World Stamps

Details on Great Britain’s 2025 stamp program

Jan 13, 2025, 8 AM
On May 22 Great Britain’s Royal Mail will celebrate 75 years since the start of C.S. Lewis’ fantasy novel series for children, The Chronicles of Narnia. Previous British stamps honoring the novel series were issued in 1998 (left) and 2011 (right).

By David Hartwig

Great Britain’s Royal Mail announced details on the first eight issues of its 2025 commemorative stamp program.

A Jan. 14 issue celebrates the British sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, which ran the first of three series starting in November 1994. In the show, the female vicar Geraldine Granger is assigned to the fictional Oxfordshire village of Dibley after the Church of England permits the ordination of women.

Geraldine Granger is played by Dawn French, who appeared on a stamp (Scott 3389) from a 2015 Comedians issue with fellow comedian Jennifer Saunders, who has also appeared on the show.

On Jan. 30, a stamp issue will commemorate the United Kingdom’s Royal Armouries, the national museums housing collections of arms and armor.

Royal Mail will celebrate the rock band AC/DC Feb. 18. The group was formed in Australia in 1973, and 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of its first two studio albums High Voltage and T.N.T.

A March 11 issue will showcase Garden Wildlife, and an April 15 issue will highlight Myths and Legends. The latter follows a 2024 coin range issued by Great Britain’s Royal Mint with the same title.

Royal Mail gives the title of Valour and Victory: Stories of the Second World War for a May 1 stamp issue.

On May 22, Royal Mail will celebrate C.S. Lewis’ fantasy novel series for children, The Chronicles of Narnia. The first novel in the series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was published in 1950, 75 years ago.

A 1998 Royal Mail stamp (Scott 1821) commemorates The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and characters from the novel series are illustrated on two stamps (2881 and 2882) in a 2011 Fictional Wizards and Magicians set.

Royal Mail honors the Royal Observatory Greenwich with a June 12 issue. Situated on a hill overlooking the River Thames in southeast London, the observatory was commissioned by King Charles II 350 years ago in 1675.

Royal Mail celebrated the 300th anniversary of the observatory on a 1975 stamp (Scott 742), and the observatory appears on a stamp (1060) from a 1984 set marking the centenary of the Greenwich Meridian.

Royal Mail says the full 2025 special stamp calendar is coming soon. This program is tentative and subject to change.

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