Royal Mail and Australia Post join forces to produce a set of 8 stamps each, to coincide with the opening of the Pacific Explorer international stamp exhibition in Sydney. Each se-tenant pair of stamps shows one British and one Australian UNESCO World Heritage Site. 2005 is the 300th anniversary of the commencement of building Blenheim Palace, which is why we have chosen postmark L9521 for some of our covers.
The Australian stamps are shown below the British ones. Although they are the same size and use the same original images, the Australian stamps are quite different and a comparison between the British and Australian printings is shown on this page.
On the same day Royal Mail will also issue a Smilers Sheet for the exhibition, similar to the one issued for Hong Kong Expo 2004. A picture of this is shown below.
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2nd class - Hadrian's Wall |
2nd class - Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park |
1st class - Stonehenge |
1st class |
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47p - Blenheim Palace near Oxford, stands in a romantic park created by the famous landscape gardener 'Capability' Brown. It was presented by the English nation to John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, in recognition of his victory in 1704 over French and Bavarian troops. Building work on this eclectic palace began 300 years ago in 1705 and was completed in 1722. |
47p - Greater Blue Mountains |
68p - Neolithic Orkney (Ring of Brodgar) |
68p - Purnululu National Park |
All the labels have the same slogan - Pacific Explorer 2005 World Stamp Expo - but they appear to be all different. However, closer examination suggests that labels 1 & 4 in columns 2 & 4 are probably the same. The sheet was printed by Cartor of France (a subsidiary of Walsall Secruity Print). This is the first Royal Mail stamp to be printed by Cartor and the Hello stamp used here is quite different in shade to that in the 2004 Smilers Sheet. The phosphor bands are also different so this stamp should achieve a specialist catalogue listing.
Technical details: .
The British World Heritage stamps are printed in lithography by
Joh Enschede Security Print, perf 14.5, size 35mm square, with PVA gum.
Images are taken from Royal Mail's Philatelic Bulletin
and are Copyright 2005 by Royal Mail.
Images of Australian stamps are from Australian Stamp Bulletin
and are Copyright 2005 by Australian Postal Corporation.
We have produced exclusive Norvic fdcs for these stamps, as shown below.
1 - the Great Britain set, with postmark L9521
(Blenheim Palace) or L9522 (Stonehenge) [Scans of actual covers] - Price
£8.95
2 - The pair of fdcs with matching British and Australian stamps,
the Australian stamps postmarked Sydney and the British ones postmarked
with L99527 the map of Australia & Kangaroo. [Scans of actual covers]
Price £13.50 per pair
3 - GB World Heritage set on 'Jurassic Coast' cover
with 2nd class South-west England stamp cancelled on its issue date (8
February) with the Studland postmark 8 February, and WHS stamps cancelled
21 April. The Jurassic Coast of Dorset is one of Britain's most recently
designated World Heritage Sites.
Price £11.50 - limited edition of 10. [Scan of actual cover]
]
4. Pacific Explorer Smilers FDCs
The Smilers sheet contains 18 different labels and we have produced FDCs
in sets of 4 using the whole sheet Price £17.50 per set
FDCs with singles will also be available - details later. We also have the
Smilers stamps and WHS sets on official Pacific Explorer Expo covers
The special postmarks available on the Day of Issue are shown here.
NB: these are not shown to scale.
All postmarks except FD531-FD533 will be available for use on the Smilers
stamps as well as the WHS stamps.
FD531 - Bureau postmark | FD532 - Blenheim Palace postmark
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Ref L9517 |
Ref L9518 |
Ref L9522 |
Ref L9532 |
Ref L9521 |
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Ref L9520 |
Ref L9527 |
Ref L9526 |
Ref L9524 |
Ref N9533 |
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Ref L9525 |
Ref L9528 |
Ref N9535 |
Ref N9536 |
Ref S9536 |
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Ref N9534 |
Ref S9537 |
Ref L9523 |
Ref L9519 |
This page updated 11 May 2005
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January 11 Farm Animals |
February 8 British Journey - South West England 24 Jane Eyre & Brontes prestige book |
March 15 Magic Circle Centenary 22 Wilding Castles Miniature Sheet |
April 5 New definitives 8 Royal Wedding 21 World Heritage Sites 26 Definitive reprints |
May 10 Definitive reprints |
June 7 Trooping the Colour 21 Smilers sheet - Flag stamp, White Ensign 21 Definitive reprints |
July 5 End of World War II 19 British Motorcycles |
August 5 London 2012 Olympics 23 Europa - Gastronomy |
September 22 Independent Television 50th Anniversary |
October 4 Small greetings definitives & Smilers 6 Cricket: England Ashes Winners sheet 18 Battle of Trafalgar |
November 1 Christmas Christmas Robins Smilers Sheet |
2006
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