One such jubilant over-reaction was on October 6 2005 when Royal Mail issued a miniature sheet depicting a very rare post-war occurrence - a British cricket team winning anything other than a wooden spoon.

 

A miniature sheet of 4 stamps was rush-released on October 6 showing the members of the winning team - the alleged 'star' of which bombed quite miserably in the "Super Series" held soon after that played Australia. 

 

The miniature sheet is illustrated nearby.

 

And rush-released in such a hurry someone in Royal Mail forgot the age old restriction that NO identifiable living person be depicted on British postage stamps, except the monarch and Royal Family members.

 

To be accurate, living people have been depicted on British stamps before in recent years as part of crowd scenes. The May 1995 Peace and Freedom 19p value, and 1998 Notting Hill Carnival issues are 2 good examples. But in those cases they were not readily identifiable public figures depicted.

 

A red faced Royal Mail needed to confess to the embarassing cricket stamp error soon after the stamps were issued.

 

One stamp has the full faces of Kevin Pietersen, Michael Vaughan and Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff clearly visible on the entire design.

A Royal Mail spokesperson was quoted as saying: "this is the first time that famous living people other than the Royal Family have been clearly identifiable on a set of special stamps".

 

Max Stern is the Australian agent for Royal Mail and kindly sent me the sheet to illustrate.  The issue was keenly sought by both collectors of Australian and British stamps. "We have sold large numbers of these sheets" Max told me today.

 

The "Ashes" series against Britain in Australia this coming summer will be keenly fought.  I understand Australia Post has almost completed the artwork for our own miniature sheet to commemorate the inevitable winning of them back. 

 

I imagine they are nearly printed and stockpiled already.  Perhaps Max Stern will produce a special folder containing both country Miniature Sheets?!

I received a copy recently of the new 30th Edition of the Australian Stamp Catalogue in - commonly referred to as the "ASC".

 

The new edition covers Australian stamps from 1913 right to the end of 2005.  At 312 pages in colour, for $A36.50 RRP it is a very useful addition to the library of all dealers and collectors.

 

Stamps for the AAT, Cocos and Christmas Islands are also included in separate sections.  And postal stationary and PO packs of all three are also listed and pieced - a very valuable resource.

This new edition has a listing of all the counter printed stamps (CPS) and all the Special Event Sheetlets of 10 - called SES. I counted near 200 different sheets issued since 1999! I understand these items are listed nowhere else.

It is the ONLY catalogue available that lists and prices postal stationary, and many price increases are evident. Some of the Registered Envelopes run to $1000s each, so all dealers should own this catalogue.

Many of these items look VERY similar, and this catalogue is the only way to be sure of what you have. A used R7 is $50 and a used R8 is $1,000 and are very similar animals.

Even several normal issue postcards and letter cards are in the 4 figure price band, and scores are in the $100s league. Did you realise that?

One useful page are the "wartime issues." I find lots of these envelopes, lettercards, aerograms and cancels in collections and estates and the owners usually have no idea of the value of most of these things. Many are in the $100s region - even from the WW2 era.

The listing of Maximum Cards is pages long and is also a very valuable resource. And the long listings of FDC and PO packs for Australia all in the one place is the best in the business.

The only thing I really dislike about this catalogue is that the photos do not always face the applicable text. I get the feeling this year is an improvement over previous years, so maybe steps are being taken on that front?

The ASC is a very useful and very comprehensive catalogue for its size and price. No dealer or collector should be without one.

The price guides given seen quite accurate from my study of them. For readers overseas that is important as SG and Scott are often well out of touch.