In April 2024 the Post Office issued a new set of commemorative stamps to, well, commemorate the commemorative stamp. One of them featured the first such stamp from 1924 which had been produced to coincide with the first day of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.
Although King George V, whose profile appears on the stamp, was a keen collector, he had expressed some reluctance about the project. “The whole idea is un-English and is copied from America”, he had remarked at one point.
Nevertheless, a handful of artists were invited to submit drawings to a selection committee. The winning design was Harold Nelson’s British Lion (later known as the Wembley Lion) with rising sun which was issued in 1d scarlet and 1½d brown. The stamps were then reissued the following year with the date altered in the inscription before being withdrawn from service in October 1925 by which time 17 million had been sold.
Today they remain far from rare and can be picked up from a dealer or at auction for little outlay.
For example, an album containing a block each of 10 scarlets and 10 browns, some of the latter shown above, sold for £30 at Inmans (20% buyer’s premium) in Hove on January 29 this year.
These days the Post Office might be accused of taking advantage of collectors by issuing so many new stamps. Last year, for instance, it issued 15 different sets of commemorative stamps.
A collector in 1924 hoping to accumulate 15 separate sets would have had to wait more than 30 years to achieve their ambition such was the infrequency with which new issues came out.
