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Designs: |
We’ve been using post boxes, for more than 200 years and research has discovered that the earliest known post box was installed at Wakefield Post Office® in 1809. To celebrate this anniversary Royal Mail is releasing a Miniature Sheet of four stamps featuring iconic wall mounted Post Boxes.
A post box is the overall title
for any kind of posting box whether it’s standing proud on
the pavement (pillar box), a smaller freestanding version (pedestal
box), on, or in, a wall (wall box), or on a pole (lamp box).
The first Post Boxes, often just slots into the office,
appeared over 200 years ago at Post Offices® for the
convenience of people posting unpaid letters (the letters were paid for
by the recipient). Wall boxes as we know them today were
installed from 1857 as a cheaper alternative to pillar boxes, and have
established themselves as a national icon, serving the needs of smaller
communities. The first pillar boxes were installed in 1852 in the
Channel Islands and 1853 on the mainland. Now, around 100,000
Post Boxes of all kinds exist across the UK,
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Designs: |
1st
Class – George V Type B Wall Box
This example with the royal cipher of George V was cast by W T Allen
& Co Ltd, London,
between 1933-36, and is from Cookham Rise near Maidenhead.
56p
– Edward VII Ludlow Box
Introduced in 1887 this type of standardized box derives its name from
the foundry where many
of them were made. This example is from Bodiam, East Sussex.
81p
– Victorian Lamp Box
The lamp box could also be attached to lamp post or other such
structure. This example is from
Hythe in Kent and was installed in 1896.
90p
– Elizabeth II
Type A Wall Box
This Elizabeth II Wall box is located in Slaithwaite near Huddersfield
and would have been made
between 1962 and 1963.
On the same date Royal Mail will issue a Prestige Stamp Book entitled 'Treasures of the Archive'.
Some of the amazing artefacts held in trust for the nation by the British Postal Museum and Archive are shown in the booklet - including a stamp pane featuring all four of the Post Boxes stamps. The book contains four exclusive stamp panes unavailable anywhere else. All the stamps are printed by Walsall SP in litho so producing new stamps. (The 62p stamps are the normal red, not orange as shown in these pubblicity images.)
Booklet panes:
Pane 1: four 1st and four 20p Definitives, both stamps bearing the double image of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria from the 150th anniversary of the Penny Black stamps, set around a Penny Post label first issued in 1990, with the Penny Black portrait of Queen Victoria in the background.
Pane 2: four 20p stamps featuring the Royal Mail Coach from the 1989 Lord Mayor's show issue, showing the door of the Bristol - London Mailcoach in the backgound..
Pane 3: all four of the Post Boxes stamps in a block of 4, rather than a strip. The background shows a Penfold hexagonal Victorian pillar box.
Pane 4: four 17p Machin Definitives, two 22p Machins and two 62p Machins around a GPO logo label, the background showing images of the proposed 1937 coronation issue for King Edward VIII.
A generic sheet consisting of 20 x 1st class Postbox stamps from the miniature sheet, with 20 labels depicting postboxes or details from them.
The
Miniature
sheet was
designed by Elmwood and is printed in litho by Walsall
Security
Print.
Royal Mail have confirmed that the MS was also printed by
Cartor.
The Smilers
Sheet was designed by
Elmwood, and is printed by
Cartor Security Print in litho.
The Prestige
Stamp Book is designed by
Silk Pearce, with narrative by
Douglas Muir, and is printed by Walsall
Security
Print in litho.
The Book has the imprint of Cartor SP. Information
previously
shown was provided by Royal Mail before issue.
All stamp and other images are copyright Royal Mail
2009.
Products
issued:
Miniature sheet
Smilers Sheet
Prestige Stamp Book
Presentation Pack
Set of 5 stamp Cards unused
Special
Postmarks
Postmarks available for the day of issue are shown below -
these may not be to scale.
These postmarks cannot
be
obtained after the date of issue.
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| Ref FD919 Philatelic Bureau Official Postmark |
Ref FD920 Wakefield Official Postmark |
Ref FD920n Wakefield Official non-pictorial Postmark |
Ref N11432 Wakefield Postboxes 18 August 09 |
Ref N11431 Bicentenary 1809 Post Boxes, Wakefield |
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| Ref N11428 Postboxes, Hill Street, Birmingham. |
Ref L11432 Farringdon Road, London EC1A |
Ref L11422 Bicentenary Post Boxes Windsor |
Ref L11421 London WC1 (shows Queen Victoria) |
Ref L11424 Southampton (shows King George VI) |
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| Ref L11419 Box, Corsham (Wiltshire) |
Ref L11418 Letter Box Lane, Sevenoaks, Kent |
Ref FD921 Philatelic Bureau Official Postmark (shows mailcoach) |
Ref FD922 Official postmark London SW7 (shows early delivery cycle) |
Ref FD922N London EC1 non-pictorial Official Postmark |
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| Ref M11429 Birmingham Philatelic Society 125 Years. |
Ref N11433 10th Anniversary Sheridan Philatelic Covers, Widnes |
Ref W11446 Bath Postal Museum, Cnr Green Street, Bath * |
Ref N11459 Post Boxes, Wakefield |
* We apologise for the quality of this image. |
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This page updated 8 September 2009.
