Top five sci-fi stamps

Enter the world of science fiction with a thematic collection offering huge scope for collecting stamps related to space, literature, film and inventions.

For as long as humans have existed, man has sought to look into the future, imagining events, objects and places that haven’t yet been invented. This is the historic root of science fiction – the fictionalisation of events outside our own present-day experiences.

Science fiction is a wide and varied subject and as such, is the perfect topic for creating a thematic collection, with scope to collect stamps on topics as diverse as ancient myths, science fiction authors and movie monsters. Here's our guide to five top sci-fi stamps and you can read much more about collecting sci-fi stamps in the December issue of Stamp & Coin Mart.

1. A contender for the title ‘father of science fiction’ is Jules Verne, the novelist and playwright whose science fiction works include ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ and ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’. There have been dozens of Verne related stamps over the years and one of the finest is Hungary’s ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ two-stamp issue of 1969.

2. France similarly paid homage to Verne in 1982 with a futuristic hot air balloon adventure illustration taken from one of Verne's books, sold to raise funds for the Red Cross. 

3. Part of the appeal of science fiction is imagining the possibilities that space travel and exploration might bring. Issued in 1992, the Maldives’ Mysteries of the Universe stamp set featured a range of wonders from around the universe including ghosts, UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle and Black Holes.

4. Sci-fi authors have played a big part in developing the genre, with many books making their way into popular culture via film and TV. The HG Wells novel ‘War of the Worlds’ (1897) is one such example, shown here on a San Marino stamp from 1998 which showed a spaceship looming over a terrified crowd.

5. At the height of the space race in the Sixties, the Soviet Union issued this futuristic stamp in 1967, which showed two space ships exploring the skies above earth. Just two years later, man would take his first steps on the moon.

With so many sub themes and topics, the possibilities for focusing your collection on a particular area of sci-fi are many, and Royal Mail's Star Wars stamps provide collectors with a great place to start.

Because this is a wide and varied subject, selecting one or two topics that particularly interest you will give your collection focus to begin with, and you can always expand into other areas as you progress and your knowledge of the topic grows.


Extract taken from our in-depth guide to collecting sci-fi stamps which you can read in the December issue of Stamp & Coin Mart, available to order now – with a fantastic free gift: a set of Star Wars stamp cards courtesy of Royal Mail.