Stamp collecting

Wrong Statue of Liberty on stamp

16 April 2011


The Lady Liberty first class postage stamp that left US postal bosses red-faced

The US Post Office has made a huge mistake on a stamp honouring an icon of America, the Statue of Liberty.

A first-class mail stamp featuring the Miss Liberty is based on a photograph of a replica of the statue at a Las Vegas casino.

Postal Service spokesman Roy Betts said three billion stamps have been printed, and they will not be pulled from the market. The 44-cent forever stamp has been on sale in coils since December and is to be released in booklet form.

The actual Statue of Liberty has appeared on more than 20 stamps previously, Mr Betts said.

In the Post Office's news release in December announcing the stamp, the service said the Statue of Liberty was shown in a close-up photograph of her head and crown.

The mistake was first reported by Linn's Stamp News. Linn's, a weekly magazine for stamp collectors, noted that the stamp shows a rectangular patch on the crown of the statue. Such a patch does not appear on the statue in New York Harbour that has welcomed millions of immigrants to their new home.

In addition, the magazine said, the eyes, eyelids and eyebrows on the replica appear more sharply defined than on the original statue, and the hair is different.

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Wiki:

The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year.

All London post offices received official issues of the new stamps but other offices throughout the United Kingdom did not, continuing to accept postage payments in cash only for a period. Post offices such as those in Bath, began offering the stamp unofficially after 2 May.

UK Royal Mail Beatles postage stamps.

Ralph Steadman's design for a UK Royal Mail postage stamp depicting a bewigged Edmond Halley as the head of his famous comet.

Ironic that as British scientists are chewing their nails to the quick awaiting funding cut announcements, that the Royal Mail should today launch a brand new set of special stamps, celebrating British medical breakthroughs through the years.



The launch marks some of the most important medical discoveries that have taken place in the UK since the late 19th Century and include the pioneering work of Sir Ronald Ross in 1897 which was pivotal in the development of today’s anti-malarial drugs. Other stamps recognise heart-regulating beta-blockers, the antibiotic properties of penicillin and the computed tomography (CT) scanner.

Ironic too that the Royal Mail itself is also facing cuts and slashes of its own in coming months.

Alexander Graham Bell commemorative issue, 1947.

Abraham Lincoln commemorative issue, 1866.

The first US commemorative stamp, 1893.

The first UK commemorative stamps, 1924.

Republic of Ireland commemorative stamp, 2007.

UK Royal Mail "Comedians" issue with Tony Hancock franking stamp. Featuring Tommy Cooper, Eric Morcambe, Joyce Grenfel. Les Dawson, Peter Cook.

The Soviet Union's view of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.

Elvis Presley Briefmarke Deutsche Bundespost 1988 postfrisch Schuschke.

Codebreaker Alan Turing gets stamp of approval

Gay mathematician convicted of gross indecency in 1952 among those to be celebrated in Royal Mail stamps in 2012

Caroline Davies

The Guardian, Monday 2 January 2012


In 2009, Gordon Brown issued an unequivocal apology to Alan Turing (above), saying the country owed him a huge debt.

The mathematician and second world war codebreaker Alan Turing is to be celebrated on a special stamp as an online petition calls for a posthumous pardon to quash his conviction for gross indecency.

The computer pioneer is one of 10 prominent people chosen for the Royal Mail's Britons of Distinction stamps, to be launched in February, which includes the allied war heroine Odette Hallowes of the Special Operations Executive, composer Frederick Delius and architect Sir Basil Spence, to mark the golden jubilee of Coventry Cathedral.

Turing worked as part of the team that cracked the Enigma code at Bletchley Park, and went on to help create the world's first modern computer. This year marks the centenary of his birth.

He was convicted of gross indecency in 1952, when homosexual acts were illegal in the UK, and sentenced to chemical castration. He killed himself two years later by taking cyanide. The e-petition says his treatment and death "remains a shame on the UK government and UK history".

In 2009, the then prime minister Gordon Brown issued an unequivocal apology on behalf of the government to Turing, describing his treatment as "horrifying" and "utterly unfair". Brown said the country owed him a huge debt.

Hallowes, who was born in Amiens, France, in April 1912 and married an Englishman in 1931, was awarded the George Cross (the only woman to receive the honour while alive) and the Légion d'honneur for her work in Nazi occupied France.

She was imprisoned, tortured and condemned to death in 1943 after being betrayed, but survived Ravensbrück concentration camp and the war. She died in 1995 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

The Olympic Games and the Queen's diamond jubilee also feature in the 2012 special stamp programme.

House of Windsor stamps will feature the five monarchs from the start of the 20th century, with the Queen taking pride of place on the final stamp to mark the 60th year of her reign. A special miniature sheet issued on 6 February will bring together six portraits of her taken from stamps, coinage and banknotes.

Giant peaches and a famous chocolate factory will feature in a set of six stamps on 10 January to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl.

The first of several stamp issues to mark the London Games go on sale on 5 January. Other stamp subjects during the year include Charles Dickens, born 200 years ago this year, great British fashion, comics, dinosaurs, space science and classic locomotives of Scotland.

Kipper Williams on the recent massive hike in UK postal rates: