Here is an interesting item that will be in the package.....
In 1979 a set of Stamps from Great Britain was issued to celebrate the International Year of the Child. It was a 4 stamp set and no M/S was printed. The set depicted Winnie the Pooh,Alice in Wonderland,Tales of Peter Rabbit and The Wind in the Willows.
In 1980, as part of the the Europa 1980 celebrations, a Year of the Child Exhibition was held and the organizers had printed the above sheet for sale at the exhibition. The exhibition was sponsored by War on Want and Lufhansa and their Logos appear on the left side, The Europa and Year of the Child logos appear on the other.
At the bottom is printed 'Issued by authority of the British Post Office', but this was not the case and they were embarrassed by it's issue, no doubt because the stamps could be used on mail [and were], being excellent reprints.Of course, the black [cancel] line showed the non-postal validity.
Anyway, the print run was not large and these items became much sought after, the Imperf sheets being quite rare and expensive.
Oddly though, a number of soaked and damaged sheets have been found over the years and one wonders if there was some attempt at destroying stocks at some stage.
The sheet scanned and going to Tina is one of those soaked sheets with some damage, but another soaking and a press should see it looking a little better.
If nothing else, an interesting item with an equally interesting story, regardless of condition....and for Pooh collectors, a bonus !
Tina, enjoy.
Londonbus1....full of weird goodies !
Posted 05/14/2009 6:56 pm
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