Happy Valentine's Day

According to the St.Valentine's Day website, "A young Frenchman, Charles, Duke of Orleans is said to have written the first Valentine's Day card. The Duke who was captured at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 is said to have written a poem or ‘Valentine' to his wife while imprisoned in the Tower of London."

Since then a number of countries around the world including Thailand, Poland, Belgium, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Taiwan, the Philippines and the United States have issued special stamps to go on those Valentine's Day cards the Duke helped invent.

The first Valentine's Day 'Love' stamp was issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 1973. Since then, 'Love' stamps have featured a wide range of subjects, including candy, flowers, animals, and angels

La Poste (the French postal service) issues postage stamps designed by the greatest names in the French fashion industry. These Valentine day stamps are heart shaped and comes in various denomination and presentation.

This year Taiwan issued Valentine's Day stamps with a "Secret Code" .

According to the Taiwan Times, the stamps are designed with a “quick response code” (QR code) which was originally created to help car manufacturers quickly track vehicle parts. Nowadays, the code is widely used in other areas, such as inventory management.

Unlocking the codes will reveal the words “Happy Valentine’s Day” in English and Chinese on the NT$5 stamps and the words “I Love You” in both languages on the NT$25 stamps.

For more on these stamps, click here.
For more on Valentine's Day, click here.