http://www.stampandcoin.co.uk JANUARY 2016^21T
he run-up to
the Millennium
was a very
strange time
indeed.
As 1999 approached, people
saw this simple flip of the calendar as a world-
changing event, which needed to be celebrated,
commemorated and generally made much of
with projects, monuments, bridges domes and
fireworks. That’s if the Y2K bug didn’t disable
the world’s computers first.
Royal Mail saw the Millennium as a crucial
opportunity to promote stamp collecting to a
younger audience and conducted a great deal
of research into current and potential collectors.
They decided to suspend their normal
programme of stamp releases in favour of a
single series of 100 stamps, comprising 25
sets of four. They would be released every
month from January 1999 until January- They would promote British excellence
in design and visual communication. They’d
be the definitive Millennium souvenir. And
the whole programme would be supported
by special albums, coffee-table books and a
massive advertising campaign.
And then, they threw the rule book out of
the window.
Ever since the special stamp programme was
initiated in 1965, each set has had a common
visual theme that holds it together. All the
stamps have the same illustrator or photographic
treatment, the same border or typographic style,
so that it works as a unit as well as four or five
individual designs. In the Millennium series,
every stamp was going to be different. The only
common factors would be the square format,
the position of the Queen’s head and a caption
running up the right hand side. Each stamp
would also be numbered, like football cards; this
was a nod to the young audience.
The first year’s stamps looked back over
1,000 years of British history, progress and
achievement. Twelve ‘tales’ were chosen as
monthly themes. Each stamp illustrated a
major development in that area. And 48
artists, sculptors, cartoonists and designers
were commissioned to illustrate that event
in their own way. It was a roll call of British
artistic talent that included Bridget Riley, David
Hockney, Allen Jones and Peter Blake. David
Gentleman created the first stamp in the series.
Don McCullin commemorated two world wars.
Stamp people had misgivings from the start.
A dozen sets a year represented a substantial
increase in the number of new issues. The sets
would not appeal to thematic collectors. Any
individual or organisation with an anniversary
coming up in those two years would have to
wait another fifty to get a set of stamps. And
what killed it for the trade was that the entire
series would be available at face value from
Royal Mail right up until February 2001.
But whatever the reaction, from the trade,
the press and the public, the project had started
and there was no stopping it now.
The first series was historical in content.
The second was geographical and showcased
projects around the country which had been
funded by the Millennium Foundation.
These would be illustrated by photography, as
opposed to the artwork of the previous year.
The problem with photography was that
some projects were incomplete, or simply too
big to photograph. So photographs were used
to illustrate the vision behind the project rather
than record the reality on the ground.Once again, there were twelve themes
illustrated by four projects, using specially
commissioned photographs or picture libraries.
And once again, the same fatal flaw
became apparent. For almost all of the
Millennium series, you had to read the
caption to find out what the stamp was all
about. It did not communicate its message
immediately. And most people didn’t bother
to read the caption. They glanced at the
stamps and got on with their lives.
Royal Mail learned one useful lesson from the
Millennial experiment; you could put out twelve
sets of stamps a year and people would still buy
them. So once they had recovered the rule book
on design, the sets continued unabated.
But what about the stamps themselves?
A month or so ago, I bought a run of
Millennium issues in a mixed auction lot and
for the first time, I looked at them, like pictures
in a miniature exhibition.
Some designs don’t work for me. Some of
the topics are insufferably worthy and some
of the captions are illegible or meaningless.
But some of them are quite wonderful – the
most gorgeous, compelling images that ever
featured on a stamp.
I’ve shown some favourites here. But if you
don’t have this series, you can probably pick
them up for less than face value, keep the ones
you love and use the rest on letters.
So. Millennium madness, or Britain’s
greatest ever stamps? I’d say they were a bit of
both, and all the more interesting for it.Millennium madness?
David Bailey takes a look at Royal Mail’s ambitious Millennium series and asks whether
the array of stamps and the chosen topics were an appropriate celebration of a major
event or simply a case of overkillOpinion
Share your views on the Stamp & Coin Mart facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/stampandcoinmartmagazineAbove, from left: Mill Towns by David Hockney. I’d say
this was up there with his best • Victorian Railways in a
wood engraving by John Lawrence • An African hut and
a thatched cottage, both on the Meridian Linep21 opinion USE.indd 21 23/11/2015 14:05