London Fip Exhibition Souvenir Sheets

The Stamp Show 2000

Since 1980, London hosted an international stamp exhibition. Royal Mail issued miniature sheets in 1978, 1979 and 1980 to advertise the event. In 2000, Royal Mail issued a souvenir sheet in honour of the colour palette Jeffrey Matthews had drawn up for the 'Machin' permanent stamps of Queen Elizabeth II. The souvenir sheet is inscribed "EXHIBITION SOUVENIR' and carries the logo of The Stamp Show 2000 that took place at the Earl's Court Exhibition Halls from 22 until 28 May 2000.



Naturally, this was at the time most people still believed this was the last such event of the millennium. That made it a 'millennium' souvenir as well.

London 2010 Festival of Stamps

In 2010, London hosted its next international exhibition. Among the many souvenir sheets Royal Mail released at the exhibition was another sheet of Machin stamps. It was slightly larger in size than its predecessor from 2000. It contained one of each current 'low value' stamps. The souvenir sheet is inscribed "EXHIBITION SOUVENIR" and has a stamp-sized label with the exhibition logo. An inscription informs the exhibition took place at the Business Design Centre, London from 8 until 15 May 2010.



The catalogue price for this sheet is much higher than that for its predecessor issued in 2000. The difference in face value of the stamps does not explain the difference in catalogue prices. The Machin stamps with these face values are very common.

The reason the 2010 souvenir sheet is so expensive lies with publishers of stamp albums. The souvenir sheet from 2000 was printed by De La Rue that also printed the ordinary counter sheets. For album publishers, there was little reason to include spaces for the stamps from the souvenir sheet. The 2010 sheet was printed by Cartor of France in offset lithography. Most are unique and different from counter sheet stamps printed in gravure by De La Rue.

Album editors included both the gravure and offset lithography stamps in their albums. To fill the album spaces, collectors had to find stamps from the 2010 souvenir sheet, driving up the price.

Less exciting than the 1966 national stamp exhibition, when the World Cup was stolen from a Gibbons exhibit. Later retrieved from a hedge by Pickles, a dog.

That has nothing to do with the subject.

Who would name a dog Pickles?

maybe the dog was found in a jar.

But NSK is right, let us try to stay on subject.

London 2010 Festival of Stamps 'King George V'

The London 2010 Festival of Stamps celebrated the centenary of the accession of King George V, on 6 May 1910. King George V was a notable philatelist. To commemorate the centenary of the accession of King George V, Royal Mail issued a miniature sheet on 6 May 2010. The miniature sheet contained two stamps.

A first-class stamp with the 'heads' of King George V and Queen Elizabeth II, clearly, was inspired by the 'stamp centenary' issue of 1940 and the '150th anniversary of the Penny Black' definitives of 1990. A £1 stamp included elements from iconic stamps of King George V's reign. One element was the 'Downey Head' used for the first definitive issue of the reign. Another was the 'Mackennal', or 'profile' head that replaced it. The value tablet and the '£1' value were taken from the £1 'Saint George and the Dragon' design issued to celebrate the 1929 Universal Postal Union's London congress. The lion also appeared on the 1d 'Downey Head' stamp.

The sheet and the first-class stamp also advertised the London 2010 Festival of Stamps that would open two days after the date of issue.



A souvenir sheet with the inscription "BUSINESS DESIGN CENTRE, LONDON 8 – 15 MAY 2010" at top right was sold as a souvenir at the exhibition.

A tete beche pair.





Londonbus was courteous enough to create a few interesting items. This one he was able to cut up on returning home. Another fun one he had to talk a clerk into making while standing in line. I'll have to look for an image of that one.

ETA: A gutter block of four:



Michael had to sweet talk a clerk out of this one, and I assume that means out of a second one, too, because I can't imagine he didn't get one for himself.

Nice. The top one comes from the press sheet that could be ordered from Royal Mail's Tallents House. It is the miniature and not the souvenir sheet.

You could order gutter blocks from Tallents House. Harrison printed double-pane sheets with a gutter margin from the 1970s until the Christmas 1989 issue. After a gap of a decade or so, Royal Mail announced stamp sheets would come in a format that had gutter margins again. The sheets were halved for use at post office counters. Tallents House, however, would sell stamps from whole sheets including the gutters.

This is a picture of a press sheet from the BFDC website.



The sheet contained 20 miniature sheets arranged in two panes of ten sheets. Each pane had five tete-beche pairs of sheets.

The miniature sheet sold at £ 1.41. The press sheets was for sale at £ 31, a 10% surcharge over the £ 28.20 value of the miniature sheets.

The tete-beche pair above is from the bottom left of the press sheet.