Hello,   I didn't expect to be writing tonight because it is my golf night but since we have a Signal 8 typhoon going on I cannot play golf.  Pity, the wind may have helped my drive!

Anyway all good things come in threes I am told, so one more from the NZ mineral issue to round out the week.

 Hope you like this block. It is of SG 1292 and with a cat value of 20p ( GBP) a stamp.  Very low in my view.

Now do you remember your atomic number tables?  anyone know the chemical atomic element number without looking?  OK I will admit I forgot as well!   but it is 16 :-)

Of course if we go back a few years, like many years, we always find an interesting history and this element is no different. It was known in ancient Greece and Egypt for its use as a fumigant ( when fumes were burned) and for mixture in medicinal balms and antiparasitics. But perhaps the most relevant information about sulphur is that in 1777 Antoine Lavosier convinced the scientific community that sulfur was a basic element rather than a compound.

So how did New Zealand decide it should be shown on a stamp as a mineral you might well ask :-) Well it is a mineral as well.. all very complicated so lets just enjoy the stamp!

Enjoy your stamps..  Michael