Great Britain Stamps - UK Stamp Collecting - Royal Mail

In Great Britain the UK postal service called the ‘Royal Mail’ delivers thousands of letters and parcels each day. Each Great Britain stamp used on these items will have the emblem of Britain on it in the form of a silhouette of the Queen of England’s head. This would change if she resigned, died or abdicated the throne in favour of another royal (perhaps a king’s head would be featured if a male heir takes up the throne). The only other time this ‘iconic’ head is removed is when the Royal Family member herself is featured photographically. The postal service is generally recognised and known as the Royal Mail with predominant ‘red’ post boxes situated all across the island of Great Britain.

Strangely the Great Britain postage stamp does not show a title of country of origin but is instantly recognised because of the Queen image, Stamps have featured famous people of sport and many Olympians and world champions have been featured.

Queen Elizabeth, head of state

Others including Musicians, Soccer players, Artists, Architects and Actors have also been recognised but always with the symbolic head of the Queen (or King, if he is the reigning Monarch) displayed. See the large first class Roald Dahl 2012 stamp shown below which displays the Queen's head in the top right hand corner.

The type of stamp collecting you might choose could be connected to things like historic events, buildings, famous people and First Day covers. The Royal Mail offer sheets of stamps but sometimes a mix of stamps sets and coins are offered. Other items available to purchase are stamp albums, binders, slipcases and several guides on philately. Limited edition commemorative sheets are for sale as are yearly presentation packs and miniature sheets of the year. You can request a brochure of forthcoming stamps and then pre-order your preferences throughout the year. This is important if you become interested in First day Covers which includes beautifully decorated envelopes commemorating the issue and of course the stamps themselves which will be franked carefully with the distinct date.

2012 stamps from Royal Mail

Royal Mail issue hundreds of new stamps each year. Do look out for them, as they get snapped up quickly if they are popular. The service have many new stamps scheduled for 2012. The current issue is very popular as it features a set of 6 books by Roald Dahl. Each stamp depicts, in cartoon fashion, the famous characters such as 'The Twits', 'The Witches' and my childhood favorite 'Matilda'. Later in the year expect to see a plethora of stamps celebrating the Olympic Games which is being held in London in 2012.

The Penny Black was the first ‘sticky’ or ‘lick-and-stick’ Postage Stamp ever issued. The Royal Mail is credited with this issue in 1840 but it is not a valuable stamp. People featured that would be worth collecting are Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Prince William and their children who are in line to the Throne. Sir Winston Churchill (a famous Prime Minister) stamps have been featured by the Royal Mail and are very nice collector items. The image below shows a sample of the British stamps that I like. I prefer the really colorful modern ones to the single bland tone used in the past, despite the fact that, like the Penny Black, they might be of more value.

Some Great Britain stamps are boring especially the plain pastel color ones with only the royal head depicted. Other stamps issued though are much better and more colorful. My favorites are the precious Princess Diana stamps which have great historic significance since her death. Princess Diana of Wales was a British Royal (stamp at bottom right of above image) and has been featured on many countries stamps and an interesting collection would be to collect ‘Diana’ stamps from as many countries as possible. In fact, to collect stamps from any facet of society is a challenge, be it Diana stamps or fun items like Disney stamps and The Simpsons sheet stamps. I particularly like the sporting stamps featuring famous soccer players like George Best and Bobby Charlton who have featured on other countries stamps as well as Royal Mail.

In addition to all this, new stamps are forthcoming all the time (see images below celebrating 75 years of The Dandy comic) so it really is an impossible, but extremely enjoyable, task to keep up with the newest issues. Encourage your friends to send you a letter or card with new stamps (at Christmas time or if they go on vacation) because this helps greatly with starting a collection. It may be rather expensive to try to keep up with the plethora of new Great Britain stamps being continually issued so ask friends to write to you instead of email and cell sms messages and although it may take longer it is an everlasting record and gives you a memorable keepsake.

British Royal stamps

The depicted stamps have appeared before the wedding but there are many other countries waiting in the wings to issue their own postage stamp versions of this Royal couple. Princess Diana's son is to due to marry his sweetheart Kate in April 2011.

New 2011 Royal stamps

These new stamps in 2011 feature the official engagement portraits of the Royals. The issue date for these stamps will be the wedding day, 21 April 2011. The stamps feature a formal image taken in St James's Palace and a less formal photograph of the couple embracing. This Royal Wedding will have a worldwide audience and stamps such as these will be great collector's items. Invest early if you intend to purchase these stamps.

Wedding postage stamps

In celebration of his wedding to Kate the above matching pair of postage stamps were issued in New Zealand. The stamps are a good example of what a collector should be collecting as a keen philatelist. This stamp pair is unusual because you will need to buy both stamps still attached to each other for them to be of any value. The different amount on each stamp is what is so strange about them, so do try to get them if you can.