Guernsey Post announces that its GG01 exhibition Post & Go kiosk will be returning to February 2016 Stampex, where it will vend a new range of pictorial stamps depicting animals synonymous with the Bailiwick of Guernsey (available from 17 February).
The original Guernsey golden donkey is now extinct, however, donkeys in a range of colours from black to white through shades of grey, as featured on the GY Letter stamp, still inhibit the island.
Also featured on this series is the Guernsey golden goat, a rare species rescued from the brink of extinction by a local lady, Miss Miriam Milbourne. During the Second World War the island’s occupying German forces began slaughtering all the livestock to feed themselves, save for a small group of goats that was hidden away by Miss Milbourne (GY Large stamp).
Another famous animal shown on these stamps is the friendly-faced Guernsey cow. Affectionately known as the ‘Golden Guernsey’, they are also famed for their passive character (UK Letter).
Guernsey’s ROW Letter stamp depicts the Atlantic grey seal, which is often found in the island’s waters, particularly around the rocky islets of The Humps off Herm and on the rocks surrounding the Hanois Lighthouse in Guernsey. Another regular visitor to the Bailiwick is the puffin (EUR Letter stamp), regularly seen off Herm, Jethou and Alderney along with the tiny uninhabited island of Burhou. Despite being only half a mile long and one fifth of a mile wide, Burhou is a bird sanctuary, home to eleven species of breeding birds.
Completing the set is the blond hedgehog (UK Large Letter). Whilst rare in Britain, around twenty five percent of Alderney’s hedgehog population are blonde, or white, as they have leucism, an unusual condition whereby the pigmentation cells in an animal or bird fail to develop properly. With no natural predators in Alderney, the population of blond hedgehogs is unusually high for a small island.
“We have chosen to feature wildlife, in particular local animals, to follow Royal Mail’s issuing pattern. Guernsey has a few well-known breeds, such as the Golden Guernsey Goat, and it was an ideal opportunity to feature these on our first pictorial Post and Go stamps,” said Bridget Yabsley, acting head of philatelic at Guernsey Post.
“At the 2016 Spring Stampex show the
Bailiwick Life (GG01 series) stamps will be available from the Guernsey kiosk
on the Royal Mail Post and Go stand, along with our Guernsey Flag stamp bearing
the overprint ‘500 Years of Postal History’. Also from the 17th
February our Bailiwick Life (GG02 series) stamps will be available from
Guernsey Post Headquarters and will carry the locator overprint ‘Envoy House’.
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“Following the exhibition our ‘B’ series
Bailiwick Life Post and Go stamps will be available to purchase directly from
our Philatelic Bureau and via our website, along with the Guernsey Flag ‘B’
series with the 500 Years of Postal History overprint. “
-End release-
The Post & Go stamps will bend as mint strips of six for £3.62, as the following values:
o
Gsy letter up to
100g – 42p
o
UK letter up to
100g – 56p
o
Gsy large letter
up to 100g – 57p
o
EUR letter up to
20g – 62p
o
ROW letter up to
20g – 68p
o
UK large letter up
to 100g – 77p