You’ve probably noticed that here at FACT we love pretty much anything you can play with a turntable.

You can imagine our glee then when this set of vinyl stamps came to our attention – postage stamps that could be actually affixed to envelopes, that you can actually play music from. They were made in Bhutan in 1972, and like the series of playable postcards produced in Austria, were seen as a novelty and a way of adding an extra element to something that inspires tourists.

The tourism angle is especially important here, as the two records we actually have sound samples of are intended to give an introduction to Bhutan for foreigners – one is a spoken word piece about the history of the country, read in an American accent, and the other is an eerie rendition of the Bhutanese national anthem.

Sadly, if you want to own these mini vinyl gems you’ll have to have deep pockets. There’s set of them on eBay right now for a whopping $495, attracting interest from thirsty stamp collectors as well as vinyl junkies.

You can take a listen to sounds recorded from the stamps over at WFMU. [via The Vinyl Factory/Dangerous Minds]