Norvic Philatelics - New GB Stamps and Special Postmarks

50th Anniversary of Wilding Castle Definitives - Miniature Sheet - 22 March 2005

When Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne the first priority for the Post Office, in terms of new stamps, were values for the basic letter and postcard rates, and the 1½d and 2½d stamps were issued on 5 December 1952. Over the following 14 months another 16 values were issued to complete the run to the 1/6d value. Then attention turned to the higher values.

Four high valued King George VI stamps - 2s6d, 5s, 10s, & £1 - had been issued on 3 May 1951 and it is reasonable to assume that sufficient quantities had been printed by Waterlows to last well beyond the untimely death of the king. The Post Office invited a number of artists to submit preliminary sketches and 67 designs were received. After much reworking of the design process the Queen approved the chosen designs in March 1955 and the first stamps were issued on 1 September. The 2s6d and 5s stamps were issued on 23 September.

Great Britain Wilding Castle definitives 1967 issue

The new stamps were also printed by Waterlow (in recess/intagliuo) until the end of 1957 when the contract transferred to De La Rue. The first stamps were printed on paper with the new E 2 R and St. Edward's crown, but from 1959 paper with the multiple crowns watermark was used. At the end of 1962 the printing contract was transferred to Bradbury Wilkinson who also printed the stamps on unwatermarked paper from 1967 until 1969 when they were replaced by the high-value Machin stamps.

The stamps in the new sheet are:
50p brown Carrickfergus Castle Northern Ireland - original 2s6d (2/6) value;
£1 red Caernarvon/Caernarfon Castle Wales - original 5s (5/-) value
£1 blue Edinburgh Castle Scotland - original 10s (10/-) value
50p black Windsor Castle England - original £1 value (strange that this has been downvalued).

Technical details:
The sheets are printed by Joh Enschedé Security Print using intaglio (recess) for the detail and litho for the background colour, perf 11x11½.
The images are from Royal Mail's Stamp Preview, and Philatelic Bulletin, and are Copyright 2005 by Royal Mail.

Norvic Philatelics have an exclusive FDC for this issue which is available with a choice of postmarks - Windsor L9476 or Edinburgh S9489 - Price £8.50

We also have special limited edition cover which will also have an original £1 Windsor Castle stamp of the 1955 design with the Windsor postmark - Price £12.50.

Royal Mail FDCs will also be available with any of the postmarks which will be shown here, at £5.00
Also available: Mint sheet - £4.25

Special postmarks available for the First Day of Issue are shown here: others may be shown when they are published.

Ref FD509 Official Bureau FDI postmark	Ref FD510 Official Windsor FDI postmark	Ref E4680 Windsor Castle permanent postmark	Ref L9477 50th Anniversary of the First QEII High Values, Windsor	Ref M9485 Castles Miniature Sheet, Castle Rd, Birmingham
Ref L9478 Castles - The Windsor Castle	Ref L9476 50th Anniversary of the Castles High Values, Windsor	Ref L9479 Castles Definitives, Windsor	Ref L9480 Windsor Way, London W14	Ref L9481 British Castles, Windsor
Ref L9473 Castles High Values Windsor	Ref W9493 Castles High Values Carnarfon	Ref S9490 Castles High Values Carrickfergus Co Antrim	Ref S9491 Castles High Values Edinburgh	Ref S9489 The 1955 Castles Definitives, Edinburgh
Ref S6040 Edinburgh handstamp	Ref S4188 Carrickfergus handstamp	Ref W4191 Caernarfon handstamp	Ref L4177 Windsor handstamp	Ref S4185 Edinburgh handstamp