Jersey's Jubilee Money Grab.

Jersey's shameless attempt to squeeze ludicrous amounts of money out of stamp collectors who wish to collect the stamps issued for the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II continues with the release on 1 June 2012 of a stamp with a face value of £10 issued in a sheetlet of four so that if you want to buy that item the cost amounts to a staggering £40.

This little gem follows on from their £125 miniature sheet with miniscule diamond attached (see blog of 12 January 2012) as well as the £4 miniature sheet with no diamond attached and the sheetlet of four stamps which cost £8.

The Jersey Philatelic Bureau's lavishly printed spring Bulletin has some remarkable text in it:- "Following on from our "Diamond Jubilee - Accession" issue, we are delighted to be able to offer to our customers yet another "world first" in stamp design and technology...on 1 June 2012, we shall reveal "Equanimity" reproduced on our new £10 stamp. ..."Equanimity" meaning "the quality of being calm and even-tempered", is the first official holographic portrait of Her Majesty The Queen". Well, let me tell you I have no feelings of "equanimity" when a post office is trying to suck as much as £10 out of me (or £40 if I was foolish enough to feel the need to buy the sheetlet) for a new stamp issue particularly when they have already used what should be an opportunity to celebrate and honour the Queen as a means of extracting enormous sums of money from collectors. No doubt the Jersey Post Office would point out that the "Diamond stamp" in its limited production number of 600 was sold out in a week but I bet there were not many proper stamp collectors among those who bought them. If you are not content with buying the single £10 stamp and £40 sheetlet, you can also fritter your money away by buying the presentation pack (£11.10p) and first day cover (11.10p). Really, don't they know there's a recession on?