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

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

There have been three new issues from the Channel Islands this week as Guernsey, Sark and Alderney all released new sets on Tuesday. They are very different from each other but they are all from neighbouring islands and they're all focused on island life (and wildlife!) I thought I should review them together. GUERNSEY: Bailiwick Jellyfish First up is this set, which shows local jellyfish. All of these are native to Guernsey and the photography was taken by underwater photog

It is my birthday today (I'm now 14). I wanted to write something for my birthday about stamps and I knew about some of the Greetings stamps Royal Mail created in the 1990s and of course the Smilers stamps. Very few of these were actually about birthdays, but I really liked this set from 2025 (the year my sister was born). There were also happy general celebration stamps like this one from 2006... ...but there is something special about having the words "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" on

The next issue from Royal Mail will be released on 9th July. Normally Xanthe reviews all the Royal Mail stamps but I am doing this one as the theme is moths. I love moths and I know quite a lot about them. Moths haven;t appeared on British stamps very often although an elephant hawk-moth appeared in the Brilliant Bugs set of 2020. And there was also this one, which was in the 2008 Insects set. This is the first set that Royal Mail has totally dedicated to moths. We have ha

Jersey's latest issue celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Band of the Island of Jersey. It is a set of six stamps with photography by the Jersey Evening Post. There is also a miniature sheet, which shows an old photograph of the band. The Jersey Stamps website doesn't tell us a lot about these - for example, I'd like to know when the black and white photograph of the band was taken but no information is given. Design Quality – I am quite disappointed by the design of thes

The Isle of Man's latest issue is another one dedicated to motor sport. I have no interest in motor sport at all, although I understand it is important to the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man Stamps and Coins website tells us more about these stamps: "From the McLaren 675LT and Lamborghini Huracán STO to the Ferrari 488 Pista Spider and McLaren 720S, each stamp reflects a distinct expression of modern performance. The Nissan GT-R R35 represents tuning culture at its most extreme

I have a lot of new stamps to review and I'm going to start with this one from the Faroe Islands about their native horse. I had never heard of a Faroese Horse before. It is basically a small pony that was critically endangered in the 1960s but since then things have improved thanks to a breeding programme. Faroese people are clearly very proud of their horse and it's not the first time that it has appeared on a Faroe Islands stamp. Here's a set of two stamps from 1993. The P

Royal Mail's latest stamps show waterfalls. This is a completely new theme for Royal Mail! Never before has there been a set dedicated to waterfalls, although waterfalls have occasionally appeared on stamps like this one in the 2019 forests issue. There are ten stamps in the set and they show: Second Class - Rogie Falls, Scottish Highlands Second Class - Pollnagollum Cave, County Fermanagh Second Class - Aysgarth Falls, North Yorkshire Second Class - Pistyll Rhaeadr, Powys

France have issued a fantastic new stamp to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince). This is a massively popular children's book in France, probably the most well-known work of children's fiction ever. Like all good children's books, it is also one that adults can enjoy and it has been translated into 600 languages. I even have a copy of one in English. It's a great adventure story but also one that is quite philosophical and poetic. The author,

Today Hungary released a new set of stamps celebrating dachshunds. This set has been designed by Imre Benedek with photography by Andrea Jülingné Tóth, Ádám Szalai and Zsófia Koppány. Dachshunds are very popular dogs in Hungary. They are not native dogs but they have become a huge part of Hungarian culture. The famous Hungarian filmmaker Homoki-Nagy István often showed dachshunds in his films and every year in Budapest dachshund owners from across Hungary gather for a huge si

Here is a reasonably new issue from Liechtenstein, showing Bergwelt Liechtenstein (Liechtenstein's Mountain World). I meant to review it a couple of weeks ago but there's been a lot happening at school. There are four stamps in the set and they show some of Liechtenstein's mountains. Liechtenstein is quite a small country but is is a very mountainous one! The stamps show very simple coloured silhouettes of the mountains but the miniature sheet shows a more realistic map and

A few months ago the Netherlands issued a new set of stamps about the butterflies of Saba. I reviewed them here. They are part of a four-part series looking at Saba wildlife. The Caribbean Netherlands have now also issued a set of ten stamps showing Saba's butterflies. However they are very different. There are also ten stamps, like the Netherlands issue, but they show different butterflies and the background is a coloured design based around circles instead of natural habit

I have already reviewed Guernsey's SEPAC architecture issue, which shows the Victoria Tower. SEPAC includes the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Greenland, Guernsey, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Vatican and Åland. Every year they issue stamps on a theme and this year the theme is iconic landscapes. Well, here is a very different stamp from Greenland. Guernsey decided to celebrate a historic building within the landscape but Greenland

On Wednesday Guernsey issued not just one but two new sets of stamps. I don't know why they have released two new sets on the same day but both are very nice and will appeal to people interested in history. Here is the "Guernsey Post Boxes" set. There are six stamps in the set and they all show real postboxes from across Guernsey. The postboxes are of different designs and I'm not an expert on the different types of postboxes but that is quite a mix. You will notice that the

Jersey's most recent issue celebrates Jersey's International Connections. This is a set of six stamps. The Jersey Stamps website says: "Jersey's International Connections, illustrated by Daniel Allison, highlights key moments where people, products and ideas have travelled internationally, shaping reputations and forging relationships that continue to resonate today." The stamps show: The Cod Industry (large cod being caught in a net by fishermen) Jersey Jumpers (an America

The Isle of Man's latest issue celebrates John McGuinness, a famous motorcyclist. I know nothing about any kind of motor racing and I had never heard of John McGuinness, but Isle of Man Stamps & Coins fortunately tells us a bit about him: "This 2026 stamp issue from Isle of Man Post Office celebrates 30 years since John McGuinness MBE first competed at the Isle of Man TT in 1996, marking one of the most successful and enduring careers in the history of the Mountain Course.