Britain's most spectacular commemoratives, No66: 2002 Circus E

The 2002 Europa theme of the circus must have given designers all over the continent great fun, and was certainly a spectacular series to collect.

Britain’s predominantly greenish set of five stamps concentrated on stereotypical elements of the big top, and our favourite is the Trick Tricyclists design, with its three identical and rather po-faced monocyclists.

One curiosity, immediately beneath the Queen’s head, is the value ‘E’ (for the European letter rate) represented as ‘€’. This must have been one of the confusions which eventually saw this particular rate dropped from the ranks of the NVIs.

Design: Ron Fuller.
Printing: gravure by Questa.

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