South Africa launched commemorative silver stamp of Nelson Mandela

South Africa launched a commemorative silver stamp of Nelson Mandela on 11 February 2014.  This Black and white stamp is released to mark the 24th anniversary of release of Nelson Mandela after spending 27 years in the jail.

Stamp is printed in silver to reflect the richness of Mandela’s wisdom, his legacy and his stature. The miniature sheet features a portrait of Mandela in duotone. It is a method of changing a monochrome original illustration or photograph to two shades or colors and printing it using two different plates.

Cost of each stamp is about 4.50 dollars and can be purchased online. The South African postal office claimed that 5 million stamps have been produced. Office also informed that about 20 cents from every stamp sale will go to a literacy campaign run by a foundation named after Mandela.

This is the fourth commemorative stamp of Nelson Mandela. The other stamps were released when

• He won Nobel Prize
• He became first black president of South Africa
• He turned 90.

Background

Nelson Mandela was a famous anti apartheid South African leader. He was born on 18 July 1918 and died on 5 December 2013.  He along with the then South African President FW de Klerk was honored with Nobel peace prize in 1993 in recognition to their efforts to end the apartheid system. He was the first democratically elected black president of South Africa and held the prestigious post from 1994 to 1999. 18 July was declared as Nelson Mandela International Day to promote global peace in 2009.