Royal Mail Commemorative Products | Stamp Design |
Royal Mail’s special stamp series celebrates outstanding events, achievements and people of national importance, documenting the stories that make up the fabric of Britain’s culture. From Prehistoric Britain to the Great Fire of London, The RAF to Captain Cook – the commemorative products tell the stories behind these wonderful subjects.
Photography: Jack Spicer Adams
Industrial Revolutions
A celebration of the landmark inventions and techniques of the early industrial and electrical revolutions.
The main stamps feature a cross-section of pivotal inventions from the early industrial era, from the Spinning Jenny to the Penydarren Locomotive — one of the first steam-powered locomotives. The mini sheet focuses on the electrical revolution, kick-started by Michael Faraday’s early experiments demonstrating electromagnetic induction.
British Engineering
A set of six stamps and accompanying products celebrating 50 years of groundbreaking, life-saving, world-changing engineering excellence.
Harrier Jump Jet
Medal pack and medals to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The Harrier Jump Jet.
Prince Albert stamps and Queen Victoria’s bicentenary products and coin pack
Celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria and of her husband Prince Albert. Commemorative products to mark Queen Victoria’s reign — the era named after her saw dramatic social, political and economic change and the accompanying miniature sheet stamps celebrate the legacy of Prince Albert.
2022 Yearbook
Royal Mail’s annual, limited edition book containing a dedicated chapter on each of the year’s stamp issues — is a deltiologist’s delight (that being a collector of postcards, of course)! The humble postcard has just turned 150 years old and offered the perfect vehicle to provide a snapshot of the subject matter behind each special stamp release of 2022. From Tutankhamun to The Rolling Stones, the visually rich collection picks up on the familiar graphic language of the postcard.
Tutankhamun products and collectibles
The suite of products detail the life of Howard Carter and his discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, with incredible archive materials and imagery from The Griffith Institute at Oxford University, including Harry Burton’s iconic glass plate photography documenting the dig and all its incredible discoveries.
Science Fiction Classics
Working with the amazingly talented illustrator Sam Chivers to bring key Sci-Fi themes to life.
Star Trek medal packs
Medal packs, medals and a collectors sheet to accompany the Star Trek stamp release. To celebrate the Original Series, we showcased the stellar cartography of the Star Trek universe, highlighting the key episodes and locations the Starship Enterprise encountered on its highly illogical adventures. The Movies pack captures the Star Trek films chronology, offering a brief synopsis of each of the epic voyages and celebrating key characters or scenes, blended with a spectrum of colours referencing the very first Star Trek Motion Picture poster.
100 years protecting the skies
From its proud military history and technological innovations, to its brave personnel, the prestige stamp book accompanies a special stamp release to celebrate a century of RAF excellence. The book marks this momentous occasion, closely referencing the rich visual vernacular associated with the RAF’s long history.
The prestige stamp book echoes plane rivets and stamp perforations to form a timeline noting key dates and events in the RAF’s history. The design draws upon camouflage, details and designs from a wide array of aircraft livery and ephemera.
A special edition version of the stamp book came in Vulcan Bomber camouflage with yellow binding tape to mirror many of the RAF plane’s wingtips. The custom box included plane detailing such as the ejector seat symbol, invasion stripes and the RAF’s motto.
Aircraft of the RAF
To accompany both the special stamps and a commemorative set of four coins, this coin pack celebrates some of the most iconic and historically important aircraft from the RAF’s illustrious 100 year history. Stamp design by Royal Mail and Michael Turner.
The pack utilises the graphic language from RAF aircraft information posters of the past, detailing the various aircrafts in service at the time, along with brief descriptions. Most famously the 1942 wartime version printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Fosh & Cross.
Bringing letters to life
Special stamps act as paper ambassadors for Britain’s outstanding events, achievements and people. They are a celebration of our national character and bring the humble envelope to life. The 2017 Year Pack bought the years stamp programme to life in a series of rich, eclectic paper compositions including all the years subjects emanating from an envelope. Illustrations by James Taylor.
Unearthing Britain’s past
A suite of products to accompany the Ancient Britain stamp release – presenting a timeline of Britain’s prehistory, from ancient rituals of 11,000 years ago, to the Iron Age forts of around 300 BC. Stamp design by True North.
Title and timeline are combined to give an instant picture of the epochs covered in the stamps, and like the artefacts and atmospheric sites themselves, the stamps and content all emerge from the soil beneath our feet.
‘Dark clowds of smoke like hell’
A coin pack to mark the anniversary of the Great Fire of London. The backdrop for the pack became the thick black smoke that enveloped the capital for those five terrifying days in 1666, so large and dense it could be seen from Oxford. Stamp design by the Chase.
A Great Endeavour
Captain Cook’s mahogany and rosewood writing desk aboard HMS Endeavour is the backdrop for the coin pack celebrating his renowned three year voyage and the discoveries made along the way. From his desk, Cook wrote his famous journal entries and letters, plotted his routes and perused Banks and Parkinson’s astonishing finds and drawings. Stamp design by Howard Brown.