Saturday 21 September 2019

Collecting Tolkien Stamps

This is the next in the series of articles giving an overview of a specific Tolkien Collecting area. It is not a completest list of everything to do with the area (see the Visual Collecting Guides for that), but an introduction to the area to give people an idea of what the area is about.

Size of the Area
Stamps is a relatively small Tolkien area to collect, there are only 11 series within it, with approximately 21 actual stamp sets, however each of these sets does have quite a lot of different items available which makes this area a bit bigger than you would expect.

Overview, History and Scope
One of the first things to establish within any area is the scope of that area. This is not meant to specifically set boundaries to any individual collection, but purely to define the scope of what is covered within this article and, to a lesser extent, what I consider that area includes.

GB Centenary - these are the earlist Tolkien stamps, a Prestige stamp book produced by the British Royal Mail to celebrate Tolkien’s Centenary In 1992. Apart from the book, there are only first day covers of these.


GB Magical Worlds - this is a single stamp produced by the British Royal Mail as part of the Magical Worlds commemorative set. There are first day covers, presentation pack and postcards of these. Royal Mail Site.


GB 50th Anniversary - this is a British Royal Mail set commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Lord of the Rings. There are first day covers, presentation pack and postcards of these. Royal Mail Site.


NZ Lord of the Rings Movies - these are the largest series of stamps, three sets produced by New Zealand Post to commemorate each of the three Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies and a 20th Anniversary set. There are first day covers, presentations Packs, maxi cards, self adhesive, miniature sheets and various special collections. New Zealand Post Site.
            

NZ Hobbit Movies - these are another large series of stamps, three sets produced by New Zealand Post to commemorate each of the three Peter Jackson Hobbit movies. There are first day covers, presentations Packs, maxi cards, self adhesive, miniature sheets and various special collections. New Zealand Post Site.
         

NZ Home of Middle Earth - a set of stamps produced by New Zealand Post to commemorate the Peter Jackson movie locations. There are first day covers, presentations Packs, maxi cards, self adhesive and miniature sheets.


IOM Return of the King - a set of stamps produced by Isle of Man to commemorate the Peter Jackson Return of the King movie. There are first day covers, presentations Packs, maxi cards, self adhesive and miniature sheets.
    

Australia Return of the Kings - a set of stamps produced by Australia to commemorate the Peter Jackson Return of the King movie. This is only a presentation sheet, the actual stamp is only a generic definitive one.


Australia Literary Legends - this is a set of stamps produced by Australia as part of the Literary Legands commemorative series. These are local post only, not issued by a country wide authority.


Kyrgyzstan Great Personalities - this is a single stamp produced by Kyrgyzstan as part of the Great Personalities commemorative set. There are first day covers of these.


Other Foreign - these are one off sets produced by various obscure countries to commemorate the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. I am not sure if these were official postage stamps or just collectors items. I am aware of approximately 10 of these, stamps only.
                

However there is more to stamps than just mint and used versions.

Each set can have a Presentation Pack. This is a mint set of the stamps in a presentation packaging. Sometimes the pack also contains other items such as first day covers and maxi-cards.
    

A set can also come on a first day cover. This is a set of the stamps on a presentation envelope postmarked on the first date the stamps were released. However, there can be lots of different first day covers for a set and also different postmarks. There can also be first day covers for individual and blocks of the stamps.
    

Stamp sets can also have a corresponding set of postcards. These are postcards with the images of the stamps. Postcards can also come as first day covers.


Maxi-Cards are also postcards but they have extended pictures, not just the stamps, and they also have the corresponding stamp on the front as well.


Stamps can also come in Miniature sheets. These can either be a connected mint set of the stamps or it can be the stamps within a bigger picture. These sheets can be of different sizes and with different edging configurations.
    

A set of stamps can also come in Adhesive format. These are smaller versions of the actual stamps with an adhesive backing. These can also come as folding booklets.


Overlaps with other Areas
There is very little overlap with any other areas.

The only thing to mention is that there are some first day covers which also include coins.

Out of Scope
There is nothing considered out of scope.

Promotional
This is not an area with many promotional items to collect, there is only a few posters and flyers.

GB Royal Mail did run a promotion featuring the Return of the King movie, although this was just for the company and not for any specific stamps.


Away from the Normal
There is not really anything within this area which is considered away from the norm.

Specialisations
If, however, this area is still too big for you, you could also specialise in one of the specific series. The New Zealand Film series is large anough to collect on its own with some high end items.

Another idea is to collect first day covers, particularly for the GB series, there are quite a few to be found for the 50th Anniversary series.

High End
For the New Zealand film sets, Ultimate Collections were produced which were very expensive items.


Rare, Unusual and Interesting Items
The following are some of the rarer, unusual and interesting items to be found within the Stamp area.

Magical Worlds Hobbit Postcard with misspelling - the Postcard of the Hobbit Stamp in the set was originally released with the wrong ‘Tolkein’ spelling. It was subsequently re-printed correctly. These are quite easy to come by but are still interesting.


Buckingham and Benham Signed First Day Covers - the Buckingham Cover Company and Benham Covers producs specialist First Day Covers, including some which are Tolkien related, and some of which are signed, particularly by the stars of the movies. These are very limited and quite hard to find. Shown is one signed by Christopher Lee.


New Zealand Lord of the Rings and Hobbit Minuature Sheet Collection Book - an album of all the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit miniature sheets.


Isle of Man Limited Edition Boxed Set - limited to 1000, an album of the Return of the King movie stamps including sheetlets, miniature sheets, Postcards, first day covers etc.


Full Uncut Sheets - a full sheet of uncut stamps is quite rare. This is a sheet of GB 50th Anniversary.


What to watch out for
There are ‘fake’ stamps. These are stamps which were not actual legal tender, they were just produced to sell to collectors. These often are credited to quite obscure countries.

Quality is a consideration for anything collectable. For stamps, be sure that the perforations are not damaged. For used stamps it is better to have a light franking.

Storage and Display
Stamps are very easy to store, they are small and can easily be stored in binders and specialist stamp books.

Stamps can also be framed to make nice display items.

What makes this area Interesting?
Stamps have always been popular to collect, they are easy to store and display.

Tolkien stamps is a relatively small area, so you can aim to be a completist, however there are quite a few diverse items including high end which also makes it challenging.

Apart from the high end, items are fairly affordable and available.

Resources
As well as the reference given above, the following resources have a lot more details about Tolkien Stamps.

Tolkien Visual Collecting Guide - Stamps

Collect British Stamps (search for Tolkien and Lord of the Rings)
Stamps of the World (search for Tolkien, Lord of the Rings and Hobbit)
Daryl’s Collections

2 comments:

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  2. Some members of the American Topical Association are working together to form a Tolkien Philatelic Society and we are looking for members. Let me know if you are interested.

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