The first commemorative stamp was issued on 13th May 1937 and was produced for the King’s coronation. The stamps, and most subsequent issues, were watermarked with the distinctive “GVIR” watermark. The stamps were designed by E. Dulac and were printed in photogravure by Harrisons and sons.

In comparison to other Royal events the coronation was a slightly flat event, marred by the abdication of the previous king Edward VIII. The coronation date was originally set for Edward, and many members of the public felt Edwards actions made a mockery of the monarchy and all it stood for. The stamp sold in excess of nearly 390 million copies.

It was nine years until the next set of commemorative stamps were issued and these were issued in 1946 to celebrate victory of the second world war. They were issued on the 11th June and contained a 2 1/2d blue and 3d purple. They became a symbol for the British people and were attached to letters with pride. The stamps contained images showing “Symbols of Peace and Reconstruction” and were designed by H.L Palmer and Reynolds Stone. The stamps were issued in all post offices and for a time Post offices were instructed to use them in place of definitive stamps. The two values combined sold in quantities of over 350 million copies.

The next issue was for the Royal Silver Wedding of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Due to the prestige of the occasion it was decided to issue a 2 1/2d value and a £1 high value. The stamps were designed by G.T Knipe and Joan Hassall from photographs by Dorothy Wilding, who would later go on to provide the portrait for the famous Wilding issue four years later. The £1 value was produced in relatively low quantities of about 420,000 compared with over 148 million of the 2 1/2d value. In my opinion the £1 stamp is one of the two most beautiful British stamps of all time, the other being the £1 PUC issue of 1929.

During this time a controversial stamp issue was produced for the Channel Islands liberation after world war II. Debate continues over the validity of this issue and they are covered in a separate article.

1948 saw another commemorative issue for the Olympic Games hosted in London. The set consisted of a 2 1/2d blue depicting “Globe and Laurel Wreath”, 3d purple “speed”, 6d purple “Olympic Symbol” and a 1s showing “Winged Victory”. The stamps were a designed by, in ascending order of value, Percy Metcalfe, Abram Games, Stanley D. Scott and E. Dulac.

The next issue came on October 10th 1949 and were to commemorate the Universal Postal Union. They followed the same colour scheme and values of the previous issues, 2 1/2d blue depicting “Two Hemispheres”, 3d Lilac “UPU Monument, Berne”, 6d purple “Goddess Concordia, Globe and points of compass” and 1s brown “Posthorn and Globe”.

The final issue was a set of two stamps issued on 3rd May 1951 to commemorate the Festival of Britain. The 2 1/2d red designed by E. Dulac depicted “Commerce and Prosperity” and the 4d blue designed by Abram Games showed the Festival symbol. The 2 1/2d value was hugely popular and sold over 260 million copies, where as the 4d sold only 22 million copies. The 4d was a higher value than the postage rate and was mainly used as a source of revenue rather than for actual postage.

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