Magical Creatures Stamps: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Chunghwa Post is issuing souvenir sheet entitled Magical Creatures, They are being timed to come out simultaneously with the release of the third Harry Potter movie “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” on June 4, 2004. Each of these sheets consists of six stamps, five with denominations of NT$5 and one with a denomination of NT$25. 

The design of the “Magical Creatures” stamps follows:   1. Owl Post (Upper Left): Harry’s messenger owl, Hedwig, brings Harry a parcel containing a card and a present from Hermione on his 13th birthday 2. Close-up of Hedwig (Upper Right): By delivering messages and thus facilitating communication, Harry’s pet Hedwig plays an important role. 3. Riding a Hippogriff for the First Time (Middle Left): As the new Care-of-Magical-Creatures teacher at Hogwarts, Hagrid gives Harry guidance as to how to ride a Hippogriff. 4. Close-up of a Hippogriff (Middle Right): Hippogriffs have the bodies, hind legs, and tails of horses, but the front legs, wings and heads of what seem to be giant eagles, with cruel, steel-colored beaks and large, brilliant orange eyes. 5. The Monster Book of Monsters (Lower Left): A present from Hagrid on Harry’s 13th birthday. A required book for the Care-of-Magical-Creatures class, this book can bite and flip onto its edge and scuttle sideways on its covers like some weird crab. 6. Close-up of Crookshanks (Lower Right): Crookshanks is a huge, slightly bow-legged ginger cat with thick, fluffy fur.