DROP by Abreeza today, just before the entrance of the Supermart, and you will still catch the interesting exhibit set up by a philatelist and numismatist featuring stamps, coins, and bank notes honoring women through the centuries.
I just chanced on it on my day off last Thursday, which I spend malling. And there it was with the collector Rene Adapon in the middle challenging viewers with trivia questions, the answer of which is in the stamps, bank notes, and coins displayed and gives out tokens as prizes. Like, who was the first female American doctor.
The answer: Elizabeth Blackwell and he has four 18-cent stamps of this pioneer in the US medical field issued on January 23, 1974.
There's this 1910-issued giant 100 Russian rubles banknote featuring Catherine the Great. It's huge, measuring 26 cm x 12.2 cm. Our Philippine banknotes measure 16 cm x 6.5 cm, the banknote on exhibit is almost double the size.
Then there is the P100 peso bill featuring Melchora "Tandang Sora" Aquino. The baby boomers and Gen-Xers would remember Tandang Sora on a five centavo coin, not on a 100-peso bill. This one has the signature of President Elpidio Quirino who served the country from 1948-1953. It was said that this bill was not circulated because at that time, no one had P100, the highest income being P50 at that time.
There are other banknotes from as far as Kyrgyztan featuring the first Kyrgyz ballerina Bubusara Beishenaliyev, and Lithuania featuring Julija Zemaite, a Lithuanian writer.
For the young ones to connect, there are the Php30 stamps of Megan Lynne Young as Miss World 2013 issued on February 14, 2014 and 2016 Miss Universe Pia A. Wurtzbach issued on April 17, 2016. There's also the 1969 Miss Universe Gloria Diaz Php2 and Php6 stamps and the Miss Universe 1973 Php2 and Php7 stamps all issued for the Miss Universe 1994 hosting by the Philippines.
There's just too much to take in at one time as Adapon made sure there were accompanying notes on who the women were and what they have accomplished.
"I have been collecting for the past 45 years," he said. He started as a philatelist (stamp collector) when he was in high school. He became a numismatist (coin and banknotes collector) 30 years ago.
"Syempre mas mahal yun kaya hindi ko naman ma-afford yan noong high school pa ako," he said.
He's been showing his collections through the years, on different topics and not just women, but the appeal of the collections never fades.