STAMP STORY

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31215, 12 November 1966, Page 5

STAMP STORY

Typical But Dull

(Specially written for "The Preet" by KINNITH ANTHONY! THE Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles to suffer German occupation during the Second World War. Their liberation in May, 1945, was an occasion for great rejoicing—and an event of sufficient importance to justify special stamps. Things moved slowly in matters of British stamp policy in those days, and it was three years before the stamps appeared. There were two values. Id and 2i<L and they turned out to be perhaps the most unimpressive and ineffective of all post-war British commemoratlves.

The stamps show islanders on the beach with horse and cart, collecting vraic, the seaweed which is used extensively in the islands as a fertiliser.

A typical Island scene it might be. A similar design had been chosen for one of the Jersey stamps issued during the occupation. But to anyone not closely acquainted with the islands it had no significance at all and it would be hard to imagine anything less appropriate to the theme of liberation. In the circumstances, it is not difficult to understand why the stamps have been overlooked and neglected ever since, and have failed to share the popularity of the other British commemorative stamps that followed them.

This, in spite of the fact that only 5,000,000 of each value were printed—an interesting comparison with the 12,000,000 of the World Cup winners stamp issued last August. The small number printed was due to the fact that although the stamps were on general sale in the Channel Islands, they were obtainable on the mainland only at a few principal post offices in leading cities. Moreover, the cities chosen for this distinction had no particular connexion with the Channel Islands, whereas Southampton, the traditional port for the islands, was left off the list.