Celebrating Wales: Miniature Sheet Stamps

Our grand tour around the UK comes to an end with Celebrating Wales, the fourth and final Miniature Sheet in our series, The Four Countries of the UK.

Four Stamps stand proud on the Celebrating Wales Miniature Sheet and three have been specially created for the issue, including two long-format Stamps featuring the country’s patron saint and a national landmark.

A new 1st Class Stamp featuring the Welsh flag is positioned top left on the sheet, next to artist Claire Melinsky’s stunning illustration of St David’s on an 81p long-format Stamp.

Beneath them in the bottom left sits the second long-format Stamp, displaying a floodlit National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff Bay, and the sheet is completed by the present Welsh 1st Class Definitive of the Welsh Dragon.

Celebrating Wales is issued a week before the Saints Day to enable customers to send St David’s cards in time for the day (St David’s Day falls on a Sunday in 2009).

The first of the series Celebrating Scotland was issued in 2006, Celebrating England followed in 2007 and continued in 2008 with Celebrating Northern Ireland.

In common with the previous sheets in the series, Celebrating Wales was designed by Colchester based designers Silk Pearce. There are four Stamps in the set, two 1st Class Stamps one featuring the present Welsh 1st Class Definitive of the Welsh Dragon forged in steel, and a new Stamp featuring the Welsh national flag illustrated by Peter Crowther Associates Ltd together with two new long-format 81p Stamps.

The first 81p Stamp features an image of Saint David by Claire Melinsky and the second a photograph of Cardiff waterfront featuring the National Assembly for Wales and the Wales Millennium Centre. The sheet’s border features photography of Harlech Castle, Snowdonia.

1st Class – Welsh Dragon

The present Welsh 1st Class Definitive Stamp originally designed by Tutssels Enterprise IG and the dragon was forged in Welsh steel by brothers Toby and Gideon Petersen

1st Class – Welsh National Flag

A new depiction of the red dragon on a white and green field by Peter Crowther Associates Ltd

81p – St David

The patron saint of Wales Illustrated by Claire Melinsky

81p – National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay

A photograph of the seat of Welsh government, a new landmark on the Cardiff waterfront.

Miniature Sheet

The Miniature Sheet was designed by Silk Pearce and comprises of new St David and National Assembly for Wales Stamps and two Welsh dragon Stamps set within a border showing Harlech Castle, Snowdonia. The dimensions of the Miniature Sheet are 123mm x 70mm.

Presentation Pack No 424: – Celebrating Wales

The fully illustrated and bi-lingual Presentation Pack comprises of the Miniature Sheet together with a look at the legend and history of St David by Professor Huw Pryce of Bangor University, Wales and photography of Wales The pack was designed by hgv, and printed by Walsall Security Printers.

Stamp Cards

A set of five Stamp Cards; four featuring blow ups of the Stamps and a fifth featuring an image of the Miniature Sheet, will be on sale a week before the issue date.

Feature	Type/Detail
Number of stamps	4
Size of Sheet	123mm (w) x 70mm (h)
Design	Silk Pearce except for Welsh Definitive originally designed by Tutssels Enterprise IG and the dragon was forged in Welsh steel by brothers Toby and Gideon Petersen
Illustrations	St David: Claire Melinsky Welsh National Flag: Peter Crowther Associates Ltd
Photography	National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay © The Photolibrary Wales/Alamy
Border photography	Harlech Castle, Snowdonia © David Noton Photography/Alamy
Stamp format	St David and National Assembly for Wales: Long Landscape Definitive Format: Portrait
Stamp size	St David and National Assembly for Wales: 60mm (w) x 24mm (h); Definitive Size: 20 mm (w) x 24mm (h)
Printer	De La Rue Security Print
Print process	Lithography
Perforations	St David and National Assembly for Wales: 14.5 x 14 Definitive size Stamps: 15 x 14
Phosphor	Bars
Gum	PVA

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