A remarkably masculine stamp, and the most warlike ever issued by Great Britain, depicts Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, at the place where he changed the history of his nation, Bannockburn in 1314.
The image, which seems to have been inspired by C Pilkington Jackson’s equestrian statue at the battle site, is of a king ready for war, resolute in expression, resplendent in helmet and chainmail and with axe in hand.
In the background, silhouetted infantry wielding pikes and cavalry bearing standards prepare to see off the English foe under a darkening sky.
The centenary of the international conference which met in 1884 to decide a universal system of longitude was marked by four classy stamps, each with the 0° meridian shown dramatically by a bold red line across the design.
On the best of the four, it is superimposed on a historical but very detailed sepia map of the south of England and north-west of France.
Even the most basic of inscriptions seems superfluous, because the illustration says it all.
Another successful approach to suggesting frenetic activity can be seen in a set of four stamps on the theme of racket sports.
None has more energy than the design showing squash, which would give even the uninitiated a good idea of what the sport is about.
Two silhouetted players are shown part-way through a rally, and stretching every sinew to win the point, with the route the ball has taken shown by a maze of sharply angled dotted lines.
A set commemorating traditional seaside postcard artwork could never be anything other than light-hearted, and the top value is a real fun stamp.
Filling most of the frame is a portly middle-aged gent with a beer belly and a large backside, in the style of bathing suit which suggests he should really know better.
The expression on his face makes it clear that he has been caught out obtaining chocolate when he shouldn’t, and he seems to be on a roll, with bars simply tumbling out of the machine.
Some of the most stunning stamps are the simplest, and here is a case in point.
It takes the classic image of a gas flame, very well known to millions of homes in the late 1970s, and places it on the calm surface of a stylised North Sea.
Beneath the surface lie the strata of sediment which contain the crude oil from which the gas will be refined.
One of a set of four marking the anniversaries of various sporting bodies, this stamp takes an original approach to the problem of suggesting power and motion, the sine qua non of sporting issues.
In glorious colour, redolent of a British summer, it depicts an anonymous female tennis player about to play a backhand shot on a cinder court.
With racket at shoulder height, and the impression of tensions in her legs and body, the energy of her movement is further suggested by a swirling background.
In the first of the Millennium series, the highest value took as its subject the development of computers, commemorating in particular the work of Alan Turing.
A cross-section of a human head has various pieces of computing hardware laid out as if inside a machine, reminding us that the brain itself is a very complex computer, which it had to be to invent the computer!
Design: Sir Eduardo Paolozzi.
On May 17 Royal Mail will issue a self-adhesive miniature sheet of six colourful free-form stamps unashamedly aimed at children, although they might also appeal to adults with a sense of fun who want to brighten up letters and greetings cards.
Entitled Animail, it will feature six endearing animal characters, with each stamp designed to wrap around the outside edges of an envelope or postcard, as if the creature is clinging on to the top or side.
Thin white lines across each design suggest the place in which it is meant to be folded.
Organised only half a dozen years after the end of World War II, the Festival of Britain was intended to mark the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851, but also a dawning optimism about the country’s future as it struggled to recover from the ravages of war.
Pavilions were erected along the South Bank of the Thames to put the whole country on show to the world, and two stamps were issued.
The higher value has the official logo of the Festival, comprising a compass rose with a stylised Britannia’s head, adorned with bunting in the form of suspended flags and a string of pennants.
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