XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

Tomorrow Switzerland will release nine new issues - yes, nine! That is a lot but of course it is worth pointing out that most of these are just single stamps, with two sets containing four stamps and one three. So that gives us a total of 17 new stamps - pretty much the same as when Royal Mail create a new issue with a miniature sheet. As there are so many of them on several different themes, I am not going to give detailed reviews, just a few sentences. Some of these are ve

This is a set of four stamps from Romania issued on 27th August 2026. They show prehistoric animals - although, if I'm being picky, I'd say that they show fossils of prehistoric animals and a modern illustration of what these beasts may have looked like. The four animals are: Deinotherium proavum (a proboscidean, a bit like an elephant), Ursus spelaeus (a cave bear), Megaloceros giganteus (a giant deer, often known as Irish Elk) and Macrospondylus bollensis (which looks a b

Some of you might remember that earlier in the year I wrote to Royal Mail about the stamp programme for 2026. I wasn't very impressed! I made some points about design quality and what I thought was a lack of creativity in recent issues. I also asked them about the high cost of buying stamps compared to other European countries, caused by Royal Mail's need to create huge sets 16 times a year. A few weeks after that, I received this response. I'll let you read over it if you li