...Themed Smilers Sheets
These are Smilers sheets which have been produced by organisations or
individuals to commemorate an event or with a thematic or specific theme e.g. an
anniversary. Some of the sheets are heavily overprinted and decorated in the
margins outside the stamps/label area by the sheet producers and often bear
little resemblance to the original stamp sheet on which they are based. Other
producers try to compliment the original Royal Mail sheet with sympathetic label
designs. They are generally produced in relatively small quantities.
Owing to the number of sheets produced in ever smaller numbers and in an attempt to
discourage the high prices charged for these low production number sheets, from
mid 2007 to about the end of 2014 we introduced a minimum production number (25) to qualify for a listing
under this category to encourage availability of sufficient quantities for the
general collector at relatively affordable
pricing.
Sheets produced during this period in quantities of less than 25 are not
listed here but can be found a specialist category Themed Limited Smilers, see
link below. We discontinued this practice at the end of 2014 when the incidence
of low- print-run Smilers stopped.
From mid-2018 Royal Mail withdrew this product from the general public
although the Philatelic Trade could still order a minimum of 10 sheets of
personalised stamp sheets. From January 2020 this minimum order number was
increased to 30 sheets of 20 stamps/labels. Royal Mail had allowed the
Philatelic Trade to make use of their redundant stock and this practice will
probably continue until all stocks have been exhausted. It is very
unlikely in my view that re-prints of any of the Smilers sheets will be
sanctioned by Royal Mail post 2018.
Click on the links at the left to view images and details of new
Themed Smilers Sheets as they have appeared, year-by-year, month-by-month since the
publication of the second
edition of the Smilers Catalogue (Feb 2010). From 2019, due to the very few
new sheets being issued, we discontinued listing the sheets by month.
For a full illustrated listing of all
Themed Smilers Sheets download the following Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format
file:
Themed Smilers Sheets (TS series)
Other themed sheets, produced in lower quantities of less than 25, are listed in
a separate listing in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format which can be downloaded by clicking on this link:
Limited Availability Themed Smilers
(TSL series)
Both listings are illustrated. Whilst we do our best to keep these lists up-to-date,
there may be
sheets that we have missed so please keep us informed if you find a sheet not listed.
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