http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk FEBRUARY 2016^77The 1985 Safety at Sea issue
included a stamp featuring the
famous lighthouse at Beachy Head
along with a navigational chart and a
ship at sea. The building is known for
its distinctive red and white stripes
which, in 2011, became the focus
of a campaign when funding cuts
threatened their future repainting;
a successful public relations project
means the lighthouse’s stripes are
safe for the present. Beachy Head
lighthouse also featured on a 2006
stamp which was part of Royal Mail’s
‘A British Journey’ issue.
The biggest Royal Mail lighthouse
issue to date is 1998’s ‘Lighthouses’
five-stamp set which featured
paintings of and navigation points
for St John’s Point in County Down,
Smalls Lighthouse in Pembrokeshire,
Needles Rock Lighthouse at Isle of
Wight, Eddystone Lighthouse at
Plymouth and Bell Rock Lighthouse
in Arbroath, Scotland. The issue
neatly incorporated the 300th
anniversary of the first lighthouse in
Britain (Eddystone in Cornwall ) and
the final year of manned lighthouses.
Bell Rock was the creation
of lighthouse engineer Robert
Stevenson between 1807 and 1810.
Stevenson built sixteen lighthouses
in the UK and was a member of
the celebrated Stevenson lighthouse
dynasty, which produced three
generations of lighthouse engineers.
Author Robert Louis Stevenson
was Robert’s grandson and many
of his literary works, including
Treasure Island, included reference to
maritime adventures.
Some adventures at sea, however,
were of the more threatening kind.
A 1983 Bahamas stamp ‘wrecking
in the 1880s’ shows the extent to
which people could go in order toprofit from vulnerable sailors – the
stamp shows a stricken ship dashed
against some rocks, lured in by a
false beacon intended to replicate a
lighthouse. Sailors would be attracted
to the light, only to be wrecked on
dangerous rocks where unscrupulous
profiteers laid in wait to seize goods
from the ship.
The most recent lighthouse
to feature on a GB stamp was
Southwold Lighthouse, included
on a 97p stamp as part of Royal
Mail’s ‘Seaside Architecture’ issue
of 2014 which also featured a pier,
bandstand, lido and beach shelter.
The lighthouse is shown on a colour
photograph and in contrast to many
lighthouse stamps, the building is
shown amongst houses, rather than
in a maritime scene.Anniversary issues
Some of the finest lighthouse stamps
have been produced to commemorate
a landmark lighthouse anniversary,
such as a 1946 Finland stamp issued
to mark 400 years of lighthouse
technology, showing a lighthouse lit
by a beacon in a basket, with a ship
sailing by.
In 1968 Australia issued an
attractive stamp for the 150th
anniversary of Macquarie Lighthouse,
showing an artist’s drawing of a
cutaway of the lighthouse building,
complete with a spiral staircase
running up the middle of the tower.
The United States has issuedLIGHTHOUSES ON STAMPSdozens of lighthouse-themed stamps
over the decades, several of which
feature a building which many people
are unaware was once a lighthouse- the Statue of Liberty. This iconic
monument originally carried a
lit beacon in Lady Liberty’s hand
which helped ships leave and enter
New York harbour from 1886 to
1902, after which it was no longer
recognised as a navigational aid.
The Statue of Liberty has appeared
on many stamps, including a
memorable USA stamp of 2011
which unfortunately featured the
wrong statue, including instead a
Las Vegas replica. The first Statue of
Liberty stamp was a 1922 issue from
the USA, followed by many others
from the same country. In 1986,
France and the USA produced a
joint issue to mark the centenary of
the statue.
The 1970 Statehood for Maine
stamp marked 150 years of the State’s
existence with an Edward Hopper
painting of the Two Lights lighthouse
at Cape Elizabeth, the location of the
first steam-powered warning whistle
used in the USA (in 1869).
America’s first lighthouse was the
Boston Light, which celebrates its
300th anniversary in 2016. Now
designated a National Historic
Landmark, the tower, on Little
Brewster Island, was included in a
2013 USPS issue, part of the long-
running ‘Lighthouses’ series. The
Forever stamp featured a lighthouse
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