The
United Kingdom will host twenty of the world's best Rugby Union
Teams this autumn for the 8th Rugby World Cup Tournament. On
Friday 18th September, England will kick off the tournament when
they face Fiji in the first game, with the final taking place on
31 October. Rugby is a huge game in the UK with England alone accounting for almost 2000 separate clubs and over 1 million regular participants. Fierce rivalry between the British home nations ensures that all international games are well attended and keenly followed. In the tournament, matches will take place at Twickenham, the Olympic and Wembley Stadia in London, Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, Villa Park in Birmingham, Elland Road in Leeds, St James' Park in Newcastle, Kingsholm Stadium Gloucester, Sandy Park Exeter, Stadium mk in Milton Keynes, Brighton Community Stadium, Manchester City Stadium, and Leicester City Stadium. It is quite possible that there will be special postmarks for each match, or at least each location. |
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Stamp
Set - in horizontal se-tenant pairs (publicity
images shown above) 2nd class - Tackle, Scrum; 1st Class – Try, Conversion. £1.00 - Pass, Drop Goal. £1.52 - Ruck, Line-out The stamps are designed by
hat-trick and illustrated by Geoff Appleton, the stamps are
essentially monochrome, so displaying no team colours or any
indication of any particular team or stadium.
According to Royal Mail: Appleton worked on canvasses of around A4 size, supplying the designers with three or four painted layers per image, which were then combined in the studio using Photoshop. The foregrounds were more detailed and contrasting; the backgrounds lighter and roughly textured, with rudimentary elements like thumbprints suggesting faces in the crowd. The unusual angles and compositions put the viewer right in the thick of the action – inside the scrum, watching a ball as it flies over the post, observing a pass being made to a player behind. |
The self-adhesive Retail Stamp Book contains both 1st class stamps and 4 x 1st class Machin definitives, with the Machin having the source code 'GC' instead of [REI] GN. This is a scan of the actual
book. The booklet stamps are much more 'black and white'
and less 'slate-blue'.
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The stamps are designed by hat-trick and illustrated by Geoff Appleton. Printed by International Security Printers (Cartor) in lithography, and perforated 14½ x 14, each stamp is 41 x 30 mm, and printed they are printed in 4 sheets of 25/50. The retail booklet is also printed by International Security Printers (Walsall) but in gravure.
Design credits: The illustrations reference the following photographic sources – tackle © AP/PA Images; scrum and line-out © Image Source/CORBIS; try and drop goal © Camillo Natale-Miles/Saracens RFC; conversion © Getty Images; pass © Douglas Fisher; ruck © International Rugby Board; TM © RWC Ltd 1986
Set of 8 stamps Presentation Pack First Day Cover Set of 8 Stamp Cards Retail Book
Special Postmarks available on the day of this issue will be shown
here.
These postmarks cannot be obtained after the date of issue. These images are not be to scale.
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Ref FD1523TH Official Tallents House Bureau postmark |
Ref FD1523PL Rugby official first day of issue postmark: CR0UCH, B1ND, 5ET |
Ref FD1523NP Rugby non-pictorial official first day of issue postmark |
Ref M13572 The Birthplace of Rugby Rugby, Warwickshire |
Ref M13573 Rugby World Cup Rugby |
Ref L13566 Twickenham 2015 |
Ref L13567 Rugby World Cup Bagshot |
Ref L13568 Rugby World Cup Twickenham |
Ref L13565 Rugby World Cup Twickenham |
Ref L13584 Autumn Stampex Rugby World Cup 2015 First Day of Issue London N1 |
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This page updated 11 September 2015
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Norvic Philatelics, PO Box 119, Dereham, NR20 3YN, GB. UK Phone: 08450 090939 -- Skype:ian.billings-norvic |