At last... the 2023 St Valentine's Issue

Joolz wrote: Keith wrote: Thanks for the pointer to Steve’s listing Colin.  I’m relieved I didn’t imagine it! And thanks for the stamps.  They all arrived safely just now.  I’ll wait for the folk with better eyesight than me to hunt down the variants! Keith So you've done a ceremonial unboxing of this issue, have you, Keith?

Wonderful stuff Colin

I must admit to being surprised that you've managed these so soon after the delayed previous issue, assuming that Isle of Vue may have transplanted Vantentine's Day to the autumn.

My orders in, and looking forward to seeing them in the fleah

I think I've found ten variants - how are the rest of you doing ?

Alan's artwork for the Isle of Vue stamps goes from strenght to strenghth, getting better each year. Such detail, and amazingly it all reduces down well to stamp size without loss of definition. You can still see that the leaves are oak leaves.



What Alan and Cloin turn up trumps with are stamps in the classic tradition; unlike Royal Mail these days. Looking at this year's releases from RM and you will see that, for the most part, a 10 year old with a grasp of a graphics package could have 'designed' them. Get a set of photo stills from whoever or whatever gets promoted, put the monarch's silhoette in one corner and a valu in another. Bingo! five minutes work.
Perhaps the stamps just wouldn't sell as well if they didn't use stock photographs. This may reflect on how casual collectors tastes have changed over the years. Do real collectors/philatelists still look for all the minute variations of the Machin definitives? I remember that each source such as sheets, coils, booklets and so on resulted in minute differences well beyond phosphor variations, gums and papers used.

It would be really nice if Royal Mail went back to it's postal roots and included some really good designs for at least a couple of issue per year.