Royal Mail put their stamp on Burns

Jan 23 2009

ROYAL Mail is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns with a special stamp issue.

The special miniature sheet contains six stamps, two of which are entirely new.

One of the new stamps shows the well known portrait of Burns by Alexander Naysmith and the other a quotation from one of his best known poems; A Man’s a Man for a’ that”.

The other four stamps are standard definitive Scottish stamps showing the Saltire, Rampant Lion, thistle and tartan.

The sheet goes on sale on Thursday, January 22, just in time for Burns’ Night, but not all post offices will have them.

As well as the sheet itself, Royal Mail has some other souvenir products to go alongside the new stamps.

There are three new postcards, one for each of the two new stamps and one with an illustration of the miniature sheet.

There will also be a special First Day Cover with commemorative postmarks available from Edinburgh, with an illustration of a haggis and one from Alloway showing red roses

Additionally the Burns federation will use a special Kilmarnock postmark.

A souvenir presentation pack is also available and you can also buy a special souvenir coin cover which includes not just the miniature sheet of stamps but one of the new Auld Lang Syne £2 coins commemorating the anniversary. This cover will have its own Alloway postmark.

And if you want something special for framing, you can buy a limited edition press sheet of the new stamps.

These contain 21 miniature sheets but this is limited to 2009 copies only.