August issue

The August issue of Stamp Magazine, published on July 13, includes...

King George VI halfpenny stamps
In a reign of just over 15 years, the ½d definitive changed colour twice and saw action on domestic, imperial and wartime mail at a wide variety of postage rates, as well as being overprinted

Thematic guide to ichthyosaurs
They existed for much longer than humanity has, and were not just ‘a bit like dolphins’. How much of the story of these prehistoric marine reptiles can we trace through postage stamps?

Commonwealth Classics
The merged protectorates of East Africa & Uganda based their 1903 series on Great Britain’s low values

Early Elizabethans
The impetus for the 1963 Compac issue came from ‘down under’, and so did the design

Strange But True
A stamp honouring a Russian general who proved incompetent while serving in Ukraine

Soapbox
Working out what to collect, where to find it and how much to pay

Auction Highlights
A Japanese stamp sells for more than £3.75m

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