Permanent series Great Britain

Following the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Great Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, together with France. Coincidentally, a day later, a new stamp appeared in Great Britain's series of permanent stamps with a value of 2 shillings and 6 pence. This issue had been planned earlier and therefore had nothing to do with the war. The stamp replaced the stamp of the same value, issued in 1934 featuring the image of King George V. This king had died on January 20, 1936, and was succeeded by King Edward VIII. However, Edward did not remain on the throne for long. He abdicated on December 11, 1936, and was succeeded by King George VI. Even before the outbreak of war, preparations had been made in 1938 to issue a series of stamps to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the British stamp. The stamps, in a series of six, shared the same design and featured the six lowest denominations of the time: ½ penny through 3 pence. They were certainly not overly ornate. The issue of the stamps was proposed by the then President of the Royal Philatelic Society London, Sir John Wilson. The plan was to hold a large, international stamp exhibition in May 1940, and he hoped that the British Post would issue a special stamp block for it. However, it became a series of six stamps. The design was created by an employee of the Harrison & Sons printing company, H.L. Palmer. Palmer was assisted by Edmund Dulac, who had previously designed the permanent stamps. He used his earlier design for the permanent stamps featuring the image of George VI. This image was drawn from a photograph taken by Dorothy Wilding. The lettering was by Eric Gill. However, the outbreak of war brought preparations for the issue to a halt. Until December 1939. At that time, the then Director General of the British Post decided to proceed with the preparations. Several designs were created, and the final design was chosen. The King authorized the issue, and after a few minor adjustments to the design, production could begin. Plans for an international stamp exhibition had meanwhile been scrapped, but Sir John Wilson still made an attempt to have a stamp block issued, this time for the benefit of the Red Cross. However, this proposal was rejected. Because no special stamps were produced during the war, the stamps remained in use for a long time. The mintage of the 1 penny was 232.903.680 copies! Stamp collectors could keep their wallets closed until June 11, 1946, when two stamps were issued to commemorate the end of the Second World War. Two low values, 2½ pennies and 3 pence. But on April 26, 1948, the collector was forced to dig into his wallet when the two stamps were issued to commemorate the silver wedding anniversary of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. How many £1 stamps from the print run of 419.628 would have ended up in collectors' albums? I have at least one myself.......