Dutch Elvis ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ Stamps

When the Dutch Postal Service issued its first official Elvis Presley postage stamp on 6 June 2006, appropriately it was released with a very special extra – a limited edition promotional CD entitled Heartbreak Hotel Collector’s Edition. The CD contained mostly spoken content with Elvis answering a series of questions as well as candid excerpts from studio sessions.

Dutch Elvis Postage Stamp in presentation pack

Only 500 copies were pressed worldwide and were sold together with the official presentation pack including four of the 30 Euro cent Dutch Elvis Stamps – a must have for Elvis fans although hard to come by now!

The stamp itself features the iconic image of Elvis on stage taken on 26 September, 1956 when he returned to his home town of Tupelo as a huge star and performed two shows at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair – a local hero made good!

2006 also saw the 50th anniversary of the release of Heartbreak Hotel on 27 January 1956 – it was Elvis Presley’s first million-seller and went on to become the best-selling single of 1956.

Share this post:

More GB Stamps

Beningfield’s Butterflies on Stamps

There is a timely seasonal theme over at See it on a Postcard today for Sunday Stamps. The weekly theme is left open to interpretation, so I have chosen this set of commemorative GB stamps from my childhood collection featuring British Butterflies for the theme of summer. While butterflies are active all year round, with some species even living through the winter months by either hibernating or flying to warmer climes, summer is traditionally regarded as the peak butterfly season. British Butterflies – 1981 This charming set was issued by the Royal Mail on 13 May 1981, and I am presenting them to you here exactly as mounted in my loose-leaf stamp album: a set of four mint, uncirculated stamps, in clear fronted, black Hawid stamp mounts. All four stamps were designed by English wildlife artist and naturalist Gordon Beningfield (1936-1998), who had notably published an art book – Beningfield’s Butterflies – in 1974. Benington would go on to design yet another insect-themed set four years later in 1985, depicting more British insects. The butterflies featured on the stamps were both common and nearing extinction back in 1981: 14p: Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)18p: Large Blue (Maculinea arion)22p: Peacock (Inachis io)25p: Chequered Skipper (Carteroephalus palaemon) According to the presentation pack in 1981: both the Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies are still common and may be seen in parks and gardens in late summer and also in spring”. Presentation Pack, 1981 A quick check online tells me that while the Peacock is still a relatively common butterfly, seen in many European parks and gardens, the Small Tortoiseshell, a ubiquitous presence in gardens and parkland during my childhood, would now seem to be in very rapid and perplexing decline in Western Europe. The Large Blue butterfly was first recorded in Britain in 1795, declared extinct there in 1979, but reintroduced as part of conservation methods, and is now listed as Endangered in the European Red List. As for the Chequered Skipper, it was described in the presentation pack as: a pretty little woodland butterfly which used to occur in central counties of England but has not been seen in recent years. It may still be found in a number of places in western Scotland, and it is hoped that the English colony still survives or can be re-established.”Presentation Pack, 1981 A quick search on Wikipedia tells me that the fate of the Chequered Skipper in the British Isles has not improved greatly, alas. The once abundant numbers decreased dramatically, and it is still only seen predominantly in western Scotland. Do go visit See it on a Postcard for more summer-themed Sunday Stamps!

[…]

When England Won the World Cup in 1966

With the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicking off today in Brazil, and England’s first game – against Italy – fast approaching on Saturday, this seemed like a very good moment to look at the last time England hosted, and then won the contest, way back in 1966. World Cup England 1966 The General Post Office issued its first ever set of football postage stamps on 1 June 1966 to commemorate the event. The 6d and 1/3d value stamps both depict goalmouth scenes and were designed by William Kempster and David Caplan respectively, although the striking 4d value stamp designed by David Gentleman, and based on sports photographs taken by Peter Boyce, became the most iconic image of the three. With over 130 million stamps of the 4d value issued alone, the set is hardly rare and can easily found today, but it’s still a great piece of philatelic sporting memorabilia. The official special First Day Cover above is cancelled with three Counter Date Stamp (CDS) Stratford postmarks, although the 1 June 1966 date is frustratingly blurred in each of them! When Alf Ramsey’s England team went on to beat West Germany in the final on 30 July 1966, the GPO clearly hadn’t planned for this, and to mark the occasion simply reissued David Gentleman’s 4d value design with an “ENGLAND WINNERS” overprint. The print run on this issue ran to nearly 12.5 million. World Cup England Winners 1966 The England Winners stamp was issued on 18 August 1966, and this First Day Cover carries a very clear postmark from Horley, Redhill. This is a “Stuart” First Day Cover – the company’s distinctive thistle logo is seen in the left hand corner of the envelope.

[…]

World Thematic Stamps

Cats big or small… on stamps big or small!

Most of my childhood stamps were acquired in those big, mixed country bags, divided by themes rather than country, and mostly date from the mid-1970s and earlier. Animals and birds seem to proliferate and there are a great many stamps featuring big and domestic cats. Here are a just a few […]

[…]

Greenland Mountains by Lawren Stewart Harris on 1967 Canadian Stamp

One of the great things about the Sunday Stamps meme over at Viridian’s Postcard Blog is that when I occasionally drop by it always inspires me to browse through my unsorted thematic stamps and find just the right stamp to fit the weekly theme. This Sunday the topic is “Scenic Natural Areas” and right away one starkly iconic stamp stood out as being the perfect choice – a monochrome engraved view of Greenland Mountains by Canadian painter Lawren Stewart Harris (1885-1970). Greenland Mountains by Lawren Stewart Harris The original 1930 painting was mistakenly identified by the National Gallery of Canada, which purchased the work in 1936, as depicting Bylot Island in Nunavut Territory, Canada, within the Sirmilik National Park. This error went unchecked right up until the 1990s, and as a result this 15 cent Canadian Stamp, which was issued on 8 February 1967 as part of the Centennial Series celebrating 100 years of Canadian postage (1867-1967), was always known as the “Bylot Island” stamp. Harris was the first of several Toronto painters in the early decades of the last century who would travel to northern Ontario and the Arctic to create landscape paintings. In 1920 these artists began to call themselves the Group of Seven – and a new Canadian art movement was born. Incidentally, in 2010, a painting of Bylot Island entitled Bylot Island I by Lawren Harris, was sold at auction for a staggering 2.8 million Canadian dollars, a record-breaking amount for an artwork by a Canadian artist. Happy Canada Day!

[…]