Two sides of the same stamp

With one sweeping oversight, the island nation of Nieu seems to have presumed the future and nature of the much-anticipated Royal Union. The whimsical design of the se tenant stamps its postal department released to commemorate the Prince William-Kate Middleton wedding tears them apart, even before they had a chance to say their vows. With the perforation running right down the middle of the picture, the couple seem to say: “Till the New Zealand Postal department do us part!”

While these stamps are together worth 5.8 New Zealand dollars, the William half costs one dollar more than the Kate half. Going by the ability to take your parcel further, it’s obvious who the NZPD considers the "better half" in this celebrated marriage!

You can’t but wonder how did this epistolary onslaught on the sanctity of marital union, ever procure the royal seal of approval from Her Highness, the Queen herself! That’s when you try to see the other side of the coin in this apparently weird design exercise.

On a closer look, the Kate part of the stamp claims a bit of Prince William’s right shoulder and shares the exact half of the frangipani bouquet they are holding, like a “parting settlement”. Enthusiasts of positive thinking would like to believe that these stamps are indeed complementary – suggesting that neither William nor Kate would be complete without the other! So much so that, someone receiving a letter from the island of Nieu with William’s visage serving as the authentic right of passage, should right away think of Kate holding on to the other side of the posy of Frangipani.

 

This insight into the oversight could indeed have been the rationale used by the designers to sell this bizarre concept to the postal department and they in turn to Buckingham Palace. Whatever the truth behind that, while the rubber-stamp monarchy lives in its tabloid appeal, I hope the stamp of matrimony keeps William and Kate together.