Christmas stamps: Royal Mail unveils 2019 design
- Published
Six special stamps have been issued by the Royal Mail for Christmas. The stamps show various scenes from the nativity story, including the journey of the wise men and the birth of Jesus Christ. The stamps go on sale on 5 November 2019.
They have been designed by paper-cut artists Hari & Deepti using paper-art and special light boxes. Christmas stamps are issued each year so that people can send Christmas mail with a festive feel, after the tradition of sending Christmas cards was established in the UK in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole, when just 1,000 of them were produced.
These 1,000 cards were sold for a shilling each, which meant that they were a luxury item and not everybody could afford them. One of them sent by Sir Henry to his grandmother in 1843 was sold at an auction in Wiltshire for £20,000 on 24 November 2001, making it the most valuable Christmas card in the world, according to the Guinness World Records.
- Published1 November 2018
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