Stamp Of Approval 50 Years On

Royal Mail is celebrating the introduction of new country stamps for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - 50 years ago.

This historic anniversary is being marked with a special stamp launch on a sheet featuring nine original Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland stamps, known as Country Definitives, and now re-issued as valid 1st Class stamps.

Featuring on the Northern Ireland definitive stamps is the flax plant, symbolising the Province's strong association with the linen industry and a field gate set between two stone pillars, for a long time a characteristic feature of the Ulster countryside.

Barbara Roulston, Head of External Relations, Royal Mail, said: "It took more than a decade of debate before the first Country definitive stamps were issued in September 1958.

"We're extremely pleased that once again people will get the chance to collect and admire these nine beautiful and historically important stamps," she said.

Ballymena postman, John McCrory, is marking the event (pictured with the new stamp over an Ulster field gate in the townland of Eglish, just outside Ballymena).

The stamps feature the portrait of the Queen, by society photographer Dorothy Wilding, which was used for the first Queen Elizabeth definitives issued in 1952, supplemented with relevant iconography for each individual country.

(BMcC/KMcA)