prosperity," and gold coins entering the vase represent savings and protection. The whole design uses folk auspicious symbols to interpret the connotation of insurance in spreading risks and preparing against the unexpected.

Artistic Design Features

The design adopts a decorative illustration style, with a plain and quiet background color, integrating traditional auspicious elements such as blue-and-white porcelain, cranes, and gourds, with intuitive and direct meanings. The design is ingenious, transforming the abstract concept of insurance into an auspicious picture that the public can easily understand. It is a highly distinctive special stamp on the financial services theme of the 1980s.