|
| Back to the GB news index>> | ||||
| Last
ever Questa stamps According to Royal Mail sources the last ever stamps to be printed by the famous printer House of Questa at its High Wycombe plant were the 10-strong Coronation set, although the issue is officially denoted as being printed by De La Rue. De La Rue printers bought out the House of Questa in a £3.2 million deal late last year, and has moved the former Questa operations from High Wycombe to its Byfleet site in Surrey, England. Royal Mail technical spokesman Martin Fry told STAMP MAGAZINE: ‘The Coronation stamp is the last stamp from High Wycombe’. The stamps themselves aren’t due out until June 2, 2003 – 50 years to the day since the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Fry also noted: ‘There are some definitives still bearing the Harrisons name but that will be removed from the close of High Wycombe with the changing of cylinders for new machines’. The Coronation stamps are printed in gravure in the off-square 35x37mm format. The Coronation set features 10 stamps which mix colour images of the pomp and pageantry of the Coronation day 50 years ago with black-and-white stamps featuring images of how ordinary people in Britain celebrated the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The set has been designed by Kate Stephens who was also responsible for the five-strong Great Britain Golden Jubilee set of last year. One of the stamps will feature an adaptation of the famous Pietro Annigoni painting of Queen Elizabeth II of which Royal Mail’s Managing Director of Stamps and Collectibles Gavin Macrae noted: ‘The Queen’s head is not required elsewhere on the stamps so it’s a bit of an oddity’. As with the Golden Jubilee issue of 2002 the Coronation issue will be printed on the watermarked paper, which features ‘50’ on it. |
|
