The Field of Cabbage
Year One: GreenYear Two: Empire Green
Year Three: 25P Red
Year One: Green
A special Brassica Edition showing the verdiant glory of the Sto Plains. Patrician opposite a cabbage rampant.Not found in LBE. Free stamp with second issue of Stamp Journal, given to new members of GOFD and a few are found in Dragon Sanctuary Envelopes.
Dimensions: 35 mm x 30 mm
Released: July 2004
Withdrawn: December 2005
Number released: 12 000 (10 000 of which were used on Waterstones covers and 1 000 distributed by the GOFD offer)).
Individual stamp:
Sheet of 20 (only one known to exist)
Sport: The Skunk Cabbage
20 special stamps treated with a mysterious chemical to give it an authentic 'rotten cabbage' odor.The jar has the City Watch Forensic Dept. label attached to it by a piece of string, and also comes with small leaflet which has the following written inside:
The Special Edition 50p Cabbage Green (The Skunk Stamp)
Probably fewer than a hundred of these still remain, and they are rumored [sic] to be sealed in evidence jars in the Forensic Department of the City Watch. As far as is known, no letter with one of these affixed has ever reached its destination.
The stamps were printed with a cabbage-based glue to be sent to Ankh-Morpork expatriates living in foreign climes. It was thought that the odour of the glue, ‘redolent of the Bounteous Cabbage Fields of the Great Plain’ would ‘remind our Far-Off Sons and Daughters of the Robust Airs of Home’. In this it succeeded beyond all expectations. Unfortunately, it reminded them of why they’d left. At least thirteen people fell ill after licking the stamps.
The premises of Teemer and Spools had to be closed for a week for fumigation.
A mail coached [sic] headed for Genua on an unseasonably warm day was abandoned by passengers and crew even though the mail sack contained only seven of the stamps. More than twenty of the stamps in very close proximity, it was rumored [sic], would spontaneously combust.
The glue included a distillate of Kohl Rabi, Cabbage and Cauliflower. Apart from the pungency, the smell is said to have had a curious pervasive, flatulent quality that attached itself to anything nearby.
………
The ‘Skunk Stamp’ should not be confused with the ordinary 50p Cabbage Green, which smells no worse than anything else in the city.
©Terry Pratchett 2004.
The making of this object is a subject worth telling due to both the bravery and insanity of those involved.
All right, here it is, the unadulterated truth. Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. It came to pass that a certain author had a ‘good idea’ and did send his stout disciple a missive laying out the said ‘good idea’
After the stout part had stopped laughing, because the little story was such a gem, he did talk with the said author re ideas of how to achieve the olfactory surprise that the stamp warranted. On the phone the following morning, and did speak with a company that makes smells. They do fragrances and the like, a big massive out fit in which there lurked; don’t they always, a Discworld fan. So I got a ‘sample’ I asked for rotten cabbage, and got something much worse. Oh yes indeed, so very much worse.
When the carefully sealed package arrived Isobel opened it. She used to be a biochemist you know, very clever lady, had stuff published in ‘Nature’ years ago, anyway, having read the formula, and the dire words of warning surrounding it, she would not have it in the house, no way, ever, get it out … NOW
So I took it over to Terry’s.
He also is very, very, clever, and cunning. So he gave it to Rob Wilkins (his aide d’ camp & company runner) and told him to take it to yonder field, and tell us what it smelt like. Rob Wilkins is also a very clever young man, but dedicated, brave, and now unfortunately lacking in a sense of smell.
We let him in after he had gone home to change, twice.
Terry suggested that it might be good ideas if HE sorted out the smell for the stamps, as that way we could all still live in our homes. He constructed a sort of chamber, and in it put the roots of cabbage, kohlrabi, and those bloody leeks (see Almanak) This was in a potting shed; soon only Rob could go in, because his sense of smell had not returned. When even he could smell them the stamps were bottled, the rest you know.
Thankfully technology has not reached the point where smells can be distributed over the internet.
Year Two: Empire Green
Brassica green and light brown on a white background. Showing a view of the cabbage fields of Sto Lat. 1st December 2005Dimensions: 35 mm x 40 mm
Released: December 2005
Withdrawn: April 2007
Original cost:
Individual stamp: £0.35
Sheet of 20: £7.00
Sport: The Flagrant Cabbage
Features a young couple surprised by the artist in the cabbage fiieldsIndividual stamp:
Sheet:
Year Three: 25P Field of Cabbage
The Cabbage Field stamp has been reincarnated with a new colour - red cabbage red - and a new denomination, 25pDimensions: 35 mm x 40 mm
Released: October 2007
Withdrawn:
Original cost:
Individual stamp: £0.40
Sheet of 15: £6.00
Sport: Reversed buildings
The buildings on the horizon are reversed.Back to top