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| Britain’s
new DNA set British stamps have marked the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA with this series of five designs, in a set called the Secret of Life, by the award-winning political cartoonist Peter Brookes The set, which made its debut on February 25, 2003, features the following designs – 2nd class ‘The End of the Beginning’; the 1st class ‘Comparative Genetics’ value; the E (37p) European basic letter rate ‘Gracking the Code’ stamp; the 47p ‘Genetic Engineering’ basic airmail rate stamp; and the 68p ‘Medical Futures’. The set of five stamps are named after the moment 50 years ago when the scientist Francis Crick – one of a team of four young scientists who discovered the double-helix structure – walked into The Eagle pub in Cambridge and declared: ‘We have discovered the secret of life’. To accompany the release of the stamps Royal Mail also launched the £6.99 prestige stamp book Microcosmos – A Guide to inner Space, a £2.35 presentation pack (no. 344), a first day cover envelope, and five stamp postcards (each featuring an enlarged image of one of the Secret of Life stamps). Two different pictorial postmarks accompanied the issues – a Cambridge postmark with the aforementioned quote from Francis Crick and a Tallents House Edinburgh postmark with the quote: ‘Our fate is in our genes’, from Crick’s colleague James Watson. |
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