Penny Black 1840

With Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary this week I thought this stamp might make a timely post - The Royal Silver Wedding Stamp issued in 1948 to celebrate 25 years of marriage between Queen Elizabeth II’s parents King George VI and the Queen Consort, Elizabeth (later known throughout her long life after the death of her husband as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother).

A particular curiosity of this commemorative design is that the heads face right, whereas the King or Queen’s head always faces to the left on definitive stamps.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a great example of why it’s nice to get international snail-mail now and again! My writer friend Adam Williams sent me some documents from China a couple of years ago in a large envelope, quite literally, covered with commemorative stamps. The large block of twenty stamps on the right depicts an anecdote about the early life of Sima Guang (1019 - 1086 AD), a Chinese politician and writer of the classical chronicle Historical Events Retold as a Mirror for Government (Zi Zhi Tong Jian), which is used to illustrate his great intelligence and ingenuity even as a child. The stamps show a baby falling into a vat of water and Sima Guang smashing the vat with a stone, causing the water to spill out and thus saving the child.
The 80 Fen stamp shows Sima Breaking the Vat, and is the second episode in the tale with another 80 Fen stamp showing the Baby’s Fall into Water, with the Rescue appearing on the 2 Yuan stamp. The set was designed by Li Wei and first issued on 1st June 2004, several months before this letter was posted in August 2004.
Interestingly, the bird stamp on the left, had been issued as a regular, rather than commemorative stamp, on 1st February, 2002 as part of a set of three depicting Chinese birds.

Read the rest of this entry »

The recent space shuttle mission reminded me of this set of stamps, although I waited till the crew got home safely before posting this! Issued by Saint Lucia in 1979 - The International Year of the Child - the set of six stamps was issued on the 10th Anniversary of the Moonwalk and features several popular Walt Disney characters as astronauts.

Donald Duck appears on both the 1 and 10 cent stamps;

Goofy graces both the 3 and 4 cent stamps;

Minnie Mouse is featured on the 2 cent stamp;

and Pluto buries a bone amongst the craters on the moon on the 5 cent stamp.

Mickey Mouse is, mysteriously, lost in space and nowhere to be seen! (Actually, he sits aboard a rocket on the 1/2 cent stamp which is sadly missing from my collection…)

Read the rest of this entry »