’Stamps of the Isle of Man’ was the given title of the Display presented to the Lanarkshire Philatelic Society recently – and it proved to be a very variable and colourful one!
Member, Arthur Miller, began with the information that the island is 32 miles long and 14 miles wide. It is a British Crown Dependency.
It is known that handstamps – with the title of ‘Isle Of Man’ were used from the 18th C – for posting mail. From 1840 to 1958 British Postage stamps were used – but with no name .- It was in 1958 that the island was granted the use of ‘Regional Issues’. These had the portrait of the Queen’s head and the stamp was bordered with a ‘Ring-chain’ decoration – still no name but it did, in a corner, show ‘The Three Legs of Man’. The red 2½d and lilac 3p stamps were issued – and remained in use until 1973.
The changing values and colours through those years were displayed. In 1973 the Island was granted Independent Postal Administration and was able to choose its own stamps. The first issue was that of Vikings landing on the Isle in 938 CE.
Through the years many beautiful and colourful stamps illustrating a wonderful variation of themes have been issued – Historical Anniversaries; Nature in all its forms; Christmas; Royal Events; Transport – including Horse drawn trams; Shipping; Ceramics; Manx Tail-less Cats; (also – Postman Pat and his black and white cat – made some appearances at different tourist spots of the Island!); and many differing Sport Events – and this included the famous ‘TT’ – stamps issued showing some of the Motor Cycles used through 100 years of the Racing; many views of the races; special set showing famous riders – Joey Dunlop, Steve Hislop, Ian Simpson and Ian Hutchinson.
In the second round Arthur continued with another wonderful variation of postal materials issued by the Isle – Illustrated Stamp Booklet covers; Aerogrammes; Registered Mail labels; Revenue Stamps; Stamps issued for use in the Prisoner of War Camps on the Island; Postcards; More views of the TT Races; and a Special Cover issued in 2014 illustrating the Christmas Day Truce of 1918. All in all, a fascinating display of the Postal history of the Isle of Man.
Ed Archer gave thanks to Arthur Miller for presenting a truly interesting and variable display of the many postal aspects of the Isle of Man
A spokesperson for the club told Lanarkshire Telegraph, “Our next meeting in the Caledonian Bowling Club, Motherwell Road, Hamilton, is on Friday, 19th December 2025, at 1:30pm – when members will present their personal chosen short displays. Anyone with an interest in stamps, postal history, postcards etc is very welcome to attend.”
More details of the Society’s programme – can be obtained from our web site – www.lanarkshire.co.uk)
