Royal Mail Stamps Guide 2017 - First World War 1917, 31 July 2017

Continuing its five-year series of commemorative stamps to mark the centenary of World War I, Royal Mail presents six new stamps which commemorate people and events of 1917, the penultimate year of the Great War.

This is the fourth year of a five-year commemorative programme from Royal Mail, which is using six themes to explore the war through stamps: poppies, poetry, people, war art, memorials and artefacts. As in previous years, this 2017 issue commemorates each theme on its own stamp, telling the story of how the war progressed 100 years ago.

Red, symbolising the poppy – which has become a universal symbol of warfare and commemoration – is a unifying feature in this six stamp set, with the Queen’s silhouette printed in crimson on the top left or right of each stamp. The details of each theme are written along the side of the stamp, which serves to place the focus firmly on the subject of the stamp and the importance of the Great War as a theme.

The year 2017 was the fourth year of the five-year Great War, which began on 28 July 1814 and ended on 11 November 1918. During this time, more than sixteen million service people and civilians would lose their lives, as more than twenty countries formed into opposing sides in a drawn out period of deadly trench warfare.

Stamp details

First World War 1917

Issue date: 31 July 2017

Design: hat-trick design

Stamp size: 35mm x 35mm

Printer: International Security Printers

Print process: Lithography

Perforations: 14.5 x 14.5

Phosphor: bars as appropriate

Gum: PVA
 

1st: Shattered Poppy by John Ross

1^st: Dead Man’s Dump by Isaac Rosenberg

1^st: Nurses Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm

£1.57: Dry Docked for Scaling and Painting by Edward Wadsworth

£1.57: Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium

£1.57: Bible belonging to Private Lemuel Thomas Rees

For an in-depth look at the First World War 1917 stamps, read the August issue of Stamp & Coin Mart magazine, available now.