British Postage Stamps

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

I am talking here from a stamp collecting point of view. Firstly, I should explain that our stamps come in two types - definitives and commemoratives. The former are your plain everyday stamps and each bears a bust of the Queen's head, a simple, classical and enduring design which we have used for ages. The latter as the name suggests were issued on special occasions to commemorate some significant event past or present. Until the 1970's, there were about 4 or 5 issues per year. They were pleasant designs and they were collectable although in most cases, you never get rich on them.

After that, the Post Office decided to cash in on philately and, like many of the world's smaller nations had been doing for years, the commemorative issues came thick and fast. So instead of the likes of the 1000th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, you got the Prime Minister's dog's 7th birthday, etc. It could be funny if we had a series like 'What Scotsmen wear under their kilts,' but they don't seem to go in for humour. The designs are in many cases arty farty and garish and no better than some biscuit labels. They don't hold their value. Indeed, stamp dealers are now using this trash on mail shots to get rid of the stock. I get them all the while.

The next wheeze was to bugger around with the definitives by printing values which were only useful for sending postcards to Zanzibar on Wednesdays and the like. And just to make sure that you didn't just spend the 73p or whatever on the stamp, they put them inside stamp booklets costing upwards of £5 or more - no other way of getting one.

So the market has collapsed. Good!

And did you know that the UK is the only country in the world which is still permitted to issue stamps without the name of the country on them. Guess that's a legacy from inventing them, a legacy we have squandered on garbage.