The Best Hallowe'en stamps

Tomorrow is Hallowe'en... so what could be better than talking about Hallowe'en stamps?

I'm afraid I don't have many of them in my collection, but I had a chat with Michael Burzan on e-mail a few weeks ago and he gave me some ideas. I decided to take a look at some of the Hallowe'en stamps from around the world.

Did you know that Royal Mail once created a Hallowe'en stamp? Not so long ago in fact - in 2019, as part of a set celebrating events and festivals. One of the £1.55 value stamps depicted "Hallowe'en in Derry/Londonderry". Every year, the town holds a Return of the Ancients festival that involves fire, music and witches and skeletons walking through the streets. The whole event lasts for a week and it sounds amazing! Other stamps in the set showed cheese rolling, Up-Helly-Ya and Bog Snorkelling (yes, that apparently is a real thing) so overall there wasn't really a spooky theme but I really like this Hallowe'en design.

The UK hasn't had any other Hallowe'en stamps, but what about other countries? Well, yes. In fact, there have been several. We'll start in the USA, because many Americans seem to love Hallowe'en even more than we do here in Britain.

These are Jack O'Lantern stamps from 2016. The design is simply but very effective. Do I like them? Yes, because they really say "Hallowe'en!" The dark background works really well, with the lanterns lit. These are not digital art but were actually carved by an artist, Paul Montanari. They were the US Postal Service's first ever Hallowe'en stamps and they were launched at Anoka City Hall Plaza. Anoka is known as the “Halloween Capital of the World". it was the first city in the US to hold a Hallowe'en festival, and it has taken it really seriously ever since!

That was the USA's first Hallowe'en set but they clearly were such a success that another set was issued in 2019. These were even more spooky!

Just three years after the Jack O'Lanterns we have this set of "spooky silhouettes", showing cats, bats, ghosts and spiders viewed through dark windows. They were launched at a pumpkin festival in New Hampshire. Unlike the 2016 issue, these stamps were created from digital art. The US Postal Service said: "The Spooky Silhouettes stamps feature digital illustrations with Halloween motifs rendered as black silhouettes in eerily backlit windows." The stamps used "rainbow foil" and "luminous pigments" for a special effect. I think these are very good and the design/artwork is very cleverly done.

A set I don't like quite so much is this one from Austria, issued in 2013. Four stamps make up an overall picture, but each individual stamp is a jigsaw puzzle piece. The animation is well done, but maybe it's being bit too clever and there is too much going on?

However, these are not the only Hallowe'en stamps that Austria has issued! In fact, Austria has issued Hallowe'en stamps on at least five other occasions that I can find. The earliest was in 1999; it showed a traditional scene and was part of a wider series depicting customs and folklore. I have shown this below along with some other Hallowe'en stamps Austria has issued since then.

Another European country that has created some pretty good Hallowe'en stamps is France.

In 2001, France issued this amazing miniature sheet! It's very spooky and I like the stamp design, but maybe - like the first US set - it could have done with different carved lanterns rather than the same stamp repeated five times.

What is really good about this sheet is that, as well as the stamps, there are also perforated labels of a skull, a witch, a bat and a bottle, which may contain some kind of magic potion. These could be removed and stuck on your mail to make a really spooky letter!

Overall, I think this is a very good issue and a lot of fun, which is what Hallowe'en should be. However, three years later France issued another Hallowe'en stamp that I think was even better.

The 2004 stamp was another fun design, with a cartoon picture showing a smiley pumpkin lantern, a spider hanging from a thread and a witch flying on a broomstick. The simplicity of the design and colours is perfect, while the typeface adds to that Hallowe'en feeling.

There were two different stamps - one that glowed in the dark and one that didn't. I didn't know, but Michael Burzan told me about this and sent me a picture of the two different stamps under ultra-violet light. Take a look for yourself!

I have to admit that I definitely prefer the glowing version. And what about the stamp on this postcard, with the superb "ghost" postmark? Isn't that fabulous?

Are there any more Hallowe'en stamps? Yes! What about this one from Tristan da Cunha?

I'm not sure what Hallowe'en traditions there are in Tristan da Cunha but they seem to involve a lot of dressing up. This one from Slovenia (2009) shows their local Hallowe'en traditions, which look very formal compared to ours.

Then there are from Belgium (also 2004). Again, nice and simple cartoon images that are great for Hallowe'en. I'm not sure I would want to get on the wrong side of that witch and her cat.

My absolute favourite is this set from Canada - Haunted Canada - which started out as a set of five stamps for Hallowe'en 2014 and ended up running for the next two years as well, giving us three beautiful miniature sheets of five stamps each.

The stamps have been beautifully designed - this is the 2014 one but the 2015 and 2016 miniature sheets are equally good. Each stamp tells a different Canadian ghost story and the artwork is... well, haunting.

These are very different to the other Hallowe'en stamps which tend to celebrate traditions.

The 2014 set tells the following stories: Ghost Bride: The story of a ghost bride from Alberta, who died on her wedding day.

Ghost Train: This story is about the “St. Louis Light” in the Saskatchewan River Valley. The legend is that the train conductor was examining the tracks with a lantern when he was killed by another train that was passing.

Haunted: This is a story of Fort George during the War of 1812.

Count of Frontenac: The legend describes the ghost as the spirit of Louis de Buade, Governor of New France, who is believed to still wander the halls of the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac in Quebec City.

Phantom Ships: This is a legend from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, where burning ships could be seen before disappearing into the mist... I really like Haunted Canada, partly because of the artwork and party because of the way it takes 15 local legends and weaves them into a bigger story.

There are other issues I could have looked at, but I'm not sure they are all really Hallowe'en stamps. For example, there have been a lot of stamps about horror movies, including this from Royal Mail. Scary films are great subjects for stamps, but I don't think I can really put them in the category of Hallowe'en stamps. The same is true of stamps about supernatural things generally, otherwise I would have included Canada's "Supernatural" 1997 issue here too. Finally, one of the best Hallowe'en-related pieces of postal history I have managed to find was not a stamp at all, but a postcard. It is from the USA and was published by Julius Bien & Co. in 1908. I thought it was funny and I hope you do as well!

Another Hallowe'en postcard is this one, issued by the Irish postal service in 1987. They were designed for young people to colour in, and had a pre-printed stamp on the reverse side showing a clown.

Have a good Hallowe'en, whatever you are doing!