It probably won’t come as a surprise that I have a particular liking for small stamps that have the feel of the very first stamp - the Penny Black! This 4 cent US postage stamp featuring President Abraham Lincoln was issued on 19 November, 1965 as part of the Prominent Americans Issue between 1965 -1978 and features an instantly recognisable and almost iconic profile portrait of the assassinated president.
This striking little stamp was designed by Bill Hyde and engraved by J. S. Creamer.
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Posted: December 15th, 2007 by debs
| Filed under Famous people, World stamps
Merry Christmas from Penny Black 1840! I have just made this little video of the 1973 British commemorative stamps for Christmas telling the story of Good King Wenceslas - Good King Wenceslas, the Page and the Peasant.
The stamps were issued as a se-tenant strip with a slightly higher value 3 1/2 pence stamp issued separately.
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Posted: December 3rd, 2007 by debs
| Filed under Commemorative stamps, GB stamps
I’ve always loved these 1977 Christmas stamps because they were one of the first sets I collected as a child, eagerly waiting for different images to arrive on letters and then steaming them off Christmas card envelopes to make up the full set of six.
The five 7 pence stamps represent different lines of the Christmas song The Twelve Days of Christmas:
“Twelves Lords a-leaping,
Eleven Ladies dancing,
*
Ten Pipers piping,
Nine Drummers drumming,
*
Eight Maids a-milking,
Seven Swans a-swimming,
*
Six Geese a-laying,
Five Gold Rings,
Four Colly Birds,
*
Three French Hens,
Two Turtle Doves…”
whilst the 9 pence stamp represents the repeated chorus:
“And a Partridge in a Pear Tree”.
The 7 pence stamps were printed horizontally in a se-tenant strip.
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Posted: December 1st, 2007 by debs
| Filed under Commemorative stamps, GB stamps
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