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Click on the stamps for a bigger image.
The Post Office have announced that Royal Mail will issue a set of special stamps to commemorate the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, with all profits going to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. The special issue is expected to raise several million pounds for the fund.
The stamps will be on sale in post offices from Tuesday, February 3, 1998, the earliest possible release date.
The set of five 26p se-tenant stamps on a mint stamp strip, show photographs of the Princess by Snowdon, Tim Graham, John Stillwell and Terence Donovan. They feature both formal and informal poses, and each stamp has a purple border as a mark of respect.
The Queen's head and the value are also shown in purple and the stamps are subtitled simply with the dates 1961-1997.
Post Office Chief Executive, John Roberts, said: "The tragic death of the Princess deeply shocked and saddened the nation. The stamps will be a beautiful and enduring tribute to her life. We hope that there will be considerable demand for the stamps so that the Memorial Fund can benefit by millions of pounds, giving a boost to the charities to which the Princess was so devoted."
More than 120 million stamps in sets of five will be released to meet the expected demand from both the British public and the Princess's huge following abroad. The stamps were designed shortly after the death of the Princess of Wales by Royal Mail's Design Director, Barry Robinson.
Royal Mail General Manager and Chairman of the Stamp Advisory Committee, Adam Novak, said: "These beautiful stamps will give everyone the opportunity to remember Diana, Princess of Wales. They will be an affordable memento, available to all, commemorating the Princess's life. I am certain the stamps will be extremely popular."
A presentation pack of the stamps will be available from post offices and the British Philatelic Bureau and other philatelic outlets from February 3, priced £1.65. The pack is a tribute to the Princess and has been written by Mike Barden. It includes a copy of a letter from a five-year-old child written after the death of the Princess.
The pack is designed by Tutssels and printed by White Dove Press. Postcards of the stamps will not be produced.
Royal Mail commemorative covers will be available from main post offices, Post Office Counters philatelic outlets and the British Philatelic Bureau during the week before the issue date of February 3, priced £1.95 for inland and £1.66 overseas. The Bureau will provide a first day cover service as usual. The commemorative cover features a photograph by Tim Graham showing the Princess in pink suit and matching hat carrying flowers, during an official tour of Italy in April 1985.
Two special pictorial handstamps will be available, one from the Bureau and one from Kensington, where the former home of the Princess is situated.
Due to the exceptional circumstances of these stamps, customers will be allowed to submit covers for the Diana postmark until February 28, 1998.
Cover producers are reminded to gain approval to reproduce images of Diana, Princess of Wales, her name and that of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
Customers wishing to obtain the special Diana postmark should forward their stamped self-addressed covers in an outer envelope to the British Philatelic Bureau or any one of six Special Handstamp Centres.
The stamps are printed by De La Rue Security Print using photogravure. They are presented in a vertical format measuring 30mm x 41mm with 15 x 14 perforations. There are two phosphor bars and the gum is PVA.
Details on this page 'borrowed' from the Royal Mail web site.
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