The Germania 80pf black and red on rose from the 1899-2000 ‘Reichspost’ printing
A group of stamp designers waited on tenterhooks in the hall, each displaying his artwork for a new definitive stamp.
Eventually the door was flung open, and in burst Kaiser Wilhelm II, looking extremely annoyed at having to attend to such a trivial matter.
He dashed past each of the hopefuls before storming back towards the door, only to turn around, point at one design and mutter: ‘This one’.
The 1924 three-halfpence for the British Empire Exhibition
Until the mid-1920s, the British postal authorities had consistently shunned the idea of commemoratives, an opinion shared by the 'philatelist king' George V, who branded the notion of special event stamps ‘un-English’.
Before 1924 the British Post Office had issued a few items of commemorative postal stationery, but never a commemorative stamp.
The birth of the stamps
In the early planning for the British Empire Exhibition, a strong case was made that the only special issue should be postal stationery.
Mint copy of the octagonal 4a
The East India Company, which had a monopoly on the carriage of mail to and from British India, was still using antiquated hand-struck stamps into the 1850s.
A commission reviewing its efficiency suggested the introduction of adhesive stamps, akin to those of Great Britain.
However, the cost of commissioning Perkins Bacon to engrave copper plates and recess-print these would be prohibitive, so a cheaper local approach was required.
