Stamp issue 18 August 1958: six new 3d stamps for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. The first Regional Stamps were issued! In September, 6d & 1s3d stamps were issued for the three larger countries, but not for the islands. Now, 50 years on, Royal Mail marks this anniversary by the issue of a miniature sheet of 9 stamps utilising the designs for the 3d, 6d & 1s3d stamps of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, all converted to 1st class values, and a commemorative label.
The British Postal Museum and Archive has an online exhibition of Regional Stamps entitled "Lions, Leopards, Unicorns & Dragons" showing the history, the original stamps, and unaccepted designs of these stamps and those of the islands.
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row 2 - 3d Northern Ireland, 6d Wales, 6d Scotland, 6d & 1s3d Northern Ireland. |
Description of stamps (all stamps are 1st class):
Pane 1 - Stamps of Northern Ireland, Wales & Scotland in vertical
columns, designs of old 3d, 1s3d & 6d in rows.
Pane 2 - Stamps of Scotland: designs for 3d, 1s3d & 6d alternating
with current 1st class Lion stamp.
Pane 3 - Stamps of Northern Ireland: designs for 3d, 1s3d & 6d
alternating with current 1st class fields stamp.
Pane 4 - Stamps of Wales: designs for 3d, 1s3d & 6d alternating
with current 1st class Dragon stamp.
Original stamp designers: Wales - Reynolds Stone; Scotland -
Gordon F Huntly (3d), John B Fleming (6d), Archie B Imire (1s3d);
Northern Ireland - William Hollywood (3d), Leonard Pilton (6d), Thomas
Collins (1s3d).
The miniature sheet is designed by Sedley Place and is printed
by De La Rue Security Print in gravure - sheet size 123 x 70mm. The
sheet has a cream background, immitating the off-white paper used for
the original stamps. Phosphor bands on the mini-sheet are 'gradated',
ie they diminish away from the perforations.
The stamps in the Prestige Stamp Book are printed on white paper, with clearly defined phosphor bands, making them quite different to those in the miniature sheet. The booklet is printed by De La Rue Security Print with the stamps printed in lithography. The current 1st class country stamps in litho were also included in the Army Uniforms PSB last year, but printed by Enschede. The phosphor bands on those were much narrower than those in the present book, ie the central space between them on the stamp is much wider.
Products
issued:
Mint miniature sheet
MS Presentation Pack
MS on PO FDC 25
Set of 10 Stamp Cards
Special Postmarks
First day of issue postmarks are shown here - these may not be to
scale. Due to the late publication of these postmarks Royal Mail
will allow extra time for collectors to submit covers for postmarking.
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Ref FD837 Philatelic Bureau Official Postmark |
Ref FD841 Gloucester Official Postmark. Gloucester is the birthplace of Dorothy Wilding. Shows multiple St Edwards Crown watermark. | Ref FD841NP Gloucester, Official non-pictorial Postmark |
Ref M11130 Union Street, Birmingham |
Ref L11112 25 Years of the £1 coin and 50 years of Country Definitives London SW1 |
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Ref L11102 London - Union flag |
Ref S11137 Edinburgh - thistle. |
Ref S11136 Belfast - Red Hand badge. |
Ref W11141 Cardiff - dragon. |
Ref S11138 Edinburgh - contains the names of all 6 terriroties issuing stamps in 1958. |
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Ref N11133 Britannia, Bacup, Lancashire |
Ref L11118 London SW - Union flag |
Ref L11117 London - Lion |
Ref L11114 Country Definitives 1958-2008 Windsor. |
Ref S4641 Belfast Permanent postmark |
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<<<< Ref W5097 Cardiff permanent postmark. |
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<<<< Ref S4653 Edinburgh permanent postmark. |
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Ref L11115 Burnham Thorpe, King's Lynn |
Ref L11116 Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk |
Ref L11113 Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk |
Ref F11143 BFPO 3067 |
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This page updated 25 September 2008