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Saturday, September 8, 2018

United for Wildlife Commemorative Sheet

Royal Mail has announced the issue of a "Commemorative" stamp sheet to be released on the 10th October 2018 priced £15.95 from Royal Mail. 



The Royal Mail press release informs us that .....


"United for Wildlife is one of many projects created by The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. Led by The Duke of Cambridge and with the help of ambassadors from around the world and key partner organisations, it unites the world ¡s leading wildlife charities under a common purpose: to create a global movement for change. The organisation is committed to:Better On-Site Protection for wildlife.
  • Reduce demand for illegal wildlife products.
  • Improve law enforcement.
  • Work with the private sector to reduce trafficking.
  • In 2014 United for Wildlife created a Transport Taskforce, of leaders from the global transportation industry, to identify opportunities to break the illegal wildlife trade chain between suppliers and consumers. Royal Mail are members of this Taskforce and work with enforcement agencies to support the action.
  • Engage young people with conservation."

All highly commendable and worthy perhaps of a Royal Mail stamp issue but I don't understand why they have chosen a commemorative stamp sheet as their chosen vehicle. I do not recognise the event or occasion it commemorates so as a subject for a series of Commemorative Sheets that Royal Mail originally stated would be to commemorate events or occasions not covered by the Royal Mail stamp programme is in my opinion absurd and has more to do with commercially opportunism than a social consciousness!!


Royal Mail have effectively eliminated all competition by abandoning their Business Customised Stamp sheet service which would have happily covered this topic and raise money for charities in the process (RIP Tony Buckingham).


Don't get me wrong, it's a nice sheet and I am sure 100's if not 1000's of Royal Mail customers will buy. No doubt 100's more thematic collectors will be compelled to add this to their wildlife collections but is this really an appropriate subject for Royal Mail to cover based ont he Commemorative descriptor for this product line? I would be interested in your comments so have posted this article online on my blog page and you can dip in with your comments and thoughts. If you think I am just having a rant let me know. If you agree with me then let me know your thoughts.