Royal Mail celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with a set of eight stamps on February 4, all based on photographs of official functions over the past seven decades.
This is the first time a Platinum Jubilee has been celebrated in the UK, as Queen Elizabeth II is the longest-serving monarch in British history; she is also the fourth longest-serving in verifiable world history, and the longest-serving head of state in the world today.
The Queen came to the throne following the death of her father, King George VI, on February 6, 1952.
Royal Mail has declared that Britain is entering ‘a new era for stamps’, as it introduces data matrix codes (also known as 2D barcodes) across the full range of self-adhesive Machin definitives.
Digitally coded 1st class, 2nd class, 1st Large and 2nd Large stamps were issued on February 1, in a new range of colours.
The existing make-up values of 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, £2, £3 and £5 will also be replaced with barcoded stamps on April 4.
Royal Mail issues a set of stamps and a miniature sheet on January 20 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of The Rolling Stones, one of Britain’s most successful rock bands.
Unlike previous issues in the Music Giants series, from 2016-21, the eight counter sheet designs do not reproduce album covers but focus on the Stones as a live act, from archive photographs.
Of the four stamps in the miniature sheet, two feature posed photographs of the band and two reproduce promotional posters for their tours.
