The England Winners stamp was a fourpenny

commemorative stamp A commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event, person, or object. The ''subject'' of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike def ...

issued in 1966 to mark England's victory in the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...

. The stamp was issued on the orders of the then

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official respons ...

Edward Short and created by a new printing of the lowest value of the three British 1966 FIFA World Cup stamps with the words ENGLAND WINNERS added.

Availability

The stamp was issued on 18 August 1966 in England, Wales, The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man but not in Scotland or Northern Ireland. It was available in Scotland from 22 August 1966. Following a question asked in the

British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy ...

, a government minister explained that while British special stamps (commemorative stamps) were normally available throughout the United Kingdom, the government had felt that ''"...it was not appropriate for this particular stamp to be put on general sale in other countries which had also competed in this FIFA World Cup."'' In other words, it would not have been diplomatic to sell a stamp celebrating an English victory in Wales or Scotland whose teams had been knocked out of the competition.

A speculative bubble

Stocks of the stamp quickly ran short with queues forming at Post Offices and

stamp dealer A stamp dealer is a company or an individual who deals in stamps and philatelic products. It also includes individuals who sell postage stamps for day to day use or revenue stamps for use on court documents. Stamp dealers who sell to stamp collect ...

s unable to obtain stock for their customers. A

speculative bubble An economic bubble (also called a speculative bubble or a financial bubble) is a period when current asset prices greatly exceed their intrinsic valuation, being the valuation that the underlying long-term fundamentals justify. Bubbles can be c ...

developed with copies of the stamp selling for many times their original cost, and people buying whole sheets of stamps as an investment. The ''Evening Times'' in Scotland reported that Whole sheets of stamps of 120 are still regularly found for sale which are believed to be from stock bought for investment in 1966, and the prices they obtain are much less than the cost on issue, when accounting from inflation. According to James Mackay, a forgery of the stamp exists. Mackay, James. '' The Guinness Book of Stamps Facts & Feats''. 1st edition. London: Guinness Superlatives Limited, 1982, p.150.

Technical details

The stamp was designed by

David Gentleman David William Gentleman (born 11 March 1930) is an English artist. He studied art and painting at the Royal College of Art under Edward Bawden and John Nash. He has worked in watercolour, lithography and wood engraving, at scales ranging from ...

and printed by

Harrison & Sons Harrison and Sons was a major worldwide engraver and printer of postage stamps and banknotes. History The company was established in 1750 by Thomas Harrison in Warwick Lane, London; in 1839 Thomas Richard Harrison entered into partnership with Jo ...

. 12,452,640 stamps were sold. Unlike the original, the new stamp had no

phosphor bands {{no footnotes, date=February 2012 Phosphor bands were introduced on British stamps from 1959 as a replacement for the previous graphite lined stamps as an aid in the mechanical sorting of mail. The phosphor is applied in vertical bands, or more re ...

. The stamp was printed on chalk-surfaced paper and perforated 14 (horizontal) x 15 (vertical). It had a

watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...

of Multiple Crowns sideways.''Stanley Gibbons Great Britain Concise Stamp Catalogue''. 23rd edition.

Stanley Gibbons The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and philat ...

, London & Ringwood, 2008, p.60. ''Stanley Gibbons Great Britain Specialised Stamp Catalogue, Volume 3: Queen Elizabeth II Pre-Decimal Issues''. 11th edition.

, London & Ringwood, 2006, p.294. No official presentation pack was produced for this stamp. Privately produced packs exist.

The 1970 FIFA World Cup

The British Post Office thought that England might win the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...

too. They did not, but designs for commemorative stamps were prepared by David Gentleman which were re-discovered in 2010."What might have been: 1970 England World Cup stamp discovered."
Creative Review 8 June 2010. Retrieved 4 February 2011.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Stamp Production Research: GB 1966 FIFA World Cup Issue 4d.
Postage stamps of the United Kingdom England at the 1966 FIFA World Cup