the first christmas stamps ...

When Tony Benn became Postmaster General in 1964, he decided that Christmas stamps should be issued in Britain, using the concept of the smaller silhouette of the Queen's head also developed around that time.



Tony Benn also ordered a competition to have the Christmas stamps designed by children, and you can see the winners on this page. There is 'Snowman' by James Berry (aged 6) and 'King Wenceslas' by Tasveer Shemza (aged 6). The stamps were issued in 1966.

This post has reminded Carol from Katherines Dream to try and unearth her childhood collection. I once had a collection too, although if memory serves me right, which happens infrequently nowadays, I gave mine to my step-nephew, many moons ago when he was small? I remember as a kid very carefully steaming the stamp from the envelope and fixing it very neatly on the page, keeping very neat lines. My grandparents lived in Majorca, so as you can imagine I had a huge collection of Spanish stamps going as far back as General Franco! Can anyone remember what those tiny stamp fixers were called, the ones that didn't damage the back of the stamp?

You are so right Alchamillamolly, the fiddly little stamp fixers were called stamp hinges, many thanks for that.