Sunday 6 June 2021

Monochrome


2000: Millennium Projects - Sight and Sound

For this week's monochrome theme I look at my home nation and start with a couple of Millennium stamps. This one is for the Year of the Artist which ran from June 2000 to May 2001 and had the slogan '1000 artists in a 1000 places'  This was the final set of the 12 millennium stamp issues
2000: Millennium Projects 5th Series - Art and Craft

A photographic collage of the People of Salford which celebrated the opening of the Lowry Arts Centre in 2000 on what was Salford Docks. It displays the paintings and is named after LS Lowry who is best known for his portrayal of the industrial north and his 'matchstick people'. The collage is a play on that. There is usually a dog somewhere in these paintings, I always look out it.

2002:World Cup (Design - Howard Brown)

In 2002 we were looking forward to the Football World Cup in Korea and Japan and a 1st class stamp and miniature sheet were issued. The team play in white and our second strip is red, hence the queens head colour. We won the world cup in red many decades ago so it is considered a lucky colour, however that may be a case of hope over experience. The Lion and the Saint George Shield on a white background was

2001: Country Definitive - England

a reworking of the country definitive, of which the new England design had been issued in 2001. It was not the obvious choice for the World Cup

 which would have been the three lions on the shirts. It is usually a fruitless quest to find any of the country definitives at post offices and the person behind the counter is often bemused by the request so one  has to go through the rigmarole of explaining what they are, key point being they are not self-adhesive. Occasionally if lucky the right post office might be found, one to be cherished, they will know their stamps.  I don't know if the situation is the same in the other nations of the UK..

Sunday Stamps II theme this week is - Monochrome - See It On A Postcard 

 

8 comments:

Mail Adventures said...

The Millennium series doesn't cease to amaze me. I have only a handful of those stamps, so it's nice to see the rest online.

I don't know for the UK. In Spain, some post offices don't have ANY stamp. Which is weird, isn't it? They tell you to bring the letters and send from the counter, with an ugly white label. Nonsense!

Ana said...

What a striking eye-image! Now that I look at these, I'm not sure if and how many of this Millennium stamps I have received...

Same as in Spain, in Macedonia, it is a struggle to get stamps at the post offices... and even if they have some, often it is a face value that is of no use, not to mention that it is ALWAYS just one issue per face value available. And now since the name change, they only sell the new stamps which I am boycotting (for as long as it is possible), so yeah, I understand the struggle
An added bonus is that in general, you need to hand in all your mail at the counter, cos mailboxes around the city are far from reliable, and often never emptied... I've received messages from Postcrossers who have come here, dropped postcards in a mailbox, and those cards of course have never arrived. I hope that maybe with the change of the director, this might improve as well... time will tell

(sorry for the longish comment, but this topic is always so inspiring :D

Bryon D said...

Nice UK monochrome selection! In the US I’ve encountered a few grumpy or uncooperative postal clerks but they generally have a selection of stamps to choose from. Maybe not always the most recent issues but I have only seen once when a post office here was out of stamps and that clerk seemed quite frustrated about it.

Bryon D said...

Nice UK monochrome selection! In the US I’ve encountered a few grumpy or uncooperative postal clerks but they generally have a selection of stamps to choose from. Maybe not always the most recent issues but I have only seen once when a post office here was out of stamps and that clerk seemed quite frustrated about it.

Bryon D said...

Nice UK monochrome selection! In the US I’ve encountered a few grumpy or uncooperative postal clerks but they generally have a selection of stamps to choose from. Maybe not always the most recent issues but I have only seen once when a post office here was out of stamps and that clerk seemed quite frustrated about it.

viridian said...

In the USA in depends on the post office. Some counter clerks are helpful, some not. You have to ask for special issues.

violet s said...

I'm not sure I've encountered any problems with getting stamps at the post office in Canada. There is a problem with getting Canada Post to come up with some interesting current designs that reflect what is going at the moment (i.e. from sporting events to covid)

I really like the 3D effect of the lions.

Joy said...

I've touched a nerve here, it seems us Europeans will have to move to North America to easily access stamps. I hate it when they use the labels too but apparently that is what they are encouraged to do so it depends who I am sending to (ie stamp lover or a couldn't care less) whether I take that option. I wondered how the name change was going down Ana so now I know.
You are right about the lions Violet they are based on sculptures.