XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

The next issue from Royal Mail is "Pets" - and yes, it is as uninspired as I expected it to be. I like stamps depicting animals. I don't think it's necessarily a bad subject choice, but I just knew Royal Mail would stick to the predictable formula of photographic images on a plain white background. The images are just nice photographs of pets - nothing more. They don't show the animals doing anything, they don't give us any glimpse into their characters and they're just... we

Last week I visited Luxembourg with my dad and my sister. Heidi and I are members of the Young Archaeologists Club and we were interested in the old fortress in Luxembourg City and the remaining city walls. We also wanted to visit Trier, the oldest city in Germany, and take a look around the Roman sites. It was very interesting and a great experience to see all of this fantastic archaeology and learn about history, but I am sure all of you would prefer if I talked about stamp

Here is a new issue that isn't quite so new - these stamps showing "American Icons" was issued two months ago. I have heard today that this was quite a controversial issue so I decided to take a look for myself and make my own mind up. Why controversial? Well, some people thought that these stamps are a terrible example of "corporate commercialism" and some people have asked whether it was a good idea to let a fashion icon (Ralph Lauren) "brand a milestone national celebrati

On 12 August 2026, something very special will happen in the skies above Europe: a total solar eclipse. Parts of Spain will experience a total eclipse, where the Moon will completely cover the Sun for a short time. Across other parts of Europe the eclipse will be partial, but it should still be an amazing sight. I’m really looking forward to it because I will be on holiday in Luxembourg, where the eclipse will be around 90%. Although I won’t get to see totality, seeing almost

This is a new issue from the Isle of Man, which is about Manx Heritage Transport. It marks the 150th anniversary of the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway as well as the 50th anniversary of Isle of Man National Transport. The Isle of Man Stamps & Coins website doesn't tell us very much, but the WOPA website helpfully has more information. It tells us: "Buses & Horse Trams celebrates two landmark anniversaries in the Isle of Man’s transport story, bringing together the 150th anniversar

During my time in Glasgow watching the Commonwealth games a lot of new stamps were issued so I'm catching up with them now, including this one from Royal Mail. I've been quite positive about recent Royal Mail issues but I'm not so sure about this one. In focusing on military jet aircraft Royal Mail is going over old ground. There have been so many stamps showing fighter aircraft and we have already had the Concorde issue this year. Some of the previous Royal Mail issues on a

Apologies to everyone for the lack of updates in the last few weeks. I have been doing all kinds of things in the summer and last week I was in Glasgow watching the Commonwealth Games. Later this week I will be at a Scouts camp, and then next week I will be on holiday. I am always busy when I'm not at school! When I was in Glasgow last week Heidi and I visited the Glasgow Stamp Shop. Some of you might know about it but, if you don't, if you find yourself in Glasgow you should