XANTHE'S
STAMP MAGAZINE

Here's a new stamp from Croatia, which was issued yesterday. As you can see, it's a stamp that celebrates Easter. For whatever reason, while we have had Christmas stamps since 1966, Royal Mail has never issued an Easter stamp. Many other European countries have and there have been all kinds of wonderful designs including eggs, bunnies, young animals and religious themes. Croatia is one of those countries that releases a new Easter stamp every year. In the last few years they

I collect all kinds of stamps but I am especially interested in butterflies. Recently I bought a small collection of butterfly stamps that included these. I thought they were very attractive and they're very nicely done. I like the fact they are triangles and the background is plain so the beautiful butterflies really stand out. These are unusual butterflies and I have not seen most of them before. The one on the top left is definitely a Ulysses butterfly and the one on the

There has been a lot of talk about Royal Mail increasing the cost of a First Class stamp to £1.80 from 7th April. Most people think this is too high, and I agree as the jump in price isn't going to persuade many people to write more letters. I get the "cycle" argument - people are using digital communication more, which means there are fewer letters to deliver, which means that the price needs to go up to deliver fewer letters to more addresses, which means that fewer people