XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

Tomorrow is Hallowe'en... so what could be better than talking about Hallowe'en stamps? I'm afraid I don't have many of them in my collection, but I had a chat with Michael Burzan on e-mail a few weeks ago and he gave me some ideas. I decided to take a look at some of the Hallowe'en stamps from around the world. Did you know that Royal Mail once created a Hallowe'en stamp? Not so long ago in fact - in 2019, as part of a set celebrating events and festivals. One of the £1.55 v

Heidi (left) and Xanthe (right) interviewing PTS Chairman Simon Carson This was the fourth time I have been to a large stamp event at the Business Design Centre in London but only the third Stampex as my first time was for London 2022 International Stamp Exhibition. Things have changed in a short time, but some things stay the same. It is always reassuring to see friendly dealers and talk to people who know a lot about philately. I don't think that will ever change so long a

At Stampex, my sister Heidi and I met with Simon Carson, the chair of the Philatelic Traders Society (PTS). The PTS is a very important and influential organisation and one of the many things it does is organise Stampex. Simon very generously agreed to spend fifteen minutes talking to us about the PTS, Stampex and collecting generally. Heidi: What makes Stampex special compared to other stamp shows? Simon: Stampex is a very, very special stamp show because it's the sort of n

Another of my Stampex interviews was with Mark McShane. Mark is the manager of the Lundy Collectors Club - which is not all about stamps but certainly knows a lot about them! Xanthe: Could you tell me about the Lundy Collectors Club and what it does? Mark: The Lundy Collectors Club is a group of people who collect anything related to Lundy Island - it could be stamps but also coins, postcards, books, souvenirs and even porcelain. We're really just a meeting place for like

In the next few days I will be writing a lot about Stampex, which was held in London last week. During Stampex I was able to interview some very interesting people. The first of these is Susan Henderson, from the Stamp Active Network. Some of you will know about Stamp Active but, if you don't, it promotes stamp collecting for young people in the UK. Stamp Active also runs a club for young collectors, called Kidstamps. My sister Heidi and I caught up with Susan at the end of

A new French stamp came out last week but it is a very unusual one. Xanthe wasn't interested in reviewing it but I definitely am! The stamp shows a picture of a butter croissant ("Croissant au beurre"). Do you like croissants? I do, and I like stamps with pictures of croissants on them although I haven't seen one before. I like the details in the picture. But even better, this stamp actually smells like a croissant! If you rub it then it will smell like a Paris bakery! Lovely

It seems I have been reviewing a lot of new issues for the Isle of Man recently. I have checked and it looks like this is the fifteenth new issue this year, and there will be another one next week! Is Isle of Man Stamps & Coins trying to compete with Royal Mail? Do they need this many commemorative stamps? This set was released on 10th October and the theme is "Brewed on Mann". The Isle of Man Stamps & Coins website tells us more about these stamps: "Brewed on Mann capture

Children's Welfare stamps in the Netherlands are charity stamps sold with a surcharge to fund projects for the Stichting Kinderpostzegels (Children's Welfare Stamps Foundation), which supports "developmental opportunities" for children in the Netherlands and abroad. They have been created annually for many, many years and are called Kind postzegels in Dutch. They first appeared in 1924 and have been issued every year since apart from the war years. They have a specific des

Norway released a new issue on 4th October. Most of my reviews are about stamps from Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel...

Yesterday, Jersey issued a new set of stamps. This one is to celebrate the history of Black Butter. You might be asking "what is black...

The next issue for Royal Mail is Monopoly and will be released on 16th October. This is to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the board...

Royal Mail has been issuing stamps for 185 years and in that time there have been some classic stamp designs. Everyone has their favourite Royal Mail designs. Maybe it is the Penny Black? The Wembley 1924 stamp? Perhaps it is the Seahorses, or maybe something more modern like Machins, the David Gentleman designs (the 1966 World Cup, the Battle of Hastings, Concorde, Churchill, Darwin or Swans) or perhaps some of the Christmas issues down the years? But I was thinking that in

On 25th September the Isle of Man released a new issue, in which "Rick Wakeman’s iconic musical legacy, brought to life through Roger...

"No-one gets stamps on their mail any more!" - at least that's what a lot of people say. The trouble with that is that I get a lot of...

My reviews of new issues are normally focused on GB, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, but yesterday the United States Postal...