In 2011, the African nation of Liberia issued two sheets of chocolate themed postage stamps commemorating one of their leading exports, cocoa. Postage stamps on the first sheet are designed to appear as blocks of chocolate in an unwrapped candy bar, while the second sheet portrays a box of truffles - each stamp depicting a different gourmet confection. Both sheets are cocoa scented.
Liberia's climate being so favorable to agriculture allows the country to be an exporter of products such as rubber, coffee, rice, cassava (tapioca), palm oil, sugarcane, bananas, timber, and cocoa.
These attractive designs strive to educate philatelists in the process of making this beloved dessert, from harvesting the beans to packaging chocolate products. The incorporation of a quick response (QR) barcode supplies additional information on this process and gives the stamps a modern touch.
The QR code can be scanned by most smartphones and read with a built-in decoding program which will reveal a document entitled, "From Bean to Bar: The Making of Chocolate."
Each sheet features 9 stamps. The stamps were designed and are being distributed by the Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corp. (IGPC), the leader in governmental philatelic services. Founded in 1957, IGPC is the world's largest and most prestigious Philatelic Agency representing more than 70 International Government Postal Authorities, including Liberia../.
