Famous People on Royal Mail Stamps

Over the years the Royal Mail has used images of many famous people on their stamps. This has delighted stamp collectors in the UK and around the world.  Generally, until 2005 the Royal Mail’s policy was that only identifiable living people from the monarchy and other memb1162beatlesers of the Royal Family were depicted on British stamps.  This policy was occasionally broken with the first exception being of Winston Churchill in 1965.  The ruling was changed again in December 2003 when players from England’s rugby team which beat Australia in the World Cup Final were shown.
Thankfully, the Royal Mail decided to abandon this policy with a release on the 6th of October 2005 of a set of stamps to commemorate the English cricket team’s victory over Australia in that year’s Ashes series.  Four stamps clearly and deliberately depicted members of the team which include:-

 

  • Michael Vaughan
  • Andrew Freddie Flintoff

An exciting series of stamps released in January 2007 featured some of the most famous Beatles album covers which also showed members of the band. Beatles fans couldn’t wait to get their hands on stamps showing images of:-

 

  • Abbey Road
  • Let It Be
  • Magical Mystery Tour
  • A Hard Day’s Night
  • Help
  • Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sticking with the theme of celebrities, a 2011 stamp featured the actor David Tennant in the role of Hamlet. A series of gold medal stamps was issued during the summer of 2012 to celebrate the Olympic Games that took place in London.  Many stamps displayed British gold medal winning athletes such as Helen Glover – rowing, Bradley Wiggins – cycling, Timothy Baillie – canoeing, Jessica Ennis – athletics and Andy Murray – tennis. Of course, two of the most famous and rarest Royal Mail stamps in the world have an image of Queen Victoria which are instantly recognisable and highly sought after.
Today more than ever before you can buy stamp sets from the Royal Mail many of which have famous people on them.  How about buying the Jane Austin stamp set to mark the bicentenary of the publication of one of her most famous novels, Pride and Prejudice?  This particular book has sold over 20,000,000 copies worldwide as well as being filmed for many film and television adaptations.  No famous people Royal Mail stamp collections would be complete without stamp sets comprising of Royal portraits.  There are a number to choose from of the past and current British Royal Family which will no doubt be very appealing to collectors.