XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

It's that time of year now when we think of the annual Royal Mail Christmas stamps. Most Christmas stamps focus on the familiar themes, but stamp collectors also love a major historical milestone. It just so happens that a pretty important one is not far away... December 2030 will mark the 150th anniversary of the very first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. This global Christmas tradition—now broadcast to millions from King's College by the BBC—didn’t actually start in C

PostNL (Netherlands Post) has recently issued a "Gold Delft Blue" stamp. This contains 24-carat gold and shows a dish from the Royal Delft collection. Post NL give us a lot of information about this stamp so I will let them explain: "Delft Blue is a type of earthenware featuring blue decorations that has been produced in Delft since the 17th century. It is renowned among enthusiasts worldwide, and Delft Blue tiles, decorative plates, tableware, apothecary jars, and vases are

I have just been alerted to this fabulous presentation pack / folder featuring all the SEPAC stamps from this year. Some of these I have already reviewed but not all of them, so I thought it would be a good idea if I took a look at all of them so you can see them together. If I have already reviewed them I will just give my score and provide a link the the original post. The folder contains stamps from the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Monaco, Guernsey, Åland, Jersey, Liechtens

In the last few days there have been three new sets of religious stamps released, which I am going to take a look at. Sometimes collectors overlook stamps with religious themes, but I think that they can be every bit as interesting as other stamps and we can learn a lot from them. MALTA - Festa The first of them is from Malta. This is a place I have been to and while I was quite young I just about remember it. Malta has strong Roman Catholic traditions, and is supposed to be

Serbia's latest new stamp was for World Postcard Day on 1st October. World Postcard Day was launched by Postcrossing in 2020. The idea is to encourage people to send postcards, celebrate the history of postcards and promote the joy of handwritten communication. I am surprised more countries haven't issued stamps supporting World Postcard Day (are you reading this, Royal Mail?) but at least Serbia has got in on the act and created this fantastic stamp. I think the designers h

This new stamp from Austria not only looks like a coffee bean, it smells like one too! Post AG is very proud of this stamp and tells us that it is "once again setting new standards in the particularly innovative design of stamps". I agree it is a bit different but it reminds me a bit of these fruit-shaped stamps from Tonga and of course there have been scented stamps before. In the past year I have reviewed to stamps from France, one of which was scented and the other smelle

The next issue from Royal Mail issue will be released on 14th October and feature Winnie the Pooh. All of us will know about Winnie the Pooh and his friends Eeyore, Piglet, Owl, Tigger and Christopher Robin. This year marks the centenary of the publication of A.A. Milne's book, Winnie the Pooh, which 100 years later is as popular as ever. I received a card from Royal Mail yesterday, which tells us that "this charming collection of special stamps celebrates the centenary of W

Ireland isn't a country that creates a huge sets (are you reading, Royal Mail?) and this issue of four stamps celebrates modern Irish literary fiction. I don't know a lot about Irish fiction. It's fair to say, I often don't know much about the subjects on commemorative stamps, which is why stamp collecting is so interesting - it teaches you so much about the world. You might thing that the stamps show book covers but actually they don't. These are designs by The books are: