Royal Mail Stamps Guide: Animail, 17 May 2016

Royal Mail’s newest stamps featuring die-cut animals reflect the organisation’s desire to ‘push the envelope’ and reach out to a younger audience. 

The new Animail stamps feature six animal characters which, thanks to special die cutting, will wrap around an envelope or cling onto a postcard.

The issue is part of Royal Mail’s plans to encourage younger people to see stamps as being fun and relevant to them, as a Royal Mail spokesperson explained:  ‘Andrew Ross who designed the stamps was challenged to devise interactive stamps that particularly appealed to children… He wanted to “push the envelope” whilst working within the constraints of the technical requirements around postage stamps including the need for them to be easily read by Royal Mail’s sorting machines.

‘He came up with the idea of engaging, friendly and fun animal characters that could “cling” to the top or side of envelopes. He wanted to create a variety of shapes and colours to generate interest but was mindful that each character had to sit comfortably alongside each other and have a degree of consistency so that they clearly looked like they were part of a set.’ 

The six stamps are available on a Miniature Sheet, and depict a woodpecker (1st class), snake (1st class), chimpanzee (£1.05), Bat (£1.05), Orangutan (£1.33), and Koala (£1.33). The colourful fun continues with the First Day Cover which contains the Miniature Sheet and a special First Day of Issue postmark against a simple depiction of the type of terrain in which the featured animals might be found, whilst the Information Card contains a playful illustration of the six animals in a jungle scene.

Read in-depth analysis of Royal Mail's latest stamps in Stamp & Coin Mart magazine

Stamp details

Animail

Issue date: 17 May, 2016

Design: Osborne Ross

Illustrations: Andrew Ross

Product design: Magpipe Studio with paper cut scenes by Owen Gildersleeve

Miniature sheet size: 192mm x 74mm

Printer: International Security Printers

Print process: Lithography

Perforations: Various

Phosphor: All over

Gum: Self-adhesive

Woodpecker – 1st class

Snake – 1st class

Chimpanzee – £1.05

Bat – £1.05

Orangutan – £1.33

Koala – £1.33