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These six GB stamps will mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the British Museum when they are officially issued on October 7, 2003.
The six stamps feature ‘faces’ from the museum’s famous collections with the oldest image being the 900BC picture of the Egyptian coffin of Denytenamun and the newest image being the South Indian sculpture of Parvati, from around 1550AD, on the 42p value.
In value order the set of six comprises:–
• 2nd class – coffin of Egyptian, Denytenamun, circa 900BC
• 1st class – statue of Alexander the Great, circa 200BC
• E (38p) – Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo helmet, circa 600AD
• 42p – sculpture of South Indian, Parvati, circa 1550AD
• 47p – mask of Mixtec-Aztec, Xiuhtecuhtli, circa 1500AD
• 68p – Easter Island statue of Hoa Hakananai’a, circa 1000AD
The Director of Royal Mail’s Stamps and Collectibles department, Gavin Macrae, commented: ‘While Royal Mail is well used to marking major landmarks in British history, encapsulating both the importance and diversity of an institution like the British Museum proved an exciting and daunting design challenge’. The challenge was to photograph items which ranged in size from 59cm to 2.4 metres to keep the stamp designs uniform in appearance.
All of the images were specially shot for the stamps and to illustrate this Royal Mail and the British Museum will be issuing a special pack of A5-size postcard reproductions of the stamp designs which will be available at £4.99 for the pack.
The issue will also be backed up by a presentation pack (no. 352), a first day cover envelope, 30p stamp card, a medal cover with a museum medal for £12.95, and two pictorial first day of issue postmarks.