Puzzle of the Week #3 - Shaded Squares

I have shaded some squares in the left-hand grid according to two simple rules:

Rule 1 – Squares that are next to each other, horizontally or vertically, cannot both be shaded.

Rule 2 – All the unshaded squares must be connected. In other words, you must be able to get from any unshaded square to any other unshaded square by moving horizontally or vertically through unshaded squares.

I have shaded 11 squares in the left-hand grid, but I can’t shade a 12th square without breaking the rules. For instance, shading the ‘E’ square would break rule 1, and shading the ‘3’ square would break rule 2 (as the ‘6’ and ‘8’ squares would be separated from the other unshaded squares).

However, if you start again, it is possible to shade 12 squares without breaking the rules. I have shaded two squares in the right-hand grid to start you off.

Which squares should you shade? 

Puzzle of the Week #2 - Quotebreaker

I have taken a quotation, and I have replaced each of the letters with one-, two- of three-digit numbers according to the table below. Can you change it back to letters?

Be careful though, as some sequences of numbers could lead to several words, for instance 31110 could mean CAT (3,1,110), but could equally mean MAD (31,1,10).

2112  1110  1221102103110  12133111  103332'110  10311133111110,  313030  10110!

Puzzle of the Week #1 - Strange Stamps

The islanders of Fictitia have a rather eccentric postal system. Postage for an item can be anything from 1 dinar to 12 dinari, and you must use exact postage.

Frustratingly, there is only space on the envelopes in Fictitia to attach a maximum of two stamps.

What is more, they only have four different denominations of stamps, can you work out what they are?