During this time Wilding stamps were still being issued with the watermark change and they were eventually replaced in 1958 with yet another set with a multiple crown watermark. This featured a very simple design and lasted until the Wildings were replaced by designs by Machin.

There were many Wilding releases during this time, including experimental issues with graphite bars and phosphor bands added to the stamps. These are all discussed in a separate article.

It was not until 1st August 1957 that the second set of commemorative stamps were issued, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. This was four years after the previous coronation set, and were issued to commemorate the World Scout Jubilee Jamboree. The Jamboree was held in Sutton Park, and was one of the biggest events ever held in Sutton Coldfield and involved scouts from 85 countries converging on the park to celebrate 50 years of scouting and the centenary of Lord Baden Powell’s birth.

The event was attended by both the Queen and the Prime minister of the time, Harold Macmillan. Because it was an international event hosted by Britain, it was deemed worthy enough to issue a set of commemorative stamps. Once again they followed the pattern of postal rate colours, being as they were 2 1/2d Red (Scout hitch and Rolling hitch), 4d Blue (“Scouts coming to Britain.”) and 1s 3d Green (Globe with Compass.)

This was an interesting issue because special rolls of stamps were produced, designed to service first day covers automatically. They were produced from different cylinders and printed on continuous reels of paper. The cylinders bore 126 impressions in 21 rows of six. The cylinders were numbered J1 for the 2 1/2d and 4d and J2 for the 1s 3d. (Technical details quoted from Gibbons GB Specialised catalogue Vol 3.) The reels were cut so as to provide single rolls of 4800 stamps, numbered 1-6. Interestingly, because of the speedy printing methods, numerous minor flaws have been reported on these stamps.

These rolls were available for sale on request at the London Chief Office, presumably for stamp dealers and other business individuals wishing to cash in on the Jubilee celebrations. This was the first time that coil stamps were available in an intact form, and drew much interest from stamp collectors wishing to add something unique to their collection. At the time many people collected stamps and mainstream collectors would buy whole sheets of stamps for their collection. In modern times this would cost a small fortune, but when you consider that the jubilee issue was the first series of commemorative stamps released for over 4 years, it does seem reasonable!

Official records do show that some collectors did buy the roll of 4800 stamps, although many collectors did not find it reasonable due to the huge cost. Technically the stamps would always be useable or exchangeable at post offices, so a few people brought them as an investment. Nobody could be sure if they would increase much in value, but they could guarantee that they will never decrease in value.

The Post Office finally relented to the feedback they were getting from philatelic customers and rolls of 4800 were rewound into smaller rolls of 480 stamps for the 2 1/2d and 4d, and rolls of 240 for the 1s3d.

The next commemorative stamp was less than a month later, and is an in between issue for collectors. It was issued to commemorate the 46th Inter Parliamentary Union Conference. Instead of creating a new design, the 4d Wilding Stamp was reproduced with lettering added. It was only issued in the one value and its possible that it travelled on many items of mail without the recipient even noticing! Just over 10 million of the stamps were issued compared with nearly 140 million of the previous Jubilee issue!

The last commemorative issue of the decade came on July 18th 1958 and were to celebrate the 6th British Empire and Commonwealth games, which were held in Cardiff.

The stamps continued to follow the colour scheme of the Wilding issues, but due to rising postal costs, the low value, 3d, was issued as a deep lilac (Welsh Dragon), 6d Purple (Flag and Games Emblem), and 1s3d Green. (Welsh Dragon.)

Due to the international status of the game, these stamps were sold as souvenirs and more first day covers were produced than ever before. The 3d stamp sold nearly 320.5 million copies!

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