Stamps Aren’t Cool Episode 3: When Lizzie met Eddie

My wife Celeste and I launched our podcast, Stamps Aren’t Cool, back in March, promising fortnightly episodes, even though we had a lovely big holiday in France booked for April.

What fools we were.

We planned ahead, recording a couple of episodes that we could edit and publish while we were on the road.

It worked, a bit. Editing Episode 3 was a useful way to while away the time on those long flights, and on the cool superfast trains that carried us around France.

But it turns out that there’s only one thing more interesting than sitting in edit for hours watching ourselves talk about stamps over and over, and that’s France. On top of that, Episode 3 ended up being a pretty big production, so we resolved to enjoy our holiday and deal with our angry fans upon our return home.

I’d like to thank our angry fans for not noticing that we were even gone. That sure helped me relax on the road. Now that I’ve headed back into the day job, I’m already starting to see that maybe a fortnightly podcast might have been a touch optimistic, and it seems that our listeners and viewers aren’t particularly fussed. Let’s call it monthly from now on, shall we?

The good news is that Stamps Aren’t Cool is now back, by complete lack of popular demand! Episode 3 is below, awaiting your eyeballs. This episode looks at the controversy surrounding some of the last stamp issues of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. We take a peek at the first stamps of King Charles III. And you have a front-row seat as a recurring household argument rears its head!

Watch the video now. Or, if you’ve already heard it and you’ve come to see the pictures, scroll down.

— HERE BE SPOILERS! —

Here are the visuals for those who listened to the podcast. If you intend to watch the YouTube clip, look away now.
 
We start off talking about Machin heads. If these were the stamps you’re picturing, then you win, I guess.

As Celeste leafs through the album, we take a journey mostly comprising late 20th-century British commemoratives, or ‘special stamps’, as they call them. It starts with castles, which as everyone knows is pronounced ‘CASSels’, not ‘CAH-sels’. Trigger warning: Prince Andrew.

(CORRECTION! Our listener Larry has set me straight. This set was not the first commemorative issue of the QEII era. These were the first high-value definitive stamps. The first commemoratives were the 1953 Coronation set. Sorry folks!)

You spotted the Queen’s silhouette head on most of those stamps, right?

Then we come to the Iron Maiden set, which is any of wonderful, appalling, or confusing, depending on your age. I hope you take your time to appreciate all EIGHT concert stamps which were of course 100% postally necessary and not at all an attempt to milk collectors.

Next up: more pop culture with the X-Men set.

For a closer look at a few, I built this vid for the YouTube clip. Engaging content, or the output of a supernerd who’s really having fun playing with presentation software? You be the judge!

We then look at the first definitive stamps of Charles III’s reign. I mention that they are based on the coins, so I’ll throw them in here too. And as you can see, Charlie faces left, just like his forebears.

And here’s why: the King looks better looking into the letter; turn him the other way and he loses interest.

[Whispers] Nancy Reagan: Forever.

Here’s the stuff in the album that Celeste gets excited about at the end.

There’s a PS in the YouTube video that you’re allowed to see too: it’s the debut of the silhouette of Charles III, which appeared on the Flowers issue of March 23. They’re an attractive set. I only showed one in the video, but just for scrolling all the way down here, you can see all of them.

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© Philatelic product images remain the copyright of issuing postal administrations and successor authorities.