XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

To mark World Post Day (9th October), South Africa has issued a set of two stamps called "Love the Postbox". What is not to love about postboxes? I have never been to South Africa but they clearly have red postboxes too. And, if you look at the First Day Cover, you will see that they have a mixture of traditional as well as modern postboxes just like in the UK. Some of these are from the time when parts of South Africa were colonies of the British Empire, so perhaps it is not

I received this card today from Royal Mail. This new issue will be released on 17th September (next Thursday) and will celebrate Duran Duran. This is the latest in a series dedicated to Music Giants. In recent years we have had stamps for AC/DC, The Who, Iron Maiden, The Rolling Stones, Queen and Pink Floyd. This design was first used for a special set celebrating The Beatles back in 2007. The card says that "few bands have shaped sound, style and visual culture quite like Du

Like the Falklands Islands' Summer issue, this is another issue I discovered when looking for something to buy. I am not sure exactly when they were issued, but the Free Stamp Catalogue has only listed them this week so they are quite recent. Stamps showing birds are always very popular but there are also an awful lot of them and they can sometimes feel quite "samey". These are a bit different and it is helpful that in this photograph we don't just see the stamps but the full

I have recently started a thematic collection of penguins. If you're into penguins then you may like stamps from places like the Falkland islands, Chile and the Antarctic Territories as they often create issues about penguins. After all, they have quite a lot of them! Recently I ordered a lot of stamps from the Falkland Islands Philatelic Bureau. Some of these were for my collection of penguins but not all. One of the sets I bought was this one, which is their most recent iss

So, this is a set that I just HAVE to review. How many countries dedicate stamps to celebrate PHILATELISTS? Not many, although I have just discovered that Hungary has for many years and in 2017 Greece did the same with this interesting set (below). No women on there, I see... but fantastic to recognise philatelists. These stamps from Hungary are the latest in a serious of "personalised stamps" (I think a bit like the Smilers stamps some of you will remember) and they are bas

Tomorrow Switzerland will release nine new issues - yes, nine! That is a lot but of course it is worth pointing out that most of these are just single stamps, with two sets containing four stamps and one three. So that gives us a total of 17 new stamps - pretty much the same as when Royal Mail create a new issue with a miniature sheet. As there are so many of them on several different themes, I am not going to give detailed reviews, just a few sentences. Some of these are ve

This is a set of four stamps from Romania issued on 27th August 2026. They show prehistoric animals - although, if I'm being picky, I'd say that they show fossils of prehistoric animals and a modern illustration of what these beasts may have looked like. The four animals are: Deinotherium proavum (a proboscidean, a bit like an elephant), Ursus spelaeus (a cave bear), Megaloceros giganteus (a giant deer, often known as Irish Elk) and Macrospondylus bollensis (which looks a b

Some of you might remember that earlier in the year I wrote to Royal Mail about the stamp programme for 2026. I wasn't very impressed! I made some points about design quality and what I thought was a lack of creativity in recent issues. I also asked them about the high cost of buying stamps compared to other European countries, caused by Royal Mail's need to create huge sets 16 times a year. A few weeks after that, I received this response. I'll let you read over it if you li

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,

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

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