Football Philately and stamps featuring the sport's greatest players

Get to know Gibbons Stamp Monthly through this month's sample article. First published in the December 2024 issue the article documents classic sporting stamps and the history of football stamps over the past six decades.

FOOTBALL PHILATELY

By Colin Young

Football-themed British stamps have proved popular with collectors and fans ever since the first examples were issued to mark the 1966 World Cup. Colin Young highlights some of the key players that have dominated the theme over the past six decades.

Collecting football-related memorabilia is as old as the game itself, whether it be cigarette cards, match programmes or the latest offering from Panini.

But a new trend emerged on 1 June 1966, when three special stamps celebrating England hosting the World Cup became the first in British postal history with a football theme (Fig 1).

After England’s 4-2 victory over West Germany in the Wembley final on 30 July, the then General Post Office hastily decided to re-print the 4d. value with the words ‘ENGLAND WINNERS’ (Fig 2).

Although often described as an ‘overprint’, this is technically inaccurate, according to the Postal Museum, which records that ‘new plates were prepared with the stamps specially printed in photogravure’. Produced in sheets of 120 by Harrison & Sons Ltd at its High Wycombe plant, the ‘victory issue’ featured the multiple crown watermark appearing sideways.

Phenomenal demand

Demand from the public was phenomenal, with large queues at post offices up and down the country and the entire production run of almost 12.5 million stamps – or 12,452,640 to be precise – was quickly sold out.

As an aside, four months before the 1966 tournament, Stanley Gibbons had unwittingly found itself embroiled in the notorious ‘stolen World Cup’ incident. The silver gilt Jules Rimet trophy – valued at £30,000 – had been the centrepiece of the Stampex exhibition at Westminster Central Hall when it went missing from a Stanley Gibbons display stand during a church service in another part of the building.

Fortunately, the story had a happy ending when the coveted sporting prize was later found by a dog called Pickles during walkies with his owner.

But I digress. Fast forward to the 1978 World Cup in Argentina and another home nation tried to get in on the act. So confident were Ally MacLeod’s Scotland of victory that two designs for ‘Winners’ stamps were produced (Fig 3).

Alas the Scots’ failure to progress beyond the group stage meant that this particular pair was never issued. As a Scottish friend observed: ‘The team got licked, but the stamps didnae’. (This being in the days before self-adhesive postage, of course). For nostalgic Tartan Army members wishing to experience what might have been, the two stamp designs by Barry Wilkinson can be viewed at the Postal Museum.

The beautiful game

Although I’m not a stamp collector myself, as a fan of ‘the beautiful game’ I do own some football-related philatelic items celebrating the game and some of its leading players.

Among these is the ‘Football Legends’ set produced to mark Euro 96, held in England 30 years after the country’s memorable – and indeed only – World Cup victory (Fig 4). To choose this elite group, Royal Mail decided to involve the public by conducting its first-ever national poll with the rules stipulating that no living players could be considered. From a shortlist of ten compiled by football writers and experts, thousands of fans voted for their five favourite players of ‘true, timeless brilliance’.

Stamp designer Howard Brown – a staunch Newcastle United supporter – trawled through the archives of old black-and-white press photographs to come up with action shots of the final ‘Famous Five’: Dixie Dean (Everton), Bobby Moore (West Ham), Duncan Edwards (Manchester United), Billy Wright (Wolves) (Fig 5) and Danny Blanchflower (Spurs).

I never cease to marvel at the high degree of design and artistic skill involved in creating these ‘mini-masterpieces’ measuring just a few centimetres across.

Describing his design approach for ‘Football Legends’, Brown said it was a combination of ‘high and low technology’: firstly cutting out photocopies of photographs, then scanning them into the computer before making final adjustments on screen.

His designs were transformed into the finished images by celebrated illustrator Anton Morris, based in that football-mad city of Liverpool. Howard Brown’s customary attention to detail can be seen in the typography, the white text of the players’ names along the bottom edge contrasting with the chunky black numerals of the stamp values, mirroring the style of the footballers’ shirt numbers (Fig 6).

Bobby Moore was again featured on a stamp in 1999, forming an intriguing ‘back four’ with Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, a Dalek and comedian Charlie Chaplin in a set entitled ‘Entertainers’ Tale’, part of Royal Mail’s ‘Millennium Series’ (Fig 7).

Hat-trick

The late England captain completed an impressive hat-trick when he appeared for the third time in 2013’s ‘Football Heroes’ issue, celebrating 11 of Britain’s greatest players (Fig 8). This set was produced to mark the Football Association’s 150th anniversary and 140 years of the Scottish FA.

The head shots for the stamps were taken from a giant 8ft×5ft artwork by award-winning portrait painter Andy Kinsman, depicting footballers from different eras wearing the colours of their respective home nations. Kinsman spent six months creating the full-length image in the style of a traditional team photo - using as his backdrop the stands at Notts County’s Meadow Lane, in a nod to the country’s oldest professional football club.

It represents the ultimate British ‘dream team’, in which Moore and his fellow 1966 World Cup winners, Bobby Charlton and Gordon Banks, are joined in an all-star line-up by the likes of Northern Ireland’s brilliant George Best, Scottish goal ace Denis Law and Wales legend John Charles.

Moore is among a select group of ‘commoners’ (as opposed to ‘Royals’) to have featured on British stamps, the first of whom was none other than William Shakespeare in 1964. The bard might even have been describing football when writing his ‘Seven Ages of Man’ monologue in As You Like It: ‘…and all the men and women merely players’. Perhaps not.

Special stamp sets were also issued to mark the 2002 and 2006 World Cup tournaments (Fig 9), while the 150th anniversary of the FA Cup final was similarly celebrated in 2022, showing key moments from the competition’s history (Fig 10).

Dawn covers

Meanwhile, spotting the commercial potential of ‘football philately’, Stockport-based Dawn Covers launched the first of their special commemorative series in 1971. Produced in conjunction with the Football Association, the Football League and leading clubs, the specially-designed covers were issued independently of Royal Mail, featuring original artwork, the club badge and a bespoke datestamp.

The first of Dawn’s Official Football Cover Series commemorated Arsenal’s 1971 League and FA Cup double success. Since then countless memorable matches and significant club anniversaries from Premier League to League 2 have been featured (Fig 11).

As a Sunderland fan I have two covers from 1997 marking the final match at the club’s Roker Park ground and also the first game to be played at its new home, the Stadium of Light. It was disappointing that last year’s 50th anniversary of the Black Cats’ famous 1973 FA Cup win over Leeds United was not similarly commemorated.

There’s a thriving collectors’ market for this type of football memorabilia and a 1978 Dawn Cover marking Everton’s centenary, signed by Goodison legend Dixie Dean, sold on an online auction earlier this year for just under £100.

Football-themed stamps are not of course exclusive to Britain. Commemorative issues continue to be produced around the world, especially by countries taking part in major international tournaments, such as the Africa Cup of Nations held earlier this year in Ivory Coast.