Bigger, Dearer, Greedier: Olympic Stamp Year Begins.

The beginning of 2012 sees post offices rushing to cash in on the potential profits to be made from stamps which commemorate the Olympic Games due to be held in London this summer. No doubt almost all Commonwealth territories will have issued stamps for the sporting event by the time the games take place and collectors of new issues will have been faced with an enormous bill. I seem to remember that the Olympic Games authorities stipulated in 2000 that only territories taking part in the games would be allowed to issue stamps with the official logo on them and that each issue should be confined to a set comprising no more than 4 stamps (apart from the host nation). Royal Mail has certainly made the most of the event to produce 30 stamps plus miniature sheets, booklets, one enormous sheet containing all 30 stamps which does not fit in my stamp album, and I doubt in anybody else's for that matter, as well as numerous paraphilatelic souvenirs based on the stamps issued so far. And now, at the start of Olympic Year, Royal Mail have given us (sorry, are selling to us) four non-definitive "definitives" - that is - 4 stamps described as definitives but which only have an announced life-span of one year before they are withdrawn. Nor are these 4 little gems particularly cheap since two of them cost over a pound each being designated for use on "worldwide mail" up to 20g in weight. They are illustrated above. They are as uninspiring and uninspired as the incomprehensible and too-clever-by-half Olympics logo that they depict. It will take a little more than these to excite the British public to any degree of enthusiasm for the games which is not generally felt in the country except in London of course where all the money is being spent at the cost of the rest of Britain at a time when the money could be better spent propping up the economy and maintaining necessary public services. Royal Mail has also issued two booklets containing these new non-definitive defintives but I have not yet obtained these since my local post office has not been supplied with them and does not expect to be either. This is another example of new British issues not being freely available to the mail-posting public and therefore, in my opinion, qualify to be called "philatelic collectibles with postal validity" rather than true postage items.
Even before Royal Mail issued these stamps on 5 January, the greedy little Isle Of Man Post Office scurried to cash in on the potential Olympics stamps cash-cow by releasing seven stamps, a sheetlet containing 2 sets of the stamps and one miniature sheet, on New Year's Day. The publicity for the issue boasts that the stamps have been designed by Sir Paul Smith who seems to have drawn his inspiration for the set from the thirty Royal Mail stamps since the designs are all in the same style as the British items (although the Manx Post Office publicity states that he was inspired by "his passion for cycling and the Olympic legacy" - the Olympic legacy, I suppose, would be the bill that British people will be paying for the games for the foreseeable future). I am rather ignorant about modern artists and do not know who Sir Paul Smith is but clearly he is someone quite distinguished judging by the way the Manx Post Office drops his name multiple times, not just in their publicity but on the stamps themselves. I am surprised that The Isle Of Man is issuing any stamps at all for this event since it does not send its own team to the games and clearly the number of items being issued far exceeds the strict limit of four stamps. I have not read that the Olympic authorities have changed their rules on commemorative issues for the games but it certainly looks so to judge by The Isle Of Man "products". If so, this is bad news for collectors since unrestricted issuing will doubtlessly prove too much of a temptation for certain philatelic agents (and we know who they are) who will release a tsunami of stamps on to the market in a bid to extract as much money as possible from collectors. The Manx 2-set sheetlet is almost too big to fit into my album and so follows the lead of last year's British sheetlet - I do hope no other postal administration thinks it's a good idea to produce such a monster. And finally, if you just buy one set, one sheetlet and one miniature sheet of the Manx issue it will cost you £17 75p, to which you may add, if you wish and earn the salary of an investment banker or Post Office Chairman, £9 32p for a "first day cover set", £6 08p for a "stampcard set", £24 60p for a "sheet set" pack and, best of all, £50 for a "special collector's pack". Cheap at half the price, you might say.


The £9 84p "souvenir sheetlet".


An empty swimming pool and a tennis ball - stamp designs packed with interesting content.



The 2 lowest values of Isle Of Man's Olympic set including the designer's "passion" of cycling (apparently on a pink bike).

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The £3 miniature sheet.


The essential high values.

British War Occupations: North-west Germany 1945 - 49.

In the course of the history of The British Empire, the British have occupied a large number of countries after they have defeated them and during the periods of occupation, stamps have very frequently been issued which reflect that time of occupation. Thus there were a number of territories occupied by the British during the Boer Wars and First World War which resulted in the release of stamps for use in the occupied territories by the British and these can usually be found in the pages of the Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth Stamp Catalogue (one such issue is the set of eight produced during the occupation of Salonica in 1916, three of which are illustrated below) but some issues have not found their way into The Commonwealth Catalogue even though the territories they were issued in effectively had the same status as those which did find their way into the "Part 1" section - that is - they were under direct rule by a British administration for a period. This is just another example of the many inconsistencies which have gradually built up in the contents of that book.


From 1945 to 1949, the British occupied and were responsible for the government and administration of north-west Germany after the Allied defeat of the Germans in the Second World War. Britain had historic links with that part of Germany since the Kingdom of Hanover and The United Kingdom were ruled together by all the monarchs from George I to William IV and it was only the accession of Queen Victoria which put an end to this arrangement since a woman could not legally rule Hanover. Britain had also ruled the island of Heligoland in the North Sea after it had occupied the former Danish territory on 15 September 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars and subsequently made it a colony in January 1814 following the Treaty Of Kiel. Heligoland issued its first stamps (pictured below) in March 1867 but eventually the colony was ceded, rather against the wishes of the Heligolanders, to Imperial Germany on 9 August 1890. Hitler's Nazi regime issued a stamp in 1940 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the cession of the territory to Germany (depicted below)



Thus British links with north-west Germany were well established and it seems reasonable that when the three main Allies - The Soviet Union, USA and Great Britain - were dividing up conquered Germany that Britain should take over the part of the countyside where it had those historical links.



Allied Military Post stamps for all occupation zones, including one that was given to the French to rule, were issued on 1 July 1945 and were typographed by the Bureau of Engraving & Printing in Washington but subsequently six values in the same design were printed in photogravure by the British firm, Harrison and Sons. These were perforated 14 mainly whereas the American printing had been Perf. 11. The Harrison- printed stamps were only issued in the British Zone of Occupation and all the values are depicted below.





This design was used again in a lithograph printing by G. Westerman of Brunswick and included a larger sized 1 reichsmark value. In 1946 the French declined to continue with joint stamp issues with the other zones of occupation and a new numerical design was produced for use in the other three zones in values of 1 pfennig to 1 mark. The stamps were typographed in the State Printing Works in Berlin. Three values in the same design also appeared in a miniature sheet, produced perforate and imperforate, which was sold for 5 marks and issued on 8 December 1946 in the British, US and Soviet zones.

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The first commemorative set for use in the British Zone, along with the Soviet and US Zones, was issued on 5 March 1947 and was a beautifully intaglio-printed pair which noted the holding of the Leipzig (in the Soviet Zone) Spring Fair and which depicted medieval scenes of the fair. A set for the same event was also produced in March 1948 as was a pair for the Autumn Fair in September 1947.


A pictorial definitive set for use in the three zones was issued in March 1947 and subsequently overprinted with a design of a stripe of posthorns or multiple posthorns when the British, US and French Zones introduced a reformed currency - the Deutschemark - but the Russians did not participate and they introduced separate issues for The Soviet Zone from 24 June 1948.


The British Zone continued to issue stamps with the Americans and a new definitive set which featured architecture in the two zones was released from 1 September 1948. A number of joint commemorative issues was made including a pair to note the holding of the Hanover Trade Fair in the British Zone (22 May 1948), a set of four to mark the 700th anniversary of Cologne Cathedral which included a surcharge as a contribution to the restoration fund (12 August 1948), a pair with a surcharge for aid to Berlin, by then isolated by the Soviets (9 December 1948), and a set of three stamps and a miniature sheet to commemorate the 1949 Hanover Trade Fair. The final issue of the British (and US) Zone was made on 15 August 1949 when three stamps were released which commemorated the birth bicentenary of the German poet, Goethe.



The British Zone of Occupation joined with the French and American Zones to form The Federal Republic Of Germany on 21 September 1949 and the stamp issues of the British Zone then ceased. These stamps are an integral part of the history of stamps in the territories controlled by the British Empire at one time or another and, in order to tell the full story, should really be included in any catalogue of Commonwealth stamps whether or not they were used uniquely in British administered territory. The same may be said for the stamps issued during the British Occupation of The Faroe Islands during World War II or in the British-administered Zone of Austria after the same war. They seem equally as valid to have a place in such a book as the British occupation stamps of, say, Batum or Bushire. The period is an interesting time to study and its stamps reflect that fact.

Barbuda's Princess Diana Beach Issue.

An article which was posted on a website called "Repeating Islands" on the 1 July 2011 noted that a ceremony was held that day on the island of Barbuda for the official naming of Princess Diana Beach to "honor her active role in numerous humanitarian actions". The item noted that this tribute was to be followed by a series of "commemorative endeavours such as a monument, a promotional journal and a commemorative stamp that will be released during Antigua and Barbuda's Independence celebrations in November". The beach to be so commemorated is apparently that which The Princess Of Wales used when she brought her sons on holiday with her to the islands, her last visit being in April 1997, and it was foreseen by Trevor Walker, the Antigua-Barbuda M.P. for Barbuda that the beach would become "a treasured international landmark" and "a lasting memory of the hope that she provided for all". Call me cynical, but that does sound a little too optimistic. Anyway, we do have the "lasting memory" of a new stamp issue arising from out of this as mentioned above and as detailed on another website, "Caribarena Antigua" which described on 17 November 2011 the announcement in the Antigua-Barbudan parliament, which seems to have to approve all new stamps issues (surely they've got more important things to do?), of the issue of the new Princess Diana Beach stamps by the finance minister, Harold Lovell on 16 November 2011. Along with that particular set he also "tabled" a set of "Mushrooms of the Caribbean", a set for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess Of Cambridge (the Duke of course being Diana's son) and a set of "Shells of The Caribbean". The site featured what seemed to be a rather negative reaction to the stamp issues by local inhabitants who posted comments on the site - one called "lovejoy" was fairly succinct, "Well, we are ALL mushrooms, kept in the dark, and fed on horse poo." and another identified as "skyewill" wrote "Those stamps are already paid for if they got to this point. Royal Wedding? Mushrooms? Shells? we got shells? now that real important! and what is the reasoning behind Princess D's?, oh, it have political value? any way it's tabled and I hope it stay tabled forever." I'm not quite sure what the latter commentator was trying to say about the new stamp issues but I think I detect a note of dissatisfaction creeping in there somewhere.
Princess Diana has of course been depicted on numerous Commonwealth stamp issues since her death in 1997 and while the first issues after her death were meant to pay tribute to her, the almost annual releases since then, usually from countries whose stamps are produced by a New York Agency, appear more exploitative than showing any real respect to the unfortunate woman. Antigua-Barbuda's first memorial issue was released on 19 January 1998 and consisted of two sheetlets, each of 6 stamps, and two additional single-stamp miniature sheets. One of the sheetlets, which includes a design of The Princess famously dancing with the then notable movie actor, John Travolta, and the two miniature sheets, one showing her with her two sons and the other with Pope John Paul II, are depicted below.




A second issue, released on 24 November 1998, to approximately commemorate the first anniversary of her death in a road accident, was a single sheetlet of six $1.20 stamps, which are actually two designs with the country name either to the left or the right of a portrait of the Princess and with a rather random view of some British scenery, in this case The Palace Of Westminster, in the extended right hand margin of the sheetlet. Interestingly, the Stanley Gibbons Catalogue fails to identify that there are two different stamps in the sheetlet as it does with the stamps of some other territories which were issued in a similar format. The 2 stamps and sheetlet are depicted below.



I have not collected any "Princess Diana" issues produced since then but I will obtain the Princess Diana Beach issue when it turns up as on this occasion it seems to have a direct relevance to the country issuing it.

Jaws - New Bahamas Definitives - How To Encourage Tourism

The designers of modern stamps and the post offices and advisory committees and philatelic agencies which choose the designs do often give one the impression that they are quite mad. I ask this question - what is the principal source of income to the Bahamas government? My knowledge of international finance and economics is, at best, scanty, but I should think that the answer to that question is a pretty sure bet - tourism. Next question - what do tourists to Bahamas like to do when they are there? Answer - swim and frolic in the turquoise blue, warm Caribbean sea. Next question - what don't tourists like to think is swimming around in that warm, turquiose blue water? Answer - SHARKS! Final question - isn't it a completely daft idea to feature a large, menacing-looking shark on one of the values of your definitive stamps series which tourists, and potential tourists, are likely to see in their thousands? I think so, but then you see so many ridiculous things shown on new stamps nowadays that nothing can truly surprise one. I bet the Bahamas Tourist Board are delighted about the stamp design-clearly The Bahamas Post Office has found a brilliant way to boost tourism - hasn't anyone there seen the movie "Jaws"? Fortunately the remaining values of the set show less menacing marine life of the local waters with a cheerful dolphin featured on the $10 value although I don't like the look of the rather ferocious-appearing moray eel on the 40c value.
Sharks have featured quite regularly on the stamps of various Commonwealth territories, the most notable set of all being the excellently designed definitive set issued by The British Indian Ocean Territory on 1 November 1994. All 12 designs showed a different shark, beautifully painted by Nick Shewring and the £1 value featured Jaws itself, the great white shark. On 18 August 2005 The BIOT revisited the theme of sharks by issuing a set of 8 stamps, again designed by Nick Shewring, each depicting a different species of shark or ray. The good thing about the BIOT is that it is not really a place renowned for its tourism industry, being a large, high-security American base in the middle of the Indian Ocean which is surrounded by a few tiny islands from where all the local inhabitants were expelled in the most disgraceful example of behaviour by the British that has been seen in many a year. So, no worry about sharks on stamps ruining the BIOT's tourism industry then.






On the subject of definitive issues, it would appear that The Maldives will soon release a new set of 13 stamps following the advertising on the Maldives Post website on 20 October 2011 of an invitation for expression of interest to print and provide postage stamps for the Maldives Post Office. The specifications lay down that there will be 13 denominations with a total quantity of 780,000 stamps, there being 3 x 10,000 stamps for the 10L, 15L and 25L values, 9 x5 0,000 stamps for the 1Rf, 2Rf, 3Rf, 5Rf, 6Rf, 8Rf, 16Rf, 18Rf and 20Rf values and 1 x 300,000 stamps for the 12RF value. It is stated that the printing should be full colour and include a security feature embedded in the stamp so that it can not be replicated and the size of the stamps will be 40 x 27.715mms including the perforations. The closing date for quotations was 29 October 2011 and so I suppose that the new stamps should appear in the first part of 2012. Let us hope that The Maldives, whose economy again is based on tourism, has the good sense not to emulate The Bahamas and feature any sharks on this new definitive series.

Wei Hai Wei

Flag of Liu Kung Tau 1899 - c.1902

Following a war between China and Japan which lasted from 1894 to 1895, China was faced with paying large indemnities to the Japanese and to raise money to pay these the Chinese government leased the naval base at Port Arthur to Russia and to counter this, the British took out a lease on the walled city of Wei Hai Wei, south of Port Arthur and west of the Korean Peninsula. The town was leased from 24 May 1898 and it was originally intended that the lease should last as long as "Port Arthur remained in the occupation of Russia" although the territory remained British much longer than that since it was not returned to Chinese sovereignty until 30 September 1930, 25 years after the Russians gave up Port Arthur. In the absence of an organised mail service a private local post was established by a trader in Wei Hai Wei whereby mail was carried from the town to the Chinese port of Chefoo, 63 miles away. Mr. G. K. Ferguson, the manager of Cornabe & Co., and Captain Harrison established the courier service on 8 December 1898 and Mr. Ferguson became the postmaster. Provisional postage stamps were produced by stamping Cornabe's chop (trademark) on sheets of native red paper, applying the chop once for the 2c value and twice (one inverted) for the 5c. The value was written in the top corners with CP in the lower corners on the 2c. In all 784 of the 2c were produced and 392 of the 5c (both in sheets of 98). The cover depicted below bears one of the 2c stamps and is addressed to Chefoo and additionally has a 1c Chinese Imperial Post stamp applied which was cancelled at Chefoo (dated 7 January 1899). The service operated until 15 March 1899 when a Chinese Imperial post office opened in Wei Hai Wei. The first British post office opened on the island of Liu Kung Tau, where the British administration was first located, on 1 September 1899 and a second office opened on the mainland at Port Edward on 1 April 1904.





Wei Hai Wei is one of the very few British colonies never to have had postage stamps produced with its name on them and indeed it was not until 30 November 1922 that it had stamps produced uniquely for use in the colony. Until 1 January 1917 the stamps of Hong Kong were used on mail in Wei Hai Wei. A number of postmarks were brought into use. The illustration below shows a postcard sent to Devonport in England franked with a 4c Hong Kong stamp of 1903 and cancelled by a violet oblong postmark of Port Edward, dated 30 June 1905.

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From 1 January 1917 Hong Kong stamps were sold at Wei Hai Wei with the overprint "CHINA" applied to them; thus George V, King and Emperor, was depicted on stamps bearing the inscription of China, itself an ancient empire - surely this must have been the very peak of imperial pretension as had ever been depicted on a postage stamp. The overprinted stamps were not only for use in Wei Hai Wei but also from existing agencies in the so-called Treaty Ports of Amoy, Chefoo, Canton, Foochow, Hankow, Hoi how, Ningpa, Shangai, Swatow and Tientsin. This latter usage ended on 22 September 1922 from which date until 1930 Wei Hai Wei finally had its own postage stamps of a sort.


Flag of Wei Hai Wei 1902- 30








The above illustrations show a pair of Hong Kong 1891 definitives cancelled by an oval violet Liu Kung Tao postmark dated 15 July 1901 which was replaced by the circular Liu Kung Tao postmark, shown in the second illustration above, used on Hong Kong stamps of 1910 (1c) and 1912 (3x4c) and dated 13 July 1914. The final illustration shows the three top values of the 1917 - 21 series of Hong Kong stamps overprinted "China" which had been overprinted at Somerset House. As stated above, Wei Hai Wei was restored to the sovereignty of The Republic Of China on 1 October 1930 and with that the use of overprinted Hong Kong stamps in the territory came to an end.

Bequia

The December "Dealer Interactive" section of a New York-based stamp agency features 119 items and of these, 41 are items which are said to have been issued by the individual islands of the small Commonwealth territory of St. Vincent & The Grenadines. In this particular month's listing, only two of the items are said to have been issued for Bequia (pronounced Bek-way) which is the largest island of the Grenadine group which is possessed by St. Vincent although it is still very small with a total population of about 4,300, said to be of African, Scottish and Carib Indian origin. The island capital is Port Elizabeth where the main post office is situated (pictured above). The Post Office of St. Vincent first issued stamps inscribed "St. Vincent Grenadines" on 14 November 1973, ostensibly for use in the small islands which belonged to it, and they commemorated the royal wedding of Princess Anne to Mark Phillips in the standard design used by the Crown Agents for its client territories.



Stamps were then issued for The Grenadines of St. Vincent until 1994 when the last issue appeared which consisted of 12 stamps (SG 1010 - 1021) which featured medicinal plants. One interesting issue had been released on 26 September 1976 which had consisted of 7 booklets priced at $2.50 each and each containing 4 different se-tenant panes of 3 stamps and one label and each booklet produced for a different island in the group. The cover of that produced for Bequia is illustrated below.



During the 21 years of being a philatelic entity "The Grenadines Of St. Vincent" had had a chequered career as regards the issuing of new issues including the participation in the notorious "leaders of the world" series of stamps produced by the equally notorious Philatelists Limited and, as if that was not bad enough, then allowing the New York agency to take over control of its new stamp issues so that there was an even greater flood of new issues, celebrating themes of such great relevance to these tiny islands as the death centenary of Vincent Van Gogh (16 stamps and 4 miniature sheets), Japanese railway locomotives, several sets depicting Walt Disney characters, the 15th death anniversary of Elvis Presley and so on, ad nauseum.
But although general issues for The Grenadines ceased in 1993, some one thought it was a good idea to produce stamps for each tiny island and these were produced from 1994. Mercifully, Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth Catalogue recognised these for what they are from the word go and columns of print have been added to their catalogue appendix listing these labels - islands with their names printed on these items are Bequia, Canouan, Mustique, Myreau, Palm Island, Tobago Cays, Union Island and Young Island; thus none of these "issues" has received a Gibbons catalogue number and none appear in the main list of stamps issues. And yet they continue to be produced and somebody, presumably, buys them. I visited Bequia in March 2008 and visited the post office in Port Elizabeth and saw with my own eyes that not a single example of these individual island stamps was on sale at the post office - certainly not for use on mail and not even as a philatelic souvenir for tourists to buy. The items on sale then were all the values of the 1996 Crotons definitive set for St. Vincent itself (apart from the ultra-scarce 20c value which I have never seen offered for sale), the 80c value of the St Vincent Grenadines birds and eggs definitive set of 1978 i.e. it was being sold 28 years after it had first been issued, the 75c value of the St. Vincent 1984 flowering trees definitive series, 2 values of the 2007 local insects set of St Vincent, the 20c value of the 2006 set from St Vincent which commemorated the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the 20c fish stamp (SG 5537) of 2006 and, bizarrely, the $1.40c value of the St. Vincent 1999 dinosaurs "Australia '99" set. I made three covers with all the available stamps (apart from the high values of the crotons definitives) and they arrived when I returned home, cancelled with a double ring "BEQUIA ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES", dated "MR 4 08", each stamp being neatly and individually cancelled (Royal Mail please note - see previous blog).















Unless things have changed at Bequia Post Office in the past three years, the numerous individual issues which have been produced seem to represent something of a fantasy and in the case of that particular island, certainly when I visited, they have not been obtainable at the post office (nor, for good measure, did any gift or souvenir shops seem to be selling them either). Under these circumstances they can not be described as postage stamps and Stanley Gibbons are more than justified in not giving them full catalogue status.

Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth Stamp Catalogue Southern & Central Africa

I have been much anticipating the publication of the Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth Catalogue covering Southern and Central Africa if only to see what the editor has made of the issues of Mozambique since the country joined The Commonwealth on 2 November 1995 and also to see how he was faring with making sense of the issues of Malawi over the past few years. As regards the latter, issues up to the European Union Projects set of 18 January 2011 are included with one or two omissions - the European Union miniature sheet which will follow no doubt, the 2nd SAPOA set featuring wild animals, originally scheduled for release in 2007 but seemingly delayed until 2010 and the Rotary stamps from ordinary sheets issued in 2005, the catalogue continues only to feature the miniature sheet for that issue. I remember that several people made bids of 2 - 300 US dollars on E Bay for the set of protected butterflies issued in 2007 and Gibbons now price the set at a mere £6.75p - somebody who spent such a lot of money on them must be feeling a little sick right now!
As regards Mozambique, the editor has had a brilliant stab at trying to make some sense of what the Mozambique Post Office is said to have produced since 1998. Many of the known surcharges have not yet been given catalogue numbers but at least lists of the various surcharge types are provided in the catalogue although they are a little difficult to find among the large number of foreign-agency produced stamps which were released from 1999 to 2004. The lists show that an enormous number of different surcharges were produced from 1997 to 2006 - so far 51 different stamps are identified - and the thought of attempting to obtain a fraction of these for one's collection is a daunting thought and no doubt there will be more for the editor to add to the list - I have several surcharged stamps which do not seem to be known to the editor and some of which I have illustrated in previous blogs so those alone increase the number of these items from the catalogue's current total of 51.
The dimensions of the catalogue make it much more user-friendly than many of the other earlier supplements to The Commonwealth Catalogue and the editor is to be congratulated on his work in producing this excellent book given the minefield that one or two of the included countries have posed. In particular I am especially pleased that he has consigned most of the 100's of thematic stamps produced by Mozambique since 2007 to an appendix, I only wish that he would retrospectively do the same with those produced from 1999 to 2004 but I suppose that having "catalogued" them it is rather difficult to "uncatalogue" them. Perhaps having appendicised about 147 different issues from Mozambique covering the period 2007 - 10 the editor may feel a little more able to similarly deal with a few other Commonwealth countries where the crimes of excessive issue are carried out if not quite to the extent that Mozambique has been guilty of. However the editor certainly showed double standards when he recently announced in Gibbons Stamp Monthly that he would continue to include in the Gibbons Catalogue any "prestige" booklets issued by Royal Mail in the future which are sold for above face value despite that completely contravening Gibbons' own rules for inclusion of stamps in the catalogue.
On that subject, and thinking about the future privatisation of Royal Mail, I think the Catalogue editor should begin to include stamps produced by other mail companies which have international validity and which therefore can not be dismissed as mere "locals" (though a similar status for the stamps produced by the Indian States did not prevent their inclusion in the Commonwealth Catalogue). The prime example of such stamps in Britain are those produced in booklets of 5 and freely available in various outlets, often at places of a high degree of tourist interest, by Universal Mail United Kingdom. Nearly all of the items produced have been available for use on international postcards although two booklets, each of 5 stamps and depicting the Union Jack, were issued in October 2008 and September 2009 respectively for use on letters being sent abroad. In July 2011, six more booklets were produced; of these three, each containing five different designs, were produced on behalf of "Historic Scotland", there are 2 (each with 5 different designs) which depict the Union Jack and British Historic Royal Palaces, and there is one (again containing 5 stamps) which depicts showing different famous road signs - Abbey Road, Oxford Road, Piccadily Circus, Trafalgar Square and Baker Street. These are tremendous items for the tourist trade; they are very interesting and colourful and are highly collectable and make great souvenirs for visitors to Britain. And from the philatelic point of view, must be seen as real stamps, freely available to the public for use on international mail and in consequence they demand inclusion in a catalogue of postage stamps.


The first Universal Mail United Kingdom booklet, no. UK0001, issued in October 2008. Note the inscription at the upper edge of the booklet saying "London Day 1st Edition Souvenir stamps".


One of the 2011 "Historic Scotland" booklets, no. UK0030, issued in 2011.


The road signs booklet, no. UK0034, issued in July 2011.

Finally, a little gem of post office worker vandalism - a cover I recently received with a "Post & Go" label from the 16 September 2011 birds (IV) set used as the stamp and lightly cancelled but then vandalised by a postal worker who drew a thick black line with a felt tip marker pen right across the stamp just to make sure you knew it had been cancelled and to ruin any pleasure that a stamp collector would have had from obtaining such a neat little cover. Honestly, who'd be a stamp collector? You have to be quite mad or at least a severe obsessive-compulsive with the patience of Job.