Posts Tagged ‘1st Class Stamp’
New Official King Charles III Stamps announced!
Royal Mail has just announced the design of the new Official King Charles III Stamp!
They will be available to purchase from 4th April and excitingly they will circulate alongside the current Queen Elizabeth II stamps.
This is the first time in 70 years that a new monarch has graced our stamps, and will be in huge demand by collectors all over the world.
Interestingly, this is also the same design that is used on King Charles III coins.
If you want to be the first to hear any and all news about this historic new release, you can sign up to our mailing list below.
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Introducing the brand new Star Trek stamps! Boldly collect where no UK collector has collected before!
With the arrival of a new season of Star Trek: Discovery this month, and the brand new series Picard which launched earlier this year, there’s a lot for Star Trek fans to celebrate this year.
And now – in what you might say is the final frontier of stamp collecting – fans can get their hands on a brand new official Royal Mail stamp release comprising of some of the franchise’s most famous faces.
The stamps are officially released on November 13th, 2020, but you can shop our full range here and pre-order yours whilst stocks last. There are strict edition limits across our product range, so be quick if you’d like to secure yours.
Born from the mind of Gene Roddenberry, the Star Trek franchise began 54 years ago and has amassed a huge, global fanbase. It is a cultural phenomenon that’s influence spans across many generations of devoted fans, creating a global community unlike any other.
Often praised for its impact on storytelling and its influence on modern-day technology, fans and scholars alike consider Star Trek to be highly progressive in its approach to social and political issues, offering the viewer a reflective view on historic and current affairs.
This culturally significant franchise has now been celebrated for the very first time on UK stamps.
“For more than 50 years Star Trek has enthralled and inspired generations of loyal fans with extraordinary adventures and an optimistic vision of humanity’s future.
We celebrate the Star Trek Universe with stylish new stamps of its iconic characters.”
Philip Parker, Royal Mail
There are several ways to own these new issue stamps, with each stamp presentation framed and ready to display, and will be officially postmarked by Royal Mail on the day of the stamps release.
Here’s your guide to each of the products available and how you can be one of the limited number of collectors to own one of these limited edition pieces…
The Star Trek Collectors Frame
The Star Trek Collectors Frame features Royal Mail’s Collector Sheet, and only 1,995 framed editions are available worldwide.
These stamps bring together captains from six Star Trek TV series, including Captains Kirk, Picard, and Archer. Each of the stamps featured is accompanied by an Officially Licenced Philatelic Label featuring scenes from the corresponding series.
Your Collector Sheet is A4 in size and is set against a dramatic space scene – perfect for displaying in your home!
Click here to pre-order one of the 1,995 Star Trek Collectors Frames now >>>
The Star Trek Definitive Frame
Collect every Royal Mail Star Trek Stamp issue with The Star Trek Definitive Frame! This framed presentation features 12 Star Trek First Class Stamps , alongside the Movie Stamp Miniature Sheet.
These 12 brand new stamps feature every captain, alongside other famous crew members from across the six principal TV series. Each character is set against a themed backdrop inspired by the series they are from.
As well as these new issue stamps, The Star Trek Definitive Frame also includes the Movie Stamp Miniature Sheet, which showcases British stars from the Star Trek movie series.
Your frame is A4 in size and ready to display. But with only 995 available worldwide, you’ll have to be quick to snap this up for your collection.
Click here to pre-order one of the 995 Star Trek Definitive Frames now >>>
The Star Trek Ultimate Frame
While this is the first time Star Trek has featured on any UK stamp issue, it’s not the first time the franchise has been celebrated on commemorative stamps! To honour the 50th anniversary in 2016, a range of Star Trek stamps was issued in the United States.
As of last year, the stamps are no longer available to buy from the US Postal Service, but you can find a selection of these stamps within The Star Trek Ultimate Frame.
This really is the ultimate Star Trek stamp presentation, featuring every UK stamp issue alongside the no longer available US Star Trek Forever stamps.
Available in an A4 frame, there are only 295 of this very special stamp presentation available worldwide.
Click here to pre-order one of the 295 Star Trek Ultimate Frames now >>>
Remember, all framed editions of the Star Trek stamps are strictly limited. Shop the full range here to pre-order and secure yours ahead of their official release on November 13th.
Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’: The Story behind the design
It is often touted as the best album of all time, and has become so ingrained as part of popular culture that it’s hard to believe that the concept for Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon cover was actually born out of a simple textbook illustration.
The Iconic Dark Side of the Moon Album Cover
We were lucky enough to have the album’s original illustrator, George Hardie, visit us at our offices where we chatted about the album.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the iconic design has its routes in a chance 1968 meeting in a photographic darkroom at the Royal College of Art in London. It was then that George first met Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell – the creative minds behind now legendary design studio, Hipgnosis.
Over the year, Hipgnosis produced artwork for some of the most influential bands of the era including Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Black Sabbath, but it was the bold graphic design for The Dark Side of the Moon which thrust the studio’s work into the public eye when it hit record stores in March 1973.
Until this point, much of Hipgnosis’ work had been photographic. But under the direction of Pink Floyd’s keyboardist Richard Wright to produce something “simple, clinical and precise” their ideas took on a new dimension. The breakthrough moment was provided by Storm Thorgerson who remembered an illustration from a photography book showing the process of light refraction through a glass prism; “An inspirational image in itself” as George recalls. The concept seemed particularly fitting for Pink Floyd who were famous for their use of light shows.
Dark Side of the Moon Album Cover artist, George Hardie
“Slightly re-arranging the illustration, I drew a line artwork and indicated colours using percentages of magenta, cyan, yellow and black from a printer’s chart – the simplest way of making this kind of line artwork where the lines act as the edges of each colour and the printer fills in the colours.” explains Hardie. The prism was airbrushed, black on white, and reversed out of a mechanical printer’s black background to produce the final effect.
After its release, The Dark Side of the Moon went to number one on the US Billboard chart for one week, but it ended up staying in the charts for a consecutive 741 weeks from 1973 to 1988 – longer than any other album in history.
The band were suddenly propelled from the underground into the mainstream. With an estimated 45 million copies sold, it became Pink Floyd’s most commercially successful album and is frequently ranked as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. The white beam of light passing through a prism to form the bright colours of the spectrum against a stunning black background invited listeners to discover the music inside, and it still does today.
If you’re interested…
Own the Dark Side of the Moon Framed Edition
Now you can own this definitive piece of Pink Floyd memorabilia – a remastered copy of The Dark Side of the Moon vinyl professionally framed and signed by the original album artist, George Hardie himself.