XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

I was looking at Norwegian stamps this morning because of the death of King Harald V, and I discovered their latest stamp. It was issued on 11th June and shows the Norwegian national football team. If you're not a football fan, you might have missed Norway's great run in the World Cup. They beat Iraq, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Brazil before losing to England in the quarter-finals. This was the best ever performance by a Norwegian team at the World Cup so understandably people

A new issue from Canada is this one featuring wolves. Wolves are quite common in Canada. There are between 50,000 and 60,000 of them and they mainly live in the vast wilderness, forests and tundra of northern and western Canada (such as Yukon, the Northwest Territories, British Columbia and Alberta). The Canada Post website tells us more about these stamps and the animals pictured: "This issue... features four wolves found in different regions of the country: the grey wolf,

Norway's King, Harold V, died earlier today. Apart from being a king, he was a remarkable man. He represented Norway in three Olympic games (in sailing). As a former athlete he opened the 1994 Winter Olympics. He was an environmentalist and chair of WWF Norway for many years. He was definitely not a traditionalist and didn't have much time for conventions. His new approaches helped reshape the monarchy. So did his personal life. He fell in love with a commoner, Sonja Haralds

A couple of weeks ago I was in Metz Cathedral in France and there were posters advertising Pope Leo XIV's visit to the town later this year. A lot of people were quite excited about it. Clearly the Pope is doing a tour of Europe at the moment because San Marino has issued this stamp celebrating his visit there last Saturday (22nd August). It's obviously an important event for people in San Marino. The write-up on the WOPA website tells us a little bit more about this visit

We always review every issue from Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Unfortunately, as we have been doing different things over the summer, we missed the Tales of St Helier issue from Jersey, which was released on 10th August. I have heard of the town of St Helier on Jersey, but I don't know much about the person it was named after. Jersey Stamps & Collectibles tells us more about these stamps and St Helier: "Tales of Saint Helier illustrates the most

This is another excellent issue from Poland. It was released on 15th August, which is Polish Armed Forces Day. You may not have heard of General Tadeusz Rozwadowski. To be honest, neither had I, which is one reason why creating stamps in memory of people is a good thing. The stamp made me want to find out more about his life and his achievements. Poczta Polska's website very helpfully gives more information about General Rozwadowski: "[General Rozwadowski] was one of the mo

I review all stamps from the UK, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, and I really should have reviewed this interesting set from the Isle of Man last week but I was away in Luxembourg looking at castles. This set focuses on the Triskelion (the Three Legs of Mann) and follow on from the first Triskelion Collection issue in 2023. This is pictured below: Design Quality: These are solid designs and I think they have been done well, but I don't find them especially exciting

Here is another joint issue and this one is the first ever joint issue between Lithuania and Germany. As the stamps are identical apart from the text and the QR code on the German stamp, I will review them together. The stamp celebrates the Nida Artists' Colony. I had never heard of this before but fortunately the WOPA website has some useful information (it often does!) and the colony seems fascinating: "The Nida Artists' Colony is considered the oldest artists' colony on

Some very unusual joint issues are to be released by Guernsey Post on 1st September. They tell a story - or two stories - and what very unusual stories they are! The Guernsey-Sark issue tells the story of a man who was posted from Guernsey to Sark, while the Guernsey-Alderney issue tells a slightly different story of a man posted from Guernsey to Alderney. This seems totally bizarre but this did actually happen! The postal service actually delivered people? Why? Was it tha

There were five new issues from Greenland last week, all released on Wednesday 12th August. They are all very different and I thought it would be a good idea to review them together. The History and Use of the Kayak - Part 1 The first I will look at is this set of two stamps showing The History and Use of the Kayak. The kayak is used for transport and also hunting. In the first stamp we see the view from underneath as the kayak moves across the sea and in the second we see a

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" while others have asked whether it was a good idea to let a fashion icon (Ralph Lauren) "brand a milestone national celebration

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