Austria prints a postage stamp to remember COVID-19 by, on toilet paper

[October 24, 2020]  Austria's postal service has united two aspects of the coronavirus pandemic in a stamp printed on toilet paper that people can also, at a push, use for social distancing.

The 2.75 euro "corona stamp" comes in sheets 10 cm wide, or a tenth of the 1 metre that the government advises members of the public to keep apart from each other, symbolised in official campaigns by a baby elephant.

"If you put 10 stamp sheets end to end, you get a metre's distance in total - or the length of a baby elephant. The famous baby animal is also printed on the stamp," Austrian Post said in a statement on Friday.

The novelty item is printed on three-ply toilet paper, in reference to the hoarding that occurred earlier this year, an urge that has recently started rearing its head again.

Austrian Post has poked fun at current events before. In January it issued a Brexit stamp with the previously planned date of Britain's departure from the European Union, March 29, 2019, crossed out and the new date of Jan. 31, 2020 underneath - an apparent wink at the drawn-out negotiations.

The corona stamp will be sold at twice its face value, with the mark-up going to charity.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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