Thematic postage stamps

Welcome to the Penny Black 1840 Thematic postage stamps blog looking at the stories behind postage stamps and taking a wide look at philately and stamp collecting around the world.

Whilst leafing through some old stamp albums from childhood recently I suddenly felt a renewed interest in some of the postage stamps that I had long ago dismissed as a merely juvenile collection of jumbled commemorative issues from around the world, in favour of my adult interest in Victorian line engraved stamps. With a jolt I realised that most of these stamps had been issued in the late 1960s and early 1970s and that I’d hardly looked at them in last thirty years! Although none of them were particularly rare some them of them were actually rather interesting…

I’m now in the process of scanning and researching the stories, anniversaries and events behind the postage stamps in my collection and will post them here regularly.