China began Friday to destroy over 3 billion yuan (US$365 million) worth of commemorative or special stamps released between 1992 and 2001, a move to boost the country's philately market suppressed by oversupply.

The stamps, collected from local post offices across the country, were minced by a large machine at the Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Bureau. It would take two months to finish the job of destroying all the stamps.

Liu Jianhui, director of Postage and Stamp Management Department under the State Post Bureau of China, said that oversupply of those stamps issued between 1992 and 2001 was blamed for the depressed stamp market.

The stamps to be destroyed account for 94 percent of all the inventories of provincial post offices, said the official.

Some of the commemorative and special stamps are sold below their face value at the stamp market.

(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2004)