Royal Mail starts a five-part annual series commemorating the 100th anniversary of the First World War on July 28, with a set of six stamps linked to the first year of the conflict, 1914.
Further appropriate issues will follow in 2015-18 inclusive.
If the set looks incoherent at first glance, Royal Mail has made it clear there is a carefully planned rationale behind it.
On July 17, six days before the opening of the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Royal Mail will issue six stamps to celebrate the largest sporting and cultural festival ever held in Scotland.
This is the third time the Games have taken place in Scotland, after Edinburgh hosted the event in 1970 and 1986.
Royal Mail’s latest stamp issue, Sustainable Fish, issued on June 5 (which is World Environment Day), aims to contrast endangered species in Britain’s marine fisheries with sustainable alternatives.
So the 10 stamps feature five fish whose future is threatened due to over-fishing, and five whose stocks are still high and which therefore offer a viable alternative for consumers.
Each group of five is available as a se-tenant strip.
The Great British Film issue, to be released on May 13, celebrates a selection of the most significant and successful British movies produced since World War II.
Royal Mail consulted the British Film Institute, cinema experts and polls of popular films to arrive at its choice of six to feature on the sheet stamps.
An accompanying miniature sheet focuses on the work of the GPO Film Unit, which produced ground-breaking documentaries for the Post Office in the 1930s, including the much-loved Night Mail.
The Buckingham Palace set, to be issued on April 15, celebrates the history of the Queen’s official residence, which is one of the few working royal palaces left in the world.
Its history can be traced back to the early 17th century, when a mulberry garden was established on the site in London to breed silkworms.
A house built there for Lord Goring in 1633 was replaced on a larger scale by the Earl of Arlington, who was Secretary of State to King Charles II, and in 1698 Arlington House was acquired by John Sheffield, who was created Duke of Buckingham in 1703.
The last in the Classic Locomotives series of miniature sheets, featuring Welsh railways, will be released on February 20.
Its four stamps illustrate two engines pulling passenger trains and two in industrial use; the earliest railways in Wales were built for industrial purposes, serving collieries and smelting works.
The sheet border has a background image of the British Railways class 5101 No4126 locomotive hauling a passenger train across the Crumlin Viaduct in Monmouthshire, which was the third highest railway viaduct in the world but was dismantled in 1967.
Philatelists know only too well the amount of effort that goes into building a great stamp collection.
It takes time and patience, as well as money.
They also know the importance of preserving and protecting their collections, in archive-quality sleeves and albums and in low-humidity rooms where they are not exposed to direct sunlight.
Royal Mail’s Working Horses special issue, to be released on February 4, salutes the contribution horses make to working life in the UK, from ceremonial functions to police work.
Besides the estimated 900,000 privately-owned horses in the UK, another 88,000 are owned and worked by professionals.
Royal Mail thinks of this set of six as a sequel to the Working Dogs issue of 2008, which it says was very popular.
For customers who would prefer secular stamps to religious stamps, Royal Mail has issued extra 1st class and 2nd class designs this Christmas, based on paintings by primary school children.
The winners of a competition launched in the summer were Molly Robson, aged 7, and Rosie Hargreaves, aged 10.
A staggering 240,000 entries were whittled down to 120 regional finalists and then a shortlist of 24 national finalists by a judging panel which included the Prince of Wales, Lauren Child, the author of the Charlie & Lola books, and Tasveer Shemza, who was six when she designed a stamp for Royal Mail’s first ever Christmas issue in 1966.
Royal Mail’s new Dinosaurs set, issued on October 10, features prehistoric reptile species whose fossilised remains have been discovered in Britain.
Specialist illustrator John Sibbick was commissioned to paint images of the ‘terrible lizards’ as they might have looked, with Dr Angela Milner of the Natural History Museum advising on their appearance.
The theme, which has not been covered on British stamps since 1991, ties in with the release of the 3D film version of the popular BBC television series Walking With Dinosaurs, which will be out in cinemas in December.
