Royal Mail gives Bard the stamp of approval

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Royal Mail gives Bard the stamp of approval



« Previous « PreviousNext » Next »View GalleryPublished Date: 18 January 2009
By Fiona Gray
ROBERT Burns will become the first person outside of the Royal Family to be celebrated with three collections of stamps, when a new edition is unveiled by the Royal Mail this week.

Burns overtakes the likes of Winston Churchill in the stamp stakes – the wartime leader only got two editions – while William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens appear on just one edition each.

Burns's rise to become supremo of the non-Royal stamp world represents the crowning glory of a 50-year-old campaign for the Scots icon to be recognised by the Royal Mail.

A miniature sheet of the first-class stamps, which feature two Burns designs and four Scottish designs, will be released on Thursday.

One stamp features the title of the poem 'A Man's a Man For a' That' with a detail from a copper-plate engraving from a painting by James Sargent Storer of Robert Burns turning up a mouse in her nest with his plough, a reference to the supposed inspiration for Burns's poem 'To A Mouse'. The second stamp features Alexander Nasmyth's famous portrait of the Ayrshire poet.

The other four stamps feature a saltire, a thistle, a lion rampant and a cloth of tartan.

The first edition of Burns stamps, finally issued in 1966, were meant to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth in 1959, but the campaign was originally denied by Parliament despite 30 questions being asked in the House. However, in 1964, Labour MP Tony Benn reversed the decision when he became postmaster general and the first two commemorative stamps were released.

In 1996 a second collection of four stamps, each one featuring a line of Burns' poetry, were released in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of his death.

A Robert Burns commemorative £2 coin, produced in association with the Royal Mint, will also be on sale.






The full article contains 314 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.Page 1 of 1

Last Updated: 17 January 2009 7:25 PM
Source: Scotland On Sunday
Location: Scotland
Related Topics: Robert Burns