Product Description
15 September 2010 - 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain Spitfire Smilers Sheet.Royal Mail entered the world of Personalised Stamps in 2000 at this international stamp exhibition, with the first of what was to be a long series of Smilers Stamps.
To mark this anniversary Royal Mail produced a smilers sheet with 20 x 1st class Spitfire stamps from the Design Classics series of 2009.
The original stamps were printed in litho by Cartor, perf 14½; the sheet stamps are perforated 14 x 14½. So these are sought by collectors who want every version.
The top margin of the sheet shows the Principal RAF Planes flown in combat during the Battle of Britain:
Bristol Blenheim, Boulton Paul Defiant, Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, Gloster Gladiator.
The bottom margin shows the number of Allied Pilots by Country alongside their 1940 national flags:
Great Britain 2341, Poland 145, New Zealand 127, Canada 112, Czechoslovakia 88, Australia 32, Belgium 28, South Africa 25, France 13, Ireland 10, USA 7, Jamaica 1, Southern Rhodesia 1, British Mandate of Palestine 1.
