Isle of Man – 50th Anniv. Secretariat – Sheet of 27 – Mint

Description

Isle of Man – 50th Anniv. Secretariat – Sheet of 27 – Mint

Shore to Shore: Isle of Man

Isle of Man Post Office recently united with 26 other Commonwealth postal administrations for the first time in postal history to create a Royal stamp sheet for a genuine postage purpose. This unique sheet marks the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Commonwealth Secretariat and 2015 as the year in which Her Majesty the Queen, Head of the Commonwealth became Britain’s longest reigning monarch. It also marks the 175th anniversary of the Penny Black.

The first of its kind product was the brainchild of Maxine Cannon, General Manager of Isle of Man Stamps & Coins and was officially issued on 27th November when the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting opened in Malta in which HM The Queen, HRH Prince Philip, HRH Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall attended.

The stamps sheet was months in the planning and through the Commonwealth Countries Postal Administration (CCPA) Office in London, Isle of Man Stamps & Coins invited all official postal administrations to join them in commemorating the milestone anniversary. The entire project was coordinated by Isle of Man Post Office including design and packaging.

The Isle of Man’s status within the Commonwealth is as a Crown dependency and it takes part in several Commonwealth institutions including the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and the Commonwealth Games.

The sheet contains stunning images of the Queen along with corresponding country flags from the following Commonwealth postal administrations: Antigua and Barbuda, Ascension Island, Bahamas, Barbados, British Antarctic Territory, Cook Islands, Falkland Islands, Grenada, Isle of Man, Kenya, New Zealand, Nevis, Papua New Guinea, St Kitts, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sierra Leone, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, Tanzania, Tokelau, Tonga, Tristan da Cunha, Turks and Caicos, Tuvalu, Uganda, Zambia.

IOM-15-50ACS-SSof27-MINT